poly count

[Anti_Bodies]

i have some pretty decent star wars models in my map, so far reaching 1.6 mb. but that isnt whats worrying me, see i have a great computer and i dont hardly get much lag, and i know the lower poly units are, the more of them you can have.

so on most machines, how many polys do you guys think can be handeled on a screen? i need to know wether to have hundreds of 700 poly models, or have much less. In RTW im pretty sure the poly count for units is very low, so they can have thousands of soldiers on the battlefield. so again i ask, how many polys do u think normal computers can handel? or am i overlooking the importance of polys?

 

[Maddawg101]

I don't know much about polys but if it's any help the average computer can handle at most around 300 regular units on one player.

 

[Anti_Bodies]

okay. so does anyone know how many polys a footman or a rifleman or whatever costs?

 

[Vegavak]

okay. so does anyone know how many polys a footman or a rifleman or whatever costs?

Varies per person.

Best way is to get your hands dirty and dive in. Test, test, test.

 

[Anti_Bodies]

alright, ill set it up the game kind of, host it online, get feedback on lag... how exciteing

 

[Vegavak]

alright, ill set it up the game kind of, host it online, get feedback on lag... how exciteing

Best part about the testing process.

Tweaking!

 

[hellclown]

I know that for RTW my comp dose around 5 "players" with about 3-4 hundred units so I don;t really know what to tell you.
I'll help with testing if you want.

 

[Anti_Bodies]

ill probaly just host it and random people will join, but ill work on turning it into a quick playable version and send u the map if u want, and anyone else too.

 

[Vegavak]

ill probaly just host it and random people will join, but ill work on turning it into a quick playable version and send u the map if u want, and anyone else too.

Good luck with your map.

May it be everything you and maybe a bunch of other people enjoy playing.

 

[BlinkBoy]

700 polies is fine, even 1100 polies is fine, 300 polies was back then 10 years ago when this guys started making wc3, that computers only supported that much. Try to use a reasonable amount of polies, but don't add more than you need.

 

[General Frank]

700 polies is fine, even 1100 polies is fine, 300 polies was back then 10 years ago when this guys started making wc3, that computers only supported that much. Try to use a reasonable amount of polies, but don't add more than you need.

Indeed. Just special as wanted and as less poly as needed. I think nowadays the standard user pc can handle about 1500 polies per 50 frames per second.

 

[BlinkBoy]

warcraft 3 uses 1000 frames per second, though.

 

[donut3.5]

Semi relevant, but this table shows the average of what you should be using (not the cap.)
EDIT: Credits to werewulf for showing me this.
--donut3.5--

 

[General Frank]

warcraft 3 uses 1000 frames per second, though.

Is the fps really that high on wc3 ? I never though that. I though it about maximum 90.

 

[donut3.5]

On models, not in the game (I wouldn't think)
--donut3.5--

 

[Anti_Bodies]

hey just an update, i set it up, turned it into a small Aplha version game, had 12 players rollin and it all worked out, no lag reported and in addition, the people really liked the game, even thou jedi were rigged, there wasnt any terrain and almost no triggers to make it interesting ^^. and then people asked to be contacted to test when future versions are ready =)

how exciting!

 

[Dr Super Good]

WC3 runs at 60 FPS at most.

The poly count is NOT the problem, the problem is WC3 is not supreme commanders. WC3 can not hanndle 10000 units with no slowdown (major). Thus I recomend you stick to atmost 50 units per player and 100 buildings per player. Anything above those numbers will become overly demanding and overall make playing a pain and also increase the overall non trigger demand.

 

[Anti_Bodies]

10,000 units or 1,000 units? because if its 10,000 then it should be like 500 units per player *for 10 player map, no buildings*.

 

[Dr Super Good]

You can easilly have over 100 building per player as they are stationarry and thus tend not to have any pathing opperations needed and so are overall less demanding. But with units, they are really demanding if in large numbers, thus melee has a food cap of 100 and not 1000.

The WC3 game engine was intended for ATMOST 100 units per player under exceptional conditions (the player goes entirly peasants, peons ect and builds no miltary at all) and even still, major pathing problems and possiably lag will occure if that number is reached for all 12 players as remeber peons are also non combat. The side effects of so many units will be pathing lag most noticably, where units stand still for long periods of time after being issued a move order and will overall not move constantly athough they should be making playing insainly hard.

The main source of combat unit lag is the target aqusition systems and other combat automatic systems which because there are often soo many targets to choose from (30 units in range is common) and there are so many of them (lets say 50) they will every new target have to check 30 units for all 50 of them atleast (probably even less efficent) so overall, if 300 units ingage in combat quickly, even the best PC gets bogged down to 1 frame every 4 seconds. It is even worse if you use demanding passive abilities like burning oil or the pericing ability of glavie throwers.

Also microing becomes a pain as you can only move 12 units at a time * 3 effectivly before pathing system gets overloaded.

Overall I strongly recomend you stick to as few units as possiable. If you still want massive battles, you can make 1 troop in wc3 represent 10 via clever use of wording and layout (make it sound convincing).

However again I say, never go above 1400 units (100 per player and 100 for 2 of the neutral players) as that is by far exceding WC3's design and although I recomend a lot less, that should always be the maximum that any map ever made should use.

 

[Anti_Bodies]

alright thanks man that is helpful