Alright, what does everyone think? 348 polys. The right is the original hi-ploy model, the left are all the same low poly with different size texture maps(starting at 4096 and moving to 256).
And here is the hi-poly holder ready for low-poly creation:
Looks pretty god. Post a wire for more crits.
Here is some more progress:
Any ideas and/or suggestions? Anyone? The bayonet is 332 polys and the holder is 398, is that too much?
looks really nice especially the high poly but i have some crits. 1) the scratches look to fake they need to be more random ( you can see some of the brush strokes) 2) the metal looks really flat, either paint in some lighting or use a specular map 3) the handle needs more detail like dirt or fingerprints ect. 3) the model looks good but from looking at your wire the lower part of the blade could be optimised with little change to its appearence 4) the low poly model could do with some smothing groups either set certain parts to soild or break them off either by hand or with the edge split modifier
Hmm, excellent advice, I was just having smoothing group issues in UDK with it too. I did end up optimizing the blade mesh a bit. Looks like it’s texture work time.
looking much better. if you dont mind heres a quick paintover on one of your diffuse textures showing what i mean(its harder to explain with words) .
edit: also i reccomend that you pack your uvs as tight as possible to get as much resolution out of your textures as possible
I see what you mean. The blade itself does scar very easily though, the sheath is very rough on it(built-in sharpen-er, and friction holder deal). If you don’t find I am gonna work from your example and try to improve mine. Thanks!
also i reccomend that you pack your uvs as tight as possible to get as much resolution out of your textures as possible
Definitely. There is a lot of wasted space in that map. Looking really nice though.
i dont mind at all thats what its there for 
oh and if you struggle with the metal i made a tutorial on hand painting it (it was intended for sci fi stuff but applys to most things) http://www.pdf-archive.com/2011/05/31/creating-sci-fi-panels-in-photoshop/creating-sci-fi-panels-in-photoshop.pdf
