Can anyone explain how to combine MESHES in order to reduce
overall DRAW CALLS in order to help increase FPS ?
Or , can it even be done at all within the editor ?

Thx

UNIRD12B

As far as I know it can only be done for any particular model using a modelling program using arrays. So like chaining a fence into one longer one.

Reliquia....

Thx Reliquia ,
on we go !

UNIRD12B

I did this a long, long time ago as a proof of concept, and the difference was amazing! I put barrels together in Blender (in groups of 4, 8 and 16) and compared it to the same number placed individually (over a thousand in the level editor). This was in the early days of Reloaded, when performance wasn't near what it is now. It is a worthwhile endeavor in my opinion. If you have the time, and patience, you can also use separate models and combine them as well, using a texture atlas, as long as your atlas is within the max texture size. While I haven't tried this myself, I wouldn't go for a 4096 x 4096 texture, though. I suspect (and this is only a guess) that the trade-off wouldn't be to any advantage. Getting things exactly where you want them in a modelling program vs. dragging and dropping in the GG editor, though, adds another dimension of effort!

wow Thx for that info Jerry Tremble,
your answer tells me 2 things....
1- it can be done.......in Blender.
2- it could be worthwhile FPS wise.

Now....i just gotta find out what a
Texture Atlas is....and....how to use it,..

Thx again

UNIRD12B

Here you go

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2530/practical_texture_atlases.php?print=1

Dave

DAMNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

Now THAT is an article,,,,great detail...

thank you so much guys...

Thanks [b]Granada

well done !!!
ALL should read that article

INURD12B

Just remember culling is your best friend , so just combining all barrels from your level into one object , will actually make your FPS lower , you need to ONLY combine object that are near to each other , so culling will still work.

Also it looks like draw calls from reflection and shadows is not calculated into the visuals , so the number of draw calls you save when combining objects will be mush larger then just one per objects. 1 camera for dynamic shadow makes another draw call on all object , and the same goes for water reflection etc... so you can really save a lot of draw calls.

I've used atlas textures in 2D applications, in fact I insist on them because of performance reasons. Not tried them in GG as it means a lot of remapping of objects to get the atlas textures to work (as far as I know, there may be an easy way of course). I have tried just one texture for many objects though and have found that performance in GG to not really increase that much. Not when they are all in the same scene up close. I imagine with lower poly counts and less objects crammed in together it may help a little.

Making several objects into one should help as it reduces poly count if done correctly. It also and this is the main thing, reduces the overall object count. GG has less objects to check through each loop and so should run that little bit faster.

I believe you can also specify shader quality of objects in the FPE, so you could reduce ones that are mainly scenery to a lower setting and get a good boost as well. I haven't tried this yet myself, but seems a good way to maintain a fair few fps while losing little to nothing for the main visuals. I'd like to see a way to set distant objects to the lowest setting and as they get closer slowly update to the highest when close enough That could be a very good general optimisation.

Thanks
Preben
and DVader....
this extended understanding is going to go along way to help us all to get a few more FPS's
out of the engine , while we wait for updates to make it even better.
You guys in here are all so helpful !!!!

UNIRD12B

P.S.
I tried to get to know BLENDER a bit in order to try
some experimenting with combining meshes but OMG
I can hardly seem to get going in it at all and without a 3 button mouse.....nada.
ideas on help to understand Blender ?

Thx

UNIRD12B

there's a setting in options to "simulate" a three button mouse with shortcuts in blender.

Greta Belidos ,
thx for that idea !

UNIRD12B