Size limits?

[Two Dogs 12]

This is a total noob question. Are there limits to the size of an addon? I ask because I never see any buildings over a few stories that you can enter. The LHA is actually several sections. So I was wondering if there is a limitation as to how high a building can be or why ships need to be broken up.

Thanks

[Richards.D 761]

I am no expert however..

I think these models are split up for size, but not physical size, rather model size. Since Arma 2 only allows 19K poly count per model, I would assume since the LHD is a complex model, that it was split up to make it fit within the poly count.

[[frl]myke 14]

There is a 50m square limit in size. Not only the LHD is made up of several segments but also the big radio/tv tower on Chernarus as well the larger industry buildings. Regarding to file size, AFAIK there is no limit. And as RichardsD already said there is a poly limit.

[Two Dogs 12]

Tanks for the fast replies. That makes sense, poly count and 50m square. Whats the limit on poly count?

[[frl]myke 14]

;2302046']Tanks for the fast replies. That makes sense' date=' poly count and 50m square. Whats the limit on poly count?[/quote']

I am no expert however..

I think these models are split up for size, but not physical size, rather model size. Since Arma 2 only allows 19K poly count per model, I would assume since the LHD is a complex model, that it was split up to make it fit within the poly count.

Read everything, not only the buzzwords. ;)

[max power 21]

The limit modellers usually hit in terms of geometry complexity is the vertex normal limit. Direct 3d 9 has a 16 bit vertex normal buffer, which allows 65535 vertex normals to be drawn per object. This relates to ~ 20k polies, but if you had 1 vertex normal per vertex, could go as high as 65k.

There is a maximum size for addons that move. When an object is moving, it reserves space in front of it for pathfinding calculations. The size of that area is dependent on the bounding box of the object. Objects over a certain length will cause errors to be thrown. I think that length might be 50 m but I do know that our 172 m long landing craft is much, much too long to be a moving vehicle.

Objects over a certain size will have problems with shadows being drawn. Shadows are only drawn for objects that are fairly near. I think the camera position relative to other objects is calculated based on the object's centre. So, if you have a gigantic object, you could feasibly never be near enough to its centre to see its shadow. Practically, this means that very large objects made up of smaller objects may have portions of the shadows disappear based on the player's distance to them.