Created on 9, Feb, 2006.



New Mesh item, Game Running Speed and the Downloads Folder



1. What does High Polygon new mesh item means?

2. Classify new mesh item into levels.

3. How to know the polygon number?

4. Draw a security line for the new mesh items.

5. Modify your security line according to different kinds of items.

6. Manage the Downloads folder according to your security line



1. What does High Polygon new mesh item means? (content)

All the new mesh items in The Sims2 game such as sims, cloth, hair, furniture etc. both are constructed by these two basic element: VERTEX and POLYGON, and both are rendered in real-time, that means, the higher number of the basic element, the more computer render time needed. In the sims community, the high number element items was called High Polygon item.

Too many high polygon items in your game may slow down your game a lot, and may cause other problem!

2. Classify new mesh item into levels. (content)

Whether an item is high polygon or not depending on the facts such as the power of your computer, how many tiles does the item has etc...so, instead of simply calling any item as a high polygon item, I would like to suggest that according to the Polygons per Tile of the item, put them into four levels:

Level RED: more than 8000 polygons/tile

Level ORANGE: 5000-8000 polygons/tile

Level YELLOW: 2000-5000 polygons/tile

Level GREEN: less than 2000 polygons/tile

3. How to know the polygon number? (content)

We can roughly tell any item's polygon is higher than the other one simply by what they are look like. Usually, an curvy item (the complex one) do has more polygons than a flat one (the simple one), take figure A and B as an example please.



We can know the accurate polygon number through these two methods:

a) Online message

If the creator enter the polygon message when they upload the item, it will show up in the download page of that item, click HERE for example.

b) Modding Tool

Open the package file of the item in SimPE, follow the steps shown in figure C please.



One thing I want to mention is that the number we have got either from online message or the modding tool, is the TOTAL polygon number, it is not the number of polygon/tile, see figure D as an example please:



The polygon number of the chair is 456, and the bed's is 4436 , it seems that the chair is a Level GREEN item, and the bed is a Level YELLOW item, but in fact, the bed is a 6 tile item, it is arround 740 polygons/tile, so the chair and the bed are both Level GREEN item.

4. Draw a security line for the new mesh items. (content)

You can draw your security line at any level you want! For example, if you have a super super computer, you can draw your security line at Level RED; if you runing your game on an ordinary computer, try the Level GREEN please; if you only got an slow computer, but you really like those complex items, you still can select Level RED as your security line, but the price paid for this will be runing a very slow game, even game crash sometimes. Any way, chosing any level as your secruity line is totally up to you.

5. Modify your security line according to different kinds of items. (content)

Some items such as a new mesh cloth or a new mesh hair usually goes to higher level then the simple object items do. For example, most of these kind of items goes to Level YELLOW instead of Level GREEN. If you draw your security line at Level GREEN, you should adjust the line a little bit higher, in this case should be the Level YELLOW for these kind of items.

6. Manage the Downloads folder according to your security line. (content)

a) I would like to suggest you create a temporary folder under the Downloads folder for those items which cross your security line. If those items drag down your game speed, even crash your game, you can move them out of the game easily.

b) Put different level items into different folders is another option managing your downloads.

c) Limits the cross line items. Drawing the security line does not mean no cross line item at all, you can still have them in your game, but I would like to suggest you limit the number of the cross line items, for example set the number under 20. Replace these 20 cross line items with other cross line items instead of putting all of them into the game.