Which Details to Keep?

[greevar]

There are some things you need to think about. What parts will the player be able to see? How close can the player come to the mesh? How many polys can the target machine handle? What type of game is it? RTS? FPS?

You can reduce the number of sides on rounded surfaces to reduce poly count. Flat surfaces such as walls and windows should be flattened into a single plane to be replaced with textures. Details such as fluting, relief, and other surface details should be replaced with textures. If your player will never see the roof, remove it. Remove anything the player won't be able to see. If the player is going to be able to come close to the mesh (i.e. FPS), then leave in simple details such as extrusion of the windows. Normal mapping minute details such as mortar joints and relief will help. If you will have a wider view of the world (i.e. RTS), then you may want reduce it to the very basic shapes (rotunda, walls, entry stairs). Things like crosses, grates, and such can be replaced with a simple plane with alpha channel textures.

[danshewan]

Thanks for the reply, Dustin.

Since the player would be able to get up close to the building, I'll leave in the structural detail of the windows and lower grating. The mesh wasn't particularly optimal to begin with, so I've decided to remodel parts of each modular section to reduce the count - I'm aiming for around 6k triangles, given that it would be a prominent location. I'm not sure as to whether this is a little overindulgent or not (given that most poly count figures seem to focus on characters, unsurprisingly), but I think I'd struggle to reduce it much below that. I'll keep tweaking it, though, and see where I end up.


http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/8185/stpaulslo.jpg


I've already removed the rear, since it'll never be seen, and I was planning on removing the roofing. I'm confident I can really slim down the count for the dome section with normal maps, and the clock towers can be simplified. Obviously details like these will be easy to achieve without additional geometry:


http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/6577/stpaulsrevision.jpg


I'm wondering about an alternative to modeling in this detail, given that it's still very much visible to the player at ground level? Would instancing the small supports be a viable option to reduce the count?


http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/1381/stpaulsrevision2.jpg


I'll post some more progress shots as and when. Thanks again for the pointers.

C&C are still welcome.

[greevar]

I would say lose the flat roof since the player will never see that unless they can fly/jump that high. There's a lot of polys on the roof that don't add to the quality of the object. The spindles on the roof can be replaced with a plane and an alpha channel texture. The player will never get close enough to really tell the difference. The eave supports can be left out altogether. The player will never know that they're missing. I would take out a few more sides to the rounded sections. You don't want more than 8-12 sides on the front and side sections. You just want enough to give a feeling of roundness. The rotunda can probably be done with about 8-10 sides since the player can only see it from a distance. The pillars can be as simple as 6 sides. The trick is to use as little geometry as you can get away with.

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