how to determine hardware requirements of an addon, via polycount/faces/..

[i.Q]

there are a lot of great addons out there and current pcs can handle them alone without a problem, yet when it comes to the replacement of all (BIS) units like in FFUR, Y2K3 etc you do notice know the greater hardware requirements..

so one possibility would be just to test each single addon ingame fps wise ..

my knowledge in this part of ofp editing is very limited. thats why i am asking you guys to help me here please.

what things are important if you do wanna judge the requirments of an addon ?
~ polycount
~ faces
~ points
~ textures (size & amount)
~ amount of lods
~ vertices
more / less ?

can you also please tell me which program one can just to determine these things best - also what to do if a model is binarized ?

thanks a lot !

best regards

[h-]

Better late than never

~ polycount
~ faces
~ amount of lods

A polygon and a face are the same thing in OFP models (and I guess in other 'real' models as well)..

So, the poly/face count is one of the most important factors in how the model will affect the game performance.
You can see the face count in O2 (I guess you know this is the BIS released OFP modelling tool) on the bottom of the window...

The more LODs the better peformance you will get (well, common sense is to be used, 10 resolution LODs starts to be a bit too much )
The resolution LODs work so that in each LOD you will decrease the amount of faces by stripping off parts of the model and/or re-shaping it..

There are of course other LODs as well which play important part in the model..

~ textures (size & amount)

The size of the textures used is also one of the key features performance wise.
The bigger the texture the more it will take video memory.

~points
~ vertices

These mean the same thing, and are those points which connected together form the polygon/face.
Vertices themselves don't affect performance (afaik)..

also what to do if a model is binarized ?

You can un-binarize a model by using a tool called ODOLExplorer 1.1, or something like that.
BUT, it is not perfect tooll and it screws some things up in the models, like some lighting stuff and so on...


The best you can do is to read the several tutorials on modelling at the Editors Depot, here

And here you can find some nice tutorials about resolution LODs et cetera:
http://llw.the-dropzone.net/main/modules.php?name=TopicList&querytopic=Tutorials
(sorry OFPEC Lords for an off-site link ;D )

[i.Q]

cheers  

let me just update the thread by my side too  

some additinal information i could gather:
Lowlands Warrior - Level of Detail (LODs) - informations
Graphic calculations /  resolution LODs
Tutorial about the LOD system in OFP
what counts more against performance Vertices or faces
Poly counts, un closed polys
Moving vertexes - how many is too many

added a few comments:

one thing though, they suggest using the number of vertices to measure the complexity of the model, and don't mention the number of faces at all.

more to follow in time.  

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cross link to BIS forum topic on the same issue

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added a few answer to your post (to my knowledge at the moment):

Vertices themselves don't affect performance (afaik)..

speaking on the base of those links above - vertices seem to be more important than faces !

You can un-binarize a model by using a tool called ODOLExplorer 1.1

yes thats true, but it screws also the model to that point that number of vertices/faces arent the same (which does make the compare not entirely true)

all information with reservation  

[h-]

Vertex is the single point (called as 'point' in O2), polygon/face is the thing you 'make' by selecting them and hitting F6 (in O2)...

In 3D computer graphics, a vertex is a point in 3D space with a particular location, usually given in terms of its x, y, and z coordinates. It is one of the fundamental structures in polygonal modelling: two vertices, taken together, can be used to define the endpoints of a line; three vertices can be used to define a planar triangle.

So, the amount vertices (points) can not be used to determine the complexity of the model...
Vertices are used for other things in the model as well (in OFP), like defining a cars speed and fuel meters etc..

I think you or someone you quoted is confusing vertex (plural of vertex is vertices) with polygon/face...

[i.Q]

well i am not expert, i can just rely on the other ppls comment.

check the Lowlands Warrior guide yourself, they never mention faces, just vertices  
(you can also check inital topic on BIS forum and RockofSL's statement)

[h-]

Yes, they all seem to mix-up terms

I'm no expert either, but I do know a few professional 3D modellers...

EDIT:
Of course, if you want to get pedantic, vertices also cause performance hits as they are (at least in other 3D modelling than OFP) one of the core things when a 3D model is animated as their positions need to be calculated in the 3D space (by the graphics engine) and the textures etc adjusted accordingly (simply put)...

Dunno how exactly OFP does this though...

But, poly/facecount is the one that you should be looking at first, afaik, since they form the surface that is textured and rendered...

But as I said, I'm no expert...