Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 2.8
Creating column base.
Why?
The shape here is really a long cube on top of a short squatty one, so
why not just create two cubes? There are several reasons for this. First,
when we create textures for this object, it will be much easier if we have
one solid mesh (more on this later). Second, and more importantly, if we
have one object that defines the base and shaft of the column, we have
half as many objects to define the same shape. Less objects mean less
Draw Calls and thus a faster game (more on this later too).
Step 7:
Delete the bottom face.
Why?
We will never see that bottom polygon. But, this polygon will take up
texture space (which is at a premium in games) and add to the overall
polycount. Yes, it's only one quad (two tris), and doesn't seem like it
would be a big deal in the scheme of a big game, but if there are going to
be many duplicates of any object, cleaning up faces that absolutely won't
be seen can pay dividends for over 100 duplicates. Taking time to keep it
clean now will save optimization time later.
Step 8:
Repeat similar process to create column capital (
Figure 2.9
).
