Can low poly model look as good as high poly model?
polycounter lvl 6
Hello,
I have a question.
There is High poly models and low poly models.
What defines what is low and what is high? Only the number of polys it has?
Can low poly model look as good and detailed as high poly model?
Can low poly model look as good as this for example?
Because what i understood so far (i may be wrong) is that when u sculpt in zbrush model that u create is created from polygons.
Polygons are like connection of dots that have a "face" onse side of polygon is polygonface.
Has to have at least 3 or more dots that are connected so it creates a "Surface" or as they call it pollygon face. There are different type of polyons as i understand: Triangle, Quadrilateral, Pentagon, Hexagon, Heptagon, Octagon, Nonagon, Decagon, Dodecagon etc.
They all create "surface" one of this connection group is it a Triangle or Quadrilateral is called as Pollygon and one side of the "Surface" is pollygon face.
When i sculpt my sculptcontains many of those polygons.
When creating details you must have higher ammount of polygons in order to create this level of detail that you see above link.
As i understand it is not possible to get low poly model to look as good as high level?
Or if it is how? I remember i somwwhere did see some method they call reflection or somthing. How does it wokr? (jet again i may be wrong). But this is why i ask. To inkrease my knowledge in this area.
Best regards
Tanel.V
Replies
Whenever someone gives you a polygon count as the limit to shoot for, they actually mean the triangle count. More here:
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Polygon_Count
High poly basically means any model that doesn't need to be rendered in a game. Usually high poly models for games are made simply to extract textures from, which are used on the low poly model, using a process called Texture Baking.
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Texture_Baking
You can increase the detail level of the low poly model, when it is rendered in the game, by using real-time displacement and tesselation.
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Displacement_map
Here is an example model that uses displacement:
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/NyraCharacter
Only computers and recent consoles can use displacement effectively. Mobile games and older hardware usually cannot.
I hope this helps!
Game models typically have a few "Levels Of Detail" to help control how many polygons are drawn on the screen at one time. So as models get farther away from the camera/player the model gets swapped out for a lesser detailed version. Tiny details disappear and things get more blocky, but you don't notice because it's silhouette holds its shape. As you get closer the more detailed version pops back into play. You have probably seen this pop in games, it can be pretty bad and developers can be under a lot of pressure to optimize which means smooth transitions get cut. Even then there are a lot of great tricks in quite a few engines to fade in LoDs.
The number of polygons on screen is still important but not as much as it once was, we are able to throw around a lot of verts now but there are a lot of other systems that are difficult to manage and are bigger resource hogs.
A lot of game engines are switching to support dynamic tessellation, which is dynamically adding and taking away polygons from a single model and doesn't pop between LoDs. This has the potential to go incredibly high poly but it can also wreck frame rates, especially on lower end hardware.
It's all a balancing act of how important the details are and what performs the best for what the game is trying to achieve.
Why i asked this is because i planed to create a animation from my ogre.
I wanted to use camera close up in some cases and then move away with camera and display full character.
Currently i am sculpting my model in zBrush
and later wanted to take the model to Houdini and create riging and cool VFX effect there for it.
So what i understand is correct, that if i want high level of details in order to create good looking model i need in one point increase poly count and later i can project details to lower poly model?
How about saving the model and exporting it to another 3d program?
Will the low poly model look as good there also?
Or is the projection thing only zbrush related and can work only inside zbrus?
I am sorry for asking this. Just trying to understand it better.
The transfer of details from high to low can be done many ways. The transferred textures can be used in any game engine.
Although normal maps have a few different competing standards, so you need to match your normal mapping texture tools to your intended engine. Check out Handplane for example.
http://polycount.com/discussion/108744/handplane-new-tangent-space-tool-in-public-beta/p1
I planed to do small animation and video with the model i sculpt in zbrush.
Of course i have a lot to learn, as i started with everything this year June 2016 and "worked" with zBrush about 2 months and with Houdini from June 2016.
Currently working on the sculpt itself on zbrush and later need to learn can i texture it in zbrush (have not started learning texturing) and can i bring it in to Houdini and animate it there when it is textured etc. There are many things that i have to figure out and find answers. All my own and help with CGI related forums as i do not have mentor or i do not have money or option for this type of school.
So idea is to create high detailed model in zBrush
Export it to Houdini or Maya
Learn how to do basic riging
Build VFX effect on to the model in Houdini Render it out and add it to my first show-reel may be (if it turns out to be any good).
Here is example of FIEW of my "animations" and effects that i have done in Houdini. (Note some of them are recorded with phone camera and not rendered out in HD).