Polycounts for Minecraft-like Game

Biomechd

Hello, it's been quite a while since I've been on here. For the past few months, a friend and I have been designing a game, and I've been doing the models for it when my internet goes out or I have some free time.

I've been trying to keep a polycount of 200 or less for the tools and handheld weapons, 300-350 or less for the larger weapons (like cannons), and I might end up pushing to around 500 or so (again, or less) for people, animals, and creatures. I haven't decided on trees or much else yet. Vehicles will probably be whatever geometry I need for them.

The terrain, for the most part, will likely be made up of cubes that represent 8 cubic feet, making them 2x2x2. This would allow for more detail in building things that were made from block-types, such as dirt or stone.

We were wanting our models' level of detail to be similar to Unreal Tournament 2004 and stuff you'd see in the Nintendo 64's games -- decent, but with as few polygons as possible, while still offering more geometric detail since today's computers are able to handle more than something from, say, 10 years ago. We hope to have our multiplayer servers capable of supporting anywhere from two players to a few hundred players, like you see with Minecraft. Would these polycounts be too high for such a thing, or are they far below the maximum, or what? Any help is greatly appreciated.

BARDLER

Since you are dealing low polycounts I don't really think there is a strict answer for what you are asking. I would just worry about creating a consistency between all your models so that all look they fit into your game.

JamesWild

Typically in a Minecraft-like game the environment isn't modelled. The block data is converted to a polygon mesh generated entirely in code.

Biomechd

The ground terrain will be generated by code and will be made of blocks. Then trees and structures will spawn randomly depending on the biome. The structures will be houses and temples and ruins and whatnot that will be pre-modeled and selected from libraries within the game's files.

The construction method we had hoped to go with involved building the frame of a house or other building with logs, planks, or metal beams, then placing bricks or other building material around that. For a simple log cabin, you'd likely build a supporting frame, then lay logs around it and stack them up, and cover the roof with whatever you wanted to. I don't think we've decided if we want to include thatch roofing and/or sod houses, or if we're just going to have, say, wooden roofs.

.morph3us

i dont know, you will probably have made some investigation yourself, but maybe you didnt stumble upon this:

http://procworld.blogspot.de/
(dunno about the .de, its in english and he's canadian, probably, its only a rediration for me)

i think its a very good read and will provide a lot of insights.