Concerning unit size and performance...

[Lentonius]

ok, thanks for your time, i will try this

[Duke John]

Lots of units is probably a problem because of collision testing than of lots of polys. Just try M:TW at largest settings and with a 4vs4. The graphics can easily be handled, but the it is the large amount of moving objects that makes the game start running very slow.

[Bwian]

The physical size of the unit will not have any bearing at all on the speed of th game. The critical factor is hte number of polygons that the game engine has to render. This is a common problem!

The models have four ( or sometimes 5 ) levels of detail, and the number at the end is indeed the render distance. Additionally, when very far away, you switch to sprites. MTW was all sprites, so different rules apply to it's display problems. As DJ pointed out...collison detection calculations were the limiting factor there.

IF you have a model with 1000 polygons, and you make each polygon half the size....the game STILL has to render 1000 polygons to draw your object. The actual size of the polygon would have virtually no effect at all. Make you unit with only 500 polygons, and you reduce the time it takes to draw it. If you multiply that across the number of models in the unit, and the effect snowballs. This is why levels of detail are used.

If, however, you reduce all your models detail by half, the figures start to look pretty ugly! You have to find a sweet spot between pretty and playable....which is why the game cuts out higher detail models when you turn down the detail options. It allows low spec PC's to play the game without the need for any extra art assets. It's all pretty 'industry standard' but it a very sensible approach

[Lentonius]

thats true, and to be honest makes complete sense.