Really nice work Cland
Give demo out now!!

1. how do i effectively add more objects to your excellent LOD script (I'm doing almost the whole thing with lod, so i need to manage lots of models):

Thanks in advance

I would like to share some nuggets of knowledge. But first I must say you have some outstanding work!!!

Because of the way your game moves (fast) I would not worry about LOD models. Let me share an alternative that will save you some frame rate, memory, and get you some faster load times.

Instead of making one vehicle model and placing it in the map a few dozen times. Pre place them in your modeling tool and export it as something like "static_car_group_a.x". One common bottle neck for any video card is texture memory. Every time you load a mesh into the game, it is creating a new draw call. The idea I am talking about would save you some load time and memory. Because you are only loading 1 mesh into memory at load and run time.

Because you tracks are so large you could create several areas/zones. Example, lets say you break up your world into 4 zones. In each zone, you have this same static car all over the place. So you would preplace them in your art tool. Then break them up per zone, "static_car_group_a.x", "static_car_group_b.x", "static_car_group_c.x" "static_car_group_d.x. The main idea to this you want to combine all meshes that share the same texture into one mesh. Note, I am not talking about linking or grouping.

The you could use a simple trigger system to hide and unhide the skin meshes. Example, lets say you start out racing in the center of zone A. Then the race starts, zone C would he hidden. Then at some point, when your car reaches a point well into zone B during the race, the player car goes though a trigger, telling it to hide Zone D, and then unhide zone C. By doing this you are hiding 33% of the world at all times. You will have to play with the trigger system, as well as create triggers for people that go the wrong way.

Some special cases might need to be considered, such as your large buildings. You might need to have them draw all the time. Or still use the zone system to custom swap out from your high poly version to simple LOD versions. By doing so, you could make the entire zone one mesh with 1 texture. Huge savings at run time.

I hope you are able to take my suggestions and use them to continue your outstanding work!

Mike

Quote from: clandestine on March 31, 2009, 02:49:23 AM

1. how do i effectively add more objects to your excellent LOD script (I'm doing almost the whole thing with lod, so i need to manage lots of models):

I think the easiest way is cloning the Script object and use one copy for each object to manage.

Don't deny that my post was awesome Fernando!

I don't 

Your method is an excellent alternative to LOD. I know it works well because I have seen it in action in your Screen Racer screensaver 

BTW, thanx Mike, Mic and everyone for aiding me in answering advanced questions!

I think we all want to see something awesome come out of 3D Rad, no mater who makes it. I know most of the people here are able to test and create samples with the limited time we all have. Success of the engine increases the user base, hence increasing the talent pool. So if I can help pass on some nugets of info I have picked up over the past 4 years using 3impact and 3d rad, then awesome!

Hi guys, development is going well after a couple of days away from the project.
 Mic, your method is cool and probably is what i've seen used in my favourite racing games... just a couple of questions:

 - does cloning the objects in the 3D Rad editor really loads the same textures over and over again? i think Fernando said (im not sure) that if the texture names are identical, only one instance is loaded... is that true, and does it help framerate/load in any way?

 - would it be a good method to create the 'zones' with lod, with the farther model being just a poly so the entire pieces would pop in and out depending on the distance?

 - would setting the camera view distance lower help framerate in any way? and would it be better to have the huge models (zones) or smaller pieces of geometry if they'll be hidden by the camera?

 - so if i combine the trackside objects and export them to a single mesh (at first i did the demo this way - the whole track as a single model... but later i broke it apart and cloned the buildings in the editor... honestly i dont know how i affected the performance, because the GeForce9800 on my pc seems to be powerful enough to handle more than the demo) will i be saving memory, even if each model has different texture file?

 - so... is it better to have the combined object skins as a series of 128x128 or 256x256 pngs or combine them all into one big 1024x1024 texture?

 - obviously if i have tiling textures combining them wont work, but if i have different materials, how do i export the model as one object? what i mean is, i have envmapping on the windows of buildings, but not in the concrete walls.
 
 - Fernando, the SoundEffect doesn't work with stereo files... tried .ogg with every possible bitrate, compressed it with Jet Audio and Audacity, tried .wav  and nothing... intil i converted them to mono and it suddenly worked
 what am i doing wrong??

 - how does flat shading impact performance? when i auto-smooth the buildings with sharp angles the vertex count increases, is it a lot heavier on Rad that way?

- is it possible to have more than one copy of 3D Rad installed on the same PC? I'm asking that because i want to have all my object lists clean and use only what i need for the project (skinmeshes, etc) but i dont want to delete the rest of the objects i have.

- Is it possible to have more than one instance of the engine running at the same time? I ask this because i have lots of settings made to other test scenes like shading, fog, car, gforce... and its a little bit of a hassle to open and close the projects every time i forget something (and i do forget )... but i can just save and load settings... hmm

- Is it possible in the future to update the Sketchup plugin, to export only selected objects?

 Thank you guys in advance!!
 
 Peace to all

Check out my Screenracer demo. As in not checking it out, but more check out how I built the tracks. Go to the install folder, C:/windows/System32/screenracer/Tracks... And open up the X files to see how I build the track. You will notice how I only have one model for each texture. http://www.screenracer.com/download/ScreenRacer_Demo.exe

Fernando is right about how you need to handle each shader. Example, you want the glass of an building to be reflective, but not the entire build such as metal and concrete. You might want to handle it in 2 parts, the glass texture, and concrete texture. That way you can adjust the material effects accordingly. Its usually a good idea to keep them separate for just that reason.

If you already have them done here is an easy fix. You could alpha out windows in the texture 70-80%, then make a mesh the sits just behind the windows that would use the ENV map. Hence, making the windows look reflective

**Hint/Note, you do not have to put a texture on the model. Example. If you make an red colored box in 3DS max, and export it to 3D RAD, it will be Red. If you using meshes to just create collision, or 100% env surfaces, textures are not needed.

Dedication and Enthusiasm Respected.

Well Done Mate, Good luck