How detailed should my high poly be for game asset?

mcgillchris

Working on a realistic scene (think Uncharted 4). Started with a base mesh, and the high poly is in process. I know how to retypologize/bake normals/etc. But I'm not sure how much detail I should put in the high poly version of the asset. Is this detailed enough or should I keep going? I could def add in lots more detail, but I don't want to be wasting my time plus my materials (using substance) will have normal maps as well. Still new to modeling so feedback on that is welcome as well. 

Leinadien

All that detail will end up in the normal map and possibly in the occlusion map. But there are other ways of adding that detail, you could make normal maps from textures you paint on top of the model for example. I would put in as much detail as my computer can handle. Some more detailed bark wouldn't hurt.

mcgillchris

Thanks! I plan on using substance designer to make a bark material that has its own normal, should I still add in more detail on the bark of the mesh?

jacopoS

Since you're going to bake those details into a normal map, it all becomes a question of what texture resolution you plan on using. That depends on how important is your asset compared to the rest of the environment and how powerfull is the hardware that you're targeting. I think there's no "right" answer for that but just as a base guide, lets say you could bake that trunk into a 512x512 texture if that's just a random trunk in the background, or you can go all the way up to a 4096x4096 if that's a trunk that you really care for.
When sculpting, you can keep an'eye on your polycount and let it be a bit higher than the total number of pixels of your target texture.
I hope that was a useful answer!
Cheers!

Steppenwolf

Put all the details in that are difficult to add in Substance. It looks fine to me but depends on the quality of your substances. Ther's a demo from Naughty Dog on the Allegorithmic channel where they explain that they don't make super detailed hipoly sculpts anymore after switching to SD.

I would add longer roots to the mesh tho because you want some leeway in case the terrain isn't completely flat where you put it.

mcgillchris

Good stuff, thanks guys! And true on the roots, didn't think of that.