Would like some help in understanding rendering geometry vs textures

Posted by Anon on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by Anon
Published on 2012-09-23T13:35:48Z Indexed on 2012/09/23 15:50 UTC
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3d

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textures

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geometry

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Hardware

So I was just pondering whether it is more taxing on the GPU to render geometry or a texture. What I'm trying to see is whether there is a huge difference in rendering two scenes with the same setup:

Scene 1: Example Object: A dirt road (nothing else) Geometry: Detailed road, with all the bumps, cracks and so forth done in the mesh

Scene 2: Example Object: A dirt road (nothing else) Geometry: A simple mesh, in a form of a road, but in this case maps and textures are simulating cracks, bumps, etc...

So of these two, which one is likely to tax the hardware more? Or is it not a like for like comparison?

What would be the best way of doing something like this? Go heavy on the textures? Or have a blend of both?

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