3D weapon - mesh question

Sebastian

At first - hello polycount it's my first post here. I'm trying to model a machinge gun M249 under 4k tris limit (ofc using normal maps). It can be called my first game model although I've done plenty of highpoly modeling. That's why I'm not so familiar with rules of current low poly for games. My question is:

To what extent weapon model needs to be a continuous mesh ? Can it be broken into seperate elements (still in the same editable poly) in manner shown on my picture ? What are the limitations/downsides ? Often connecting shapes requires lots of extra loops and geometry.

cryrid

I suppose it might depend on the engine, but every one I've worked with have not had a problem with different islands. As for the downsides, you may want to see this thread:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=77428

EarthQuake

Generally, for the low I will break bits off into separate mesh chunks whenver they A. need to animate B. need to be moved or C. Will take an excessive amount of geometry to combine.

For the high, everything that you can possible model as a separate chunk should be done.