PolyCount

[aksingha]

Hi,
Does anyone know what is the highest number of Polygons, that RW can support without any problem. The current model that i am working on has 80,662 poly, and might reach 92+ after it gets completed. Any Idea anyone?

[Bananarama]

I'm unaware of an upper limit, but anything that high might have serious performance issues.

[aksingha]

My previous model had 85,000 poly with cab included and no issues, Just curious about this particular model.

[BNSFdude]

Polys aren't a problem like in MSTS, it's triangles.

[Chacal]

That's the same thing. Triangles are half-polys.
The developer docs mention a poly budget, but that was for the original Railworks.
I believe performance has been improved, so the budget is probably higher than what's in the docs.

[aksingha]

After modifying and re-modeling some objects, i have been able to decrease the polycount to 72,000.

[Kali]

Massively higher now than the docs. Poly budget depends on how many are likely to be being drawn at once, so without knowing what you're making, can't really say.

[aksingha]

Massively higher now than the docs. Poly budget depends on how many are likely to be being drawn at once, so without knowing what you're making, can't really say.

I am making a diesel Locomotive.

[PapaXpress]

SWEET!

[aksingha]

SWEET!

[Kali]

That does look rather good indeed :)

Well - you're generally not going to have more than 10 in scene at once, so I would personally not be worrying about polycount *too* much, although there might still be limits to how many the renderer can handle - I seem to remember Reppo did something years ago that started causing problems just by existing, but again that was years ago. Being lean with polys is a good idea for any situation, though. Also heavy Lodding too.

Also answered which broadgauge you were talking about!

[aksingha]

Thank you kali, for the information.

[Kali]

Should point out a couple more things:

* You can do a lot of fine surface detail in the normal map
* You can do a high poly model just to do the shadow bake ( and the normal map ), and then use a lower poly model for export

You'll be surprised how much detail you can just paint on - it wouldn't hold up if someone's determinedly looking at the surface from 10cm away ( make a close-in LOD if you want for that ), but from the usual distances a lot of fine lines & recessed bits are fine as paint/bumpmap.

[Chacal]

A lot can be done with shadows and highlights.

I once made backdrops for theater and we made a stone wall for a castle by painting plywood gray, then painting a grid of black lines, then a grid of white lines 1/2" offset, and suddenly from 20 ft away you could swear it was a stone wall.

Last night I was watching an old episode of Mission:Impossible (season 3 ep. 1), and they used the exact same trick.

[aksingha]

A lot can be done with shadows and highlights.

I once made backdrops for theater and we made a stone wall for a castle by painting plywood gray, then painting a grid of black lines, then a grid of white lines 1/2" offset, and suddenly from 20 ft away you could swear it was a stone wall.

Last night I was watching an old episode of Mission:Impossible (season 3 ep. 1), and they used the exact same trick.

+1

Should point out a couple more things:

* You can do a lot of fine surface detail in the normal map
* You can do a high poly model just to do the shadow bake ( and the normal map ), and then use a lower poly model for export

You'll be surprised how much detail you can just paint on - it wouldn't hold up if someone's determinedly looking at the surface from 10cm away ( make a close-in LOD if you want for that ), but from the usual distances a lot of fine lines & recessed bits are fine as paint/bumpmap.

+1