There is no single number you can define for all cases. During the mesh beta one Linden staffer noted the mesh cost formulae were made assuming 300K triangles for the entire scene being rendered would allow low end PCs to run at adequate frame rates. Note I said "triangles", which is what graphics cards process, not vertexes. High end machines can handle a lot more. Crytek (designer of the Crysis games) recommends level designers keep to under 3 million triangles per frame, versus whatever PC hardware they recommend for those games. How much work the SL viewer does with each triangle depends on graphics settings, but generally a given hardware will process X triangles per second, and so frame rate will tend to go inversely with scene complexity.
The existing default SL avatar is about 8000 triangles, each sculpt map can add 2000, and each prim can add 100 to 2000 or so depending on type. So an avatar wearing a lot of detailed attachments can add up to a lot of theoretical triangles. I say theoretical because the SL viewer applies "Levels of Detail" (LOD) on the theory that objects at longer distance would end up with geometry which is less than one pixel on the monitor. This is unnecessary processing, so the viewer applies simplification of what it renders at various distances. For prims and the standard avatar the LOD levels are built in. For sculpts it discards alternate rows and columns of the map texture, and for mesh you explicitly define the LOD geometry at the time of upload. LOD levels kick in at specified multiples of the object size vs camera distance. So if you design a mesh avatar as a single object, the levels will switch at multiples of the full body size. If you design it as separate body parts, the switches will happen per part, so generally at closer distance. The final consideration is what environment will the avatar be used in. One made for fashion photography, where only one will be in view, and frame rate does not matter, can be a very detailed. One made for SL role playing games, where speed matters, or for visiting popular clubs, where lots of other attachment- heavy avatars will be in view, should stick to lower detail. For the latter cases I would suggest staying under double the default avatar (ie to < 16K triangles), on the assumption that the default avatar when hidden by an alpha texture subtracts 8K from the rendering task, and an extra 8K total is not a large impact given whatever else the avatar has in attachments. Levels of detail by default go down by a factor of 4 per level in the upload window. You are free to upload whatever geometry you want for each level to maintain decent looks for your avatar, but that is a reasonable guideline for how aggressively to simplify each LOD. Message: 3 Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:40:26 -0500 From: Robert Martin <robertl...@gmail.com> > the trick with MakeHuman is it can be used to generate multiple meshes > it would be understood that it would need to be downsampled (to below > XK vertexes) before it could be used on the grid. The big question > would be What is the recommended Maximum Vertex count?? (define X > please) > _______________________________________________ Policies and (un)subscribe information available here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/OpenSource-Dev Please read the policies before posting to keep unmoderated posting privileges
