What the plan was from the very beginning was to not let the mod ships take up any more resources than the vanilla ships they are replacing. If a vanilla ship used a 1024x1024 texture then the ship that is replacing it must use the same resolution texture, or less if possible. If the poly count of a ship is 2000 tri's then the replacement model should be around the same amount. Give or take a few hundred tri's. Right now there are a few models that break those rules, and will be delt with when i get an oppertunity to do so.
The galaxy class poly count is over 6000 tri's. I let that slide because i didnt have time to optimize it some more.There is much that still can be optimized on the mesh, but i was gonna wait for the 0.05 update to go over ALL of the models to re-build, re-texture, and fix what was needed.
The highest poly count a capital ship, or "elite" should be is 4000 tri's, and use a single 2048x2048 res texture MAXIMUM. Most are under the 4000 range except the Galaxy.
Frigates and cruisers should be between 2000-3000, and use a 1024x1024 res texture Max. The Romulan blackwind has a ridiculous 7000 tri count, but since the romulans wont be in 0.03e so im not worried about fixing it just yet. Most of the other meshes are within the limits, or better.
fighters should be 500-1000 tri's and use a 512x512 res texture.
Stations vary from 2k to 10k if you look at the starbases. I need to know the exact poly counts of the defense platforms (railgun, missile defense, laser defense, and hangar defense) The Phaser platform is another ridiculous IMO 8000+ tri model.
My goal was to make soa 2 playable on any system that can play unmodded sins. All the extra triangles, and uber resolution textures contribute to the over 2 gig crash's. we need to watch what we import.
Lets leave the OS arguements out please, and focus on the mod itself.