RPGDX > Forums > Projects / Screenshots > Min System Requirements

mininetaz · Pretty, Pretty Fairy Princess Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 5

I'm working on my game entry for the contest, I'm at the point now where I need to figureout the basic polygon count for in game NPC's.

I'm at a cross roads that is stoping my progress as far as populating my game is concerned. The NPC you can see on my project page has 35,000 polygon's he is a poser4 model that I imported into my game engine. The second choice and FAR less detail is the 4,600 polygon model I can import into the engine from Poser. As you can see there is a big difference in polycount, and thus in the level of detail it brings/take away from the game.

If I stay at the 4,600 polygon level the minimum requirements would be 256meg RAM, 32 VRAM, & 1.2 gig CPU to play the game at a playible frame rate. These are the same system specs as my development OSX PC.

How ever if I use the 35,000 polygon model the minimum specs must go up to 526meg RAM ,64 VRAM and 1.5 gig CPU. I have tested the engine on a 1 gig RAM, 128VRAM, and dule 3.4 gig CPU XP computer and it runs good.

Were i'm torn is I think those are to high of minimum system requirements for a game. So I would like to get a baseline of what you guy's have in terms of RAM, VRAM and CPU so I can pick the one that most people will beable to play the game with.

Another Idea i'm toying with is to add support for both LOW & HIGH polygon models but thats double the work when it comes to NPC creation so not sure if I can do that in time to meet the contest deadline.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Terry · Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 10:24 pm Post subject:

I think you should go for the lowest system spec you can manage.

By the way, your project looks really neat. I can't wait to play it!
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RedSlash · Mage Joined: 12 May 2005 Posts: 331

Lower the better. :)
I think 256MB is good to target at.

me4tw · Pretty, Pretty Fairy Princess Joined: 01 Feb 2007 Posts: 5

Like almost everyone else I chose the lowest, although it still seems a little bit high for "minimum".

Mind you perhaps that is something you cannot really help with whatever engine you are using. As you said yourself lower polycount models are obviously lower detail so it takes less work to do them. More productivity!

RedSlash · Mage Joined: 12 May 2005 Posts: 331

I believe the polygon count for snake in MGS3 is about 4000. I would say you 4600 minimum count is still on the high end if you're supporting low end computers.

mininetaz · Pretty, Pretty Fairy Princess Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 5

Ok well after a few days of feedback. Im going to go the low poly route for the contest. With the deadline approching I need to get cracking making models. Thanks everyone who gave feedback and or voted. It made my selection less of a burden. Well on with the development i guess.

Modanung · Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:41 am Post subject:

Of course the game should always be as efficient as possible. And if it looks really kick-ass I don't mind it needs a no more then 2 year old video card and 1-2 Ghz CPU. But if it doesn't need it it should use it.
And use your polygons efficiently, use them to define shape. The vertices do not need to be equally spread over the model.
When I look at the screenshots of your game I'd say you should balance out the number of polygons in the characters and enviroment a bit. I see a smooth NPC, highly detailed and next to it a cup with only eight sides.
Btw, using Poser 6 for you models doesn't sounds like you actually made them to me.

Nodtveidt · Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:55 am Post subject:

Nothing wrong with using Poser to model. It's not specifically a modeller, though it certainly can.
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Modanung · Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:58 am Post subject:

Well I'm not familiar with it. But as far as I know it's more like a model generator then a modelling tool. And I wouldn't call that homemade content. Just as downloading a script for creating random trees isn't the same as modelling trees.
Correct me if I'm wrong though.

Terry · Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 3:45 pm Post subject:

You're right, but it's not important.
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Modanung · Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 4:56 pm Post subject:

Terry · Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 5:22 pm Post subject:

(a) Not very and (b) as far as I'm concerned, yes.
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Nodtveidt · Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:54 pm Post subject:

The line is vague. One could argue that a model made out of cube primitives isn't "original content" because you used premade cube primitives.
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Modanung · Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 12:27 am Post subject:

DeveloperX · Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 3:58 am Post subject:

content that is made by the user, whether using modeling tools of any kind, as long as the files were not made previous to the contest, then its valid content.
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