Reply To: COLLAB2021 – HQ – Stylized Fantasy Environment

@lexicolopolis Well..that is a Question with a capital “Q”.

Short answer: I…don’t know! Since I’ve never done a project like this or worked on a shipped game, I was hoping we could figure out such questions together through the course of this project.

Longer answer: I don’t think a good answer to this question exists. It might seem like your questions could have a black and white answer because it’s mathematical and this is computer art after all. But allow me compare it to this question: “What is the best computer for me?”

I had to answer this question a couple years ago to build my current PC. I spent a week researching and watching reviews and I felt no closer to answering that question the way I expected. There’s simply too many factors surrounding my specific computer usage and too many products on the market to find an objectively true answer. By the time I nervously purchased all the parts to build my PC, I was mostly just hoping it would turn on, much less if it was objectively THE BEST computer for me. Spoiler: The computer did work and it’s accomplished what I needed! Who knows if it’s accomplishing “the best” though.

Your question is similar: What approach would be most optimal for performance as it relates to this project? Frankly we won’t know until the end and we find out if our scene runs in real time in the viewport. If it lags, we’ll know that either A) we weren’t optimal enough or B) Blender’s viewport is less capable that unreal or unity.

So rather than comparing lo poly assets vs data sharing, why not expect to implement both? If we keep our geometry as low as possible AND we use data sharing where applicable, that’s our best chance to achieve the goal. And that’s really all we can know until we have the assembly file together. At that point maybe a technical math wiz could take a deep dive into the numbers but still those numbers would only directly apply to this project. The next project would have its own factors that switch up the formula. This is why every game has different poly count limits on assets, different texture resolution protocols,  etc.

I’m rambling but your question touches on a giant conversation; endless conversation really. I hope this is helpful at least a little…