[Viikate]

So in Fokker's case, this means 505 different parts, 37635 polygons and 25852 vertices. I must say that making cockpit is much easier, but I know that Gibbage doesn't agree with me

hock:

HoLy CraP dUdE.. what are you all smoking paint?

WAY too many polys..

I guess mr. shokwave missed the whole point. The TOTAL amount of polys in single plane (including all lods, caps, damages, etc.) can be closer to 50000. Only about max. 3000 polys is visible at once (single engine plane).

Hardball,
Gibbage's tutorial is great on exteriors but there's nothing about cockpit interiors.

Pit modeling constraints are not so strict as externals. Just few rules that I still can recall:
-No need to worry about LODs
-Total polycount aroung 10000 polys. I guess Tempest went over this quite much, so it doesn't hurt to have little more.
-Only one multi/sub material is needed and you can have any number or materials as long as the total size of textures is around 8Mbs.
-Max texture size 256x256 pixels (TGAs)
-Same texture can be used in two materials (with alpha and without alpha), so those alpha cut areas can be "recycled" in non-alpha material.
-No alpha material in pit frames or walls because sun will shine through the alpha materials (engine limitation i guess)
-Every moving part should rotate around it's Z-axis.
-Null material (invisible) can be used as with externals to smooth polys. Doesn't contribute to polycount.
-Get the external fucelage model, remove the low poly pit and make your real pit model "fit" into the external nicely. Some parts of the external model will be visible from the pit (doesn't contribute to polycount).
-First model everything and after delete non-visible polys. Or set them to null material when needed to keep things looking smooth.
-Try to learn to do "pre-rendered" objects. This saves huge amount of polys and gives nice results. Model part with great detail, render it in correct prespective to texture and slab that to simple flat plane. It's bit more complex than it sounds, but here's example:

Some objects modelled with huge amount of polys (fire extinguisher is good example).
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/~viikat ... ly_pit.jpg
Basically anything complicated that doesn't move inside the pit can be modelled like this. If object can be modelled with relatively small amount of polys, then don't use this.

Scene rendered with global illumination/ambient occlusion and resulting images are projected to planes and result is saved to texture. Perspective looks wierd now...
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/~viikat ... xtures.jpg

Textured big surfaces. Usually just flat planes, but extinguisher has some roundness.
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/~viikat ... frame1.jpg

Result without wireframes:
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/~viikat ... t_left.jpg

Gauge textures. The black & white textures produce the "glow in a dark" result when pit lights are turned on.
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/~viikat ... tures1.jpg
Usually one 256x256 texture can fit 4 gauges, but some look more nicer with more details so this example has only one gauge plus several different needles.

Overview of the pit in wireframe
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/~viikat ... frame5.jpg

That's all I can remember now