How can I efficiently store Vertex data in C#/XNA?

Question

I am creating a terrain system using voxels in a somewhat minecraft-like style and I was wondering if there was anything I could do to increase the number of vertices I am able to store (and therefore render).

Based on different suggestions I have read I created a number of "chunks" of size 32x32x32 cubes and all of the vertices for these cubes are pre-calculated and stored in a VertexBuffer. I then have 7x7x7 of these creating a larger map. Therefore this is around 11 million cubes.

I was unable to render all 11 million cubes, so I removed any vertex in the buffer which would be completely hidden by an adjacent block (this removes all the interior/invisible surfaces/vertices). Overall this reduced the number of vertices by a factor of 36 in the simplified terrain example I am using!

However, this appears to be the absolute limit on the number of blocks I can render. This already takes about 1 GB of RAM according to the task manager (although the vertices themselves are closer to half of this - GC and all).

Do I have to simplify my terrain and/or accept this limit, or is there a better way to do this? I previously tried using instancing but that slowed down after only 20,000 cubes or so.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I know this is an old post but I will send my reply for others to see. What you can do is possibly save ALL the chunks in their OWN chunk files on your computer. Have like two float/into variables

//disable the unseen chunks
float m_maxRenderDistance =100.0f; 

// Load the necessary chunk files into your game BUT have them disabled unless player distance is near the m_maxRenderDistance
float m_maxStartLoadDistance =150.0f; 

Of course since this post is old, you may have found a much better way of solving this. Just wanted to share what I have learned recently.