Exporting high-poly models?

[Guest Foxbat]

No, not you the other guy. However I would be glad if you want to try to export it!I found out that FS has a compile limit of68K polys. See for yourself.This is a clipping from an A-10 page-"Made internally by a crack team of designers (remember FsFalcon, well the graphics are done by the same people), this A-10a Thunderbolt II is very special in one aspect, the visual shape is created with 68.000 polygons and that is just the limit of what FS can handle, files with more polygons will just not compile. The complexity of the external shape is just unprecedented. The VC is created with 41.000 polygons and also extremely detailed. Graphical detail like that puts recent specialized (!) simulators like LockOn for this aircraft to shame! As doing a military aircraft inside FS2004 brings limitations (for example, all kinds of radios are very different) we decided not to try to simulate it inside a simulator, but focus on items like the animations. The pilot (we call him Tim)is lovingly animated, you can even lower his visor when the sun comes up."However, my model is less than the 68 limit, so I guess anything close to this limit is a prob. However, it SHOULD export properly for SOMEBODY, so I would appreciate if someone else could give it a try.

[n4gix 4,947]

Well, send it to me at n4gix@comcast.net and I'll see if it will compile here... ;)

[Guest Andy Warden]

Do you have animations? Try removing some, i've heard that FS9 has a low limit to the amount of rotation keys you have. If you remove them all, you might find out if thats the problem:P

[Guest jetBlue_83]

Hey there, Foxbat!! Yes, I got the email, and yes it did compile, but I wasn't able to get it to show up in FS. I'll try it out again, but I just wanted to let you know, I got it to compile.

[Guest Foxbat]

Guys, it had nothing to do with any of that. Accualy, Make was doing some "optimising" that screws up the model, and that's the problem. I e-mailed Alphasim and they told me this info and said you can turn it off with Middleman, so I did! So simple! It's fine now. Thanks for all your help.PS anyone know the tag for the main exit open?

[Guest Foxbat]

Oh, I almost forgot: The real limit is 80,000 polys. Anything over and you get an error, anything under and it exports perfectly.

[Guest Slacktide]

>>That was a "false alarm", it had nothing to do with my>model.>>I was exporting it to the wrong path, so just ignore that>>post.>>Oh, you had a brain f*rt? I've had more than my share of>those, so I guess you won't need to change your handle to>"dingbat" then... ;)Did I just hear something about a 512x513 bitmap?? :)

[Guest Foxbat]

>Did I just hear something about a 512x513 bitmap?? :)bghvckll.kjdsfyrkusb!!lgallugruglaaurlIU yp4e9857 ydslfhipryahpo843-358 pp8psg..//ath/56q]biq a[r]a ybwsNope. :(Oh, another question while we're at this topic- Previously N4 said you could export the int and ext seprately. Can I do this and have more than the limit of 80,000 polys by having the int and ext each around, ie, 50,000?

[Guest Foxbat]

Blatant bump, but anyways...I was wondering if you could cheat the 80,000 polygon limit by exporting the interior and exterior models sepratly and then combining them... Will it work? I am going to try it, but it takes around an hour to get it all done, so if someone is about to blurt out the answer in 10 secs anyway, I won't have to...:(I am now having bad nightmares about polygons... Monsters with 650,000 polys are chasing me and now I have to get them under 80,000 without scraficing detail... Almost as bad as real life :(

[Guest electeddonkee]

Hmm.. I was always under the impression that there was no "definitive limit" on polygons. I mean, there is a limit, but it varies according to many variables. I always thought it had something to do with god knows what variable in ASM coding that limited compiling processes to a certain complexity.. Well to be honest I can't remember exactly where I heard that (though it was probably on this forum). Anyways, since I obviously have no clue about what I am talking about I'll leave it at that.However, all that to say that the number of polygons is only one of many variables that contribute to export failures. An excessive number of materials and animations can also have an effect. But, as a rough guideline, through personal experience I have found that interior and exterior models are dealt with seperately by makemodel (until the compile process), so the polygon cap of around 60,000 polys is for each model seperately (that is, the interior and exterior). Thus your interior model can have 60,000 polys, and your exterior can also have 60,000 polys (for a grand total of 120,000 polys), and the model will export fine. The moment one of these two exceeds the "limit", your compile will fail, and will normally generate an error of:"error A2071: initializer magnitude too large for specified size"I have seen other baffling errors as well in my exports... more than I care to talk about. Dunno if others have had as many errors. Maybe I'm just "lucky", who knows. Back on topic, I hear that the above error can pop up due to either insufficient RAM or insufficient hard-drive space. Though when it occured to me I don't think those were a factor, but who knows. All I know is that if you ever get that error, try a reboot first, but then optimize the model and all will be good.Correct me if I'm wrong anywhere in this post, my understanding might be "behind the times".

[Guest Foxbat]

*quickly writes notes down on a sheet of paper**uses evil-genious mind for a simple addition problem*Ah-ha! Okay, from what I understand from your [very well] explained post, you mean the limit for both if 60,000, but I can have them in the same scene? I was always under the impression that the limit was 80,000 because anything over this and I am ways got an error... I used makemdl and unchecked "optomise" and that helped alot. Thanks for the info.

[Guest electeddonkee]

Just to clarify, it is 60,000 polys PER SECTION. Interior and Exterior models are SEPERATE sections, if you will, so if you have both interior and exterior models in the same scene, then your scene limit would be around 120,000 polys. The thing to keep track of though is that your interior or exterior models so not exceed their individual group limit of 60,000 polys.Also note: The group limit may be well above 60,000 polys. I'm only using 60,000 as an example. I have no idea what the actual limit is. I always keep the count below 50,000 - 55,000 polys. As a general rule, if you're above 50,000 polys the model can probably be optimized.

[Guest Foxbat]

>Also note: The group limit may be well above 60,000 polys. I'm>only using 60,000 as an example. I have no idea what the>actual limit is. I always keep the count below 50,000 - 55,000>polys. As a general rule, if you're above 50,000 polys the>model can probably be optimized.Well, that may be it because I always thought the limit was 80,000 polygons, but didn't know it was measured in sections... >As a general rule, if you're above 50,000 polys the>model can probably be optimized.You're saying it SHOULD be optomised? The only way anything high on polygons gets exported for me is by UNCHECKING the optomise box on middleman...Thanks for all your help!

[n4gix 4,947]

>>As a general rule, if you're above 50,000 polys the>>model can probably be optimized.>>You're saying it SHOULD be optomised? The only way anything>high on polygons gets exported for me is by UNCHECKING the>optomise box on middleman...NO... He's saying that YOU should probably optimize the model... make it more simple... manual labor... ;)IOW, look for areas that are far more complex than they need to be, and remove unneeded polygons.

[Guest Foxbat]

Oh... Okay. Manual labor... Had enough of that. I started with a source file with over 200,000 polygons and I have 55,000 right now... With a bunch of stuff like torpedo bays, ect. Anyway, enough of my perosonal griping with my manual labor... Thanks to you both. electeddonkee was 100% right, they are exported as seprate models. However, the limit is accualy 80,000 polys, not 60,000. *goes and starts to model individuall tootsie roll wrappers without any respect to poly count.*