Hi guys,
today I started to model a weapon. The one I chose is the XCALIBUR MK12 CAL 9X21. As you can see, this type of gun has these holes upon the ejector. I read on William Vaughan’s book that a common weapon’s topology counts between 1,500 and 2000 polys in video games. I started to model the ejector. However, only this part of the gun was made of 445 polys ( 889 tris). “Few polys”, I imagine you say. Here the model,
The problem is that I didn’t bevel the edges yet. I tried to bevel only the most visible edges and the polycount overcame 1200 polys( I added loops on the bottom of the hole to give it more a spherical shape). I stopped me because I was trying to create a game asset model and If I had continued to model the handle too, It would have overtaken 6,000 polys. ( I would have had to add solidify to give it a thickness too). IT’S ONLY A PISTOL!
Googling on the Internet I have noticed that weapons in video games have not this type of structure.
For instance, on the ejector, there are no holes, aren’t they? Take a look, please.
Should I choose another gun? My goal is to create a good game asset with the right quantity of polygons and easy on the eyes. Obviously, I have to renounce to some details to create a model between 1,500 and 2,000 range. What do you suggest? Was I wrong something with my model or the gun I chose was too detailed for this range? Moreover, I didn’t model the barreled pistol yet. I had only mirror modifier turned on.
hmm, you are aiming too high. your goal is a high quality game asset, yet you seem to lack basic understanding of hard surface topology and workflow. I suggest going back to basics, and doing some exercises to advance your understanding of the fundamentals.
i assume you are going out of your way to avoid triangles, and that is good for most applications, but i hate when people say “DONT USE TRIANGLES”.
i always say… “Dont use triangles… unless you know how to use them.”
you know why people say dont use tris? cause they deform poorly, will that gun deform? unlikely, meaning you can use them as much as you want.
there are 2 things you can do:
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finnish the gun, while trying to keep the polycount as low as you can, and when ur done, ask for feedback regarding your topology, and after the feedback, pick a new gun, and try again from scratch with the new knowledge you’ve gotten.
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do research on how to keep a nice topology while modelling low poly hard surface objects for video games.
Sidenote; you should also research how to have a good topology when modelling high poly hardsurface stuff as well, cause you would likely be expected to create a hi-poly version of that gun in order to bake out a normal map. that is very common these days.
once i get home, ill make a video for you going through the problems with your current model, so please upload the blend file and ill come back to you as soon as i can.
Thank you for your time! I uploaded the .blend file on Mega. Here the link 
it may look easy when i do it, but its because i know what im looking for. take your time, and do what makes sense.
Really, thank you so much. It’s thanks to people like you that make forums one of the places that are fundamental to be an artist. Thank you, again
