Number of triangles in a mesh avatar?

[Fender Strangelove]

Hello all,

Would one (or many!) of the Mesh Gurus be able to give me some idea of a practical number of triangles to aim for when making my mesh avatar?  I realize that I am asking a very general question but I would really like some idea of the number of triangles which makes a reasonable compromise between detail/smoothness and performance.  One thousand?   Ten thousand?  Fifty thousand?

Any and all information greatly appreciated!  Thank you in advance.

--Fender Strangelove

[Chosen Few]

A general rule of thumb in game art is that characters should be around 6000 tris.  But as it sounds like you already know, there can't be any hard rules on stuff like this.

One issue with "replacing" the default avatar mesh with a custom one is that the default one will always be there.  You can hide it with an alpha skin, but that doesn't actually make it go away.  Those triangles will still be there in the rendering process, just as with all transparent objects.  So, right off the bat, there's no way to actually stay under the 6000-triangle magic number.

As with all "how many should I use" questions, the only real answer is as few as you possibly can.  Don't expend hundreds of extra faces into smoothing out a curve when just softening an edge normal will simulate the same effect.  Don't make a 24x48 sided sphere for an eyeball, when a 3x8 sided half sphere will do the job just fine.  Don't model the geometry of every tiny detail that nobody will ever zoom in on when a good texture will suggest all the same details just as concincingly, from typical viewing distance.

In short, just be smart about it.  Strive for efficiency at all times, and you won't go wrong.

If you're new to character modeling, it's tempting to think, "Just give me a total number to stay inside of, and I'll make it work."  But really, it's best to go the other way around.  Do a few of them, and you start to build a sense of how many you'll need when approaching any given problem.  Work from the bottom up, rather than the top down, if you know what I mean.

Chances are your first one will be WAY overblown on the poly count.  When you do it a second time, you'll probably be able to cut the count in half.  By the time you've made a bunch of character models, you'll have your technique down, so that you'll probably just naturally end up around that 6000 number, without even consciously trying.

And remember, texturing goes a long way, especially with organic forms.  You'll be surprised how little geometry you actually need, when the paintjob is right.

 

[Fender Strangelove]

Chosen,

Thank you very much for your reply.  As a matter of fact, my "first" avatar mesh is sitting at about 6300 triangles but I would have liked to use more in some critical areas.  I tugged and pulled and reduced reduced reduced until any further reduction ruined the appearance.  The existence of the original avatar mesh bothered me and I am glad that you confirmed my thoughts.  Taking your advice I am going to look at moving some of the triangles from non-critical areas to detail areas that are getting smushed--that was truly helpful!  I can see that I should plan to do several uploads, experimenting with the mesh, to find the compromise that works best for me.

Thank you again for taking the time to give me such a thorough, helpful response.

[Ashasekayi Ra]

Chosen already gave you an excellent answer. But, here are some links to various poly counts for game characters and other assets. The range of poly counts is pretty interesting.

http://www.rsart.co.uk/2007/08/27/yes-but-how-many-polygons/

http://wiki.polycount.com/PolygonCount

[Torian Carter]

Also remember that game characters are usually modelled with all their clothes and equipment. To get a real total in SL you would have to take into account the base mesh and all the mesh clothes being worn.