Quick question for all the plane builders out there:

[Guest Rich Wren]

I'm getting a bit confused about the polygon limit for aircraft models. In most places on the board I've seen the limit being set at about 1800-1900 polygons, but the White Paper suggests it is as low as 600. Is the 1900 limit for each of the three detail-level models (gear up/down, damage) or is that the absolute limit for all models combined?Cheers,Rich.

[Guest Rich Wren]

Never mind, the answer was in a different resfile. 1900ish per model.

[Guest jonpoint]

The answer is 'as many as you can get away with'. Truthfully now...LGS set the limit at 500-600 to keep framerates up. They allowed ~900 in the Beechjet (and BTW, did a fantastic job to get it so nice) as it was the FU3 'flagship'. Similarly, they had lower resolution versions in the resfiles - down to <100 polygons even - to improve framerates when viewing the aircraft from a distance.These days, with almost any PC you can get passable framerates with very detailed models but we still have to be careful - it's amazing where the polygons get used-up! For example, leaving the gear, cockpit and prop spinners off the Dash-8 halves the polygon count :-eekWith the GeeBee I added polygons very gingerly and ended-up with plenty of spares. This time was the opposite and I had to go back and modify the 3D file a lot. What you have to be careful of is BSP.exe! When modelling in Anim8or or 3DS for example, double-sided textures are not counted. Your two-polygon gear door shows up as two polygons, where in actual fact it is four because the texture is double-sided. Also, when running BSP.exe, it can do strange things to your model, like rearranging the polygons, even deleting or adding it's own. For this reason, the polygon count can vary and, as such, I recommend aiming for 1700-1800 and see how it converts first.:-waveJon Point*************************(effyouthree@hotmail.com)*************************

[Guest jonpoint]

Rich,Sorry, I got carried away and forgot to answer part of your question. You ask how the polygon limit applies? It applies to any single model within the resfile! For example, I mentioned that there are lower-res version of aircraft in the original LGS planes but Ansgar and I (and I assume others) just repeat the hi-res models in these positions. Once textured, it's impossible to weld polygons (or any other tricks to reducing count) so we don't bother. This also means you can add further details to the 'gear-up' models to bring them up to ~1900 polygons. A few more around the nose to get it JUST right, clear windows for the wingtip lights or even add some cockpit details from the F4 view like pilots, panels etc. The 'cockpit' (F4) model can also have as many polygons. When doing the GeeBee, my early F4 view was the entire aircraft! I did the same thing with the Dash-8 so I could see what the F2 & F3 views SHOULD look like before I did the new textures***This limit applies only to FU3. If we ever get into the source code it should be pretty easy to fix. As mentioned before, the real reason for this limit is to limit required resources. Most of us now have resources to burn ;)*** New info! FU3 doesn't 'lock in' the angle of the cockpit views :-eek It depends where the 3D rectangles are. I was wondering why my rear-left view seemed to be looking backwards. I noticed that the 3D rectangle only covered the right-hand side of the image (the left is blocked by the rear wall). As a result, FU3 takes the far left of this view and assumes it to be 'rear', therefore indexing the angle incorrectly. Checking back on the GeeBee and the DC3 I noticed the same effect. Try it with the DC3. Go up to 3kft in clear weather, hit F2 or F3, left-rear view. Now, look at the ground passing directly away from you...I tell you, I learn a new thing about this sim every day :-waveJon Point*************************(effyouthree@hotmail.com)*************************