I have a question on poly count. (Pic included.)

[hotnwormy]

Being somewhat new to the game modeling realm, I am not up to speed on certain things. I was wondering what a good number is to shoot for when modeling a low-poly object such as this work in progress:

http://www.3dave.com/Modeling/m35a3truck/m35a3truck032103b.jpg

Sorry, I haven't finished texturing it or anything.

As it sits now, it is right around 1000 faces, but I have no idea if this should be much lower, or if this the right ballpark for this type of static object in a game. I see this as being just a static mesh that you would find on a game level.

I could drop the poly count some by reducing the wheels and such, but I just don't know if I need to kill myself to do all of that, or if I'm okay at around 1000.

Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated... I'm off to texture some more.

[Azulblue]

ummm, low-polygon is most important thing? not amount of points?

if you want decrease amount of polygon, at first, decrease,disc dividing line.
for example....this car wheel. how many divide? i saw it 24 dividing... didnt it?
its 8-12dividing enough in PS2 game.
and...engine duct pipe, is it indispensable to bend?
bending is requaire many polygons.

and cargo, you should make it perfectly box no dividing.

[cucaracha]

It depends on the game engine.
Battlefield and GTA3 have no problems to render vehicles, for example, with 3000 polies or more.

The Half-Life engine has problems if your models have more than 1000 polies.

But for modern games such as Battlefield, GTA3 or UT2003 2000-3500 polies are ok.

Always remember that every poly has to be 3-sided!
Try to do vertex-modelling; splines or box-modelling cause higher polycounts.

For tires or barrels I mostly make 12-slice cylinders.
cu

[Azulblue]

http://www.azulblue.com/img/car.jpg
http://www.azulblue.com/img/transporter.jpg

this is japanese game standerd.....maybe...less than my experienced.

[hotnwormy]

Thank you for the help.

Azulblue - I don't think I want, or need to, go quite as low as you have. I think it is great that you made a model with 196 polys, but in this day and age, I think I'll give myself a bit more room to play! :D

cucaracha - Your input is greatly appreciated. I'm glad you listed actual games, so that I can get an idea of what they are using. I ended up adding a few more things since my last post, but when I triangulate the model, it still hits right around 2700, which sounds like it is acceptable.

Here is the latest, which is cleaned up in terms of polys and has all new textures (texture map shwon below). I'll be "dirtying" up the textures more, but I just wanted to post an update.

http://www.3dave.com/Modeling/m35a3truck/m35a3truck032203med.jpg

As for the wheels and such, I know I could shave off quite a few polys there, and if this were for an actual game, I probably would. However, I'm just trying to figure things out for now, so I think I'll leave them in this more aesthetically pleasing state. ;)

Thanks again for your help. If anyone else would like to chime in on this, please do so.

[Lost]

The amount of polys in an actual game depend on the engine and the game.

If you are doing a game were vehicles are in the forefront then you should spend more time and polys on them. If the cars are just sitting off to the side with no real intereaction then they should be a lot lower.

For portfolio work iot really does not matter. I would do more then one. Do a 1000 to 2000 poly one then do a 100 to 200 ply one. Show your versatality.

There are always tricks you will learn in the industry to get the most out of each poly.

For the game I am currently on I made (stole from somebody else here) tires by making 8 sided cylinder,deleted the flat two sides and putting a slighty larger face with a texture of a tire on it. Use the opacity around the edges to mimic the roundness.

But every game is different.


p.s. sorry forthe typos and illogical sentences..I am actually at work right now and typing this between builds.

[hotnwormy]

This is what I reallly love about this board... ask a question, and everyone gives you some help. I really appreciate having a resource such as this.

Here is an update to the truck, which is currently hitting right around 2500 tris:

http://www.3dave.com/Modeling/m35a3truck/truck.jpg

I'd say I'm about 85% done right now, but I still have a bit of work to do.

Lost - If you could post some of your work, that would be killer. I would really like to see some of the stuff you have done. Thanks for the input.

Thanks again, and if anyone else would like to chime in on this, please do so. :chug: