Mantis Bridge (Updated 24/10/2007)

[Capt. Jon]

Yes very promising!  THis looks like one of the BEST bridges yet! 

[newman]

By the way, what kind of a polycount are we looking at so far?

[cpthooker]

its about 17,000 tris at the moment with the extra rooms, not sure if thats bad or not

[Billz]

its about 17,000 tris at the moment with the extra rooms, not sure if thats bad or not

Most bridges these days go at about 20,000. Consider yourself lucky.

[newman]

Yep, I heard the intrepid bridge is 23,000 and there have been complaints. Not that 23,000 is a lot by today's standards, but there'll always be that someone with the 1945 machine complaining about performance.
17,000 sounds pretty good, considering the extra rooms. We'll just need to be careful with the furniture

[Legacy]

its about 17,000 tris at the moment with the extra rooms, not sure if thats bad or not

Most bridges these days go at about 20,000. Consider yourself lucky.

Hmm.. actually that should say 10k not 20k.
Only the intrepid has gone over 13k so far and i would hardly consider this a standard.

17k is a lot mate, but as it includes other rooms, perhaps it's not that intensive, i just don't know how the game will handle it.

[cpthooker]

well I will have to go in and remove polys

[newman]

Hmm.. actually that should say 10k not 20k.
Only the intrepid has gone over 13k so far and i would hardly consider this a standard.

17k is a lot mate, but as it includes other rooms, perhaps it's not that intensive, i just don't know how the game will handle it.

Looks like there's been a mixup in at least one of the threads. Here's some of the things you guys told me when I asked for the polycount:

...on the poly count issue 20,000 is the average size for a bridge. the intrepid was 23,000 but people started moaning on lag issues. so yeh max prolly 23,000. i think

~Jb06

..one from Sean..

It was thought along time ago 7 - 8 K was the max poly count, tho through test Me and mark discovered that we could up that to 20K giving us more polys to create smoother, more detailed bridges.

..and one of yours:

...i would say 20k is a target with all the furniture, if possible, better keep it around 15k.

So now I have to ask - which is it? In my thread it could be deduced that bridges with 15-20k polycount should work just fine. cpthooker's bridge would fit this category, if true.
I'm asking because I'd like to avoid seeing great meshes ending up overly optimized and simplistic. Please note I'm not attacking anyone here, my intention is purely to find out what the tris limitations are, since now I'm faced with two opposite answers to the polycount, all from very knowledgeable people in this area.
Thanks in advance.

[Sean]

..one from Sean..

It was thought along time ago 7 - 8 K was the max poly count, tho through test Me and mark discovered that we could up that to 20K giving us more polys to create smoother, more detailed bridges.

So now I have to ask - which is it? In my thread it could be deduced that bridges with 15-20k polycount should work just fine. cpthooker's bridge would fit this category, if true.
I'm asking because I'd like to avoid seeing great meshes ending up overly optimized and simplistic. Please note I'm not attacking anyone here, my intention is purely to find out what the tris limitations are, since now I'm faced with two opposite answers to the polycount, all from very knowledgeable people in this area.
Thanks in advance.

my post was in response to a 20k+ test that me and mark conducted, however it should be noted that many people ran this test fine, although my computer struggled with it.. ironic aint it

[newman]

I suppose it mostly depends on your graphic card.
But 20k doesn't seem that much for up to date machines..
I don't mean to hijack but just a quick question about my danube interior: it's about 15k
tris with all the rooms and furniture. Is that going to fly or should I go in and start
killing off some details?

[Legacy]

I suppose it mostly depends on your graphic card.
But 20k doesn't seem that much for up to date machines..
I don't mean to hijack but just a quick question about my danube interior: it's about 15k
tris with all the rooms and furniture. Is that going to fly or should I go in and start
killing off some details?

Actually the trouble aint only the polies on a bridge but the two layers of maps you put over it, plus the whole crew into it.

We know something around 15k can work fine in most systems, but i would hardly recommend that as standard.
Believe me, you can put a ton of stuff into a 10k bridge.
Most of the current bridges have about 8k, and when started, we had only 4k to work with.

As for the danube, i think my statement to matt's one stands, 15k is a good count as it has more than the bridge set only. We'll have to see how it'll work ingame wiht all the maps.

[cpthooker]

Well I will still try to reduce the amount of polies, as there is some I can remove without sacrificing the detail.

[newman]

Gotcha. I'll see if I can shave something off the conf. table.

[cpthooker]

thanks

[cpthooker]

well I managed to reduce the poly count down to 12,800

[newman]

That's a very nice optimization. Hope you didn't have to hurt the mesh too much to do it..

[Legacy]

So do I.

[cpthooker]

the only visual change was the light in the ceiling, everything else was out of view

[cpthooker]

Progress has stopped recently as it was my brothers wedding on Saturday and was best man so I was getting ready the week before. When we had the wedding and got back home I was in bed with food poisoning and only just started to get some strength back.

[Excal_Luke]

omg lol you wrote that so... beautifully, anyway, i love that front console, and i also like yer signature.
you show-offs in 3rd era, now you have cool signatures.
Seriously though, i really like the bridge.