not sure about everything but...

reducing polygone and texture size reduce always the memory use... mainly at the start when sins load everything... since mod almost always flirt with the 2 gb limit, a few hundred kb spared can mean the difference between a crash or a good game...

About model being only a icon, i don't think that it is true... icon keep always the same size but in function of the zoom level, model can use all the screen ( or more ) or use a single pixel... anyway, the .mesh is always loaded and used, same if you see nothing... remember that same in his "icon" form, the model can shoot, have reactor particule effect, etc... all the hardpoints for this are "in" the .mesh, along their orientation... so, i am pretty sure that the engine calculate how to render all the model polies same if they are a single pixel... same thing for the texture... texture have mip map... in the case of a capital texture ( 2048 x 2048 ), the mip map level is 12 ( 2048x2048, 1024x1024, 512x512, 256x256, 128x128, 64x64, 32x32, 16x16, 8x8, 4x4, 2x2, 1x1 ), so the lower level of texture is one pixel ( these don't need processor or GPU power since mipmap are embedded in the dds but the full dds take ram)... now, a model who is a single pixel on screen don't use so much data but it change nothing for the shader code, the ship_gs... number of instruction remain the same...

About sins use geometric instancing, again, i am not sure but i think that it don't use it... first, it was something new  in directx9, using separate stream ( thread ) to render multiple copy  of the same object... since we have no documentation about the engine itself, we cannot know for sure... second, instancing use the same vertex data for each copy, variation being made via various texture and/or skeletal animation ( pose )... .mesh having already included the info related to texture, the various texture is something not possible... and until now skeletal animation is not possible with sins ( if sins was using shader 3.0, some simple mesh animation will have be possible, by example a ship with wings moving like these of a manta ray or surface moving like wave... )

But the lag in late game is due to other reason, at any moment, the game need to know the position of any object, what he make, etc... you can be busy with a little battle but elsewhere, invisible to your eyes, there can be a huge battle who require a lot of data and processing power... and it is where the few kb, mb or more meory who is spared with texture or poly optimization become important... the extra memory spared can be used by the game for these late game complexe calculation...

First, first karma for helping the mod

About triangles, like tobi say, it is the numbers of faces after triangulation... but it is better never triangle your model before he his finish... Wings3d work better with quad... specialy if you have make a very low poly model and that you wish smooth some curved region later for better quality...

So since wings3D work mainly with quad, look how much face you have and multiply it by two... the result will be somehow around the result after triangulation...

About "connect" in the top menu... try to not use it... it will try to connect your numerous object and increase the poly count... best is in object mode to : top menu "select all", right-click, "combine"

Will be a good idea to register yourself on the fews working places for the B5 mod... one of the place where i am web admin is http://danmangames.com/forums/index.php?board=58.0 ... once register, i will be able to give you the mod devs status...

Reason is very simple... these forum is good but it is not really a good work place... by example, for posting your wip files... a screenshoot is great but your WIP model in obj or wings3d format is best for check it... Tobi will check it for be sure that it look canon on every side ( can be a reactor more long, a detail wished to be added, etc )... second reason is other modeler able to check your model, maybe correct minor error ( until now, i have never make a model error free from the first draw, and i have a lot of experience )... can be interesting for other modeler from the team wishing to use piece from you model for a other one ( by example, Tobi using my reactor flap for the Aurora... me using the Zvez front part for all new transporter...

I bet that you are enough new with wings3D... before make the UV, there is a important stage called "segmenting"... for both stage ( segmenting, UV ), no auto-tools will give a good result that a manual work...Once you are register on the danmangame forum, and have the mod devs status, take a look at http://danmangames.com/forums/index.php?topic=1789.0 ... it is a tutorial that i have make a long time ago and that Koobalt have post there... it is about the segmenting and UV optimisation of the B5 explorer model... was a enough complex model for show a lot of thing...

About the model done, i don't agree... a one picture tutorial for poly optimisation...

1) now use 8 tri can reduce it to 4... select the edge at the base of the pyramid, loop cut, remove the red/blue edges on the main body... repeat for each pyramid... total spare 40 tri

2) now 20 tri reduce to 12 tri... make the connection in green, delete the connection in red and the red vertex

3) similar to 1)... from 12 tri to 4 tri

4) use the 2) method... from 10 tri to 8 ... if method 1 used, 10 tri to 4 tri

I think that you see my point... each operation only spare a few tri... but it can be repeated at a lot of place on the model... maybe 1k tri can be spared in total... important since a bunch of raider fighter will need to be added on the arm of the model

EDIT : For the T form where come the fighter, i can reduce a group of 30 triangle to 16 tri for each !!! ... by the way, my poly reduction never change the shape of the model...

Have no choice... i have wonderfull professional tools who are able to reduce the poly count from a 10 million poly to a 200-250k... but it fail to make a good work on low poly models...

By the way, Koobalt is very good too for optimisations... he just need a little more experience with curved model...

One oof-topic question for oFant0mo ... what is your OS ? I mainly use Wings3d on Linux and XP pro on my desktop... with my laptop and Vista, i have huge problem of stability and i think to use Win7... need to know if Win7 work good with Wings3D...

i use Wing only on Win 7, and it's stable, it work good.

duplicate delete

Thirdspace aliens, as fear raiders. One Thirdspace fighter for every "Whitestar".

About LONAW - as TobiWahn will solve this.

We begin by the model show in the serie but mongoose model are somehow accepted by Tobi... myself, i use a lot the "B5 war" material...

About your other post, related to the numerous races... yes, it is planned in the very very long term, for Sins II or maybe Sins III... i think that we will make the max who is possible with the actual game engine but unfortunaly, these engine will never be able to support ALL the races of the B5 universe... if sins2 or a other game allow to use more ressource, Tobi will be able to adapt the mod to the new engine... model are in .obj format, texture are in layered PSD format, stat are mainly based on the mongoose book, etc...

Yes, koobalt is our Narn supreme leader! Wonderful.

As Thoumsin said, the most important models are the ones shown in the series (though I don't count the last movie in, I hate it to be honest)
As for structures, if you want you can provide some concept artwork for them. We do not have much information about the structures of the races. (Minbari seem to use crystal as their main building material, though I'm not sure it would be good in space)

As for Raiders, they wont be their own faction, but rather replace the pirates. 

I love the Narn ships.. Im totally planing on playing them when 1.0 comes out.

you don't see only my image with ships or another to??

maybe try with another software, i use Opera.

Ja'Stat Narn battlestation

duplicate post due to "forum go boom"