Questions for experienced modders

[wlesmana]

Hi guys! I have a few questions about maximizing efficiency for RTW's performance:

1) Does it matter if a model has separate parts not attached to one another? For instance, instead of attaching a model's head to a body, I kept it separate but each got its own Skin modifier. Will this affect the game engine's performance?

2) Different textures for similar models: if I could use one texture for 3 different models, will it improve performance in-game when all 3 models/units are there or does it even matter?

Thanks!

[Bwian]

1 ... as far as I have noticed, it makes no difference at all. All the mesh has to be rendered how ever you slice it. The number of polygons in the mesh will have more impact. The skeletal system is only allowing each vertex to be influenced by a single bone, so the calculations are the same as far as teh CPU is concerned too.

2 ....This REALLY depends how the game is handling this aspect. Generally speaking, any texture you are going to use has to be loaded into memory for the game to use it. Modern graphics cards take this load rather easily ( well...my 6800 GT with 256Mb of high speed DDR does anyway ). The game currently uses quite small textures, which also help. Properly handled, one 256x256 uses a fairly small amount. Double the size to 512x512 and you use 4 times the memory. This can make graphics cards struggle...

Assuming we are looking at a fairly modern game engine, the FEWER the textures used, the better. Multiple textures require multiple rendering passes to display. So...using fewer textures gives a definite boost in performance. I am sure CA would have loved to use 1024x1024 for super detailed skins... but anyone with an old 32Mb or 64Mb card might not be able to play with that.

You could get a slight performance boost from using the same texture for several units, but I doubt very much you would notice the difference. Not unless your system was on the edge of playability.

[wlesmana]

Yea, I figured as much. I've just been wondering if CA used the same textures for a few different models just to save memory or just to save time. Might be both.

Thanks, Bwian!