Bsp or mesh (from Max) Dilemma

iceman30

Hello,I got questions and if someone can help me i'll be very grateful.
It's about when building a level.Let's say i've got some simple objects like walls,floors,fences..and all of the obj's can be easily build like Bsp in Unreal.
Which it will take less performance(mesh from 3dmax or bsp) if i use the same polygons count?
My dilemma it comes,from the Dozen problems that i have with the light maps all the time and especially with modular blocks.I've learned many tutorials about the second ch..creating meshes with snap but the time that i'm spending trying to solve light map isuues is thousand times more than i'm modeling.
If i build something using bsp (floor - i want to put some stones and they are little bit connected with the bsp,no problem it looks just fine)instead i use the same thing from max with light map..as 2nd ch. and so on.. if i put the same rocks it starts to get some seams,artifacts..(If the mesh does not have connection is just fine, so there is no problem with the mesh)
Well i'm not sure which is better bsp or mesh(from max)to bulid the most of my enviorment.

Please Kindly waiting for your respond.
Thank you.

sprunghunt

For simple flat surfaces bsp is just fine. For something like a fence or a window I would make it out of static mesh.

Have a look at the way epic makes their maps. There's several of them included with UDK. You can open them up and look - it is a great learning resource.

passerby

ya you dont need to pick and choose, use bsp if your fine with just a tileing tex and flat surface, and meshes for where you want more detail.

to get around light map seams a lot of people use other meshes like pillars to hide the seam, or they make it look intentional in the asset, such as have the seam in the crack of paneling.

Computron

Bsp is for blocking out and testing Ideas, then you fill as much as possible with static meshes. If there is any place left where static meshes aren't you will usually stitch it together with bsp for reasons such as collision and easier visibility cuilling.

Gestalt

Use static meshes if you want anything other than a flat surface or if you want to vertex paint. I pretty much only use static meshes because of the control.

Lightmaps are a pain. To get good ones try setting up your second channel so that all the UVs are snapped to pixels coordinates (I use 64x64), all the UV islands have straight edges if possible, all the islands are oriented as if you were looking at them directly (and not flipped), islands are connected as much as possible when you want a smooth transition (still good to keep pixel snapping and straight edges in mind), and separated islands have 3 pixels of padding.

If you do these things and provide the right offerings then your lightmaps should look pretty good.

In general don't tile with meshes themselves unless you have something that covers the seam. It's usually better to make a few meshes that have the specifications you need and share the same texture (so for a wall make the entire length). If you aren't doing anything like vert painting, displacement, tessellation, etc and you just want a simple flat surface with a tiled texture then bsp is more than fine.

iceman30

Thank you very much!!!
I'll try and will keep in mind everything you said.
I'm so Grateful.
Best Regards.