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Tri count for weapon sights/accessories for a modern shooter?

james swanson
polycounter lvl 5
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james swanson polycounter lvl 5
Hi, I just started modeling an EOTech su 231 holographic sight. This is my first time modeling an accessory for a gun. What would you recommend I aim for (pun) tri count wise if I'm going for a modern PC FPS game? I was thinking somewhere around 1.5-2k, but that's just a guess.
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  • Steppenwolf
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    Steppenwolf polycounter lvl 15
    Sounds about right to me. Ther's no number set in stone however. Don't waste polies where the player can barely or never see this part of the weapon, avoid edge loops that add nothing to the shape or quality of bake results but don't be shy to use enough polies and side number of cylinders where it actualy matters (especialy parts close to the eye when weapon is zoomed in).
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  • james swanson
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    james swanson polycounter lvl 5
    Thanks.
    avoid edge loops that add nothing to the quality of bake

    Do extra loops in a LP help with baking, too? I thought I was just supposed to avoid long, thin triangles and that was it...
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  • Steppenwolf
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    Steppenwolf polycounter lvl 15
    james swanson wrote: »
    Do extra loops in a LP help with baking, too? I thought I was just supposed to avoid long, thin triangles and that was it...

    Yes pretty much what i meant by that. Also in some cases you might want to use an edge bevel over a harsh edge.
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  • Joost
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    Joost polycount sponsor
    Extra loops can definitely affect baking results on long polys (and in other situations as well) Details tend to get deformed on those. Don't really have an example atm but the easiest way to see the difference is by just trying it out yourself.
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  • EarthQuake
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    EarthQuake mod
    It depends on how close its going to be to the camera, and if you have an iron sights/zoom in animation. For current gen (PC/PS4/XBONE) you will likely have very loose restrictions for a FPV asset, it wouldn't be nuts to use like 10k just on scope attachment if it was very complex and took up a lot of screen space. FPV assets only need to be rendered once generally so triangle restrictions are not that important.

    On last gen games (ps3, 360), I worked on projects that had about 2.5K for a scope/iron sights view, and about 8K for the rest of the gun. I think you could comfortably do 3x that for current gen. So that's around 30K or so total. Though again this will vary depending on numerous factors, like the type of game, complexity and size of asset, and what other performance restrictions you have.

    The most important thing is that it looks awesome from FPV. You shouldn't see any obvious jagged edges from lowpoly shapes on a FPV weapon in a current gen game.
    james swanson wrote: »
    Thanks.
    Do extra loops in a LP help with baking, too? I thought I was just supposed to avoid long, thin triangles and that was it...

    Yes, generally extra loops or more important, having enough sides to accurately represent curves will help a lot in baking. See more here: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81154
    Again really there shouldn't be any reason to have noticeably jagged edges due to not have enough sides on your cylinders for a high detail FPV asset in a current gen game, which will go a long way towards avoiding certain types of baking issues.

    Long, thin triangles are traditionally something you should avoid yes, however there isn't really any way to avoid them on edge bevels, and this is more of a theoretical issue, especially these days with the number of triangles your GPU can push. Traditionally the issues were that they were inefficient to draw and that you might get some normal map issues, but again this isn't a big deal in practice today.
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  • james swanson
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    james swanson polycounter lvl 5
    Thanks for the info guys!

    @Earthquake holy crap thanks! I thought I was supposed to shoot for ~10k total, but ~30k will definitely give me a lot more freedom. I'm hopefully deving these assets for a 'pcmasterrace' type game. It's gotta look good
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  • james swanson
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    james swanson polycounter lvl 5
    @perna thanks. Should I start a new thread for my EOTech or just keep it contained here?
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  • james swanson
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    james swanson polycounter lvl 5
    @perna Thanks. I'm new, can you tell? lol
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