One thing I'm going to be thinking a lot about as I plan my own single-player campaign mod is what the graphics engine can do. I'm very impressed at the detail they've integrated into the terrain, but for instance in a game like Warcraft III when I did Norj'Hal Elves I was making VERY high-doodad maps. Eventually I learned things like how to make my own models and use textures rather than polies to give me the detail I wanted without giving the GPU a bad day, but it looks like Starcraft II is really going to let us splurge with doodads, units, and terrain. Does anyone here know anything about what makes a graphics engine capable of rendering lots of models versus simply fine textures? I suppose the simplest answer is "triangle calculations versus shader operation circuitry built into the graphics card is really what matters," but I'm sure the graphics engines themselves have seen optimization over the years. In my field of research, the programs we use to do simulations have been getting steadily faster because there seem to always be things that people can do to make certain operations go faster, even on the same old chips we've always been using. So, what are some other new graphics engines out there, and what makes them fast? And, is there a trade-off inherent in the graphics engine design between the ability to render many units/models and the capacity to render other visual effects? Thanks! Capt. Picard
