Add Poly Count to Vehicle Models Filters

[Neon Skye 58]

I don't have a very strong PC. It can handle most high poly mods, usually crashing after just an hour. It's not that big of a deal, but a poly count filter for both GTA 5 and 4 would be appreciated in the vehicle models sections.

[Reddington 4,447]

59 minutes ago, buddy03 said:

I don't have a very strong PC. It can handle most high poly mods, usually crashing after just an hour. It's not that big of a deal, but a poly count filter for both GTA 5 and 4 would be appreciated in the vehicle models sections.

 

This isn't really needed, tbh.  You can easily see the poly count yourself when you throw the vehicle files into OpenIV.  I do understand where you're coming from, as I've experienced it before.  However, the big named mod authors who have high poly models will usually put it in their description.

 

Honestly, poly count is not something most people care about when finding vehicles.  In my case, if vehicles are too high poly, I'll just uninstall and find something new.  Also, bare in mind, it might not even be the vehicle size causing problems.  It could be that the livery on the models are 4k, which is higher quality and will also cause issues.

 

I don't think poly count is your issue, though.  Generally, if a vehicle or livery is too high quality, you'll lose textures.  I've yet to have my game crash because a vehicle or livery was too big in size.  My advice is play around with your game and try to verify if it's a plugin or script causing the crashes.

[Neon Skye 58]

Thanks for the tip

[Cyan 4,989]

That's a really nice idea, but unfortunately it is dependant as well on our community tagging system which isn't ready yet -- as there will be a large number that don't end up getting updating by their authors.

[jb431 71]

On 1/8/2019 at 12:02 AM, Giordano said:

 

This isn't really needed, tbh.  You can easily see the poly count yourself when you throw the vehicle files into OpenIV.  I do understand where you're coming from, as I've experienced it before.  However, the big named mod authors who have high poly models will usually put it in their description.

 

Honestly, poly count is not something most people care about when finding vehicles.  In my case, if vehicles are too high poly, I'll just uninstall and find something new.  Also, bare in mind, it might not even be the vehicle size causing problems.  It could be that the livery on the models are 4k, which is higher quality and will also cause issues.

 

I don't think poly count is your issue, though.  Generally, if a vehicle or livery is too high quality, you'll lose textures.  I've yet to have my game crash because a vehicle or livery was too big in size.  My advice is play around with your game and try to verify if it's a plugin or script causing the crashes.

 

I am aware of the livery issue and pretty much use 2K liveries to specifically avoid texture issues as much as possible. So the poly count of the model doesn't really impact the game performance? Just trying to clarify since I have avoided using some models that I thought looked good because I figured the game would run at a decreased level or I would have texture loss, etc.

[Sniper296 1,712]

3 hours ago, jb431 said:

 

I am aware of the livery issue and pretty much use 2K liveries to specifically avoid texture issues as much as possible. So the poly count of the model doesn't really impact the game performance? Just trying to clarify since I have avoided using some models that I thought looked good because I figured the game would run at a decreased level or I would have texture loss, etc.

Poly count can have an effect on performance, especially if you were to replace most traffic with unoptimised vehicles. It's pretty negligible since modern (GTX7xx+) GPUs can handle hundreds of billions of vertices (4/poly, 3/triangle) per second. It still does add up.

 

The textures are the main performance killer. "4k" textures is a meaningless marketing type term by modders. What matters is the resolution of the texture be appropriate for what it is for. 4000x4000 pixels for tyres, dials or a lightbar is moronic. 2000x2000 to 4000x4000 for liveries is acceptable given the inefficient method that cars are mapped. Rockstar's vehicles may be mapped in a way that is not modder friendly, but it is very performance friendly only texturing decals and logos rather than all the bodywork.

 

The problem is that if it is unoptimised in one way, it's probably unoptimised in the other way. But you can always resize oversized textures. Photoshop plugin Gimp plugin Paint.Net natively supports DDS.

 

BC7 compression might improve performance rather than the old DXT1/BC1 DXT5/BC3 formats. I doubt GTA V's DX9 compatible engine is capable though.

 

As for the poly count on files. The two options are unreliable, as Cyan said, because most won't update their files or possibly not add it for new ones. Doing it programmatically is a pain too due to the many archive formats used, plus OIV files, plus there being multiple models/variants in some mods, plus locked mods being unreadable, plus the only two tools that can read them are closed source GUIs with no documentation on the model format.

[flwpheonix 511]

5 hours ago, jb431 said:

 

I am aware of the livery issue and pretty much use 2K liveries to specifically avoid texture issues as much as possible. So the poly count of the model doesn't really impact the game performance? Just trying to clarify since I have avoided using some models that I thought looked good because I figured the game would run at a decreased level or I would have texture loss, etc.

Like the other guys have said, poly count really doesn't have an effect on performance. The biggest performance killer is going to be as @Sniper296 stated, textures. But also the amount of materials and textures used in the vehicle. They use multiple materials, that use the same detail texture, but use different specular textures, and such. This can be avoided by using 1 specular map texture, that has multiple specular colors on it. This also applies to the normal (bump) map. The other issue is that each piece of equipment has it's own set of textures, and own set of materials (sometimes duplicating). 

Here is an example of a vehicle's equipment being optimized. These are the parts that I have in my Crown Vic.  Now my CVPI has a spotlight, camera, radio, and siren controller, along with the center console and stand. Each part, if not optimized would have it's own texture, own specular color (most times multiple materials for different spec maps) etc. Instead, I use only 3 materials. One for the normal textures, one for the glass on the spotlight, and one for the emissives. BUT....all three use the same exact texture. Doing it this way eases the load on the GPU and it doesn't have to search in it's memory for the texture, and try to remember which material it goes to.

[jb431 71]

Good deal. Thanks for the info @Sniper296 & @flwpheonix. I have always avoided high poly count vehicles, even though a lot of them look good because I was afraid it would create issues. I'll have to start giving some a try. @flwpheonix how can you tell if a model might create issues based off of the issue you spoke about? Will the ytd file just be excessively large? If so, can some just be deleted by editing using OIV? I know many look for realism on the interiors, but I never use first person, so the only time I have an issue with an interior is if I have to find a way to darken an in car computer screen, etc.

[flwpheonix 511]

@jb431 Yes, if the ytd has an excessive amount of textures in it, it will most likely have not have been optimized. Unfortunately, just deleting the textures will not help the situation as the model is still calling on the material used.  Not only that, but  if  you start deleting textures, the game will use more processing power trying to find the missing textures...That being said, you are pretty much between a rock and a hard place, being that most people, when adding equipment, do not try to combine the textures into one texture sheet, and therefore for each piece of equipment have upwards of 5-6 or more textures, and for each texture, it's own material (or more).

[jb431 71]

On 1/23/2019 at 9:57 AM, flwpheonix said:

@jb431 Yes, if the ytd has an excessive amount of textures in it, it will most likely have not have been optimized. Unfortunately, just deleting the textures will not help the situation as the model is still calling on the material used.  Not only that, but  if  you start deleting textures, the game will use more processing power trying to find the missing textures...That being said, you are pretty much between a rock and a hard place, being that most people, when adding equipment, do not try to combine the textures into one texture sheet, and therefore for each piece of equipment have upwards of 5-6 or more textures, and for each texture, it's own material (or more).

Ok, thanks for the info.