"Yes, but how many polygons?" An artist blog entry with interesting numbers

Farid

Artist formely known as Vysez
Veteran
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I stumbled upon an interesting blog entry from Rick Stirling, a character artist, about the polycount of game character models. This post is interesting since it quotes some approximate numbers for the models.

Here are some examples that caught my eye:

AlEdit: Updated
Note: tinypic links (evidence) may changed, thus removed from this listing.

Thanks to Cops N Rappers for a large portion of the list.

Ace Combat X/2
YR-99 (hangar view) - 1600

Alan Wake
Alan - 13,437

Alice: Madness Returns
Alice - 11,748

The Amazing Spiderman
Spiderman - 11,652

Anarchy Reigns
Mathilda - 15,908

Assassin's Creed 3
Benjamin Franklin - 17,744
Charles Lee - 25,994
Connor Kenway - 28,501
Desmond - 14,934
Haytham Kenway - 19,985

Asura's Wrath
Asura - 23,139 with 6 arms, 16,000 with 2 arms.

Axel Impact/DTRacer, PS2, 2003/2005
Cars - Base mesh ~12,000 polygons (max LOD)
Volume Shadow mesh - 4,000-5,000 Vert (dynamic shadows are not stored as actual polygons, hence vertex count)
Stages - ~200k polygons

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Bane - 25,000
Batman (Armoured Knight) - 21,304
Croc - 20,940
Thugs - 7,000
Up to 25K for main characters

Batman: Arkham City
Batman Beyond suit - 13,050
Harley Quinn - 17,731
Harley Quinn (DLC) - 19,110
Poison Ivy - 15,977

Battlefield 3
Kiril - 15,818
Vladimir Kamarivsky - 15,819

Bayonetta
Bayonetta - 23,000
Jeanne (old outfit) - 18,873
Luka - 23,484
Rodin - 40,508 (15K for jewelry etc)

Blade And Soul
Female, Custom character - 10,026
Female, Yuran - 7,904
Female, Custom character 2 - 8,815
young male, Custom character 3 - 7,386
young male, Custom character - 7,931
young male, Custom character 2 - 8,118
young male, Custom character 4 - 8,244

Borderlands 2
Captain Scarlett - 13,848

Bioshock 2
Big Sister - 7,253

Bulletstorm
Grayson Hunt (past/intro level) - 41,534
Grayson Hunt (default) - 43,709
Trishka - 21,122
Victor - 19,116

Bullet Witch
Alicia (w/ boom stick) - 16,991
Maxwell Cougar - 16,250
Sky Serpent (boss) - 90,912
Tri-Serpent beast (final boss) - 35,063

Call of Duty: Black Ops
Frank Woods (full gear) - 19,777

Canned Boss Game Studios game, Xbox, 2002
Cars - 25000 polygons (highest LOD) - 4 textures/poly, Base texture, Reflection map, a texture used to compute a fresnel term, Shadow map, Specular highlight (encoded in the alpha channel of the reflection map)
Backgrounds - 2 or in some cases 3 textures/poly
Peak number of polygons per second - 30M polygons**

Castlevania Lord of Shadows
Black knight - 21,718
Cornell - 19,031
Laura - 10,000
Gabriel - 27,379 (with all upgrades.)

Conflict Vietnam
cut scene characters - 60,000
main characters - 2,200
NPC - 1,900

Crysis, PC, 2007
Nano-suit character - 67,000 polygons (uncertain whether it's an in-game model or not)*
Characters' heads - ~2500-3000 polygons
Characters' bodies - ~5000 polygons

Crysis 2 (console)
Nano suit - 19,073
Multiplayer suit - 27,414
Ceph (heavy) - 19,651

Dark Sector
Hayden Tenno (armoured) - 10,671
glave - 1,608

Darksiders II
Death - 12,216

Dead Island
Purna - 23,301
Xian - 15,961

Dead or Alive series, Xbox, 2001-2004
Character - ~10,000-15,000

Dead or Alive 4
Helena (C4, opera) - 39,659

Dead or Alive 5
Leifang (C8) - 32,497
Kasumi (armored) - 65,303, weapons - 14,046
Mila - 40,398
Pai Chan - 29,379
Ryu Hayabusa - 30,613
Sarah Bryant - 30,411
Tina (swim suit) - 34,804

Dead Rising, X360, 2006
Peak number of polygons per frame - ~ 4 million**

Dead Rising 2
Chuck Greene (Bruce Lee outfit) - 15,329, head - 7,800
Chuck Greene (default) - 16,284
Jessica Howe - 15,694

Dead Space 2
Isaac Clarke - 21,595

Deathrow, Xbox, 2002
Characters - up to 7,000 polygons - 55 bones - 1024x1024 textures on the bodies and 512x512 on the faces

Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Adam Jensen - 25,953
Yelena - 17,022

Devil May Cry 4
Agnus (cutscene) - 23,915
Avg. Gameplay characters - ~15K
Berial - 24,224
Credo (Angel, gameplay/cutscene) - 19,598
Credo (cutscene) - 22,344
Dagon - 40,893
Dante (cutscene) - 23,827
Dante (devil gameplay) - 13,094
Gloria (cutscene) - 26,940
Lady - 27,432
Nero (cut-scene) - 26,662
Sanctus (Diabolica, gameplay/cutscene) - 30,210
Trish (cutscene) - 31,340

Devil May Cry: DmC
Dante - 20,732
Flying Demon - 10,802
Kat - 19,077
Mundus - 17,057

Dragon Age 2
Arcane Horror - 9,630
Leliana Chantry - 13,870
Hawke Warrior (Female) - 16,690
Hawke Warrior (Male) - 19,364

Encharted Arms
Kairen - 13,073

Enslaved
Monkey - 20,407
Trip - 22,103

Far Cry 3
Jason Brody - 29,932, head - 17,179
Vaas - 19,369

Final Fantasy XIII
Bahamut - 16,000
Brynhildr - 16,016
Fang - 8,153
Hope - 7,954, head - 2,964
Lebreau -7,348
Lightning - 8,488
Odin - 14,088
Sazh - 8,383
Shiva - 5,752 and 7,938
Snow - 8,907
Vanille - 8,068


Final Fantasy XIII-2
Caius - 8,002
Lightning - 8,163 polygons, head and hair same as ff13.
Lightning (old outfit) - 8,488
Noel - 7,349
Snow - 8,274

Forza Motorsport 3
LOD0: 172753 polys
LOD1: 45074 polys
LOD2: 21802 polys
LOD3: 13134 polys
LOD4: 6360 polys
LOD5: 2556 polys
Hi-res cockpit: 79845 polys


Forza Motorsport 4
500,000-1,000,000 for auto vista,
Lamborghini Reventon - 562,786
Halo Warthog 798,005

Gears of War, Xbox 360, 2006
Wretch - 10,000 polygons with diffuse, specular and normal maps
Boomer - 11,000 polygons with diffuse, specular and normal maps
Marcus - 15,000 polygons with diffuse, specular and normal maps

Gears of War 2
Brumak - 40,084
Marcus Fenix, 20,195

Gears of War 3
Anya Stroud (COG outfit) - 24,144
Anya Stroud (Gears 2 outfit) - 25,370
Clay Carmine - 18,444
Marcus Fenix - 31,831
Queen Myrrah - 23,415
Samantha - 23,038
Savage Kantus - 19,899

God of War 3
Kratos - 22,000

Gran Turismo 3, PS2, 2001
Cars - ~2,000-4,000 polygons

Gran Turismo 4, PS2, 2004
Cars - ~2,000-5,000 polygons

Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, PS3, 2007
Cars - 200,000 polygons (probably interior + exterior)

Gran Turismo 5
Cars ~500K photomode

GTA San Andreas, PS2, 2004
Characters - 2,000 polygons with 1 256x256 8bit texture
NPCs - 1,200 polygons with 1 256x128 8bit texture
Gant bridge - 16,000 polygons, includes LOD

Half-Life, PC, 1998
Zombie - 844 polygons
High Definition pack Zombie- 1700 polygons

Half-Life, Dreamcast, 2000-2001 (Canned)
Zombie - 1649 polygons

Half-Life, PS2, 2001
Zombie - 2822 (Highest LOD)

Half-Life 2, PC, 2004
Alyx Vance - 8323 polygons
Barney - 5922 polygons
Combine Soldier - 4682 polygons
Classic Headcrab - 1690 polygons
SMG - 2854 polygons (with arms)
Pistol - 2268 polygons (with arms)

Halo, Xbox, 2001
Master Chief - 2,000 polygons

Halo: Reach

Catherine Halsey - 15,088
Civilian - 15,808
Elite (Field Marshal) - 27,394
Elite (Ranger) - 23,964
Gúta - 10,800
Kat - 31,158
Noble 6 - 28,805 (with accessories.)

Heavenly Sword
Nariko - 23,620

Jak & Daxter, PS2, 2001
Jak - 4000 polygons

Jak II, PS2, 2003
Jak - 10,000 polygons*

Killzone 3
Characters - 10-15,000
MAWLR - 100K

Kingdom Under Fire : The Crusaders, Xbox, 2004
Main characters - 10,000 polygons
Characters - 3,000–4,000 polygons

L.A. Noire
Cole Phelps - 14,215, head- 1,559

Lair, PS3, 2007
Main dragon plus its rider - 150,000 polygons
16x16KM scene - 134M polygons (streamed into memory, not loaded at run time)

The Last Remnant
Emmy - 9,378
Rush - 7,923

Left 4 Dead 2
Nick - 17,761

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, GC, 2002
Link - 2800 polygons

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, GC/Wii, 2006
Link - 6900 polygons

Lollipop Chainsaw
Juliet - 19,146
Rosalind - 17,756

Lost Odyssey
Cooke - 10,071
Ming Numara (dress) - 8,982
Seth Balmore - 10,900

Lost Planet, X360/PC, 2007
Wayne - 12392 polygons (but finally 17765 polygons for compatibility with motion blur effect)
VS robot - 30-40,000 polygons
Background - ~500,000 polygons
Peak number of polygons per frame - ~ 3 million**


It has always been interesting to me to see how many polygons were used on a certain game model. It's trivia, in most case, but I like these graphics related trivial tidbits
 
IIRC, the Master Chief received a reduction in polygons in Halo 2 :!:

ModNote: Hijacked post

Magna Carta 2
Crosell - 22,546, head - 9,002
Elga - 25,059
Juto - 26,209
Melissa Villanger - 22,480
Schuenzeit Baren - 20,056
Zephie - 23,618

Marvel Vs. Capcom 3
Deadpool - 13,922
Hsein-Ko - 14,050
Jill Valentine - 16,197
Morrigan - 18,994
Ryu - 19,233

Mass Effect, X360, 2007
Saren - 15,076
Sheppard + armor + weapons - ~20,000-25,000 polygons

Mass Effect 3
Bakara - 12,928
EDI (DLC) - 28,831
Fem Shep (Systems Alliance formal) - 17,628
Fem Shep (base armour) - 22,329
Miranda - 18,944, head - 9,378
Nyreen Kandros (C1) - 16,690
Nyreen Kandros (C2) - 19,105
Reaper (Destroyer) - 121,021
Shepard (male, N7 Defender Armor) - 25,440
Wrex - 11,906

Medal of Honour: Allied Assault, PC, 2002
Character - 4096 polygons

Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker (HD Collection)
Big Boss - 4,497

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Gamecube, 2005 (Small mistake here, it's not on GC but PS2)
Snake - 4,000 polygons

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Solid Snake - 5-10,000 (two LODs) http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...12&id=14708441
Geko - 7,777

Metroid Prime
Samus (w/ cannon) - 9800
Samus (w/o cannon) - 7622

Metroid Prime 2
Samus (w/ cannon) - 9800
Samus (w/o cannon) - 7622
Samus (light suit) - 9,744 or ~10K with lightbeam cannon

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Samus - 18,962

Metroid Prime: Other M
MB - 14,119
Samus (Power Suit) - 15,342
Samus (Varia Suit) - 15,280

Midnight Club, Xbox360/PS3, 2007
Cars - 100,000 polygons

Mirror's Edge
Faith ~ 20,000

Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance, PS2/Xbox/GC, 2002
Characters - ~7,000-10,000

Mortal Kombat 4, Zeus Arcade Board, 1997
Peak number of polygons per second - 1.2 million quad patches**

Mortal Kombat (2011)
Goro - 19,414
Liu Kang - 19,044
Raiden - 20,003
Smoke - 20,996
Sub-Zero - 18,985
Sub-Zero, Cyber - 19,363

Nier
Emil - 13,487
Kaine (DLC) - 16,054
Nier (jacket) - 12,147
Nier (young) - 16,340

Ninja Gaiden 2
Sonia - 41,697

Ninja Gaiden 3
Ayane (cloaked) - 31,364
Momiji - 58,158
Ryu Hayabusa (Kimono) - 22,438
Ryu Hayabusa (Evil) - 30,875
Ryu Hayabusa (Infected, shirtless) - 35,717
Ryu Hayabusa (Infected) - 36,089

Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath
Xbox - 3,000
PS3 - 20,000
Hi-res - 529,000

P.N.03
Vanessa Schneider - 14,993

Prince of Perisa (2008)
Elika - 22,372
Prince - 21,880

Project Gotham Racing 3, X360, 2005
Cars - 80,000-100,000 polygons (interior + exterior), damages add between 10,000 and 20,000 more polygons per car
Brooklyn Bridge - 600,000 polygons (LOD might be included)
Manhattan Bridge - 1 million polygons (LOD might be included)

Project Gotham Racing 4
Car exteriors - 20-30,000
Car interiors - 20-30,000

Red Dead Redemption
John Marston - 14,980
John Marston (Deadly Assassin) - 13,362

Resident Evil 4, Gamecube, 2005
Leon - 10,000 polygons

Resident Evil 6
Ada Wong - 20,368
Chris Redfield - 22,240
Helena - 19,821
Leon Kennedy - 14,358
Sherry Birkin - 15,620, (7,172 for head)

Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles
Annet Birkin - 12,396
Chris (S.T.A.R.S.) - 10,621
Chris (alt) - 15,130
Claire (cowgirl) - 14,925
Claire (RE2) - 17,062
Claire (red vest) - 15,032
Claire (white jacket) - 17,797
Krauser (RE4) - 11,411
Krauser (red shirt) - 15,935
Leon (RE2) - 10,617
Leon (RE4) - 10,433
Leon (tourist) - 12,046

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles
Ada Wong - (bandaged) 12,291
Albert Wesker - 11,888
Billy Coen - 9,592
Carlos Oliveira - 15,954, 7,646 for head
Chris Redfield - 10,540
Hunter - 4,857
Jill Valentine (Casual) - 12,087
Jill Valentine (hooded jacket) - 14,619
Jill Valentine (S.TA.R.S.) - 11,708
leech zombie 2 - 15,756
leech zombie - 7,176
Mutated girl in chains - 10,221
mutated leech boss - 13,486
Nemesis - 10,370
Nemesis mutated - 20,537
Rebecca Chambers - 11,512
scorpion boss - 14,854
T-A.L.O.S. - 34,137
zombie - 5,630
Zombie Baboon - 8,248
zombie bat 9,486

Rumble Roses XX
Reiko - 34,042

Silent Hill 3
Heather - 5,731
Douglas - 8,799

Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces
unspecified plane - 1900
cockpit - 2800
hangar model - 3600

Sonic Generations
Dr. Eggman - 32,510
Knuckles - 11,752
Sonic (new) - 17,295
Sonic (old) - 19,787
Super Sonic (classic) - 19,795

Sonic Unleashed
Sonic (werehog) - 19,314 without fur

Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny, PSP
Characters ~3-4,000

Soul Calibur IV, PS360
Characters ~20,000
Darth Vader - 21,158
Yoda - 17,097

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Donkey Kong - 4,758
Luigi - 5,632
Mario - 5,227
Marth - 6,249
Princess Peach - 6,316
Samus Zero - 5,089
Solid Snake - 5,149
Wario - 5,762

Splinter Cell: Conviction
Sam - 25,332

Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Sam (scuba gear) - 10,340

Star Ocean 4: The Last Dope
Arumat - 15,712

Street Fighter IV
Characters - 16,000
Environments - 300,000

Super Mario Sunshine, GC, 2002
Mario - 1500 polygons
Levels - ~ 60,000 polygons

Tekken 6
Jin Kazama - 20,240

Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Asuka Kazama (kimono) - 18,353
Jin Kazama - 19,272
Jun Kazama - 19,262

Tomb Raider
(Lara)
TR1 - 230
TRIII - 300
Angel of Darkness - 4,400
Legend - 9,800
Underworld - 32,816

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, PS3, 2007
Main characters - ~20,000-30,000 polygons
Drake - ~30,000 polygons
Pirates - ~12,000-15,000 polygons

Uncharted 2
Chloe - 45,000, each subsequent LOD has halved count (3 LODs)
Drake - 37,000, no LOD in SP
Drake's Hair - 4,000

Vanquish
Augmented Reality Suit - 13,530

Velvet Assassin
Violet - 14,219

Virtua Fighter, Model 1
Akira ~2300
Jeffrey ~2000
Pai ~2000
Sarah ~1900
Lau ~1900
Wolf ~1800
Kage ~1500
Jacky ~1500

Virtua Fighter 4, Naomi 2, 2001
Jacky - 14,000 polygons

Virtua Fighter 4, PS2, 2002
Jacky - 7,000 polygons

Virtua Fighter 5, Arcade/PS3/X360, 2006
Character - ~40,000 with diffuse, specular and normal maps
Background - 100,000 - 300,000

V-Rally 3, PS2, 2002
Vehicles - 15,000-16,000 (Might count multi-passes)
Stages - 500,000

The Walking Dead
Lee Everett - 4,688

Warhammer 40,000
Titus - 19,436

The Witcher
Geralt - 10,875

The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition
Geralt of Rivia (Blue Stripes) - 31,021
Geralt of Rivia (default, light jacket) - 26,091
Geralt of Rivia (outfit 2) - 26,088
Geralt of Rivia (rags) - 17,424
Geralt of Rivia (Seltkirk) - 31,624
Letho - 20,027
Lorweth - 15,411
Philippa Eilhart (red dress) - 21,320
Triss Merigold - 24,526
Vernon Roche - 17,496
Ves - 22,791

XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Game Designer Sid Meier - 18,684

*Might be a cut-scene model
**No precisions whether it's actual rendered polygons or just the number of polygons sent to transform, pre Z-pass and culling.
 
10,000 polygons for Leon in RE4? Damn that seems high. Awesome looking game for the time.

And Alyx having the most polygons in HL2 isn't surprising. Hehe.
 
Jak I

Jak - 4000 polygons

Jak II

Jak - 10,000 polygons

Onimusha Warlords if I remember correctly also had some character models around 8,000 - 10,000 polygons or at least that's what Capcom claimed
 
Lost planet
Wayne - 12392 polygons (but finally 17765 polygons for compatibility with motion blur effect)
 
Wow the GC was really juggling a huge number of polys in RE4 with multiple characters and very detailed environments.:oops:
 
MC is normal mapped in Halo2

I knew that. :p I just find it kinda cool how they reduced the actual polycount from the first game and that it isn't readily obvious. Though it must take up a lot more memory, right? (ooh ah... big deal ;)). I wonder what they did exactly for the Halo 3 model (beyond the glove change and higher resolution normal maps).
 
I shudder to think what the zenith will be like for the fellas at Naughty Dog on the ps3.

Seriously, those guys are lunatics. The Jak series of games are one of my favorites, I'm crossing my fingers that they make a PS3 Jak title. Anyone have geometry numbers for God Of War 2? I just started playing this, and it just blows me away what they got the good 'ol PS2 to render.
 
Yes

I shudder to think what the zenith will be like for the fellas at Naughty Dog on the ps3.

I wonder what is the polycount for Lair. Look at polygon water effect! You can see polygon water, city, dragons, everything at 1080P. Amazing for me to see. Also GT5 which has amazing car details for 60fps 1080P.

Xbox360 also has one or two amazing games for polygons. I think probably Kameo has some scenes with amazing polygons. Look at thousands of trolls! Look at beautiful buildings, grass and trees!
 
I wonder what is the polycount for Lair. Look at polygon water effect! You can see polygon water, city, dragons, everything at 1080P.

They're all pretty lowpoly individually, though. Plenty of visible polygon edges on everything...
 
Here are some examples that caught my eye:

Hey, thought about making this thread a sticky? As people add entries, just add that data to the first post. It would be a polygon repository, of sorts.
 
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Some that I know

Link in WW 2800 tri
Link in TP 6900 tri
Mario in SMS 1500 tri
SMS Levels are around 60k each

Xbox DOA character about 10k
VF4 character is about 15k

edit: I accidently put VF5, I meant VF4, arcade.
 
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Hey, thought about making this thread a sticky? As people add entries, just add that data to the first post. It would be a polygon repository, of sorts.

Very cool thread, I agree with the sticky!

Gears is already names... lets see... oh, PGR3. Cars: 80,000-120,000 polys per car. About half for the exteriors, half for the interiors.

Did someone mention GT5 cars are 200k each?
 
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