Triangle stripping?
by Andrew Locko · in Artist Corner · 09/19/2005 (10:36 pm) · 7 replies
I've never heard of this term until now and I've been working on video games for 4 years now. I'm using 3D Studio Max and I am suddenly aware that this improves fps performance. But how do I set this up in MAX? Does everything need to be triangles? I sthere a unique step I need to take , i.e. SORTing an object into chunks of no more than 30 polys? I am quite clueless on this topic so any help would be appreciated. Thank you
#2
09/20/2005 (9:24 am)
But if we look at an object in ShowTool, and it's got a whole lot of wild patterns, couldn't we help the strip creation by, say, rotating edges? 
#3
The exporter stitches the various strips together into one long strip with degenerated triangles.
For static objects I suppose it would be good to make sure the triangles lay in an easily stripping pattern, but for animated meshes there are other, more important, reasons for turning edges the "right way". (for blending reasons etc).
09/20/2005 (9:37 am)
Possibly, but it's questionable if it would make enough of a difference to really matter.The exporter stitches the various strips together into one long strip with degenerated triangles.
For static objects I suppose it would be good to make sure the triangles lay in an easily stripping pattern, but for animated meshes there are other, more important, reasons for turning edges the "right way". (for blending reasons etc).
#4
As Magnus has said, this is handled automaticly by the DTS Exporter and the engine handles the rest. In regards to how to do this in 3DS Max, well its already done for you behind the scenes so you dont need to worry about anything :)
If you want an exact reason for why Show Tool Pro shows multiple Tstrips on a DTS mesh you would have to ask Dave Wyand the exact reasons for this, AFAIK all the DTS data is being dumped out properly in Tstrips for use in the engine and theres no way to control or adjust this.
09/20/2005 (12:31 pm)
Triangle Stripping is a way of generating and displaying polygonal data for geometry. Instead of having 3 vertex points for each face what the code does is generate the first 3 vertex points for the first face then adds one new vertex point for each additional face on the model. Basicly building new faces off of the data that already exists for other faces by sharing information. This is obviously far more beneficial because it requires less memory and less processor information to render a model.As Magnus has said, this is handled automaticly by the DTS Exporter and the engine handles the rest. In regards to how to do this in 3DS Max, well its already done for you behind the scenes so you dont need to worry about anything :)
If you want an exact reason for why Show Tool Pro shows multiple Tstrips on a DTS mesh you would have to ask Dave Wyand the exact reasons for this, AFAIK all the DTS data is being dumped out properly in Tstrips for use in the engine and theres no way to control or adjust this.
#5
*puts away his one dollar bills*
I thought I was going to like this thread. :]
09/20/2005 (12:47 pm)
Quote:Triangle Stripping is a way of generating and displaying polygonal data for geometry.
*puts away his one dollar bills*
I thought I was going to like this thread. :]
#6
Well, it is controlable to a certain degree by turning edges as have already been mentioned (this would be, while not completely, so at least slightly a hit-and-miss sort of thing though, you'd have to turn edges and export a million times to find the "perfect" strip). I suppose technically even moving vertices around a bit could help the stripping routines, but this would be even more of a hit-and-miss operation.
It's most likely not worth the effort. It's first of all way too much work and second it probably doesn't really buy you that much performance. As I've already said the exporter stitches the strips together into one long strip so all you could possibly win on doing this is to get rid of some of the "empty" triangles created by this process. (these empty triangles probably doesn't affect performace that much in the first place anyway so).
Bottom line; Concentrate on making your game rather than worry about this.
09/20/2005 (1:02 pm)
Quote:theres no way to control or adjust this
Well, it is controlable to a certain degree by turning edges as have already been mentioned (this would be, while not completely, so at least slightly a hit-and-miss sort of thing though, you'd have to turn edges and export a million times to find the "perfect" strip). I suppose technically even moving vertices around a bit could help the stripping routines, but this would be even more of a hit-and-miss operation.
It's most likely not worth the effort. It's first of all way too much work and second it probably doesn't really buy you that much performance. As I've already said the exporter stitches the strips together into one long strip so all you could possibly win on doing this is to get rid of some of the "empty" triangles created by this process. (these empty triangles probably doesn't affect performace that much in the first place anyway so).
Bottom line; Concentrate on making your game rather than worry about this.
#7
09/20/2005 (1:12 pm)
Disturb not the Magnus. :) 
Torque Owner Magnus Blikstad