by Sirius » Wed Aug 27, 2014 10:34 am
Hmmm, I'm not entirely sure. Ae'Gura may really crude in some places, but it remains an Age with an awful lot of vertices. But yeah, otherwise lightmapping is kept to a minimum and there isn't any particle system (except the portal to the Tiwah). Not many objects with alpha either.
In terms of loading time, the two main factors seem to be textures and vertices.
Either way, I think as long as you avoid specularity, dynamic lights and shadows, and put visregions when you can, anything you build will be fine, because it's hard to build something really complex anyway.
Oh, and it's true Gahreesen is actually much bigger than it seems. Because the exterior area is an insane 10,000 units above the interior area. Doesn't have any impact on performances, though, and it still works perfectly.
What I like with Cyan, is that when they make a big Age, they don't overdo light and particles, while when they make a small Age or one with not much detail, they find a way to make it interesting visually (Minkata is just a huge plane, but sandstorms and fog make it interesting, Tsogal has waving grass, Direbo has a lot of projection lights and some particle effects, Gira has dynamic lighting and dynamic, smoothed shadows, and of course there's Kemo !)