Reducing Sections?

[[frl]myke 14]

Hello folks,

while i'm working on the new F-16 cockpit, section count started to raise and is now at 60 sections. As i know that having less sections is better, i wonder how do i reduce section count.

Actually i have 11 different textures in use which i may be able to reduce them further on a later step by creating one single large texture instead of having several rather small textures.

What else can i do to reduce section count?

[DaSquade 0]

You did search on "section count" right?

->http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=65537&highlight=section+count

Nothing has changed afaik, so all info/tips/hints are in there.

[[frl]myke 14]

Thx DaSquade, indeed missed this one.

However, followed those instructions there and now my section count is 68....before it was 60. :butbut:

[mikebart 1]

if the "face" "sort" thing isnt working for you, you could try importing it into a 3d app, make sure the base of the cockpit is only calling 1 material and is a single object, and that the dials and animated panels, buttons etc... have there own unique textures if you want them to, then re import it into O2.

I'd imagine you're going to end up with alot of sections with this anyway, with all the animated dials, flashing buttons etc..., which is pretty common for a fully animated cockpit i'd imagine, maybe you should pm Fortran and ask him how many sections his F117 cockpit is, could give you a better idea of what you should be aiming for.

[rstratton 0]

124 sections

[csj 0]

Myke don't know if you have tried this?

Make a back up of p3d first ! Just in case :)

In the resources library window - sections

dbl click on all identical entries (rvmats included) whilst holding down ctrl key.

-

ctrl C (copy your selection)

-

D (remove all faces)

-

Points \ select isolated and delete

-

ctrl V (paste your selection)

hopfuly all or most will reduce to 1 selection.

If not then check 'user values' etc

[Snake Man 401]

As i know that having less sections is better, i wonder how do i reduce section count.

PMC Editing Wiki: section fixing.

Actually i have 11 different textures in use which i may be able to reduce them further on a later step by creating one single large texture instead of having several rather small textures.

Well then you are minimum at 11 sections with that method. I suggest you merge the textures into one single texture.

What else can i do to reduce section count?

There is no magical tricks besides section fixing tutorial + merging textures to remove the excessive number of small textures (sections).

If you need any further help, just ask and I'll be happy to help.

[[aps]gnat 28]

One thing that can get missed and I havent seen it mentioned;

The texture names/paths can become case sensitive.

You can also accidently reference both the TGA and the PAA version of the same texture (only use 1, recommend TGA).

- Double-click any texture listed in the texture list window

- Select Faces->Face Properties

- If under the path box "Textures" has "....." listed, it means you have slightly different path name or text case between all the faces.

- Copy just 1 "texture" path name from just one face selected, and then with ALL faces selected for that texture, paste in just one path text.

[norsu 180]

Also when you want to use more than one rvmat for a single texture you have to double check the sections.

For example when I want to make truck mirrors reflective with another rvmat, sections won't increase by one like you would presume. Instead the section count skyrockets which you can clearly see in Window->Resource Library->Sections.

[[frl]myke 14]

Ok, managed to bring it down to 24 sections and i know there is still room to bring it even more down. Just right now as i'm constantly working on the cockpit and things do change all the time, hunting for every single section is pointless.

I'll surely merge some textures together to a single, already have it for the instruments which are all concentrated on a single 2048x2048 texture.

Does anyone knows if there could be a problem if i would use 4096x4096 texture size? this would allow me to merge some of the textures together into one single texture.

Thanks for all replies. Can't say this or that was the point i've missed but all replies together lead me to the solutions i've needed. Thanks a lot guys, much appreciated.

:EDITH:

I think 24 sections for 6751 points and 5751 faces isn't that bad already. ;)

[[aps]gnat 28]

fyi all, you may have noticed the O2 tools display at the bottom showing the number of sections can be quite delayed in providing a new number update (on sections).

You generally have to save, unload, reload to truely see how that last "tweak" you did affect the number of sections.

Can lead to confusing analysis as to "what worked best"

[DaSquade 0]

Correct Gnat, although i though switching between lod updates the section count aswell.

if i would use 4096x4096 texture size?

Afaik, older video cards (ati?) couldn't load that size of textures, only nvidia could. Not 100% sure but a latest generation card should be able to load that. But keep in mind 4096x4096 texture are pretty heavy in file size. Not sure if that is that good...

Edited January 23, 2010 by DaSquade

[norsu 180]

I would keep section count always at max 15. For a simple cockpit 24 sections sounds overkill IMO. How many different textures you have there?

Try reducing the size of those areas in your uv that are hard to see in game. This way you can squeeze even more maps to one texture.

[[frl]myke 14]

@Norsu

it isn't a "simple cockpit". ;)

It is still WIP and while things change all the time, optimizing textures makes only sense to a certain point yet. I brought it down from 60 to 24 with a few clicks and i'm sure when goin deeper into optimizing, i'll press it even lower.

Right now some textures are still cluttered as i've just started to merge them up.

[namman2 0]

for a cockpit i guess it's more than fine since you are the only one who will see the cockpit that means only 1 shall be loaded

[USSRsniper 0]

With those sections fixes error will appear too,

Old style material flags used 

[granQ 293]

With those sections fixes error will appear too,

Old style material flags used 

Just select and put user value to 0 and you clean that away.

Not confirmed.. but 142 sections seems to be the limit before the model stop being rendered.. (at least thats what we experienced today..)

And bringing the cockpit down to 15 sections shouldn't be hard at all if you follow the steps in this thread.

[T_Roc 0]

I had this problem with one model the section count was up to 168 sections.

But then i converted the textures to pac format and suddenly i only had 10 sections.

[scars09 9]

differences in the path to the texture/material also result in additional sections, classic example is the path "ca\data\whatever.rvmat" for a texture aswell as "CA\data\whatever.rvmat" for the same texture, both path work correct but both are a section just cause ca/CA. usually as a last step before binarizing i redefine the pathes to make sure they all the same.

So in your case t roc i actually think the redefine to the new texture did the job, not the fact that it was a pac, which by the way i never used, paa is faster to type somehow so i stuck whith paa.

Edit: just saw that Gnat has allready mentioned the case sensitivity in the pathname. sorry for double posting that "trick"

Edited April 18, 2010 by Scars09