low poly character - mobile devices

designamyte · Mar 2011

Hello,

i´ve done a low-ploy character to get it in a 3d-engine for mobile devices
like iphone or android ones. This character has aprx. 800 tris. 512k color map.
Thats ist. Now i want to build up the enviroment. What i read is, that for an
iphone 3g i can have totaly 7000tris simultanly on the screen, right?

My idea is to build a race-track through a forest field. Second level could be a
flower field. Something like this. For that race-road-tracks i thought to make
a modular system. For example "turn left"-road, "turn right" road, straight etc.
Maybe i will have 10 road-moduls. Want to test the things in Unity3d. What do
you mean? Am i on the right way? Some tips / advices for enviroment...?

Here are some animations:
http://vimeo.com/20926489

cheers
D.

PS. sorry for double-post. Don´t know how to change section, or delete post.
Is there an info, how to embed vimeo videos?

Jae · Mar 2011

Hi Designamyte,
I was wondering, could you post a wireframe of the character for us to see? Looking at his model looks like you could make him much lower poly. I would also advise you to cut the map down to 256 or 128, because the iPhone 3G doesn't have that much power anymore due to iOS4.x. I develop on 3Gs' and 3G's. If I were you I would try to average at 5k poly's on screen at a time, but yes 7k is correct.

Before you start on your enviornment, again, I'd like to see a wireframe.

Thanks,
Jae.

designamyte · Mar 2011

Hi Jae,

thx for reply. Here is the Low-Poly Model of the bee-character:

ca. 800 tris

Puuh. Maybe i can go lower, but i´m afraid to loose quality. The dif.-map is currently
at 512. It should not be the problem to resize it down to 256. Hope it looks also
nice. But currently its all theoretical for me. Must test it out in an engine. As you
said, if the 3G could handle aprox. 5k - 7k, than the "3Gs" should be more powerful as
"3G". But i didn´t found any specs of "3Gs" or "4". Do you know how much
difference between that two versions is?

Another point i would mention is, i could build up the enviroment and put all
necesary assets in it. So i will be able to count how much polygons will be on
the screen. And i will know if i have some more buffer for polygons.

cheers
D.

Snader · Mar 2011

You'd be better off using geospheres. And why are you using geo for the pupils?

Googling for 10 seconds tells me iphone4 does 28 million triangles/second. No idea if that's textured though.

designamyte · Mar 2011

Hoi,

my "pupil-spheres" has 48tris. This is the best i had achieved to get a aprox.
a round sphere. If i get under 48tris it gets more blocky. This is what i try to
avoid.

Hm, google tells me also that "iPhone 3G S: 600 MHz Cortex-A8 with PowerVR
SGX535" can handle 28 million triangles/sec. Strange. That means iPhone4 has
the similar power?, or better i guess. But i don´t know it. Thats why i ask here,
cause maybe someone has expiriences with iPhone4 dev.

cheers

Snader · Mar 2011

They're both based on a powerVR 535, so yeah similar power. But the 4 has a higher res screen which bogs it down in terms of fillrate, but also a slightly more optimized SoC setup.

If you have the capabilities (read: unity licenses) to export a simple test app, have it render lots of boxes (100,200,350,500,700,1000 or something) and see how it handles it, then toss on some random textures etc. If you find any results, make sure to post them here.

You've not animated the pupils, in which case I'd just texture them in. The main spheres of the eyes and the wings could use some rounding off, but the mouth could also be textured in, and the stinger can be much simplified.

designamyte · Mar 2011

Ah,

ok. A similar power between "4" & "3Gs". Thats good to know.
Yes, thats the plan to test it, maybe with unity. First i will count polys
in my 3d-app. Second will be, to test it on iPhone.

You are right, currently the pupils are not animated. Thats a good point.
Also the mouth-region. Will think about it. Maybe i would be able to reduce
about 150 - 200 tris, with this three regions which i can optimize.

Thx for input.

cheers
D.

low poly character - mobile devices

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