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

Trejser said:
Yeah, It's like Kratos model, always full LOD even if camera is few hundred meters from him :)
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So they claim the shaders, poly counts, etc. are exactly the same full LOD for both Kratos and Drake, no matter how far they are? I'm not questioning if it's true, but I wonder why would they do this?

AlStrong said:
Seems kinda wasteful not to have a lower LOD for that distance. :s
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Exactly, thinking the same thing. Also if they keep the poly count that high but so far away from the screen, wouldn't it fall into the micro-poly category? I thought this was less than optimal for consoles.

_phil_ said:
edge might kill the too small polys.
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Would you be able to explain this better? Sounds like you're saying the Edge tools may eliminate any polys that become too small, at least to me.
 
RAM management must surely be immensely challenging here. Textures and geometry need to look sufficiently detailed at both the micro and macro levels, and to enable seamless transitions between the two, both would need to be kept in the system memory. To illustrate, Kratos may well be nothing more than a small speck in some of the shots, but that memory-intensive 20,000 polygon model is still in RAM.
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http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/the-making-of-god-of-war-iii?page=2

ND said they have different LOD for Drake in MP, but in SP it's always the same.
 
Well for Drake it makes sense as the camera really never goes far from the character during gameplay, for Kratos however I'm unsure over why they don't do LOD when there are multiple occasions when he simply takes a tiny area of that scene.
 
Trejser said:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/the-making-of-god-of-war-iii?page=2

ND said they have different LOD for Drake in MP, but in SP it's always the same.
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So this is a move to conserve memory?

joker454 said:
From what I recall, edge eliminates zero area poly's.
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I see thanks.

nightshade said:
Well for Drake it makes sense as the camera really never goes far from the character during gameplay, for Kratos however I'm unsure over why they don't do LOD when there are multiple occasions when he simply takes a tiny area of that scene.
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The only reason I can think of is to save memory by avoiding having to store multiple LOD levels.
 
The Halo 4 grunt: http://download.gameblog.fr/images/jeux/3684/Halo4_360_Visuel_011.jpg
http://h11.abload.de/img/halo4_360_visuel_010wsj9k.jpg
Halo: Reach grunt: http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/2674/1750828-halo_reach_grunt.jpg
http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/4/42/HReach_-_Heavy_Unggoy.png

At first glance it looks like they shaved a bunch of polys off the character limbs (no more spiny things), but then you look at the claws, which seem quite a bit more articulated. The backpack does look a lot pointier at curvature points. Really funny they bothered modelling the bolts on its chest :p.

Can't help but think of some displacement mapping they could use to give more depth to the bumps on its skin or at least bring back the spiny anatomy from H3/Reach that made it seem like a fiercer character (not that it doesn't look a scary little bugger with a face like that).

(Yes, the textures look low res, but the character is generally small during gameplay. Trade-offs etc, not the point here.)


-----------

The elites on the other hand

Halo 4: http://h10.abload.de/img/halo4_360_visuel_009p8ooo.jpg
http://www.abload.de/img/halo4_360_visuel_008uykso.jpg
http://www.abload.de/img/halo4_360_visuel_01938jmg.jpg

Reach: http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/e/ee/HReach_-_Sangheili_Zealot.png
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/_...39/Halo-Reach-Limited-Edition-Elite-Armor.jpg
http://halomall.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/halo-reach-elite2.jpg

The new ones seem fraught with normal map issues (the armour, not the skin. The skin looks great). The Reach ones looked rather pristine. Wonder if they made the armour detachable/destructible ala the brutes. I suppose that'd add to the polycount relatively.

Very Predator-like.
 
The touch of Kenneth Scott is evident.

Really can't make even guesses at the poly counts there. They apparently keep it efficient though.

Displacement mapping - well, it is a second trilogy and Halo 5 is going to be released on the nextgen Xbox...
 
AlStrong said:
The new ones seem fraught with normal map issues (the armour, not the skin. The skin looks great). The Reach ones looked rather pristine. Wonder if they made the armour detachable/destructible ala the brutes. I suppose that'd add to the polycount relatively.

Very Predator-like.
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It's the UV mapping. H4's style is more organic, so the lines are going every which way, and they're exhibiting aliasing. The Reach designs seem to stick more to right and 45-degree angles, so the detail stays sharp.
 
Yeah... just the price to pay. Can't recall if the newer texture formats handle the angles better. There was that nice presentation at one of the Gamefests that covered that.
 
Even though the release date is quite close now - only 6 months left - they can still give every asset a little polish. And it's the ingame look that matters anyway ;)
 
Certainly, although now the screenshot mode will be only a little less flattering . :p

... a little.
 
I like the new designs, especially glad to see that the new elites have less of a stupid 'Big Bird' look with the way their two toed feet design is handled compared to Reach.

And the all new concept art i've seen is absolutely superb
 
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