My much polygons my models are supposed to have ?

[Warsoul]

I made alot of models for KSP and i need to know what is the average polygons count for specific parts.

Like

• engine
  
• body
  
• tank
  
• etc
  

[Greys]

There's two kinds of mesh that compose any model, the visible mesh and the collider.

The collider should always be as low poly as you can make it; colliders tie up much more system resources than the visible mesh, which is basically just rendered and nothing else.

The visible mesh you don't need to be nearly so restrictive with, generally speaking KSP can run 2K tri models just fine, but it also depends on what shaders you go with. Something with animations is going to be a bit more intensive, if that's backed with Damned Robotics/Infernal Robotics that's a lot more intensive. Transparencies will slightly increase the cost because less is being obscured by the object and thus more has to be rendered.

When you're dealing with cylinders there are actually pretty straight forward rules on how many sides a cylinder should have at a given size, generally between 18 and 32, and they're available on the wiki, in the compilation of links thread, and probably in the bathroom. To an extent you can apply those rules to anything circular like the nozzle of an engine or a circular porthole.

An important thing is that once you start putting textures and bump maps and whatnot all over the polygons, if you've done it right the polys just don't matter, the textures add detail and obscure the lines.

[KhaosCorp]

Only time ya need 32 faces on a cylinder is if its 8meters around. 16-24 faces should be enough to get a nice smooth look on cylinder that's between 1.25m and 5m.

Engines are typically between 1.6 and 3.5k total tris (that render mesh and colliders) some are a bit more.

Not sure what ya mean by bodys....

Tanks should be really low for just a basic tank, small ones should be in the hundreds. More complex tanks should be no more then 2/3 the amount of same size engine average (as in a complex 1.25m tank you should try and keep around 1k or so).

Alot of polys can be reduced by cleaver texturing and using bump mapping though. Just because you CAN make a model intricate, and you CAN get it loaded in game does not mean you should (lookin at you truss guy!).

[Greys]

eh, trusses kinda have to be modelled complexly because KSP's transparency shader is a big pile of donkeys, only the smallest parts can get away with having alphas, anything larger than the octo truss would look really bad. Plus with alphas you inherently are forced to double the mesh so you can see the back of the part inside the part.

[KhaosCorp]

Sad thing is I love that mod...the models are awesome and the set is very functional. I just don't use them because they lag me....

Would be nice if alpha lyers worked better ingame...

[Warsoul]

In short; 3.5k or less.

[KhaosCorp]

In short; 3.5k or less.

Its a good rule of thumb to follow...but really its best to keep all models as low poly as possible and still obtain the desired look.And in that regards there is alot of 'cheating' that can be done with textures, shaders, and bump mapping.

[Warsoul]

I found the decimate function in blender; pretty cool.