How many polygons is too many? - Macromedia Director 3D

[HTiARW]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently building a director shockwave project, which involves a 3d
character racing through a 3D environment. It will be published to CD. I was
wondering, how many polygons is too many for processors? (computers roughly
1GHZ+) What is a safe amount to use (roughly)... because I'm looking at
500,000+ at the moment.
I can simplify my models if need be, I just didn't want to sacrifice quality
too much.

Thanks for your help!

[Newt99]

Of course, the CPU matters. But it matters less than the GPU, the graphical
processing unit of the graphics card.

Here is what I wrote recently in a recent post:

There is no such thing as a 10,000 polygon limit for the Shockwave 3D engine.

However, depending upon the kind of app to be developped, you might set a
different polygon budget:

- 10,000: games (the goal is to reach 60 fps)
- 20,000: car visualization (the goal is to reach 30 fps)
- 50,000: rather still scene using cuts for navigation OR high end computer
target (the goal is to reach 15 fps)

Also, performances can be improved with segmentation and culling.

Best regards,
Karl Sigiscar.

[url]http://www.chromelib.com[/url]

[Newt99]

In your 500,000 plus polygone scene, you may identify details that could be
created (or rendered) as textures and mapped on less detailes models.

You have to find the right balance between polygons and textures.

[?Ryo_Hazuki]

In school, some guys made the entire school, and it looks really neat with about 350.000 polys.
And the FPS is great also. At least if you're just walking around.

[Karl Sigiscar]

Hi Ryo,

What is their configuration (CPU, speed, graphics card) ?

I've never seen anything beyond 50,000 polys made with Shockwave 3D so I'm
curious.

Cheers,
Karl.

[?Ryo_Hazuki]

The computers are quite new, from chistmas accually. 3.4 Ghz I think. 1024mb
RAM and pretty neat graphic cards also, but I don't know any spec. on those.

Maybe If I get my hands on it (not in a while though) maybe I could post it
here.. we'll see.

Best Regards..
Ryo

[necromanthus]

350.000 polygons for static purposes only !
In the real (realtime) world, even DOOM3's or Half-Life2's engines have big
difficulties to deal with such a huge number of polys.
SW3D engine is more like a nice joke (compared with those 2 "monsters")
So ... Karl gave you some good hints:
- to get a decent frame rate: no more than 10.000 polys for games
- no more than 25.000 polys for other projects (if you wanna get good results
on entry-level machines)
Also take special care to the number of textures !
Now all you have to do is to dream,pray and to wait for ADOBE's first move.
cheers

Originally posted by: [b?Ryo_Hazuki
In school, some guys made the entire school, and it looks really neat with
about 350.000 polys.
And the FPS is great also. At least if you're just walking around.

[WrongAgain]

In my computer(2.4G CPU, 512M RAM, 128M graphic RAM), 15,000 polygons are too
much. Less than 10 fps!
Shockwave's max amount of polys is really a problem. It's hardly possible to
do something useful on the little polys!
Does anyone use Vega? 200,000 is no problem. I hope shockwave can reach it at
some day!

[HTiARW]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your replies. I managed to cut down my scene considerably, and am now running at around 4,000 polygons.

Thankyou!