Preferred file size multiplayer game

[Maarten Vol]

Dear reader/helper,

I'm looking for ways to reduce size for the created 3d face image
generated by de free facegen moddeling program. The 3D model size I
generated from my own face is 25kB in size. This seems not to be a
problem, but if I would like to make an internet multiplayer game that
supports up to 20 persons I get the following calcultaion:

25kB = 25 * 8 = 200kb Per Face

So 20 faces make: 4000kb

If i got an internet bandwidth of 100kb/s (normal I think)

The time it wil take to get al that faces to my pc, would take
approximately:

4000 / 100 = 40 seconds (afcorse the upload 100kb/s)

This seems not much but if you have to wait for 40 seconds it is long
without knowing what else has to be downloaded in order to play the
multiplayer game.
Now I ask myself how can this be solved? By compressing the fg file?
leaf the texture out of the face model? I think the BMP texture must
be one of the biggest?

Hope someone can answer this one. I'm just searching for some answers
before I begin such a project.

regards,
Maarten

[FaceGen Guru]

Hi Maarten,

The FG file size is determined by how it was created. If you created a
face at random and did non apply a detail texture, the FG file will
only be 300 bytes. If you create the FG file from a photograph, its
size will vary depending on the amount of detail it is able to extract
from the photograph. It can be as large as 1.3MB if you have an
extremely large source image. You can get a good amount of detail in
about 20KB.

When using our SDK to develop a game, you can control the size of the
detail texture used, or you can avoid using a detail texture entirely.

In FaceGen Modeller, you can remove a detail texture from an FG file
by selecting 'none' from the detail texture drop-down box. It is also
possible to resize a detail texture by extracting it using the
'extractdetailtexture.exe' utility, resizing it yourself, then adding
it to the list of selectable detail textures (search for 'Detail
Texture' in the Modeller User Manual).

Best wishes,
Andrew.

[Maarten Vol]

Hello Andrew,

Thx, for the quick respons. Excluding the detail texture decreases the
file size indeed. That was what I'm looking for.

Regards,
Maarten