prop_static polycount question

[Zareh]

Hi there,

After watching Ichi's berreta tutorial I decided to give modeling a try... I managed to put the following model together, using the M939 as a referance, it is currently using 1600 polygons.

I want to use this as a prop_static in a CS:Source map, is 1600 polygons (4314 triangles) too many for a prop_static or is it too low for this type of model/intended purpose?

 

[Mikademius]

I don't know, but I see you could optimize this model more.

 

[thereisaspoon]

thats a really high polycount, it dosent look that detailed, i hope you didnt cut and extruded everything since that method is very poly-wasteful.

 

[Zareh]

Nah, I created planes and moved vertxes and edges around, then created polygons wherver I needed them.

The killer is that I have to use 6 wheels, atm the wheels themselves are using 730 polygons :|, I looked at the truck model in hl2, which uses close to 5k of polygons, and it uses 12 sided tubes for its wheels. Thats what I used as a guide... I guess I can turn them all into 10 sided and see if they look too blocky OR I could remove some details from the inside of the wheels.

I still need to add a few more bits of details here and there. Since 1600 polygons are too much... what should I aim for?

 

[simon]

eum, the tires is something that always take a lot of triangles, and i think they should be minimum 12, cause imHo thats something that always looks stupid (squared wheels)... your model doesn't look 4314 triangle's, you could basicly remove the hole middle line from the model ? and make sure to delete unseen poly's (the axes for exsample, the 2 outside poly's that go into the wheels, stuff like that, delete it) and why model the door ? will you open it ? if not, delete the edges of the door, you could add a bump map / normal map on that. the hud could also lose some poly's, and the champher on the wheels is not need imHo keep the wheel-rimms basic, but do not go less then 12 sides, i would even take 14. And about the max. triangle count, i myself wont go any higher then 5000 triangle's for a map_prop vehicle, but that's just me

 

[Zareh]

Thank you all for the feedback, I had no choice but to remove some of the details from the wheels, and got rid of the center line once I felt that I could get rid of the symatry, the canopy can't lose any more vertexes or it will lose its shape.

I managed to reduce the number of polygons to 1305 and triangles down to 3434, I still need to add a few more details, but I feel that this is as good as I can get it down to without starting to look too choppy.

Now the hood looks a little choppy, would smoothing groups get rid of it?

What do you guys feel as far as the over-all quality of the model? Should I keep optimizing?

 

[Ti133700N]

I think that with a good texture it will look awesome, 3434 tris is perfect for a vehicule.

 

[HiroProtaganist]

the model looks good. though a little to detail for just a prop. The lower the Poly Count the better since you want to save processor power for more important things, i.e. the weopon/hand model. you could probably cut that PC in half with some good optimizing and some sacrificing of detail here and there.

 

[babywax]

On the canopy, remove the parts that link the dips together, they won't really be seen.

I colored them in red.

 

[st0lve]

you should be fine with that polycount, unless that truck is in the most crowded areas..
4500 isn't that much for a big static.

 

[Sanada]

I think it's an ok poly count. Some of the static models in de_tides are very high for what they are. Some gate in the map is like 2500 polygons.

 

[Zareh]

Thank you everone, I took your advice and brought down the polycount to 3050, this is with quite a few additional details.

Now its time to create the UV Map and start texturing it

Thank you all for your feedback

 

[Cunbelin]

Heh good luck, I still cringe at that many Tri's but perhaps I'm a little too obsessed with optimization. If you still have the original higher polygon count you might consider using it as a basis for creating a normal map for the lower polygon version.