Hi guys. I’m trying out the blender game engine as well as the Ogre game engines. And if any of you have any experience with these can you tell me what is the basic rule of thumb when it comes to in game character model polygon counts?
I understand how Ogre is more powerful than blender. But is 2,500 about right. Or could I go higher… say to 7,000 polygons on a rather modern computer with good specs on it?
I would try it myself but I’m having difficulties with Ogre and blender game engine at the moment, which is another post altogether. Right now I am modeling a character and she is 6,500 polygons even after I decimate her down to .100. I just wanted to know whether or not I am taking the right path poly count wise.
In short: 10.000 polygons is what you should aim for, with 20.000 for high-end computers and graphic cards. Of course, you should take lighting, shadows, particles etc. into consideration since they can EAT CPU if you’re not carefull.
Using system like the LOD (level of detail) and VIS (which renders only what the player can see) you can afford to model characters with more polygons, though.
EDIT: the above numbers are the amount of polygons ON SCREEN, not per object. For your main actor, you will probably use more polygons than for other actors and objects, but it’s up to you in how to devide your polys!
from my expirence it’s best to try to keep the main actor under 3,000 polys when using the BGE. as long as you don’t go overboard on the surroundings most medium to high end computers should be able to handle that fine. however, you should try to keep the object count as low as possible.
also, on a side note. blenders decimate function is not a tool worth using. if you really don’t want to do the poly reduction manualy then there are several scripts in the python forum that can do a much better job.
Yeah i can’t understand why anyone would use the decimate tool on game characters, it’d wreck any poly flow the model as as well making rigging harder.
As for poly count Alyx in half life 2 was the highest poly character with 8.5K so for modern games with a modern engine then i’d aim around there. I’d agree with demobobin 3K is more than enough for BGE.
In my experience it takes a lot of skill to use 8.5k polys effectivley a lot of people use it as an excuse to waste them.
Thanks that’s some good info. I’ve been scrutinizing other games and I’ve noticed how incredibly low games are on polys. Like ff7 and even Guild Wars Factions uses as few as they can possibly get away with.
I was modeling my chara and I noticed she was 33,000 (no make that 8,000) faces. That’s what had me decide to check in with some people who could help me out. In other words I’ll be checking into those python scripts now.
After I started Blending I started noticing that games have low polygon counts, too. Understanding CG a bit more, you come to realise just how bad even modern games are in that area. Unless, of course, the FMV’s of FFX and Driver:PL
1500 - 3500 is what I would classify as a BGE standard now. With ogre however that range should get wider.
Many of todays games don’t really overdo it on the poly count either. Most of the eye candy you see is simply good bump/normal mapping, which plays a big part in making a mesh look more complicated than it really is.
