Hello.
I’m relatively new to the BGE, and I just want to know a basic outline of it’s capabilities. Should I use subsurf on my models? Should I use the ‘Set Smooth’ function? I plan to have a pretty fast moving game, but I want to have decent models. I understand that if I want speed I’m going to have to sacrifice quality, but these guidelines would help me quite a bit.
Thanks.
my experiance with gaming isn’t that extensive, but i’ll just tell you the obvious response, TRY IT!
hehe, it’s the only way to know for sure which will give the performance you want at the quality you want. It’s a balancing act.
personally, i use subsurface and set smooth, but i don’t use the gaming engine, just the render. I think that set smooth uses a lot less processor than subsurf though.
the game engine doesnt support subsurf so dont use it
Set smooth doesnt seem to effect the framerate.
Yes, you will have to sacrafice quality, but if you have good textures, it can still look realy nice.
Thanks to both of you. I was hoping I would be able to use the set smooth, heh.
well I think that it is very hardware dependant.
I’ve heard tales of people only suggesting 10,000 polygon faces or tris in each frame of the game
while my computer is much higher than that. So you’ll have to look at your hardware and go with that. Keep in mind Ogre will be added sometime in the future and therefore increase overall performance
Once I made human model that had 20,000 faces and ran 35 fps in game blender and with only a 1Ghz prossesser. From my experience, Blender can do anything you set your mind to.
With what Graphics card? It also depends a lot of whether or not your GPU is good.
the GE does support subsurf, but you just have to apply it in the modifiers tab. You CAN use it.
You can (and should) use Set Smooth in your games when you want things to appear smooth. Also, the “quality” of your models depends very much on you. All modern videogames use very low polygon methods compared to what you may think. The key is in using textures that give the appearance of detail. A very high-quality human can be made with less than 1000 polygons if you know what you’re doing (I’ve even seen excellent human models with less than 500 polygons before). Making games is very different from any other type of programming or 3D design, because you have to constantly think “What can I do without here?” and “How can I make this faster?”
i agree with blendenzo here, many games today use textures for nearly everything. Collars on business suits are always faked, as are individual fingers (there may be a block for the thumb, another for the first or pinky finger, and then a long block for the rest of the fingers) Faces are faked sometimes.
If you download the crystalspace walktru
and the CS plugin, You wont have to worry about :
AI EDIT: I ment GI… I got AO and GI mixed up LOL!! sorry
Polycount (within reason)
Shadowmapping
Dynamic lights working with your shadow mapping
Shader programming
stencil shadows for moving things
Bakeing shadows on UVmaped static meshes
Terrains
Grass trees rocks Etc on the terrain
HDR lighting.
PLayer setups
Parenting other actors to bones or vertexes
Just make your things to scale in blender… push the build button!
only diffrence from using the blender game engine is the time it takes to start…
I can leave blender open, view the viewport windows contents, and tweak in blender 