I plan to work on a UT3 mod, assuming I am still interested in it, and other factors.

Anyway, I am modeling a weapon for the mod, and I just wondered (from BW Creators or any modders):
1) What is the average polycount for a First Person weapon for BW/UT2004?
2) How much should I reduce for a Third Person weapon?
3) What would you recommed a good polycount for a good weapon in UT3?

Thanks for any replies!

EDIT: Also, I am using gmax 1.2, as I cannot afford 3dsmax or Maya. I plan on creating alot of these models, and then hand them over to a modeler & skinner. Gmax can export in p3d, can 3dsmax or Maya read/import .gmax or .p3d?

For UT3, the poly count can be fairly high. some where in the thousands......

if your new at modeling and try to make high poly models you will probably just end up making a mess, aiming for lower poly and higher detail is the smarter way to go(rather than having a bunch of useless polys that take up space).

my guess is the ut2004 weapons are 2 thousand polygons at the most, they are fairly simple and ugly....... RS can probably be of more help on this though.

Before there was a picture of a Krall model, and I think the caption said somewhere around 20,000 polygons or something. I might have red it wrong, but I think that's a fair estimate.

.p3d?

I never heard of that before. I can't remember, but I don't think Maya or 3DS Max can import those, but there re probably some plugins for that somewhere out there.

.obj is more or less a universal file type that most modeling programs can handle. .3ds is also a common file type too. If you can, look for a way to export them, there are probably all sorts of plugins for one of those for Gmax.

An alternative program is Blender 3D. Completely free and comparable (and in many cases, better) than the best commercial 3D modeling programs out there.

Only catch is that the interface is a little harder to get used to than most programs.

[url=hyperlink url=http://www.wings3d.com]Wings3d[/url] for me

blender was way to hard for me to get into

Well I'll see what plug-ins I can find, hopefully they will be good.

In terms of modelling talent, I have been modeling for at least 2 years, but it has been low poly (RTS game, 250-500 polygons for a tank.)

My carbine weighs in at 935, which includes all but the magazine, barrel, and trigger guard. I just plan on getting the most of that engine, and I would want high poly models for it (although for my mod, it would be less than the average UT3, the mod is the large battlefield/lots of objects kind.)

Runestorm team people please tell me your opinions please.

in the world of modeling 936 polygons is low for a weapon model(well rifle). and theres a large difference between the amount in player models and objects(in this case your gun). low poly isnt bad, its just more simple. of course if your loading in lots of detail it will become high poly no matter what.

ok.. BW weapons:

range from 1000 to about 6000

hands are an aditional 1400 polys

in UT3, i heard that player models will rnage from 5000 to 12000 polys.. i'll let you work out the best from there

I think most of the detail you see in the UT3 screenshots are from bump maps and normal maps and other crazy shit you put in the model's textures to add loads of detail.

Nah, bump maps are old and fake-looking tech. With the introduction of pixel shader 3.0, they will be using displacement maps instead I believe.

What about Parallax mapping? Is that primitive?

Well, they are called virtual displacement maps, but as far as I know the real displacement maps are the future. Just take a look at the wikipedia.

Didn't FEAR use something like that? I remember being confused at the bullet impact marks as they really looked like holes were dug into the wall, but they were textures. Neat effect.

Though unrealistic holes when you consider the nature of the bullets you fire. . .

But I have just one question:
http://www.unrealtechnology.com/html/te ... ue30.shtml

If you scroll down to the character and the map, do I actually have to model a 1 million polygon character??? That currently just seems... excessive...

Not for the in-game model, just to create very detailed mapping. The in-game model itself should be 50 times less polys, at least.

that would be down right crazy

So... what exactly is the 2,000,000 polygon model for? Is it for cutscenes?

Let's assume that is the case. Unless the cutscenes are recorded video files, a 2 million poly model would kill the framerate, literally. That sort of polycount is only useful for rendering detailed mapping on a model, such as normal maps or light maps. The model itself would be no more than 10 - 20 thousand polys.

I know I sound like a moron, but I am still confused. Is the 2,000,000 poly model used in the game at all, or for normal mapping/bump mapping? Essentialy would I need to model a 2 million poly model for anything in the gameplay, animations, visuals, etc.

Sorry, I am just really confused, 3d modeling and texturing is not new to me, but bump mapping and normal mapping is a new concept to me.

As I said clearly above, such models are not used in the game. The immense polycount is just to make the bump maps/normal maps as detailed as possible. Then after those have been rendered, you dress the low-poly model with them.

With lots of detail, you can make a 20 thousand poly model look like a 2 million poly one.

parallax is old..

everything these days is normal and bump maps..

games cant do displacement yet.. only render programs can so far

Have you been living in a cave? With the introduction of Shader Model 4.0 in DirectX 10, displacement mapping is very possible and used, like in Bioshock, the best looking game in existence.

oh well.. at least i learn how to make displacement maps in my cave

i'd like to see how the things look in this game at any rate

i've heard Gears of Wars has better graphics than bio shock.... or something, but hell im guessing bioshock has a much single player experience and looks as good if not better.

The upcoming PC version of GoW will very likely look better than Bioshock, but the 360 version I doubt. And the reason for that is age difference; when two very talented developers create a game, it is always the age that will determine which game looks better.