I’m running simple tests on the BGE with nothing else but a simple mesh with polycounts from 50k to 100k, and I notice that my FPS stands between 12 to 20 accordingly. (gf5200)
That made me think… For such a test, would the BGE demonstrate very similar FPS results as would other known free engines, such as OGRE3D and CrystalSpace?
Also, I’m kind of wondering if 50k-100k in games is considered a high polycount that should be avoided? (and even, if there’s a target polycount for games?)
I know I’m noobish and that this is very general and poorly asked :+D Sorry in advanced!
Very good question, I for one think the GE is almost on par with other free game-engines out there now. Also I aim for 200-250 vertices per player held object when making an rpg-game, and trees take 100-150. But then again that’s just me…
It doesn’t depend on how much polygons there are in the level but how many of them are visible at a time. The total amount affects the load time more than the performance if only a faction of them are visible at a time. I’d keep the amount of visible polygons at 100k if you use something like GeForce 6x00.
Also take into account that it takes more time to make high poly levels than it does with low poly.
And about the fps. Irrlicht would probably perform a bit faster with the current svn and OpenGL mode enabled (VBOs ftw!). I suspect that OGRE and CS would also outperform BGE. But time will tell, maybe BGE will catch up soon performance vise ;).
Also logic and scripts in BGE can be a lot processor time consuming. One can run at 20fps 100k polys, but with logic and scripts the optimum polys are about 20-30k.
So performance of one game is very complex thing.
The developer must find the balance between scripts, level of details, effects, lighting, polygons…ect.
BGE sucks man, but yea that sounds about right, 100,000 polygons with texturing, shadowing, normal mapping, color, all the extra shit blender does, kills your FPS. But yes with your specs and all thats reasonable for any engine.
GameBlender doesn’t have an efficient graphics engine, at least in the offical version as of yet. What its really good for is, production speed. A game that takes 4 months in crystal space can be produced in the BGE in a matter of weeks. Its workflow is unmatched by other free engines, but it lacks in power.
