Does all game geometry have to be welded?

[Vapourise]

This is a question that has always bugged me, i know that an object should have all its vertices welded but can you 'float' pieces of geometry upon each other to what extent is this acceptable?

I was thinking about a railing as an example, all the vertical poles of the railing would be a pain to weld to say the concrete support so could they just sit in the base?

Cheers

[Amsterdam Hilton Hotel]

Nope, game geometry certainly doesn't have to be airtight. This used to be the case with some engines (generally due to shadowing methods) but isn't something you really have to worry about anymore.

In your example, yep, they could just clip through.

[Piflik]

Note however that geometry that is clipped through the rest of the model wastes texture space, so you'd have to compromise and think about what you want to float and what to weld.

[Vapourise]

Ah yes I forgot about the texture space you would be wasting, probably better to keep the floating geometry to smaller items then i guess.

Thanks people!