Detail verses Structual Brushes
by John Hameier · in Constructor · 03/03/2009 (12:14 am) · 27 replies
Anybody have a straight forward rule for when to use detail brushes and when to use Stuctual? I read pretty much all the documentation in Constructor but there are their any hard fast rule for when and when not to use detail brushes.
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#22
03/04/2009 (9:34 pm)
Although surfaces with NULL textures , if used as collision objects and combined with other detail geometry, DO receive player shadows, which is very cool. Just tested it out and it works.
#23
03/06/2009 (3:42 am)
OK since we are on the subject of making good models, how would you go about zoning your outdoors. I realize this is not really a Constructor issue but do you zone the outdoors as well? Or is there a setting that will only render object within a certain distance? 
#24
Torque is set up for you to use multiple DIF models. When dif models get smaller on the screen (get farther away), then the model can switch to an LOD, which you have to make, which is in theory much more lightweight. When the model is outside the viewing frustum, or beyond the far plane, the model is culled and not rendered.
03/06/2009 (6:20 am)
You can't zone the outdoors - zones have to be completely enclosed (though I suppose with some trickery you could concievably make alleys, etc, with the use of the null texture and/or collision brushes, but the lighting wouldn't look right).Torque is set up for you to use multiple DIF models. When dif models get smaller on the screen (get farther away), then the model can switch to an LOD, which you have to make, which is in theory much more lightweight. When the model is outside the viewing frustum, or beyond the far plane, the model is culled and not rendered.
#25
03/06/2009 (1:54 pm)
When you say lightweight are you refering to things like size of texture or details attached to the main structure. IE: you have a building that is pretty much a rectangle. You add details like window frames, doorways etc. that are attached to the main stucture. As the level of detail decreases you do what... change from being attached to the building to just a texture of doors and windows then to a less detail texture?
#26
Say for example your building. Up close, it has window sills, eaves, trim, and you can look in the window to see the interior room.
For your next LOD down, you might consider getting rid of all the sills, eaves and trim, since you won't be seeing them really anyway. You could also ditch the room inside that you see through the window.
For your very lowest LOD, you could for example, go into the engine, and take screenshots of the buildings from each side, make a single texture from it (a small one), and then map that on a cube.
03/06/2009 (4:50 pm)
@John: Say for example your building. Up close, it has window sills, eaves, trim, and you can look in the window to see the interior room.
For your next LOD down, you might consider getting rid of all the sills, eaves and trim, since you won't be seeing them really anyway. You could also ditch the room inside that you see through the window.
For your very lowest LOD, you could for example, go into the engine, and take screenshots of the buildings from each side, make a single texture from it (a small one), and then map that on a cube.
#27
That at least gives me a solid direction to head in. Thanks for all the advice and help. This will help avoid some big mistakes.
03/06/2009 (8:01 pm)
Cool. That was my line of thought. It will require some work. I guess the best way to go about this would be to design the low res model first. Save it as LOD_1 then go and add the finer details and save that as LOD_0, then take the screen shots and map that to a small cube as LOD_2.That at least gives me a solid direction to head in. Thanks for all the advice and help. This will help avoid some big mistakes.
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