Small objects – big memory!

One trick is not to merge too much, but just move objects into the same frame instead. This seems to allow more complex models to get into MSTS.

Just wanted to post a description of a problem I had and see if anyone has any thoughts on it.

Whilst making a passenger coach (in 3DC 4.24) I tested in early stages and all worked well in MSTS. I then proceeded to add detail. When I came to test again it was all errors and the ‘please let me send a report to Microsoft’ message.

So I methodically went back and tried it out at different stages, loading back into MSTS. The point at which it started going wrong was with the vacuum pipes. Now, these are two very small items in the scheme of things. They were each made from a cylinder, shrunk right down and stretched and then bent. Yet, tiny though they were, somehow they added almost 2 Mb to the file size.

As soon as I deleted these, even though I went on to add in other details (e.g torpedo vents on the roof) everything was ok.

Why should such small items add so much memory? I do know (because I tried deleting one face by face) that there are a lot of faces involved in a bent rod!

Any ideas?

Richard Scott

It is amazing how much data 3D graphics uses. Extruded items are particularly bad for this. One thing to try is to click on these objects in 3DC and look at how many faces and points are used (it is reported on the status bar at the bottom of the window). If you get a big number like 1000 or 2000 for the number of points then you are using too much detail for MSTS.

Richard