Can Quake 3 Poly limits be exceeded?

Frankie V

A couple of guys at work and myself have decided to get back into some old school Q3 fraging and set up our own server. We are planning on doing up our own personal models and since the hardware specs now exceed the software requirements I was thinking that instead of doing the hohum low poly requirements that I would push the engine to it’s limits by shooting for the maxim instead of the minimum requirements. Instead of a 1000 face limit I’m thinking of doing some models in the 4000+ range and shooting for the extreme.

To test the idea out I mashed together a model with a poly count of 3500 and exported it to Q3 and was amazed at how good it looked. To test playability I loaded a map with 7 bots and myself and playability was still amazing good with little or no noticeable slow downs.

I figured that I would up the limit and see if I could get a seriously high poly model into the engine but it seems that there is a limit of 1000 faces or 620 verts per model segment. Not a big deal but kind of puts a damper on what I really want to do.

What happens is when I try to select the model the engine complains that the number of allowable faces exceeds 1000 polys for the torso for example.

I’m sure that this is hard coded into the software but just as a thought I figured that it would not hurt to ask if there was some kind of command line function that would over ride this limitation?

Xaltar

Try making your torso (for example) two objects each with 1000 faces or less. AFAIK the limit is only on faces per object (or segment as the engine calls it). Just mess arround a bit and see what you can come up with. I made a model for q3 that had 3 parts for the head alone, head, eyes and hair and together the 3 parts were easily over 1000 faces. It ran fine in game.

Also have a look for some of the q3 source projects going on, I know there is at least one with support for normal maps.

EarthQuake

the limit is actually per material, IIRC, its been a while since i've messed with q3 stuff but if you can simply seperate your mesh into say 10 different materials, you could do a 10,000 poly model in thoery.

[edit] 10,000 vertex model

Frankie V

Ahhhhhh ok thanks.

After messing around a bit it’s amazing how well this engine holds up. I’d be interested in seeing what projects are being done to improve its capabilities so a few links or a starting point would be appreciated. Google is not as direct and to the point that it use to be.

CheapAlert

Actually the limit is 1000 vertices (VERTICES, not polygons) per surface. You can usually cheat this by making additional surfaces but then your smoothing won't be so consistent (if it's a naked model for example where shape, smoothness and curvature is most important) then again your model is split at the torso and neck anyway, so

Most OA models borderline the limit like this one. A female model that focuses on the face than the breasts (oh what rarity!)

Frankie V

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Actually the limit is 1000 vertices (VERTICES, not polygons) per surface. You can usually cheat this by making additional surfaces but then your smoothing won't be so consistent (if it's a naked model for example where shape, smoothness and curvature is most important) then again your model is split at the torso and neck anyway, so


[/ QUOTE ]

Yes so I’ve just discovered. I tested a head model by splitting into two parts and the seam right down the middle was way out of whack.

So far I’ve gotten the model up to 5000 faces and I’m going to push for 8000 with elements that can be masked out to make different and unique characters. Once I’m done I’ll pimp some in game shots and post a SDK for anyone that is interested in doing some “extreme” textures.