Improve model tris count for games

Graphics
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Hello guys.

Using Blender I sculpted a rock that will be a platform in my game. After that I made the retopology to clean the mesh.

2310383--155661--rock-retopo.png
Image in the link → Dropbox - File Deleted - Simplify your life

I have a pretty good looking mesh in my opinion (not an expert), but when I import it to unity I get a lot of tris and I’m scared on the total tris count. The rock has around 15k tris and in the stats shows 40k because of the passes. (I don’t know how much tris are too much for a not AAA game, aiming for a mainstream/not-so-highend computer)

2310383--155660--rock-unity-render.png
Image in the link → Dropbox - File Deleted - Simplify your life

And here are my questions that I hope will help others with similar problems:

  • Is there a way to improve my mesh?
  • What I should have in mind when making 3D props for games?
  • Should I make my props less rounded?
  • Should I convert big portions of my mesh to one face instead of multiple faces?
  • Am I still able to rescue my rock, improving its mesh and using the normal map for the roundness?
  • Any workflow that you can recommend? (sculpt, retopo, …)

Thank you very much for your time :slight_smile:

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hey leizzer - 15k tris for a ROCK. . . . :eyes:
I used to model characters that were between 500-2500 polys. :slight_smile:

Ways to improve your mesh - remove all polys that make up a flat area. Looking at your rock above - I think you could probably get by with 2-4 hundred polys and it sill look exactly the same with texture detail.

When making 3D props for games keep in mind how close they will be to the camera, will any character interact with them, and look at reference material showing polygons for similar props you are creating. I’d be willing to bet there are zero rocks in Skyrim that are 15k triangles.

No don’t make your props less rounded, model them better and only use polygon detail in the rounded areas. Flat areas will look less flat once textures are applied with detail, normal, bump, AO etc.

Yes as described above.

Yes you can rescue your rock. There is nothing wrong with your rock beyond the high poly count. Keep the roundness detail with the mesh 3-5 polys can create a curve just fine, 2-3 if being stingy, and the normal map can add detail to all areas especially in the flat areas of the rock.

My personal workflow is lowpoly to sculpt to retopo, but I don’t do a lot of prop work, mostly just characters so sculpt to retopo might be a better workflow for prop work.

Check polycount.org for some great modeling references. But only use those references to guide your workflow.

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Thank you sir for your feedback :slight_smile:

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Nice Rock! :smile:
But 15,000 tris, is better suited for a character.

A rock should, in most cases. be way less polys than that.
Especially, if you have a large open field scene, with plenty of Rocks.

Using your nice high poly rock, use it as a template and make a lower poly version, of your rock.
Or, make a copy of your high poly Rock and manually reduce the number of faces on it. (Lots of work, which answers your No. 4 question) Or use a plugin that reduces the rocks polycount.

Then, make a nice normal map or a bump map, a nice spec map and of course, a surface map.
And put them onto your lower poly Rock object.

Note: High poly rocks are better used, for those movie type in game cut scenes etc.
But don’t worry.
In the next few years or more, when CPU’s, GPU’s and RAM, get superty duperty duper powerful etc.
High poly rocks, might be a normal thing for everyday games. :sunglasses:

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Thanks to you too Brandy.

I think this is important to know for anyone that just started with doing props for games

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You’re probably better off getting involved in the polycount community as an artist. They are available to advise and assist.

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