Half life 2 character asset limitations?

ebagg

From what I've heard, characters like the G-Man and Alyx were 6-7k triangles with 3x512x512 textures, however I'm betting those are lowered a bit when it comes to multiplayer characters. I'm currently aiming for a 5k characater with normal maps, a 512x512 map and a 1024x1024 map. Am I still too high?

Slum

I've worked a lot with the source engine. Alyx was around 6k (mostly in the face)if I remember correctly, and yes she had 3 512x512 maps. You should be fine with a 5k character, so long as you don't plan on having a few hundred of them on screen.

A lot of characters (like the combine I believe) have just two 512x512 maps (as in 2 diffuse (with alpha set for glow maps in the shader) 2 normal maps)

One 1024x1024 for a character is plenty. If you have some extra armor or weapony doo-dads on the character, an extra smaller map could be ok.

ebagg

Well the thing is I'm making a soldier, with randomized heads so each head would have a different face texture...maybe 1024x1024 plus the head is a 256x256...

Joao Sapiro

or a 1024x512 ? might come handy if you use the 256x256 separately, i know it might seem the same as 2x 512x512 , but it allows you more uvw space, hence more uvw optimization

motives

2x 512 and 1x 256 sounds more logical to me..

That way you could in theory allow for customisable gear or pants or whatever aswell

headengine

3 x 512 should be plenty in my experience. Or a 1024 x 1024. Also depends if you use the alpha channels.

CheeseOnToast

Just a small point...source likes less materials rather than smaller textures. Lots of materials = chuggy game. Combine textures into one sheet where possible.

vanilla

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Model_Creation_Overview

Polygons counts for some of the Half-Life 2 characters:

* Soldiers: 4682
* Police: 3852
* Resistance: 4976
* Zombie: 4290
* Helicopter: 6415
* Strider: 6444
* Alyx: 8323