Multi sub-object textures

#1 Yes.

And apparently the minimum post length is five characters so this sentence is here to take up space.

#2 There was a thread earlier dealing with that question, and something was said about each additional texture requiring the engine to redraw the mesh. So 3 textures would mean drawing the same mesh thrice. I'm wondering if this still holds true.

#3 That would suck.....and I'd be inclined to just separate the mesh into separate objects (each with its own texture file) in that case.

#4 I want to say that what Teck said is true. I remember reading that same post. It really depends on whats going on in your scene. If you dont have a whole lot of other stuff, having a model be drawn twice wont hit the performance that much.

#5 Can someone please tell me why this "redrawing" occurs? I am just discovering this after using several multi sub-object textures in my project. Would hate to have to re-texture everything. I would like to understand more about this issue before I do anything drastic.

#6 Me too.

#7 Can someone please respond? This is very important for everyone I would think, since it could heavily impact performance.

#8 Hey Guys,

If your refering to TGE and 3ds max.
My technique is to use as many Materials as I want inside of 3dsmax.
Then I use unwrapUV's and Render to Texture to bake it all into channel 1.

Maybe not the answer you want. But this reduces everything to one texture.

-Surge

#9 The problem for me with using one single texture is I have separate textures that dynamically change on the model. (ex: Human character --- the skin texture changes independently of the clothes texture.)

#10 Well, you could try a test.
make a version of a DTS with only one texture and a version with as many sub-object textures as you think you'll be using, then make a mission file with a few hundred of the objects and compare.

#11 You should probably read up on (I think!!!) Dreamers MMORGP Docs he has posted here.
Im pretty sure it will show you how to hide/unhide mesh elements. Those
single mesh elements can then have seperated textures applied.

So your naked character is one element.
Clothes another.
Amour another....etc..etc

#12 Can someone please tell me why this "redrawing" occurs? I am just discovering this after using several multi sub-object textures in my project. Would hate to have to re-texture everything. I would like to understand more about this issue before I do anything drastic.

#13 Hey scott - have you verified that the redrawing happens ?
ie, that an object with several sub-object textures renders at about half the speed of one without ?

#14 I just ran 3 tests on the same model at 3,900 polys.

TEST 1 - HIGH - Model with 2 multi sub-object textures, 4 bitmaps per each multi sub-object texture. 6 objects in the model.

TEST 2 - MEDIUM - Model with 2 multi sub-object textures, 2 bitmaps per each multi sub-object texture. 6 objects in the model.

TEST 3 - LOW - Model with no multi sub-object textures. 8 objects in the model. (Uses more objects to achieve same texture scheme.)

*Note: All tests export using the same 7 texture files.

For each test, I placed 150 instances of the test model in the same Torque mission. I saw no significant difference in performance between the different tests, on two separate machines. If anything, TEST 2 may have performed slightly better than the others...meaning a difference of 1-2 FPS.

Interestingly, when viewing the models in ShowTool Pro, these are the counts for the Detail Polys:

TEST 1 - 3865
TEST 2 - 3868
TEST 3 - 3896

That's right, the MORE multi sub-object materials I used, the lower the exported polycount. Not what you'd expect.

I see no evidence that using a multi sub-object material causes the engine to draw the object multiple times. If it does, the difference in performance appears to be negligable. Of course, this is based on my one experiment. If my findings can be confirmed, GarageGames should reconsider posting the following information on their FAQs, as it may be misleading:

http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=4878

#15 I once did a similar test. One mesh of 10,000 poly each with multiple different textures(32 at 512x512), same mesh with just ONE texture.
I was simply testing how many different textures could be on ONE mesh before it slowed down the FPS( State Change situation as described in Nvidia Hardware PDF ).
It was some time ago(back on a 4200TI), and i do not recall exact all testing mechanics. I do recall a noticeable slowdown with more then a few textures. Also i did have other mesh lumped together in a corner just to take up some video card ram, trying to make it a more real world scenario.

#16 Caylo, that test sounds very different from mine. The goal of my test was to see the effect of using multi sub-object materials vs. separating my model into multiple objects that are textured individually. In my tests, the same number of textures was used across all models. It's more about the way the materials are being defined.

#17 Wen im in tourque I can only move a bulding up, forwared,back,and left to right. how do I rotate a bulding? PLEASE HELP!

#18 Morris, Learn to use the forums correctly, post your OWN "NEW" topic for your problems.

I was trying to point out that the way a mesh behaves once it gets INTO the hardware DO matter.
I expect it all comes down to cost over performance. Cost being the time it takes to make highly optimized graphics. Of course long ago i found taking the extra 30 minutes to find and remove un-needed polys made a big difference in the end when we were using 30+ instance of that same mesh.

I very sure that on some hardware multiple textures per same mesh require re-drawing the mesh. This would be something to take into consideration when thinking of target hardware, and minimal system specs.

#19 How do I make my owne forum?