Hello everyone, I been working in a game a while and I notice that all the new games coming out in the market dad high-poly model like FarCry 2. I'm currently working in my models and I wanna make then look more photo-realistic as possible.
What do you recommend for the maximum amount of polygons in a character? There is any secret to make then look realistic as the new games like FarCry 2 and other series of games recently published?. I'm start to think that in certain way the low poly characters era has pass.

Thank in advanced.

All games, including FarCry 2, use low poly characters. A realistic look has not much to do with the number of polygons.

The maximum poly amount per character is 65000. However I recommend not more than 5000 polys with LOD, resp. 1000 polys without LOD.

Yes I got that but check this pictures for example:




Those are real screen shots from the game.
The surface of the models are really smooth. There's not sharp edges and it looks like if you were playing in a movie instead of a PC video game.
OK,... so the maximum polygon in a model could be up to 65000?
How can I use LOD in the A7 commercial version? It has to written in the code or the engine will calculate the amount of polygons depending of the distance from the camera?

Thank you in advanced.

You can fake a lot with good texture work / shadows and normalmaps
See the gallery at http://sugar3d.com/sugar3d.php for example, there are models with 90k and 5k polys with nearly the same look

Yea, I know what you mean but if ever play the game you will notice that for example in the hands, arms, and the NPC in the games you will not find the normal sharp edges of the old games. I also know that if you create a very good texture that could fake X amount of details but not all of then that in that game, lol.

believe us it IS just shader and texture work tricking you into thinking that.

Well I think that maybe that could play an important part for the realistic simulation, but notice the huge detail on the characters for a second:


The game FarCray 2 require a powerful computer to be played in high level of details, but still really tricky to me how they make it.
All the opinions are acceptable. I'm just looking for and answer that light my ideas of how to create something with the high visual detail as that game.

Thank you in advanced.

@The screenshots with guns: It is very common to put much more detail into weapons/hands/arms of the main character in a first-person shooter. No one else (not even their guns, until you pick them up) would have that much detail.

@The screenshots with people: Yes, their faces are high-poly. But look at their arms and hands, and you see that while they look good, you can still see their sharp edges. It is also very common practice to put a lot more detail into the face/head than the rest of the character, as that's where details get noticed the most in a first-person shooter.

The lower LoD levels (if they do it effectively) would even out the details between the face and the body, since with lower LoD levels you don't see the face close-up.

Jibb

The characters in the screenshots are probably low poly - you can't judge this from the shots. The face details are no polygons, but a heightmap. Sometimes you can see the real poly resolution from the edge of the character against the background.

Thank you for your opinions. Yea your right I've take the time to make a detailed review of the character against the background and it is correct you can notice the sharp edges in cloth more than any other part of the body.
They trough a bunch of details in the faces to make then look more realistic.

Then.... what's the maximum polygons for character?


Thank you once again