Answer day - Civil 3D performance vs games
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Hi
I've long wondered why Civil 3D requires so much power in terms of both CPU, GPU and Memory when moden PC games can achieve so much more with less hardware.
The data used in typical C3D models are (when broken down) mostly different variations of polylines, which have no volume/textures/Lightning effects. Of course there are som types of one dimensional data associated with them (lenght, x/y/z coordinates, rotations, direction, etc).
Then we have Pipe networks, who often are associated with 3d models, but rarely ever viewed in other ways that top-down and visualized by lines (outer/inner walls).
Surfaces from large areas of height data can naturally consist of alot of data. But if the games I play can visualize kilometre-wide areas with cutting edge Graphics yet with precision of details - I se no reason for C3D to be as slow as it is by just showing simple lines.
And Before you answer "Oh well games do alot of simplifications of geometric details, and other tricks", Think about if you perhaps should make C3D do the same thing. After all, all we want is a fast, responsive program to model geometries and 3d/2d objects.