One of the key things for 3D art in games is the poly count, and yet the last time I heard the standard poly count it was 3000 triangles for a character mesh and 1000 for a weapon asset...

...but that was several years ago...what about now?

8-15k for characters and 1-4k for weapons. Though that's very generalized, and you're going to get a lot of 'it depends' type answers to this question.

This is a completely nonsensical question. What sort of game?

• You don't spend 1000 triangles on a weapon for an RTS game on the DS.
• You spend well over 3000 triangles on a character mesh for an XBox360 beat 'em up.
• Call of Duty 4 has about 4500 triangles in their highest LOD player model, and up to 2000 triangles in the first-person weapon models, and closer to 500 for third-person weapon models.

Depends. Ask a smart question.

Originally Posted by PolyHertz

8-15k for characters and 1-4k for weapons. Though that's very generalized, and you're going to get a lot of 'it depends' type answers to this question.

Wow...much bigger than I had anticipated...although I am quite aware of the "It depends" part...^>"<^

@MoP and Elysium, pardon the previous lack of a predetermined port. I was primarily aiming towards PCs and high-level consoles...so the PS3 and '360 also apply...

Thanks for the responses...this has both enlightened and shocked me at the same time...

Well, er... you still haven't really asked a sensible question.

So far, as a compound question from both of your posts, you have asked:

"What is the ideal triangle count for a character and a weapon in a 3d game on PC, XBox360, and Playstation 3?"

I can only assume you're talking about first-person shooter games (FPS), but there are tons of different types of games on those platforms which have characters and weapons (FPS, third-person action game, beat 'em up to name but a few), and all of these game types will have drastically different triangle counts depending on how often you see the character/weapon, from which angle, and how far away they are at the time.

Apologies if I sound a bit harsh - we see this question a lot around these parts (as Eric's links below prove), and usually it's just as vague as yours - "how many polygons?!" ... it depends.

How many polygons in a piece of string?

Yes, but how many polygons?

Mainly I was aiming at FPS's and RTS's [for characters]...

...thank ye for your patience thus far...it does appear I have again missed a key part of the subject...apologies...

Originally Posted by The Master Elite

Mainly I was aiming at FPS's and RTS's [for characters]...

...thank ye for your patience thus far...it does appear I have again missed a key part of the subject...apologies...

Well...yes. You have missed a key component to this subject. Game development is a very broad field, and one that is expanding constantly. The question you asked was equally broad and vague.

And narrowing it down to FPS and RTS genres doesn't really help all that much. A single player FPS can afford to have characters and enemies with higher polycounts, because the developer has greater control over the final experience. An FPS that focuses on on-line play will have lower polycounts for its characters because performance and framerates will be far more crucial.

With RTS titles, you are faced with a new set of criteria. What universe is the RTS going to be set in? A fantasy setting will likely mean that you will need more organic characters, and thus would probably benefit from higher polycounts. But the unit cap in the game will also effect the target average polycount per unit. And the on-line features have to be taken into account for this genre as well.

And to top it off, all of these elements are relative to the engine being used. Some engines handle high numbers of polys better than others. Developers custom tailor their engines for all sorts of purposes, usually relevant to the design of the game they are working on.

And of course, there is also the target hardware platform, and its relative rendering power.

It's not a bad question you are asking, this same question gets asked all the time. You are simply not being specific enough. Narrow down your question, and you will get more useful answers.

Well, technically I have been "in the dark" for a couple years...still, I've got all the info I wanted...thanks all for your help...

...and Sir Kain, I do know that different game engines mean different specs, as well as hardware diversity...that's why they invented LoD meshes...isn't it? ^>"<^