Polygon Limits

[DrPowers]

I'm sure someone must of had this question already but since the search came up with thousands of results and the first couple didnt have the answer I thought I'd ask all of you...

I'm new to the Source modding world and I'd like to know what the polygon limits, or guidlines, are for characters, weapons, and vehicles.

Just so you know, I'm talking polygons and not triangles but triangle numbers will also be helpful.

My guess would be 5k for weapon (including hands?)
10k for a character and 20k for a vehicle.

Also do we need to make High, Med, and Low res models for the game or does the engine automatically reduce poly levels when they are far off in the distance? (like farcry)

Thans guys and sorry if this has been answered a million times.

 

[DrPowers]

Just to add... these answers can be found at verc's faq section. They are not solid answers but they helped.

Here is the URL:
http://collective.valve-erc.com/index.php?faq=source_mod_faq

They have a lot of other usefull information concerning limits etc.

 

[Stormy]

Round 2.5k triangles for weapons 7k triangles for characters 10k for vehicles.... i think! :S

 

[Nostradamus]

depends if you will having many character or vehicles etc on screen at the same time... stormy's bet is pretty good for a single player game of a game with not so many people on the map at the same time(at least for character models and vehicles.... hand/weapon model sounds decent for most gamestyles

 

[random.hero]

all we know is what's in there too

 

[1-THOUGHT]

yeah those numbers seem really high, they are probably half that, closer to what stormy was saying.

gl.

 

[Cyanide]

It really depends on how much you plan to have on screen at once. If you're planning a multiplayer game with up to 32 players plus vehicles and reasonably detailed worlds, then you'll probably want to keep your player models and vehicles around 4,000 polygons. If you're doing a single player game like Doom3 where you only have 3 or 4 character models on screen at the same time, then you can probably get away with 7 or 8,000+.

The best way to tell is to create a character model that you think is good, then put it in a map and test your frame rates to see how many you can put in the map before your FPS drops below a reasonable amount. You should also throw some other stuff in the map because the enviroment takes up more polygons than the character models. Then adjust the models until you get the maximum detail with an acceptable frame rate.

Also keep in mind that your mod won't probably won't be released tommorow, so consider how fast technology changes. For example, if you expected your mod to be completed in a year you would build for what is 1 step down from top of the line right now, and in a year, that will be mid-range hardware.

One more thing. When you're talking about games, consider polygons and triangles to mean the same thing. All game engines render in triangles only. It doesn't matter what you use in your 3D modeling software, the game will still split all your polygons into traingles before rendering. So it's pointless to talk about anything other than triangles.

 

[Faulk_Wulf]

Someone have a clearer definition of "alot" of characters on screen? Would ten people (5 good vs 5 bad, not counting the player) beconsidered alot, or not? (ie: Follow Freeman- you had yourself, four allies (at times) with the Combine trying to blow you a way, and at one point you even had Alyx working on unlocking a gate with everyone on screen at once. (Granted you weren't looking at them all at the same time per se (I wasn't)) The test-and-tweak method is a very good method, I was just hoping to get an idea of what constituted "alot") Thanks.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Someone have a clearer definition of "alot" of characters on screen? Would ten people (5 good vs 5 bad, not counting the player) beconsidered alot, or not? (ie: Follow Freeman- you had yourself, four allies (at times) with the Combine trying to blow you a way, and at one point you even had Alyx working on unlocking a gate with everyone on screen at once. (Granted you weren't looking at them all at the same time per se (I wasn't)) The test-and-tweak method is a very good method, I was just hoping to get an idea of what constituted "alot") Thanks.

Well you've got LOD at work in those scenes aswell.. also all the brushes to take into account, and all the props too.. there's a lot of polys on screen at once.

 

[Cyanide]

There is no set number for "a lot". It's a relative term.

All you have to be conserned about is framerates. If you test the game and the framerates are acceptable, then your polycounts are acceptable. Play testing is by far the best way to figure that stuff out.

 

[thereisaspoon]

there is no polycount limit, quit asking. Your question is how many polys should a model be?

here's the answer:
as low as possible. The lower it is, the faster it runs. Use common sense. iF ur gonna have a 10 000 poly gun with hands, and like 20, 8000 poly characters running around with 1024 texture maps, its gonna like like shit. U want to keep it as low as u can. You wont need to model faces to extreme details in multiplayer, and guns dont need to be uber high poly with every hole and extrusion put in when a shader will do just fine. In my book, i keep guns under 2500 polys, characters at around 4000 and static props under 1000 unless its a big prop. IN multiplayer, you wont need to have 2000 poly faces so the facial animation looks amazing, but you probably will in a singleplayer game. Use common sense, like what kind of game is this? do i need to model this detail in when a skin will do just fine? and at all times, if u can take those polys out and it will look pretty much the same, do it.

 

[Gray Fox]

Hey but I downloaded some of the XSI tutorial vids for the hl2 exp, and there they sya that one of the limitations, the one for character models is 5000 polys and you can only save whole scene under 20000 polys. Can someone explain why they woould have such a rediculus limit.

 

[thereisaspoon]

so u buy the full xsi
since its a demo, there has to be some sort of restriction on amost everything