Depends. I think this is still sort of manual sorting is a remnant of forward rendering. Most of the newer engines are switching to deferred which I believe uses other sorting methods like Alpha Safe, or Dithering the alpha test. (which is generally what I believe is done in UDK). And Jonny, I believe that's the…
Fantastic list! Few more: - Ensure you're not using duplicate or extraneous textures, and all textures are assigned to the correct path (aka not your desktop): (Shift+T) - Ensure your skinning has assigned the proper bone affect limit (usually 4 for most games I've worked on, not the default '20' assigned by max). - Ensure…
Got a source for "alpha safe"? I can't find any reference to it being used in a 3D realtime context, nor a definition beyond some technique used on 2D brushes. Dithering the alpha test (stipple, or screen door) is indeed a great workaround. It's not a forward rendering thing in particular, and stippling is indeed the best…
Turbo Squid has a good checklist for their Checkmate Pro models: Here's the copy and pasted list (got the info from here, http://support.turbosquid.com/entries/20203606?locale=1 : 2. Standards for 3D Model Inspection 2.1 Geometry 2.1.1 No isolated vertices 2.1.2 No coincident vertices 2.1.3 No coincident/coplanar faces…