Limits in Blender....

[Ar´thalion]

Hey there....

Im new here, just read the three Myst books and recognized while surfing through the web, that it is possible to create your own ages and add them to your uru game. Nice to see that there is such a big community behind all that. Well before i worked on some Mod´s for Fallout 3 and Oblivion. But this here is much more interesting and inspirating.

Well, my question:

As is finished the first meshes for my age and wanted to export them, Blender told me that there were to much Vertices on the model. So, how many Vertecies am i able tu use on one Objekt, how high is the limit on detail i can fit in? And how do i controle the count of Vertecies? Maybe somebody can explain that to me. Thx allready

(Sry for my english - hope you understand)

Greetings

Ar`thalion

[boblishman]

I am not sure exactly what the limit is on vertices .... but (IIRC) the "limit" on a single object is around 8,000 faces ... (maybe one of the Dev's could provide a more accurate answer).

(Like most 3D games) the "art" is in making low polygon models with high texture detail.

This basically means that your models should be quite basic in shape, and then the "detail" should be done with the tetxure.

This is a "basic" principle for most 3D games, including (if not especially) Uru, and often one that people get wrong at the start of Age building.

You do NOT need to make highly detailed (and consequently high polygon/vertices) models for things to look great in game. Not only is it unnecessary, but (obviously) the more polygons an Age has, the more strain this puts on the game engine, your processor and graphics card ... and you (and your audience) will start to experience problems trying to play the Age.

Probably the largest of your models (we call them objects) will be your landscape... especially if you are designing a (physically) large Age. You can always split your landscape object into smaller pieces (maximum approx 8000 FACES) to ensure an export.

To give you some idea of how low polygon Uru really is, (IIRC) Relto has about 100,000 polygons (in TOTAL). That includes everything... all the small details are mostly done with textures, not models.

Now, if you are making objects with 5,000 polygons each, that would mean you could put only 20 "things" into an Age the size of Relto ( and that includes the landscape!)... so now you are begining to get an idea of just HOW low poly you need to go.

You can see therefore, that the lower polygon you can make each object, the more objects you can have in an Age before you start to stress the game Engine & your (and other players')graphics card... so, the simple rule when making models for your Age is to ask yourself these question BEFORE making the model:

1) what is the BASIC shape of this object
2) What detail can be done with a texture rather than the actual model's polygons.

One of the most commonly used "tricks" when trying to add detail to models is to use textures with transparency ... that can save you thousands of polygons/vertices in an Age ...

so, the simple rule: make your models as LOW polygon (and consequently vertices) as possible

Good Luck !

[Ar´thalion]

Thanks a lot! Thats just what i needed to hear and know. The Engine for Oblivion and Fallout works kinda different in some ways. But this way around it is even better working more with the textures then trying to get more detail on the model. It is so impressing what landscapes, scenes or "Ages" you are able to make with low detailed objects (The Games shows it in every way)

Thx for responding so fast...

[Whilyam]

I know I had some issues when I had objects with about 2000 vertices. It would throw off an error like you're describing. If it's a group of things like a large number of buildings or trees, just select a small portion of them and press "p" and select the option from the menu to split "Selected". Do that until you have a large number of small objects and you should export fine.