Whats considered LOW POLY

[lockdown2000]

This is a dumb question I know, but what is considered LOW POLY now adays?

Low Poly: _______

Mid Poly: _______

High Poly: _______

I personally believe LOW POLY is like x<1500 polys. although most games now run at like 3000 polys which is crazy....

Mid Poly to me would seem to be x<=3500

High poly x>4000 polys.

hm..I may be way off, but thats why I asked now isnt it?

[dhin]

I'd say a good numbers for charater models are:

LPM 0 < x < 2000
MPM 2000 < x <9000
HPM 9000 < x < infinity

Environments and Objects are a bit different though.

I'd say funishings should be under 500 pilies to be considered LPM. Buildings should be under 100 polies to be LPM. The complete environment (minus the characters) should be below 10,000 polies to be considered LPM. Mid range for these could be around 3 to 4 time more.

That is just my opinion on it, though I base it on system restraint I've been give at work.

[MonteCristo]

LPM = <3000
MPM = <6000
HPM=>6000

That's my feeling anyway...

[lockdown2000]

Interesting, I tend to agree with MonteCristo-3DT. Wow...I remember back in the day when like 1000 was considered HIGH poly...now "HPM 9000 < x < infinity" is considered high, nuts. go technology. Thanks, I wanted to know this cause I am trying to go for a MID poly model for next trial/learning experiance 3d render.

That's just it - the definition will vary, especially depending on what type of game it is & the engine used. Real time strategy games are usually the lowest polycounts per character, because there are a lot of characters onscreen at once & a lot going on. Often they are less than 1000 polys each. Something like quake 3 had around 1000 - 1500 polys per character, whereas the new UT 2003 engine allows for 2000+ polys per character. Fighting games usually have the highest number as there are often only two characters onscreen at once, having up to 5000 - 8000 polys each.
The term low poly to me applies to any project where there is a set poly limit. By that definition 9000 polys is still "low poly" because the artist has had a limit of the amount of polys they could use, as opposed to a broadcast artist who can use whatever resolution looks good, (& in the case of adaptive subdivision the mesh is tesselated on the fly, dependant on user defined parameters & things like distance to the camera in order to ensure a smooth looking mesh at all times.)
I think the problem is that the word 'low' has a connotation with it of a small amount. (true 9000 polys is still a low amount compared with hundreds of thousands or millions of polys, but it seems a lot at the moment.) I now tend to use the term 'realtime' instead of low poly which does not have the same connotation, but still differentiates between game type modelling and other forms of 3d, so I'd say realtime modelling or realtime texturing which wlil still apply in five years time when texture sheets are 10,000x10,000 pixels & models are at least 1 million polys.

[richcase]

when i make game characters, i aim to make them less than 2000, but they are running high these days, Gta3's character was over 2000 polys, and i'm guesing(sp) that vice city is going even higher though

[tdawg217]

i am in the middle of a game and i just created a character that is about +/- 650 polys and he has all the detail i want him too. . . isnt 3000 alot?

[jak3d]

hi, i have a question, how can i get into the industry of games, im making low polys just for me and i like it so far, can you give a tip or semothing, i really apreciate that, becouse i need it to grow my talent
my character is 1000 polys in the body, and the face very detailled 1000
________
WENDIE 99

[dhin]

tdawg217 - 650 triangle polies or quadrangle polies? You should alway look at triangles as your count. But if you have all the detail you want good for you. 3000 polies isn't extreme you can spend 1500 to 2000 of them on just the hands and face easy with out even noticing. Look at it this way the more polies around the joints the smoother the animation in those areas should be (WHEN SET UP CORRECTLY.)

Also jak3d not exactly the right place to ask that question. You've got a thread already I see. Post a couple of wireframes there and maybe you'll get more help that way.

[tdawg217]

that is 650 triangle polygons. i havent got to the animation part of him yet so ill probably add some later.