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TPM triangle-count...unlocked?

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2017 5:03 pm
by TheIdiot
So I was just doing a bit of testing on my Trespasser HD level and ran GeomAdd to check for an unrelated error when I noticed something in the "Verify Level" results: it seems one of the sub-models on my Monorail Terminus exceeds the 2048 triangle limit, at 2240. I know from past experience on ATX that doing this would prevent the level from loading until the triangles were reduced, so naturally I hopped into CE and booted up the level...and it worked! No crash, no errors. Just to be sure, I flew over to the model in question and gave it a thorough examination, and sure enough, it seems the game loaded the model flawlessly, all faces and textures intact, and the game remained stable. :o
Considering this is the only model I have that currently possesses greater than 2048 triangles, I'm unable to try a second one and see if the results are the same, but it seems just from this that CE is capable of bypassing the usual triangle limit! Meaning we can, in theory, now import higher-poly models to the game without using shanty tricks like sub-models and all that jazz. Of course having too many high-poly models will likely lag the game pretty heavily, but in my experience it takes a LOT of polys rendered at once to really bog CE down below 30 FPS on a good computer.
Is there anyone else who can help confirm this breakthrough in Trespassing?

Re: TPM triangle-count...unlocked?

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2017 6:52 pm
by Rebel
Lee must have upped the value. It's been a long time since I looked at the source code, but I'd assume that it was simply
a static value and not relying on some complex mathematical formula. Then, again.... That source code gave me a damn
headache. :lol:

Re: TPM triangle-count...unlocked?

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 2:11 am
by tatu
Lee fixed so objects with more than 2048 triangles don't crash the level. AFAIK he said it he couldn't say those objects would load and show properly, but they shouldn't crash a level anymore.

Re: TPM triangle-count...unlocked?

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 2:36 am
by Draconisaurus
Yeah I sorta remember Lee having mentioned that..

Btw, as a test, you could always create a geosphere or something with a ton of polys (and applied texture?) and test it that way.

Re: TPM triangle-count...unlocked?

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 3:01 am
by TheIdiot
tatu wrote:Lee fixed so objects with more than 2048 triangles don't crash the level. AFAIK he said it he couldn't say those objects would load and show properly, but they shouldn't crash a level anymore.
Aah, okay, that's what I thought, but I missed the part about 2048 tri models and seemed to think it applied to all models in general for some reason...well, I can gladly report that said models seem to render correctly after all!
Btw, as a test, you could always create a geosphere or something with a ton of polys (and applied texture?) and test it that way.
Derp. Will definitely try that.

Re: TPM triangle-count...unlocked?

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 2:03 pm
by TheIdiot
I've tested the triangle limit quite a bit recently, and I think I've got it figured out. It appears CE bumped up and doubled the limit, but did not remove it. I'm able to load models with up to 3072 triangles in CE without an error, but getting near 4096 or going above causes a crash every time. I've tested models in the 2500, 3000, and 3500 poly range and these are all completely stable, though I've only tried it with single instances, so that may not be the case with multiple instances of high-poly models. The highest stable number seems to be around 3500, after that it seems the amount of tris that break the game is somewhere after that.