Modular building parts poly count ¿?

elGerman

Hello,

I'm working in this game project where I have to create a modular house so we can build a whole village with them different parts. I've been searching, reading and viewing many tutorials and making offs and I guess I have a little idea about this method.

The thing is that I'm trying to build not only the outside of the houses but the inside as well, where you can get in and interact with doors and windows, etc...

The texture idea is something that I have clear, I have to create it still, but the method is no new for me.

What I don't have as much clear is the poly count of the different parts. I guess it must be low, but not as low as a lowpoly house should be. So this is my question:

- Based on the image posted, where I created 4 different setups for a wall with windows, is the polycount correct?

The small wall (2m x 3m) with one window is 250 tris and the large wall (4m x 3m) with 2 separated windows is 496 tris. The other 2 are between those parameters.

Thanks a lot.

Mant1k0re

Unless you're developping for mobile or you have an extremely expansive environment around this I wouldn't worry too much about polycount in 2015. Check out some wireframe on some recent *console* games like the Order 1886 for instance. Or Assassin Creed.

Console are pieces of equipment that are obsolete on the day they are released. If it's okay to have such a lot of geo on current gen console, and that you're developping for PC (that's my guess), you needn't worry about a couple thousand polies more or less...

elGerman

Thanks Mant1k0re, now I'll model more efficiently and yes, its a PC game project.

Cheers

WarrenM

My understanding is that anything under 600 triangles is basically free. It takes as long to set up the draw call as it does to actually draw the tris. So these pieces are an afterthought to modern day video cards.

Obscura

It is a bit above 600 tris in my opinion, but everything depends on the other parameters too. Like neither its 10 or 600 or 5000 tris, it will be free if you use simple mat and acceptable texture res, but it will be super expensive if you add a material to it that use 2000 instructions, or if you add 8k textures.

elGerman

Hello and thanks guys for replying

Obscura - What you say is that, if I manage to put all the textures of outer walls, inner walls, wood parts, doors, windows, etc... in a single texture file, let's say 4k, then I could use as many polies as I need to create the modular sections?

Obscura

Why you would need a 4k map? Unfortunately its never one file because you need color, normal, and some other maps too, depending on the art direction. What I said is that if you simply plug the textures into the slots in the material, and don't do complex maths,per pixel operations and stuff, then polygons are cheap. Well, they are cheap by default now, but if you add in a lot of polygons, you will need to hold it back somewhere else, like with not using complex mats. Huge textures are the most expensive, they cost a lot of memory, so I'd take a look at tileable textures, and maybe detail maps, instead of 4k stuff.

elGerman

About the 4k texture, I meant something like this image

On the right corner you can see how different textures have been put together so, with just one file (3 including normal and specular) you can create a vast range of different models.

Wouldn't this texture files work better than 6 or 7 different tiled textures?

Obscura

Actually modern hardwares can draw multi-millions of polygons at the screen easily, especially if they are instanced objects, but it is still not recommended to completely rely on geo, because there are many other things in games other than geo. Like vertex transformations with bones, and textures, which are more expensive if they are big. You need to find the balance, but I'd say you could easily use a lot more geo on your objects if its necessary.

Obscura

What you see there is not combined. its 3 4k maps...

Its called atlas texture by the way, and it gives you less draw calls than individual meterials. So there are benefits of doing that, but actually it is not must needed on modern pcs. Its also harder to work with, especially if you are just starting with this stuff. It needs edge padding around the moduls, or a material that can sample and tile parts of the atlas individually. I'm not saying and not suggesting to not use it, I just think you would have hard time with them.

Obscura

An another thing about the modular workflow... You should combine the modular parts in your modeling package, because of one reason. Then its one object to draw to the engine, and not many. I know you will loose the full freedom in the engine there, but you can work with the modular parts in the same way in your modeling package as how you would do in the engine. The another benefit of this is that you can weld , and stitch uvs. There are cases when its not recommended to combine the whole, because then the hidden/occluded parts will be still computed even when they are not visible. Then its recommended to export in medium sized parts and efficient formations depending on the design, and walkability.

elGerman

Thanks a lot, you are really helping me here.