My first question, for clarification, when a person does a polygon count, how are they doing that? As a followup, what is the average number of polygons for things such as people, guns, and various objects in commercial games, or games comparable in graphics to commercial games?

Ok in case nobody here knows about commercial games, what kinds of polygon counts are recommended for any sized project? I'm thinking a first person shooter game if that matters.

everything is relative
if you only have 1 person and 1 gun on screen ever, having them 2-3000 polygons isn't too much of a problem. if you have thousands, maybe 1-200 is a good max.
also, will these things be textured? will they have multiple textures? what kind of drawing optimizations will you have?

I now see the complexity of the issue. I really couldn't tell you about optimizations. I'm betting that in the end everything will have multiple textures but maybe not. They will all be textured.

Any ideas on how many polygons some games use?

Many, but it depends on the quality you're going for. The Master Cheif, from Halo, is around 1200 polygons. Lara Croft has almost certainly less than 500.

A typical scene can have upwards of 10000 polygons in some engines, or less than 4000 in others. It's too relative to make any sort of judgement.

That's why I just wanted a bit of a survey. Any idea of Master Chief in Halo 2? I heard they used significantly less polygons. What about weapons or other objects?

SimReality/Nick Wrote:That's why I just wanted a bit of a survey. Any idea of Master Chief in Halo 2? I heard they used significantly less polygons. What about weapons or other objects?

I believe he uses the same amount, he just has a bumpmapping, so he looks much more detailed

I knew they used bump mapping for detail but I thought I once read they somehow managed to use less polygons to make him and use more bump mapping to compensate and go beyond.

Yeah, they use overall less polygons on screen in Halo 2 then in Halo 1.

Oh total on screen. That explains it.