Hey guys,
I have made a SA80 British rifle and I have ran into many problems. I also think that my workflow is incorrect and I need your help to improve. I will include the 3ds max file and the reference if you want to give it a look.
Before I start let take a peek at the model:
As you can see, its composed of 12 pieces for a total of approximately 9000 triangles. The objective is to animate it and its supposed to be the rifle the player will see in first person view. Thats why I made all the holes instead of using a texture to fake them. I thought it would look at lot better when in first person view and moving the gun around for animations. But because of that the polycount climbed drasticataly. Especially because of the upper part of the handguard which I had to use a "husk".
I used a plane with the main reference on it and also many others pictures included the file bellow. I modelised it all in editable poly.
So before I continu further with ZBRUSH for the other details, the texture and the animation, I have some questions. By the way, If it was to be used in a game, it would be for an audience of hardcore gamer with above average computers on the unreal engine.
So my questions are as follow:
- Is it too triangle heavy?
- If the answer is yes, then how would you go about reducing the polycount?
- What are the mistakes you can spot? Also, please tell me what I should of done instead.
- How many pieces is considered acceptable for this type of model?
- Is it easier for the engines to render an object 2 faced or more triangles?
- How many triangles are considered acceptable for this type of model?
- How would you go at making the "bolts" coming out of sides of the gun? Would you make them part of the main mesh, make them entirely new object or fake them with normals?
- Before exporting it to zbrush, I need to make polygone spacing more uniform, how would go about doing that?
Thanks a lot for the help!
The file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hvc5znqfs8wv7fy/SA80_MB_WIP.rar?dl=0
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Replies
End loops that can be ended without changing the silhouette of the object
How many pieces is considered acceptable for this type of model?
I would have modeled the main pieces together, that saves on UVW space
Is it easier for the engines to render an object 2 faced or more triangles?
The engine renders objects in Tris, having quads are perfectly fine
How many triangles are considered acceptable for this type of model?
9k Might be a bit too much but it doesnt really matter that much anymore
How would you go at making the "bolts" coming out of sides of the gun? Would you make them part of the main mesh, make them entirely new object or fake them with normals?
Bolts are baked down, but it depends on how the silhouette is, e.g. if its a pipe extruding from the object obviously you cant bake that down.
Before exporting it to zbrush, I need to make polygone spacing more uniform, how would go about doing that?
In zbrush you can use dynamesh to make them uniform. Be careful because you might get smoothing errors and other issues, also you dont need zbrush for this type of model.