Maximum polycount for mobile in 2018

salimmatta · Dec 2018

Hey guys,

So I'm creating an RPG fantasy stylized pack for a high end mobile and apparently I'm going to publish it on UE4 marketplace. So I started by creating the buildings set first, is it okay for a 2000k polycount for the smallest house? again I'm avoiding a generic low poly workflow, I'm aiming for quality on mobile.

What do you guys think?

cheers!

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/w1/9dwumch37van.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/q8/qlztaarou5a7.png

Justo · Dec 2018

By looking at the model I assume you mean its 2k something. Saying "2000k polycount" leads me to believe it would be "2.000.000", so be careful with that. And I say "something" because saying "polycount" doesnt cut it either. You mean verts? Those are usually the important measure unit for models in UE, not tris, because the vert count will usually increase once inside the engine due to UV splits.

Anyway dont worry about polycounts dude nowadays we have mobile games with assets that are 10k+ verts heavy on screen and that's only for the characters without taking into account backgrounds and SFX. I bet there are fridges somewhere in the world that can run the model you're showing too :P

ActionDawg · Dec 2018

Yeah seconding Justo's post. The more material, normal, or uv splits you have on a mesh all affect then end vertex count and ultimately how performant the model is. Verrryyyy old picture here.

That said:
One of the latest apps I worked on was pushing a bit over 2 million polys on a new iPad at decent framerates with AR camera recognition eating up a decent chunk of our perf. Any performance bottlenecks you encounter with such a low poly style will probably not lie with geometric complexity but instead with lighting and shading, or game system related.

And definitely don't mix up 2k and 2000k lol.

salimmatta · Dec 2018

Justo said:

By looking at the model I assume you mean its 2k something. Saying "2000k polycount" leads me to believe it would be "2.000.000", so be careful with that. And I say "something" because saying "polycount" doesnt cut it either. You mean verts? Those are usually the important measure unit for models in UE, not tris, because the vert count will usually increase once inside the engine due to UV splits.

Anyway dont worry about polycounts dude nowadays we have mobile games with assets that are 10k+ verts heavy on screen and that's only for the characters without taking into account backgrounds and SFX. I bet there are fridges somewhere in the world that can run the model you're showing too :P

My bad, yes its 2000 vertices, so I believe I shouldn't worry about it as ure saying :P
I mean if PUBG is running smooth on mobile and its well known that the game assets aren't greatly optimized, so I believe I have a chance, thx anw mate

salimmatta · Dec 2018

somedoggy said:

Yeah seconding Justo's post. The more material, normal, or uv splits you have on a mesh all affect then end vertex count and ultimately how performant the model is. Verrryyyy old picture here.

That said:
One of the latest apps I worked on was pushing a bit over 2 million polys on a new iPad at decent framerates with AR camera recognition eating up a decent chunk of our perf. Any performance bottlenecks you encounter with such a low poly style will probably not lie with geometric complexity but instead with lighting and shading, or game system related.

And definitely don't mix up 2k and 2000k lol.

My bad again, its always bad to post late late night when you are sleeping, yes its 2K maximum for the lowest stylized building Im creating. Again, the picture you have posted is it telling me I should avoid splitting of mats, UVs, etc etc for a better performance? Sorry for the question but I really have no idea

Zack Maxwell · Dec 2018

My bad again, its always bad to post late late night when you are sleeping, yes its 2K maximum for the lowest stylized building Im creating. Again, the picture you have posted is it telling me I should avoid splitting of mats, UVs, etc etc for a better performance? Sorry for the question but I really have no idea

You should minimize the number of splits. But it also means that some things are free if you combine them.
For example, you can split your UV map along any hard edges without performance loss. And should anyway to avoid artifacts in the normal map.
Splitting your material inside an existing UV island is similarly beneficial, though extra materials also increase draw calls.

salimmatta · Dec 2018

Zack Maxwell said:

My bad again, its always bad to post late late night when you are sleeping, yes its 2K maximum for the lowest stylized building Im creating. Again, the picture you have posted is it telling me I should avoid splitting of mats, UVs, etc etc for a better performance? Sorry for the question but I really have no idea

You should minimize the number of splits. But it also means that some things are free if you combine them.
For example, you can split your UV map along any hard edges without performance loss. And should anyway to avoid artifacts in the normal map.
Splitting your material inside an existing UV island is similarly beneficial, though extra materials also increase draw calls.

So my house is mostly made by separated assets combined in one mesh, I avoided extrude from the base mesh in order to dramatically lower the overall verticies of the model, its really tricky, you think it is fine doing this?

Eric Chadwick · Dec 2018

Yes.

Vertex count is a minor thing. Texture sizes, # of materials, shader complexity, those will all bite your ass way before vertex count.

Maximum polycount for mobile in 2018

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