I've created a simple test-spacestation already (in 3ds max).
On the left side is a cube, in the middle there's a cilinder (with the top and bottom tris removed) and on the right there's a sphere.
The cilinder is just some sort of pipe, which connects the cube with the sphere.
When I export this station, I use the "Add Scene Root" option in the B3D Pipeline, so all three objects are children to a pivot.
They are not textured yet, I do this in code (all children have UV-coords already when exported to b3d).
When I do this (and it works perfectly), how many surfaces are there in the entire scene (as I want to keep the surface-count to a minimum)?
Only 1 (because there's only 1 texture applied) or 3 (same texture on all three children)?
Would it make a difference in framerate if all stations are created with lots of children (which all have the same texture applied) and there are about 5 stations in view at any moment in the game?
Or is it better to create one big mesh, where all vertexes are joined together, so all children become 1 mesh (1 single object in 3ds max)?
On the left side is a cube, in the middle there's a cilinder (with the top and bottom tris removed) and on the right there's a sphere.
The cilinder is just some sort of pipe, which connects the cube with the sphere.
When I export this station, I use the "Add Scene Root" option in the B3D Pipeline, so all three objects are children to a pivot.
They are not textured yet, I do this in code (all children have UV-coords already when exported to b3d).
; Load spacestation model SpaceStation = LoadAnimMesh("Station01.b3d") ; Load texture Texture = LoadTexture("Station01.bmp") ; Assign the texture to all children of this station For childcount = 1 To CountChildren(SpaceStation) ; Get handle of the current child child = GetChild(SpaceStation, childcount) ; Put texture on the child EntityTexture child%, SpaceStation Next
When I do this (and it works perfectly), how many surfaces are there in the entire scene (as I want to keep the surface-count to a minimum)?
Only 1 (because there's only 1 texture applied) or 3 (same texture on all three children)?
Would it make a difference in framerate if all stations are created with lots of children (which all have the same texture applied) and there are about 5 stations in view at any moment in the game?
Or is it better to create one big mesh, where all vertexes are joined together, so all children become 1 mesh (1 single object in 3ds max)?