Lightsaber vertices

[Linken]

I managed to make my very first lightsaber model, something kind of complex, but I liked how it turned out. Textures were showing up correctly, however it wouldn't show up ingame due to a lovely little error which read.

 

R_LoadMDXM:
models/weapons2/saber_first/saber_first.glm
has more than 1000 verts
on a surface (5557)

Is there a way to fix this or am I gonna have to start all over from scratch? *grumble grumble*

[ensiform]

It's the limit you get to be compatible with JKa.

[Xycaleth]

You can only have up to 1000 verts on a single mesh in your model. You can split up your model into multiple meshes, but the fact you have 5500 verts on a saber is kind of suspicious. You should reduce the amount of detail to put it into perspective, the player models in JKA only have about 3000 verts each (for the entire model).

[Linken]

So this doesn't happen again, where can I look up the amount of vertices the hilt has? I use gmax/

[Linken]

You can only have up to 1000 verts on a single mesh in your model. You can split up your model into multiple meshes, but the fact you have 5500 verts on a saber is kind of suspicious. You should reduce the amount of detail to put it into perspective, the player models in JKA only have about 3000 verts each (for the entire model).

 

How would that work if I were to do that?

[Archangel35757]

So this doesn't happen again, where can I look up the amount of vertices the hilt has? I use gmax/

Under the utility menu there is a tool call polygon counter that counts triangles and vertices.

[Linken]

Under the utility menu there is a tool call polygon counter that counts triangles and vertices.

 

And the amount needs to be under 1000 for all objects, correct?

[minilogoguy18]

Yes, it's the vertex count, NOT the polygon.

 

You have to remember that you are looking at this model in a 3d program probably filling your entire screen, no one in game is going to see it in that great of detail. The closest someone may get is in the saber selection menu but that's it.

[AshuraDX]

show a picture of the model you are trieing to get ingame and I'll tell you weter it'S more time efficiton to try and optimise this thing or start over

[Linken]

 

Lightsaber with 2 parallel blades

 

I used octagonal cylinders, more extrudes that I can remember.

 

According to GMAX, 1567 objects.

 

What do you you think @@AshuraDX

[AshuraDX]

can you enable the wireframe overlay/edged faces option?

(should look somewhat like this https://jkhub.org/images/5RO0hie.png

 

also show me the UV layout/textures

 

right now it looks like soemthing that could be fairly easy to optimise

[Linken]

I've actually decided to redo it from scratch, under 1000 verts fortunately. I'll happily show off the finished product when I'm done.

 

Thank you however @@AshuraDX for your helping hand.

[Linken]

Well, GMAX just screwed me over....I was under vertices, exported to md3, blah blah blah, tried it out in game, didn't work, checked the md3 file, it doubled the vertices, deleted what I needed to take down the vertice amount, same result.....       

 

UPDATE: I examined the edited .md3, it's at 930 objects.

[ensiform]

Sabers should be ghoul 2 format I thought?

[Linken]

Sabers should be ghoul 2 format I thought?

 

I did, hence the "blah blah blah".

[minilogoguy18]

You cannot have 930 separate objects, 32 is the max, you need to start merging objects and the TOTAL vertex count of each object should not be more than 1k vertex's.

 

Either way you shouldn't have an insane amount of detail in a model that is so small on screen.

[Archangel35757]

When you export to MD3 it creates extra vertices. In 3dsMax/GMax mesh & vertex data is stored differently than the MD3 or Ghoul2 GLM formats.

 

You must consider a vertex as having/representing a position, one UV texture coordinate, and one normal vector. 3dsMax/GMax do not store vertex information this way. Smoothing Groups allow you to have multiple normals at a vertex along the smooth group boundary edges. Also in 3dsMax/GMax there is no gaurantee that there is only one UV texture coordinate at a vertex-- again there could be multiple. So the MD3 exporter has to create extra vertices to hold this extra information. Does that make sense?

[Linken]

When you export to MD3 it creates extra vertices. In 3dsMax/GMax mesh & vertex data is stored differently than the MD3 or Ghoul2 GLM formats.

 

You must consider a vertex as having/representing a position, one UV texture coordinate, and one normal vector. 3dsMax/GMax do not store vertex information this way. Smoothing Groups allow you to have multiple normals at a vertex along the smooth group boundary edges. Also in 3dsMax/GMax there is no gaurantee that there is only one UV texture coordinate at a vertex-- again there could be multiple. So the MD3 exporter has to create extra vertices to hold this extra information. Does that make sense?

 

It does, so how many vertices should the original model be at maximum before getting into "oh hell no" territory? Or is there no guarantee?

 

You cannot have 930 separate objects, 32 is the max, you need to start merging objects and the TOTAL vertex count of each object should not be more than 1k vertex's.

 

Either way you shouldn't have an insane amount of detail in a model that is so small on screen.

 

Sorry, I should've said polygons, though you probably already knew what I meant. Also I've seen very detailed, even crazy lightsaber designs on here, like on the old Escape Yavin IV mod, thought it would be possible to make one of my own.

[Archangel35757]

@ - hard to say... the new/fixed MD3 exporter will display export statistics on how many additional vertices were generated and what the final triangle and vertex count are... that looks like this:

 

 

I'm not sure when @@DT85 will get them all recompiled and submitted.

[Linken]

Update, at 633 Vertices now, I hope to god this works.....  

[Linken]

Thank god! It finally works!