Answers:
As less surfaces/as less polygons as possible.
This answer may not satisfy you, so let me just explain with some
examples
what I mean:
Have a look at the bee (data/bee.ac). It's my favorite model, it looks
so
*cute* :-)
This bee consists of different parts, some appear once, some more often:
eye wing bodyball striped_bodyball sting snout
Now, go ahead and split up that bee in it's different subparts and save
them
as ac3d-files, like 'bee_eye.ac' 'bee_striped_bodyball.ac' etc.
Then create new bees.
A bee with three eyes.
A bee without wings.
A bee with four wings.
A longer bee with 2 striped_bodyballs instead of one.
A longer bee with 2 striped_bodyballs and 3 bodyballs and 4 eyes and
6
wings
A tandem bee, meaning two bee-bodies connected by a wing.
Now back to your question about nr. of surfaces:
Just take the bodyball/striped_bodyball for instance.
How many polygons/surfaces should such a ball have?
Now create a new bodyball, that has some more surfaces than the bodyball
before, so
making it look rounder and save it as "bee_bodyball_high.ac".
Then create a new bodyball, with less surfaces/polygons than that
before, it
will probably look ugly and not round at all, but it will be suitable
as
a low
detail model, so save it as "bee_bodyball_low.ac".
You could go as far as creaing a cube with that color and save it as
"bee_bodyball_verylow.ac".
Now it is my job to write an utility that takes as input the different
body
parts in all detail resolutions and construct out of these the complete
new models in all detal resolutions - and bingo, we have many different
kinds of bees in different level of details.
Then go on and do the same job on other objects, like the flying saucer
or the shark (dest1.ac), and re-do them in different level of details.
You can also decide not to work on existing models but start creating
your
own (whatever you want).
You just have to ask _yourself_, how can I do that what I want with
as
few
polygons as possible?
If you're using too many polygons in a part of your ship, that will
reduce
rendering speed, so you should create that part in lower resolution,
too.
For bad examples about 'lots of lots of polygons', have a look at avalon
or
the Star Wars Modelling Alliance.
A model suitable for TuxFleet should, for example, have no polygons
at
the inside
of the model (if possible), details should be done with texturing.
Please tell me what models you'd like to do - update existing ones,
create
completely new ones from your personal fantasy, or create models that
look
like spaceships know from elsewhere/tv/movies?
If you could describe what visions you have on your mind, I can try
to
answer you better.
But I fear, every time you design an object for TuxFleet, you have to
ask
_yourself_: "How few polygons do I need for that part in that level
of
detail?"
Another example would be the freighter (freight1.ac).
This ship has far too many polygons for a low detail models, due to
the
cockpit, the many transport-cubes and the engines.
As well, it looks ugly when you fly near to it, so it isn't suitable
for
high detail either.
For a low polygon model of the freighter, create a simple block that's
got
sort snout (the cockpit) at one end and no engines, and wrap around
it a
texture that looks like as if this simple block/rectangle would consist
of these transport-cubes.
Then create a higher detail model by wrapping texture around the
different
transport-cubes.
Re-do the cockpit, by replacing the polygons the cockpit is constructed
of
by a texture that looks like as if there would be a cockpit.
And always save the different parts of the ships you create in their
respective detail level, so that they can be re-used easily.
Now for your question of texture size:
This is even harder for me to answer, since the models I use yet came
with-
out any texture, but I suspect, you've got to use the same dynamic
rule
like for polygons/surfaces:
As few textures as possible, and each texture should be as small as
possible
with respect to different detail levels.
You could again start with the bee.
Take the bodyballs you made in higher resolution, and wrap a texture
around
it so that it will look more a bee's bodyball than before.
Take the eyes. Remove the black eyeball done with polygons and do create
a new
eye with a texture that looks like an eyeball.
Create an eye that's got a texture that looks as if the eye hadn't
had
sleep
at night and drunk too much, like some blood-red zigzag lines coming
from the eyeball.
Take the wings. Wrap a texture around it, that looks at if streaks of
red blood
are pulsing through the veins of those wings.
Make the wing texture nearly transparent, exept for the veins.
Take the flying saucer and wrap a texture onto it, that looks like
engines and turrets and air locks.
To end this mailing, I just want to say that the number of polygons
for a whole ship in medium detail should be less than 100 polygons
if
possible - if have converted some 3ds models from 2000 polygons down
to 300 polygons and they were too slow.
But I have to admit that I know nothing of 3D modelling, I simply
can't image myself how few polygons one needs to contruct a spaceship
that looks good AND renders fast.
Of course - it's a tedious act to create all subparts of the ships in
different
detail levels, but that's the only way to improve rendering speed.
If I've got no low detail models, I have to render them with lots of
polygons
even if they're just 1cm on the screen.
At present, the complete lack of models in different level of details
(LOD)
is one of the reasons why TuxFleet is yet so slow.
see also: Who is TuxFleet?