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Gmax ground polygon performance

sunayk

sunayk

Messages
170
I am working on my first FS2002 SDK/Gmax ground polygon scenery project. It is a relatively large airport and I am nearing completion of the ground polygon work.

But I notice that the FS2002 bgl groung poly scenery file is causing nearly -10 FPS drop in the performance. It is disheartening considering I haven't even begun 3D modeling of the airport buildings yet.

I believe also with FS2002 SDK in FSX there is no drawcall batching gain.

So what are the performance improvement tips/techniques used to model an efficient FS2002 SDK ground poly for FSX (SP2) ?

I guest,
- lower vertex count (but means less detailed look..)
- lower total texture number (=lower drawcalls) (also means less detailed look)
-...?


What else I am missing?

Thanks for any suggestions.
Sunay
 
Hi,

Using as little vertices and as little textures as possible is always a good performance advice.

Having all the ground polygons of a big airport in one scene can also be bad for the performance. I have seen quite a performance speed up by dividing the polygons over multiple reference points that each cover a smaller area. This is also what the ground polygon wizard of ModelConverterX does if you ask it to split your polygons in 500x500 meter areas.

With the FS2002 gamepack there is no real drawcall batching, but if you try to use as little textures as possible you will still minimize the amount of drawcalls in your scene.

I am currently working on the markings of Schiphol airport and I am using the same texture for all lines. Until now the performance is quite good, even for the high amount of triangles I put in. But since I am not finished yet, I haven't done good performance testing yet.
 
Hi Arno and thanks for the reply. I already use your MCX and the 500x500 splitting function.
 
I would like to ask more than answer, both sunayk and Arno.
Why don't use photoscenery instead of ground poly?
I think ground poly is more difficult to make and the airport need to be flat. If there are some hills or mountains near by, they need to be flatten too.
Photoscenery is capable of 7 cm/pixel, far more than satellite image today.

- Making groundpoly for satellite photo, I need to make lots of poly and map them with sat photos. Most of the time you need to get rid off the lines
between each polygon.
- You need to make lights over them since ground poly will cover lights from XML.
- Moreover, ground poly sometime cause AI (from FS9 models) to disappear.
- If you need to correct the color of the photo after you have cut them to make groundpoly, you have to go back the process and cut them again second time.

Of course, I still need ground poly for custom runway, taxiway. I do need satellite image just only the runway and taxiway to cover what XML produced runway and taxiway.

Just for myself, ground poly is NOT any more for satellite photos.

Photoscenery made by s-builder is easier. Just put the coordinate, name the map begin with photo... and S-builder will make us the text file to use with resample.exe. Delete some line out (I'm sorry I can remember which now.) and compile again. If I want to make changes to the colors of the photos, I can do it only once since the whole picture still in one piece. No need to cut again after do the color.

I really need your guys' opinion about this. Even the new project Eiresim Dublin V2 still use ground poly. I'd like to know the benefit of ground poly over photoscenery.
 
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In my case I am combining photoscenery with ground polygons only for aprons, runway, taxiways, as below:

12b_01.jpg



But I think a reason for using ground polys instead of photoscenery can be developing having in mind for both FSX and FS9. Maybe others can add other advantages.
 
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sunayk said:
In my case I am combining photoscenery with ground polygons only for aprons, runway, taxiways, as below:

But I think a reason for using ground polys instead of photoscenery can be developing having in mind for both FSX and FS9. Maybe others can add other advantages.
Click to expand...
Good point Sunay, I do the same way you do except satellite photo.
 
Hi Tic,

I never use ground polygons for the photo anymore. For that resample works a lot better indeed.

But I use the ground polygons to put all the markings and details on top of the photos. Even at 7 cm the resolution is not good enough to have sharp lines.
 
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