gamophyte on 17/8/2014 at 00:00
I figured but the less vs least and the max speed throw me off.
LarryG on 17/8/2014 at 02:54
Less is potentially more polys than least but less than more which could have less than max 'cause max is the most, but only if the object is complex enough for it to matter. If not then it doesn't matter which you pick. Get it? Got it? Good.
gamophyte on 17/8/2014 at 03:01
Yes Larry, thanks for holding my hand through that. I ended up going with less, least broke the object and had missing polys. By the way, the way you said that had really good iambic pentameter.
nemyax on 18/8/2014 at 12:48
gamophyte
The split settings matter for objects that are translucent or have such parts. Otherwise, there's no point splitting anything (but bsp.exe probably will anyway if the object isn't convex).
ZylonBane on 18/8/2014 at 15:30
Quote Posted by LarryG
Just what it says. You want least splits to lower poly count, more splits to improve rendering.
That setting exists because BSP was created in an era when desktop CPU speeds were measured in MHz, and batch-converting a folder full of models to Dark's format could easily take a significant amount of time. Using the "More Splits" end of the scale was absolutely not intended to improve rendering of the final model. If it does, it's a second-order effect. The "most splits" setting being called "Max Speed" pretty much gives this away.
If someone deliberately wants a higher polygon count on their model to improve the granularity of Dark's vertex lighting, that should be accomplished with surface subdivision in the modeling program.
Nameless Voice on 18/8/2014 at 17:13
That's not entirely accurate. The reason you might want to change that option is because BSP optimises meshes.
If you have a flat surface which you divided into three parts in your 3D modelling package, BSP will actually merge those extra divisions which it deems unnecessary.
The other way to avoid that problem is to make the surface slightly uneven (e.g. move your subdividing lines a small amount out of alignment) - again, BSP might "fix" that for you if it is set to least-splits mode.
Regardless of why LGS first put that setting there, the above is the reason it's on the GUI and why you might want to change it.