We already know the counts for the Trinity models. We just need counts for the new Rebellion meshes. Fear not. There will be a TSOP for Rebellion.

Obviously the lower the poly count of your models the better, but not so ridiculously low that they look boxy, and stupid in game. A good modeler can make a mesh as detailed as possible with the lowest poly count possible. You dont need a 10,000 triangle model when 2000 triangles along with good texturing, and bump mapping will look exactly the same (or in some cases BETTER) in game. Use the LOWEST poly count possible to portray your art.

You will also have to take into consideration how many of your models will be on the map at the same time. If only a few will be on the map you have more room to play with poly wise. On the other hand if thousands of models will be on the map then you need to budget the polys accordingly.

Strike Craft should not be higher than about 700 triangles. Trinity strike craft vary between 500 to 700 tri's

Frigates in Trinity average 1500-2500 triangles. Though again in Trinity there are some frigates in the 3000's. The vasari trade ship is in the 3000's. Which is why we reduced the poly count for trade ships, and constructors in TSOP. 3000 is TOO HIGH for a non combat NPC that spawns in the hundreds.

Trinity Cap ships average between 3000-5000 tri's (trinity meshes). Which is reasonable considering there is a limit to how many cap ships there are in game. I am assuming that the new Rebellion cap ships are similar in poly counts.

The highest poly count ive seen for a Structure is 7000 tri's (tec hangar defense). Considering how the AI spams structures i would go MUCH lower if possible.

10000 for super units like starbases, and novaliths. A fully upgraded Advent starbase is over 13,000 tri's. Again i would go much lower if possible, because of the AI spam.

The Titans i have no clue of their poly counts yet. But from what i see in game the number looks big.

Corvettes i would say dont go higher than 1500, but i dont know the actual corvette poly count yet.

I will have to re-import every mesh into 3dsmax again to get an accurate count. TBH i dont want to do that.

That is true. Textures play a much bigger role in game performance than meshes do. I try not to use anything higher than 1024x1024 if i can. Obviously there will be exceptions for cap ships, and super units. Units that need a higher resolution. However for units that will be on the map in the thousands the same rule of thumb is true. Less is More. I can live with a little loss of quality for increased game performance. As long as that loss isn't an eyesore.

Basically i study the mesh, and texture of the Vanilla Sins ship that i am replacing. Then i try to go equal to, or go less than the poly count of the vanilla mesh with my model. Then i use the same size texture that was on the Vanilla model. If i can get away with a lower resolution i will do it. As long as it don't look like crap in game. I usually experiment with different resolutions until i find the best in both performance, and quality. Still i will not go over the resolution of the vanilla sins ship i replaced.

Sins was made for a Single Core system running 32 bit windows XP. That is why we are having so many problems now. Our hardware out grew the game.

CPU usage will always be a problem for Sins. While lower poly counts are always good thing. We dont want to make models so ridiculously low that they look stupid in game. Same can be said for Textures. The lower the resolution the better, but not so low that everything looks like a pixilated game from the 90's.

CPU has to deal with meshes, and textures, but its your graphics card that handles the brunt of that. Everything in sins is loaded into memory for instant access. Which is why we see sins using 1.8+ gigs on max settings. Which is also one of the reasons why we have the 32bit 2 gig issue. CPU deals with everything that is on the map. Ships Stuctures, NPC's (trade/refinery ships) Strike Craft, Planets, Roids, Etc. Etc. It has to deal with AI. It has to deal with every units movement. On top of that it has to deal with all the weapon calculations, buff, debuffs, and all the particle effects. Just because we zoom out to galaxy view that does not mean anything. Everything is still happening as if you were zoomed up close. Its all happening with just ONE core of your CPU. Unfortunately the Dev's said that will never change. So modders must plan accordingly.

Yes, I understand. I was just wondering if RAM really is still the main enemy here, because on my system I'm not having a whole lot of trouble with it. CPU is the main issue as far as I'm concerned, and I was under the impression that all you can really do is have less stuff in the game. And short of reducing mine/fighter/trade ship numbers, I didn't think there is a lot of things we could do to help without hurting gameplay.

By all means smaller textures/meshes are a good thing, I'm just wondering if it will really have a noticeable impact on CPU usage?

Yeah---intended for textures to be an assumed part of the equation there.

I think even having a game total--sound, meshes, textures, etc. in each category would be enough of a guideline.  It's primarily a problem for the epic and bells & whistles type mods.

Just thinking along the lines of, "Oops--I have added a LOT of stuff--better cut back".

Design around that. Sins engine is quite robust when it comes to the amount of stuff on and off screen, so as I said - if you have complex high-poly meshes, design your faction with fewer deployable ships (higher fleet supply cost).

So basically if your models average 2x vanilla poly count, design your faction so that it can deploy only half the total ships a vanilla faction can and make them 2x more powerful. Problem solved, at least as far as your framerate/polygon count is concerned.

That's actually a great design point and exactly the sort of thing I was hoping to see conveyed.

Great feedback here guys.  My hope is that we'll hook some new modders into Sins.