Polycount, maps size and workflow for Hero car model with interiors

a3D

This is not for a game, it's going to be a portfolio piece, but I want it to be as close as possible to an actual game model.
The model will be a fully explorable Fiat 500 R with interiors.
I have some work ready but before proceeding I want to make sure I'm getting things right.

While I have some (mostly, self-taught) experience with the techniques involved in asset creation, I lack the real studio experience required to take decisions regarding polycount, maps size and some technical choices as well.

For example:
-Should I use normal maps for the body, or simply rely on polygons?
-The model will be somewhat rusty, so mirroring might be bad in most places. This means I might need more UV space, or are there workarounds I can use?
-Any suggestion aimed at making it look more like it could actually fit in a production pipeline (for the technical aspect, that is) is welcome

Thank you in advance so much.

Quack!

Normal maps on cars depends on the model type.

In modern racing games, just throw triangles at it, no normal needed for the basic shape and surfaces.  Any rust/damage details can benefit from normal maps though.

Tri count depends on the level of detail you want to put in.  Is this for a racing game?  Or a prop for a game?
Cars in racing games nowadays use hundreds of thousands of triangles for the exterior and interiors.  A prop in a first person or third person shooter may have only thousands of triangles.

ZacD

If you are going to be modeling a rusty car, I would use normal maps, only for a clean car would I suggest relying on polygons. You could probably get away with mirroring the right and left sides, but keeping the bumpers, hood, and  roof unique. 

a3D

Thank you.

Let's assume it's for a racing game, or even an adventure game where the main character is the car itself.

100K? 200K? The lesser the better?

2 x 4K maps is too much?

Obscura

Well. The less is always the best, but use as much as needed to make it look good. It should not look angular. It also depends on how much of the details are baked (edges for example) and how much are modeled. Around 100k can be ok it there is a reason for it. Anyways, in racing games and games like GTA the cars are rarely baked from a HP, maybe only some parts like seats and elements that must require a normalmap. Actually this is a good case of when the med-poly thing and chamfers/bevels can come in handy...

I think the best way to explain it is that such things usually use "mixed workflows" nowadays. A mix of med-poly modeling, and hp->lp. Also you can count in some tileable materials. But thats also depends on how clean your vehicle will be. If you have opportunity to use "smart materials", then you definitely need some tileables.

An another important thing is you must need to know what kind of game is the one that it will be in:
I mentioned GTA as one example, but that game has a bit lower poly budget on the vehicles, cause there are many other characters too in the world, and also the world is big so things have to be pulled back somewhere. I couldn't tell you how much triangles a car got in GTA5, but nowadays in a such game the number should be around 30-50k.

Then modern racing games such as Need for Speed, and simulators are different. There you only have your racetrack and some cars, so the vehicles can get more details. The "outer world" there around the track is pretty much static in the most of cases. In these games we can see cars from 100-200k triangles, sometimes even more! But then you'll definitely need some lods.

a3D

Thank you for your very informative post.

I understand mixed workflow, that was my intention.

I would definitely like to tile some materials, like the seat's leather. In Unreal I would just use masks and nodes, but I'm not sure how I should approach it for marmoset or sketchfab.
What do you mean with "Smart" Materials?

In the end, I'm not sure what the destination for the model should be, in game terms.
My main concern is what the person in charge of checking my portfolio will think of the optimization.
Basically I want to avoid a situation where it looks good but it's unusable and gives away that I'm inexperienced in an actual production environment - which is inevitable, since I never worked in a studio, but still, not the best way to showcase one's work.

Obscura

By smart materials, I meant materials, that can do things automatically, or partly automatically. Like one that can give your car rust on some places. Or one that can give scratches based on a curvature map or something...Or one that you can use to vertex-paint some details.

Anyways, I think that Fiat can be done from 100k easily, maybe from less too and thats not a huge number, if then it looks awesome inside and outside too.

For polygon density, here is a picture...Actually I'm also working on a real-time car at the moment, mine is a Bugatti. - Keep in mind that I've choose to go with the simulator budget and I rely on polygons and custom normals. But other than the bevels, I think this polygon density can be ok for any car in any pc/console game nowadays.