I believe it would be beneficial to post a fantastic tutorial from 2003 about the way how GPUs handle model transformation and rendering, and how to optimize models to make them easier for GPUs to handle. Some of it applies to level design as well.
http://www.ericchadwick.com/examples/provost/byf1.html
http://www.ericchadwick.com/examples/provost/byf2.html
I posted the links as more of a guideline for people that want to redo the Morrowind models - No doubt that vanilla Morrowind models will be less demanding than Skyrim ones. I don't remember where, but I saw on the forums here some remodelled stuff from Morrowind that would be very unfriendly to the rendering engine, so I made a thread here about it. It seems that the most common mistake here is the assumption that hard edge smoothing does not increase the vertex count of the model, and that was the main concern for me. Apart from that, it seems that everything else in the tutorial is just good to know, and is not violated too much at the moment.
Nice article, but its still
Nice article, but its still confusing as hell (for me anyway).
I've got stats on Skyrim and Skywind models. I've got a breakdown of all models within a given cell and the total of vertices, triangles and textures as a result.
I've already explained in the thread http://morroblivion.com/forums/skyrim/skywind-development/3549 that its not as simply as these numbers and the above article proves that really it comes down to what is exactly going on in a scene to truly know what is effecting performance. However it is good to know some guidelines, that is why I have done a set of results for Skyrim. I'm not sure what to say other than currently Skywind on average sits at about a 1/4 of the totals that Skyrim has when it comes to vertices and triangles.
It you compare things like lightning, effects, field of view, NPCs, creatures, or whatever else needs to be factored, I think we just simply assume that they are about level in the number of things going on for most places you would adventure in both provinces. Sadrith Moria/Wolverine Hall and Riverwood are the bench marks for "busiest" quads.
There is still clutter that we need to optimize. We need LOD on objects. We also should start looking at mip maps for our outdoor related textures. So, so many thing to do!!