Polycount baselines for vehicles and weapons?

[Tank]

What's a good vehicle polycount and a good weapon polycount for current military games like the Battlefield, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty series?

I've been playing with some low-polygon modeling, but I don't really know what a good goal is. LightWave's not exactly well suited to getting models into games right now, so I haven't gotten as far as trying to get models in and out of games yet. I've more just been trying to see how low I could get the polycount while still keeping a recognizable level of form and detail. I had hoped to get a copy of Torque to do some stuff of my own, but I haven't had time to deal with it yet, so I've been holding off.

[Pablo_nemesis]

Well, talking about source (hl2,cs:s,etc) i think that weapon models are arround 3k polys, i did some, weapons for example, 3000 tris in total, i mean weapon+arms or hands,ppl usualy forget those ^^.

Vehicles must be somewhere arround that too, not sure, but not more than 5k(very detailed one)

[hangfire]

The biggest mistake game modelers make is to lump all low poly models into one category and dont prioritize which models need higher LOD. Like in a FPS, if the gun the player is holding is made at the same LOD as all the other guns used in the game, and so consequently has an octogon shaped barrel and square shaped stock, that just ruins the whole look of the game. It should have higher detail because of its closer viewed distance. For example these two torus are the same, a 16 segment torus and its duplicate. You can see at distance it looks rounded, but up close it looks flat and angular.
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4431/16vs2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Here the back torus is the same 16 segments and the front one is upped to 24 to match the LOD needed for its viewed distance.
http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/9794/24xk5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Im not really up on what the latest game engines can handle for vehicles, Ive only modeled for BF42 where most vehicles are between 1500 and 2500. Something like a jeep will look ok at that range of polys, whereas an aircraft will be pushing the limit as to what looks good due to all the curved surfaces of an aircraft. If you can get a poly budget of up to say 5000 to 10,000 polys, well then youre starting to leave low poly land. And if you model looks bad beyond 10,000 polys, its because youre a bad modeler, not because you dont have enough polys to work with.

[Pink Mesh]

In regard to any type of game model, your primary focus should be clean geometry. As for determining what the "ideal" poly count is, that will be determined by several factors:

#1 What is the maximum amount of geometry the engine allows per object?
#2 What is the current amount of geometry being used by objects related to the one you will be modeling?
#3 How often does this object appear ingame?
#4 Will the object be a major focal point in the game?

The keys to making "professional" quality game models are:

#1 Keep everything uniform. This means creating objects so their geometric detail levels compliment each other.
#2 Keep your geometry as clean as possible, especially if you have to use bump mapping or you are making animated characters. Watch edges, seams and geometry flow, especially around character's appendage joints.
#3 Keep everything uniformly uniform. Things break. Things are misplaced. Vehicle crews often move items around in their vehicles. Soldiers wear their uniforms differently, with different pieces of equipment. Soldiers modify their weapons, as far as they are allowed to.
#4 Keep your models as modular as possible, this will allow you to remove details and make changes without a great deal of effort.

#5 Add as much detail as possible. If you have to step down the geometry density of the detail, that's all right, just make sure the details appear.

#6 Plan: who, what, where, when, why?
#6a If an object is the focal point of a mission add geometry.
#6b If an object is used often by a single character, add geometry. (First person weapon models, as it appears only once per player.)
#6c If an object is used by many characters or appears in great numbers, decrease geometry.

#7 For most established games, I wouldn't venture 1,000 - 2,000 verts / quads beyond the community standards. New game engines are an entirely different ball game though. Characters and first person weapon models are generally between 3,000 - 7,000 verts / quads. Vehicles are between 5,000 - 12,000 verts / quads.


In my experience, there really isn't any standard for game's graphics, as models are optimized for use in different game engines. Several examples of "Cutting edge" graphics engines:

The Unreal 3 Engine can handle 5000+ quads / tris per character / weapon, and game levels with 2-5 million tris / quads.
http://www.unrealtechnology.com/html/technology/ue30.shtml

Armed Assault's community standard for vehicle models is around 12,000 verts / quads per vehicle. Additionally, ARMA's sisters: OFP and VBS1, are capable of handling up to 30,000 verts / quads per object. However, for all practical applications, OFP and VBS1 can't handle more then 14,000 verts / quads per object under mixed shading... ARMA is still very new and I have not had a chance to test it.

Even the RTS games are really starting to "Burn Up" the polies. Stronghold 2 and Stronghold Legend's characters are between 1,000-2,000 tris / points per unit, when using the highest detail levels.

[Tank]

Thank you all for your feeback. This give me a lot to work with.

[Karras]

For Steel Beast about 4000 polys for a tank :rolleyes: I known it. :lol:

[Skyraider3D]

Most current games with vehicles handle anything between 2000 and 5000 tris per vehicle (such as IL-2/Pacific Fighters). Probably double that for future releases.
Simulations and racing games, where the vehicle is the #1 subject, go much further. I am currently working on a train simulation game which has polycounts of around 20,000 for a locomotive. Here is an example. (http://www.railsimulator.com/images/BR294_02_big.jpg) Flight Simulator 2004/X handles even higher poly models, 40,000 and up, but it benefits from not having lots of detailed scenery and tons of wagons up-close, like a railsim.

[Demons7th_Delta]

Actually if you just check with your game engine's mod support you can get the exact figures. You can also check the polys of the game's content and using those numbers (depending one what you're modeling of course) as baseline figures.

[pete.cook]

I am currently working on a train simulation game which has polycounts of around 20,000 for a locomotive. Here is an example. (http://www.railsimulator.com/images/BR294_02_big.jpg)

That's mightily impressive Ronnie! That's the game model? It looks as if it should be being used to advertise the game never mind being in it! I take it you're working for Kuju on EA's Rail Simulator, which was previously MS Train Sim 2?

[Obizzz]

For the next-gen games I think vehicles will be at 10-15k or more especially for the consoles which can push a lot of polygons.

I've worked mainly with racing games and those have anything from 10k per car up to 50-60k

[Spargonaut]

There is an average of ~10,000 tri's for tanks and vehicles for the game I'm currently working on. This isn't including interiors for many vehicles..