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

You need to pick a spec (console, PC, mobile, low end, high end?), get the hardware, and try stuff out. I don't honestly know of devs using existing game polycounts as a baseline. AFAIK design considerations are achieved from the experience of the artists and a fair degree of trial and error, creating the assets and then having to rejig them to fit the final profile. But you can't really choose a spec based on polycounts because those polygon counts are only how many the hardware can transform at peak. The moment you throw shaders at it, amount of renderable polygons could become anything.

It'd definitely help to know what targets other games have used, but as I say, I think devs work without that knowledge other than their prior games. One thing you could certainly do is aim for a similar level of detail. Find a game, study screenshots, and create something in the same ballpark. Ideally though, I'd suggest keeping polygons as low as you can to get your artistic look, as less to draw always results in faster updates and less variation when there's more on screen!

Also, don't underestimate impact of post effects! Run with your bloom and moblur and whatever from the beginning, because that can massively impact some platforms.

 

Well. Looks like we are going for a rough ride with all the unknowns.
This is the first time we are developing a game from scratch. The other one I worked on was for just a few models, while the backbone of the game was already up and running. We definitely cant use that as an indication since it is a lot different than what we are doing now, and it was mainly made by a different company.

 

hmm i remember reading square saying Noctis was 150 000polys, he might have lost some weight.

 

Just out of curiosity. When designing games, do you think of polygon budgets as quads or triangles?
I know that in the industry modeling tends to be made mostly with quads which is then converted to triangles for the game engine. But do the converted quads (two triangles) still count as one polygon or 2 polygons in game performance?

 

Anyone?

 

They count as two polygons. The hardware and therefore the performance does not deal with undecomposed quads.

 

So they are thinking about polygon budgets in terms of triangles, always

 

Yes. GPUs work and draw in triangles. You feed them triangle information as lists of vertices so that's the artists' target value. Although given how programmable the vertex shaders are now, I wonder what the limiting factor is? Convention?

 

With the PS5 devkit coming closer I'm putting things in perspective now regarding the poly count of next gen character models. If applying the same linear increase of tri count per gen on main characters in similar structured titles, UC2 Drake is around 30k tris on PS3, The Order Galahad is 120k yields a 4x increase, so that'll make a theoretical next gen main character roughly 500k and perhaps breaching 1 million on the Pro or later in the gen. Coupled with next gen lighting and shading we should see some wonderful models right?

 

I think it's more exciting that non hero characters in open worlds could have Drake like budgets.

 

instead of upping the polycount, they should give them proper hair and clothes.

 

Nar already there, in Horizon at least.
http://i.imgur.com/uYNtWWU.jpg
https://edge.alluremedia.com.au/m/k/2017/03/horizonzerodawncharacters.jpg
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/782/33305875076_b882f233ae_o.png

 

I believe proper hair and clothes do require a dense enough mesh and polys to animate.

 

Its from a movie but I think it is an intersting number when comparing movies with video games.

900 billion Polygons ^^

 

Seventh cross evolution - Dreamcast 1998
Main character/lifeform -4,771 triangles.
Random evolved bodyparts( crystal lady head chest, human arms and metal legs.)


Sakura wars 4 Dreamcast 2002
Soubu mech - 2,938 triangles

 

D2 - 1999 - dreamcast

Laura gameplay model - 2,872 polygons


kim - 2,150 polygons



Nappletale Arsia in daydream - 2000 - dreamcast

Poach - 3,500 polygons

 

Seven mansions - Koei - dreamcast - 2000
The characters and enemies are rather high poly for the time.The stages are very low poly though.

Kei unarmed - 3,039 triangles


Reina unarmed - 3085 triangles

 

i would love to know the poly count of DMC5 characters.
And hair is really well done too.