Parallax Test - Low Poly Ac Unit

CGKing

Hello guys need critic for a model i made recently. I used Parallax mapping instead making grills,curtains and control panel geometry. Its 160 Tris right now. Planned as no Parallax mapping for LODs. But become little controversial does that approach or making base model full geometry and loading another models for LOD stages becomes more performance efficient for this model. What do you think is the sweet spot for going Parallax instead geometry. Btw if you wonder how did i make the Parallax maps i'm gonna make a tutorial about it very soon.

Full version: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4v1Dq

Tzur_H

the model looks great :]
I'm not sure about the technical side of the question, though, sorry.  but I think approaching this with POM and then disabling it in LOD1 and beyond is a good approach

WhiskyDelta

I must say, the use of a parallax map on this asset looks very convincing! Would also like to know the performance trade off, for using this approach and also your tutorial. I am now in the Substance Painter workflow for baking so would be good to know a process to get as good results as your asset.

Regards

Whisky

PixelMasher

there are so many variables to that question, its going to be hard to get a rock solid answer. If this was for a first person game then maybe the paralax would be ok, but in reality the asset would be so small on screen 99% of the time it would not be worth it. You have to think about the contex and useage of the asset. AC units tend to be on walls, above the 80% of the screen that is directly in the players view.

For a 3rd person action/adventure game there is no way this would be using paralax, and for open world, forget it, this asset would probably be just made from a bunch of smaller generic tiling textures. It also really depends on if your engine is better at handling shaders/textures or geo, every engine is different.

one of the benefits of  having things like vents and dials modeled as actual pieces of geo is you can use all of them to make a  kit that you can make a ton of variations out of for multiple assets, vs being bound by a unique unwrap/texture. also, if a character was going to interact with it or something, geo would be better because its easier to quickly animate. ex, turning the knob or flicking the switch.

 This is probably one of the best looking AC units ive seen and as a portfolio piece thats great. In terms of what you actually see in 99% of games running on consoles, this would way more low quality as its a small object that just kinda blends into the background noise of an environment.

long story short, context is key.