Hello everybody.
Currently I’m working over a quite simple 3D game in Java (FPS-type). I need to put some human 3d models in it so I asked my fellow 3D designer to make me a low-poly model.
First question he asked: how many polygons is considered “low poly”?
Are there any suggestions or hints over quantity of poligons for models in FPS games? Does anybody know how many polygons per model Quake 3 or similar games use?
Thanks in advance.
The characters in Bloodridge are around 100 polys - I don’t think you can realistically go much lower!
It’s always a trade-off between good looks and speed & it depends on what technology you’re using.
Take the max polys that your 3D engine can handle at playable framerates & divide this by the max number of objects that might all appear at the same time (players, bullets, explosions, terrain &c) - this should give you a ball-park figure for polys per object…
I agree with SimonH. For testing, I used a model with 500 triangles and it was quite realistic. Does your engine use any spatial subdivision (BSP trees, cells and portals, antiportals…)? VBO? Geometry instancing? As I work on a 3D FPS too (since October 2006), if you need some help, let me know. Quake 3 models are composed of about 1000 polygons and Call of duty 4 models are composed of about 8000 polygons (but use a lot of normal mapping).
[quote]Take the max polys that your 3D engine can handle at playable framerates & divide this by the max number of objects that might all appear at the same time
[/quote]
I guess it’s a bit hard-to-do metrics since engine won’t display only human models.
Anyway, I guess that around 2-3k polys per model will be quite good for a game model. Thanks for your help, guys.