Poly Count - some thoughts

I just wanted to say it’s great that we are increasing poly counts but think I-Novae should be a little weary. After all, look at Star bragging rights poly count Citizen! They were so into poly counts they ended up with far fewer online because the engine simply couldn’t handle it. Of course I don’t know how the I-Novae will be able to handle increased poly counts but just something we should be aware of. Do we really want a better looking game at the expense of player count? Personally I wouldn’t. Sure a moderate increase would improve the looks of the game and I am all for that…but lets not get too caught up in numbers. Besides, Battlescape already looks pretty damn fine!

Personally I would only want to see a slight improvement in poly counts but only if it included interior ship designs and characterization/avatars for immersion. Of course that is a major addition but it would benefit I-Novae’s long term strategy. Just don’t go the Poly the crap out of everything in sight Star Citizen and I-Novae will reap the rewards ten fold.

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Our polycounts up to this point have been dramatically lower than Star Citizen’s. Also given that our ships don’t include extensive, equally detailed interiors like Star Citizen’s that will go a long way toward reducing the total per-frame polycount. Lastly we have an LOD system that reduces the polycount of on-screen ships as they get further away from the camera. You will only see the highest level of detail when a ship is quite close.

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Good to hear. Thanks Keith.

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That’s exactly what they’re doing too (or any game for that matter). While each ship has insane polycount they have about 5 levels of detail, the 2nd of which slashes polycount down by 60% at 20 meters away or something: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33ToZW4o9AE&t=1474

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