Let's talk about draw calls

[Catalavos]

What are they?
How is the total number of draw calls in a scene calculated?
How can I reduce them without greatly altering my map layout?

 

[PsychoPigeon]

Every mesh being rendered is a draw call, to reduce them just reduce the meshes being rendered at a given time. If you have a bunch of meshes like trees, you can combine them into 1 single mesh but you'll need to do do some stuff in a 3d modelling program to add collision and uv wrapping so the lighting doesn't get messed up. 2800 draw calls is what seems to be aimed fr however some customs have 5000 and there doesn't seem to be too much ruckus about it

 

[VYPYR]

Iom

Iom

COOL IOM :
THANK YOU.
ReichsFuhrer:

 

[Twrecks]

STAT D3D9RHI

Draw calls are more than just meshes. Each material used pulls a draw call. Every sheet for an emmitter pulls a draw call, every terrain quad (rendered grid size dependant on terrain settings), every shadow map, the list goes on.

Dynamic shadows are more expense than static shadows. Sky lights more than directional. A mesh with 10,000 polys more expensive than a mesh with 10, albeit each are only 1 draw call.

Draw calls are just the tip of the iceberg for optimization. But like the tip of the iceberg, lets you know if you're in dangerous waters.

The UDN describes the various STAT commands in detail:
[url]https://udn.epicgames.com/Three/StatsDescriptions.html[/URL]

 

[Catalavos]

Thanks guys, I learned quite a bit just in these few posts. One more question I forgot to put in the OP; how does the number of draw calls relate to frame rate?