are alpha transparent maps more expensive on ipad hardware then just modeling out an object? i have a case where i can dramatically drop the polycount down of a model by using a lot of alpha masks.
any suggestions?
It depends on how much of the screen they take up and how many polygons you’re talking about.
i guess ill have to do more testing
(waiting for apple to verify my companies account so i cant test on ipad yet)
lets theoretically go to the extremes.
say on screen polycount is 10-12k (from what i read thats about max?)
compared to about 20 maps that are 256x256 that require an alpha with half the poly count
Again, it’s dependent on how many pixels the triangles of the mesh require. On other hardware, you might be able to use alpha testing to speed things up, but the iOS GPUs lose their efficiency with alpha testing. The iPad’s GPU is underpowered; both alpha blending and alpha testing are best avoided. I don’t even have one, so I can’t speak firsthand, but there have been a lot of complaints about this around here.