What constitutes a low-poly model?

suwhan · Dec 2018

Hello, everyone,

I am trying to retopo a game character for the first time and am aiming to have it low-medium poly. Right now, on Maya, it's showing I have 9350 verts. So to my question, how many vert or faces constitutes a low-poly model? E.g. should low-poly models have less than 5000 faces?, etc.

oglu · Dec 2018

That depends on the platform and on the game. A handy game car could have 50.000 faces and a PS4 car can have up to 1million in the showroom. Gameplay cars on PS4 are around 250.000 faces.

Character on the PS4 are up to 80.000 and more.

Lowpoly is everything viewable in realtime in a Game Engine.

poopipe · Dec 2018

Low poly means the minimum amount of geometry to display the desired amount of information at the desired viewing distance.

Numbers mean basically nothing

PolyHertz · Dec 2018

"Lowpoly" is a catch-all term that generally refers to any models meant for use in realtime applications. The amount of triangles used is however many are needed to create a clean believable surface within the confines of the given technology. On modern games consoles you can have millions of triangles on screen at a time and aren't something you need to worry too much about optimizing unlike back in the PS1/PS2 days.

Eric Chadwick · Dec 2018

Mobile however is a different matter. Optimization isn't dead.

sacboi · Dec 2018

All of the above and to add, can be either a proxy with projected surface data via a high resolution 3D object or the primary mesh/object

kanga · Dec 2018

You would have to give information on what the model is intended for. If you are just making a folio piece then check out

3D Art Showcase & Critiques

,look at the forum pieces that most directly relate to your model. There is often some great retopo work to be found there. Mostly you wont get a polycount, but you will get a great idea of density.

suwhan · Dec 2018

I understand, thanks for all your replies, I really appreciate it!

Andreicus · Dec 2018

suwhan said:

I understand, thanks for all your replies, I really appreciate it!

Yeah pratically the amount of polys ( better say tris ) are dictated by the technical limitations of the console or PC where the game will run.
You usually take a look at your mesh from the distance that will be viewed at and you start removing polygons accordingly.

I advise you to take a look at this table here to get a general idea of the number of polygons used in games in the current gen: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xJmSuBZbdMOlIcdXmO9hu46GJ7-wIiWCclJwimIOJa4/htmlview

What constitutes a low-poly model?

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