Poly Count

[linuxmaster9 101]

What is a good Poly Count to aim for when modelling a weapon? What tri-count? Quads? What is the max to still be usable in Arma 3?

[luki 53]

The limit per object is around 20,000 Polys afaik. As usual try to keep it low as possible, use more polys where the player see more detail ect. For a weapon i would not go over 10,000.

Always keep performance in mind, eg how many instances of the model will be present usualy.

Edited May 10, 2015 by Atsche

[da12thMonkey 1943]

Guideline numbers I was given for weapons by one of BIS' staff was ~15,000 triangles for the view pilot LOD (first person), 10,000 or less for the 1.000 LOD (third person LOD, so you don't need things like really round apertures for ironsights and beveled edges that eat your polycount when making the Pilot LOD), then half the polycount for every subsequent LOD until you get to a nice low number ~100 faces. That way you should end up with about 6 or 7 well-optimised LODs.

Using as few texture and material files as possible is often more important though, so keep an eye on the "Sections" count in O2 as well as the "Faces" count.

[redstone 14]

I can confirm this...

I think in marksmen dlc are really nice weapons and polycount is low, but effectively used.

That's what is the most important in game assets. You don't have to spend many polygons to get very nice result.

Eg. my favourite DMR_06 has 10 000 in view and 6700 in 1st resolution lod. Or DMR_03 9000 in view-lod and 6000 in 1st resol. lod. Both weapons has also only 3 sections (2 textures with rvmats and "not mapped" one)

[PuFu 4600]

this particular model has 8k or so with the mag as well...not a lot of RIS going on, but 15k should be an upper limit for a weapon. More important are the bakes and textures...

https://www.facebook.com/redhammerstudios/photos/pb.478330008846664.-2207520000.1431326880./945425305470463/?type=3&theater

[Jackal326 1181]

...Both weapons has also only 3 sections (2 textures with rvmats and "not mapped" one)[/i]

Presumably the "not mapped" section is the place-holder proxies for attachments and muzzle flashes and the like? I've often wondered if anything is helped performance wise by mapping the proxies etc to a texture/rvmat to cut down on the number of sections within the model (i.e. mapping them to the same texture/rvmat as the main weapon and only having one or two sections rather than two or three). I realise these faces aren't rendered in game per se and are replaced by the relevant attachment or muzzle-flash, but would mapping them to textures benefit in anyway?

[x3kj 1247]

they require a different rvmat for glowing in the dark and also an alpha channel, so i dont see how that would benefit you if you put muzzle flashes into the same texture

[Jackal326 1181]

they require a different rvmat for glowing in the dark and also an alpha channel, so i dont see how that would benefit you if you put muzzle flashes into the same texture

You've misunderstood. I mean mapping the zasleh selection (i.e the triangular proxy) to the same texture and rvmat as the weapon model itself. I don't mean modifying the actual proxy model, simply mapping the proxy selection.

[redstone 14]

"not mapped" section is not so big problem.

Sections in model also contains sections from proxy objects:

Base model with 3 sections and 2 proxies

Proxy #1 has 2 sections

Proxy #2 has 1 section

= Model has 6 sections

It's little bit more complicated, but it's not important now. Proxies are counted in different (special) way. That's also the reason why we cannot use proxies to avoid limit 20000 tris. on all models. It's not good for performance.

[Jackal326 1181]

*snip*

Thanks for clarifying that Redstone :)

[PuFu 4600]

the real question since you've mentioned the imposed hard limit is why there is one in the first place? It is not related to the dx11 limit anyways...