Poly count for props in this-gen games

jackanimated

I'm sure this has been asked before, but I couldn't find a straight answer.

So what would be an acceptable polycount for a resonably complicated piece of kitchen furnature in a this-gen game?

I modelled a high poly stove and sink combo unit at about 12k polys. Then got the topology down to about 6k polys for the low poly version. Is this about right, or am I being too precious about the chamfering of corners still?


thanks.

StormyBA

It depends on the game, the platform, how close the player gets to it and also how important the object is.

More information about the things above will help you get a better answer.

mobpapst

for the next gen stuff the polycount isnt that important as it was before. the drawcalls are the problem.

you should always imagine what your props are for. its a first person? its a third person game? its a hero object? this all will cover the polycount you can throw on an object.

to give you a number: for current next gen shooter like call of duty the weapons are around 15-25k polys.

but keep in mind: round objects in the hp should always be round in the lp. reduce all you need to cover the silhouette and the rest is experience.

JordanN

Just download Unreal Engine 4 and look at the example assets.

Also, pictures speak louder than words. What does your stove look like? Telling us numbers isn't actually important, when people only want to see what the final result looks like.

jackanimated

Thanksfor the replies. So my high poly model looks like this:



I suppose this will be a "hero-model" since I am putting it in an engine as a demonstration for my portfolio. There will also be some simplier stuff and a few other hero models. The demo will be first person perspective.

I haven't rendered out the low poly version yet, but will be doing that along with wireframes too. But the low poly version is about 6k polys. It sounds like that will be fine in quite an empty demo level. I know weapons are more, but they are really close the camera in games.

So, all good, probably?

mobpapst

for an "hero" asset it would be ok to have more detailed geometry if you get close to it. but important is that you eliminate all unnessesary geometry. a full wirefrime would help to see if you can crunch it more down. because the point is that you just want to take geometry where its needed. "dead" verts who have no use still need to get off.

DavidCruz

Everything but the kitchen... oh wait, shh!t.

Thats one bitc#en asset.

jackanimated

Thank you.

On a similar subject, I tend to use displacement maps a fair bit.

Am I right in thinking that in a game engine they would be creating more polygons?
If so, how can I factor in the poly amount they create to my final count?

JordanN

You're not wrong. Displacement mapping requires "micro-polygons" or tessellation, which drives up geometry density by a lot.

That said, displacement mapping itself isn't actually mainstream yet in the game industry. What can be done is you take your high poly asset and "bake it down" into a normal map and use it on your low poly.

jackanimated

To be honest, the displacement mapping I have in another model in all created with max in the slate editor, so I just daisy chained the nodes to the bump instead, should have thesame effect as backing down.

Eric Chadwick

Bumping in Max is not the same as normal mapping though. Normal mapping is more precise, and conveys extra information like curvature along edges. This can only be obtained by baking.

We have some info here about poly counts.
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Polygon_Count#Typical_Triangle_Counts

Also the baking page might help
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Texture_Baking

sprunghunt

displacement maps in games do exist wherever you have tesselation (through DX11). However they don't effect the normals of an object so you still need to have a normalmap. The easiest example is the tesselation in unreal 4:

https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Resources/ContentExamples/MaterialProperties/1_8/index.html

You wouldn't use it on an object like the stove though. Tesselation works the best on organic objects like rocks or creatures.

jackanimated

Can I bake down a displacement map into a normal map?

Eric Chadwick

Yes you can.

kurt_hectic

ps4/X1- about 500-1500 triangles. 1024x512 texture.