Reduceing Lag for models

[Bloody_Turds]

well a few games got me to wondering, what exactly can be done to a model to reduce its A)Filesize and B) its lag..

POLYS
I already know about how lowering Poly Count reduces lag...

ANIMS
But i was wondering when it comes to animations, is linear more or less effective in reduceing lag, since it is simpler computations, (its also a big help in reduceing filesize)

TEXTURES
Also texturewise, do smaller textures reduce lag, although im pretty sure they do...

PARTICLES&EMITTERS
I know theese are a major cause of lag, especially if their emitting a large amount

SOUNDS
as a side note do sounds cause much lag, and do ambients cause less than point plotted sounds, (asumeing that the leak from the point sound is removed)

TRIGGERS
I know leaks are a major part of lag, but im asking on the model side of things.....

ALSO, is there any easy way to convert rotations, to linear, since they bug in magos, and they are the most used animation type...

I know that models have a HUGE effect on ingame lag, because i have tried replaceing units with flat planes, and the lag seemed to practically vanish....

Also, have you noticed under options (on wc3s main screen) you can adjust model quality, ect.. anyway to adjust this ingame, (or acess, the low quality models) Please post sugestions

 

[Rao Dao Zao]

The "low-quality" models are stored in duplicate archives inside the main ones, war3_low.mpq and war3_med.mpq; inside these are the reduced poly-count/etc models (it's a straight override of the paths in the real MPQs).

I believe Magos fixed the rotations bug in version 1.07, check his website.

 

[Bloody_Turds]

Thanks, i didnt even know he was still updateing XD (i had 1.05) Since sc2s anouncements, alot of people are gettin backout there wc3 disks ^.^ only to findout they dont need them cause the patch

Also bout the 'override' i already knew the path sorta... but if you use:
Units\Human\Footman\Footman.mdx
as your custom path you get the regular highquality footman (unless they set their settings to low)

i want it to default at the Low quality, even if there settings are on high... I could reimport the models, but that would be less space efficient XD, especially since theres quite a few i could use, because there massed...
although the heros i plan to leave as high rez prolly

 

[BlinkBoy]

Use MdlVis to convert Non-Linear animations to Linear.

You forgot 6 things that are quite important

Materials:

For every layer that you add, you are doubling the polygons of the affected geoset.

Colission Shapes:

If a model has no colission shapes, the game will calculate the mesh colission as Convex instead of Concave, thus calculations for collision will increase a LOT.

Lights:

Adding unnecessary lights will affect the calculations for lighting and will increase processing.

Ribbon Emitters:

For each segment that you create, you are creating 2 polygons, if you create a lot of segments fast without destroying them in a low time, lag may increase heavilly.

Particle Emitters 1:

Depending on the geometry that you are emulating, you'll mass polygons or not. Calculate the emitted geometry's polygons and solve the equation, GF*EP*LS = 1000. Emitted Particles = 1000/(Geometry's faces*Life_Span)

Particle Emitters 2:

PE 2 render particles which are quads, they produce 2 polygons each. Same equation (EP*LS = 500) as before but this time it may change depending if the particles have texture animations or no.

 

[Bloody_Turds]

1)Didnt know collision shapes thx, btw im asumeing colision squares are more efficient than spheeres?, or not really?
2) i kinda meant all emitters, but ribons are worse than particles? or about howmuch particle does it take to make particles worse?
3)forgot material layer XD, but thx for reminder
btw do animated materials worsen lag that much? or whats the deal with them?

 

[Devine]

1)Didnt know collision shapes thx, btw im asumeing colision squares are more efficient than spheeres?, or not really?

I don't think so because Blizz models use collisionspheres.

2) i kinda meant all emitters, but ribons are worse than particles? or about howmuch particle does it take to make particles worse?

Ribbons have settings to, you know, so you can easily create a lowpoly ribbon.