Breaker Box (92 polys):
Cigarettes (122 polys):
Faucet (284 Polys):
Hammer (233 Polys):
Screwdrivers (Phillips 237 polys, Flat 226 polys):
and finally Ladder (318 polys):
The cigarettes are not on my original asset list. I added these for a small area in the room that I want to put together. I want it to seem like people have been down there. I'm thinking of setting up a "seating area" in the corner where janitors and maintenance men go to play poker. It'll add a few more models to my list but not many.
Your assets look like they are modeled well, and your proportions seem good. I personally think that your poly counts are too high for in game material. Don't get mistaken and think that developing material for current PC, XBOX360 or PS3 involves pumping out much higher poly and texture counts. We can pull off higher numbers, but its not really necessary in most cases. These days its all about showing off the new tech, like better shaders, lighting, and using new ways to fool the player that the models appear high res. By putting higher counts into areas that the player is barely gonna see, as they walk by, your wasting a lot and in turn creating more work for yourself. Building games is all based on restrictions, and it's much more impressive to push as much as you can with the given hardware. By keeping counts lower, maintaining good silhouettes and letting techniques like normal mapping help pull off surface detail you will be able to fill your scene with much more material if needed and it won't have as much of an impact on the hardware. Simply said, you can pull off material that is as good, at lower counts with some smarter practices.
ReplyDeleteBreaker Box: The handle and hinges can be normal mapped. The box itself shouldn't need anymore than 30 triangles. Just a hollowed out box with no thickness and a plane for the door.
Cigarettes: Unless the player is pulling all those smokes out one at a time.. that can be modeled as a single entity.
Faucet: Looks really nice.. but 300 triangles for a faucet on the wall is a bit much. I would try and get it down a little.
Hammer: The curve on the claws looks really smooth to me.. try and reduce it. The indent on the handle can be done with normals. Such a small indent doesn't need to be modeled.
Screwdrivers: They look really good, although they are one of your smallest assets and that's a lot. I would say no more than 60 triangles should be good. Achieve the surface detail through normal maps.
Ladder: I would try and cut it by at least half. I can't see the detail in such a small shot but that seems a bit much to me.
I would try and track down some wire frames on current gen material, like gears of war or left4dead. I have one of the gears art books and it shows some great environment examples. The scenes are extremely low poly but they really manage to pull off a good look. Have you seen the hideout scene I have posted on my site?? I know it's a corner scene but it comes in at just under 9000 triangles. I made sure my silhouettes were solid and my counts were fairly low.
Hope this helps.
I see your point. I've always had trouble knowing what to keep poly limits at. Every answer I get is that it "varies depending on the project". Which makes sense. I think I just got it in my head that low poly objects were under 500. I think it makes sense not to spend extra polys where the player won't look.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to take these models and cut down the poly count tomorrow. Thanks for the input!
I agree, sometimes it can be tough trying to decide how low to go with poly counts. Generally I stick to the idea of maintaining a good silhouette. Plot all your major points and if needed you can smooth it from there.
ReplyDeleteA good project I used to give my students was to make them model a simple character from a concept at 1400 triangles. I would critique it and make them reduce that character down to 700, critique it again and then make them reduce it down to 350. All this time they were required to keep all their major points, keep the character recognizable and still maintain proper silhouette.
Don't put polys where your not gonna see them (ex: bottoms or backs) or where they arn't needed. A good rule I try and stick to as well.. is don't put any segments in co-planer areas.. simple example >> your not gonna have multiple segments on a flat plane. I try and apply that rule to everything... just plot your major points. Use your smoothing groups wisely as well.. as they can be great benefit at times. Don't go into detail too quickly. 95% of your time is laying out the proper model and 5% should be for smaller detail work if needed ;)