What are the limits for allegiance?

TrashMan · Post by **TrashMan** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 4:55 pm

Since I'm a long-time modder and have quite a collection of various starships and other models:

http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/3972/galaxyshow6jt.jpg

http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/5820/igspl21hy.jpg
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/3244/screen0013ie4.jpg
http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/2324/nareosscreencs4.jpg

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/7785/whall7xa.jpg
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/4998/screen00106jg.jpg

etc...

Adaven · Post by **Adaven** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:30 pm

Wow, those look great! It's awesome to see such talented people join the community.

Poly Count: I'm not real sure, but I think the largest objects in the game (stations, capital ships) are on the order of a few thousand poly's, normal ships in the hundreds. Someone else may correct me. The engine does have a LOD system, but I don't think any of the player made models currently use it.

Textures: default is 256x256 or 512x512 @16bit to accomadate low end systems. However, if you have higher quality source material, you can setup an optional texture pack for those with high end systems. I think the recent changes to the source code allows up to 2048x2048 sized textures. You can also use multiple texture files on a single ship if you need to. On a side note: Right now a couple of us are going through and trying to revamp the old textures to the new max size, if you have some free time and want to pitch in, I'm sure you'd be quite welcome.

Zapper · Post by **Zapper** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:06 pm

Nice models... Got any figs?
It looks like you could make a whole range of ships for a faction.. perhaps make a bundle and players will be inspired to make a faction for it.

Well... The old models got around 500-1000 faces mostly 500.
Some of the newer productions got around 2300-3K faces.
I think you can push the models to 3K-4K faces at max.

I would recommend that u only use 2-3 2048 textures per model.
The textures are big after all, not all players have a gfx card with a lot of Ram.

At the moment the engine only support Normal maps.
As Adaven said.. if possible downsize the maps to 256, of cause this could displace the wrapping...

Zap

zecro · Post by **zecro** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:33 pm

What's the deal with Alleg using/not using the graphics card? Heard something about that...

Adaven · Post by **Adaven** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:54 pm

I'm probably going to get something wrong but at least part of it is:

Alleg definitely uses video cards for something. Turn off hardware Accel and you'll instantly see the difference. However I think there is a lot of untapped potential in most video cards (especially newer ones) and thus shoves most of the processing load to the cpu.

TrashMan · Post by **TrashMan** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:43 pm

Interesting... I also have a lot of ST models and some other ones..

Anyway, the models you see there I made for Freeespace 2 (Source Code Project), Homeworld 2, Nexus and some other games, so I have several version of those ships.
the Archangel would prolly be my biggest poly hog - just the hul lis 4400 polys /mrgreen.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="mrgreen.gif" /> Add those massive rotating turrets (in FS2 it has around 90 turrets) and you get to 10000 polys /mrgreen.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="mrgreen.gif" />

Of course, this can be further optimized.

*Actually, the biggest resource hog would be my Whitehall starbase - that thng is..HUGE (12-14km /mrgreen.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="mrgreen.gif" />)

Maby this game should use the FS2 SCP engine..lol

HARD LIGHT PRODUCTIONS <--- check it out!

KGJV · Post by **KGJV** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:37 pm

Adaven wrote:QUOTE (Adaven @ Apr 16 2007, 09:54 PM) I'm probably going to get something wrong but at least part of it is:

Alleg definitely uses video cards for something. Turn off hardware Accel and you'll instantly see the difference. However I think there is a lot of untapped potential in most video cards (especially newer ones) and thus shoves most of the processing load to the cpu.

Yes Alleg engine is from 1998/1999 (even before may be so close to 10 years) when 3D Gfx cards were 3D accelators and not the main gpu.

Most rendering in the engine is done by the cpu with only a few things send to the gpu.

Technically, Alleg engine also uses a mix of DirectDraw (2D) and DirectX D3D v7.

I'm currently trying to upgrade the engine to full DirectX D3D V9. That some 'heavy' work as the code is a bit messy so it'll take time and i'm not yet sure I will succeed to do it so I keep a low profile on this for now. /wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />

Plan B is eventually to rewrite Alleg with a more modern technology like XNA but that's another story /mrgreen.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="mrgreen.gif" />

Now if you have complex models already made, I might be interested later to eventually test to the engine upgrade with them but it's too soon atm.

For now you can downsize them to a lower polycount.

TrashMan · Post by **TrashMan** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 2:08 pm

I allready hve lower-poly version...LODs ya know /mrgreen.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="mrgreen.gif" />

I usually make 5 lods per ship, inculding fighters, so the polay range is pretty flexible /mrgreen.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="mrgreen.gif" />

redxdragon · Post by **redxdragon** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:47 am

I need my own PC again so I can start modeling and skinning again...

TrashMan · Post by **TrashMan** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:30 pm

Am I right to assume that Allegiance is still groing and changing and that new factions may be added?