[DukeLeto]

Could someone clarify what the big deal with polycounts is? I mean, my GeForce 4 Ti4200, which cost about $120, can handle 113 million polys a second. So what's with all the "OMFG, THAT MODEL HAS MORE THAN 300 POLYS!!! MAKE IT LESS!!!!!" and so forth I keep seeing? More polys=better graphics. I mean, most models in Generals have over 300. :/

(Note: In order to fill to the max polycount on my card with 300-poly units, you would need to build 376,667 tanks! )

[Oldfaq]

Duke, you want people with computers like a geforce 2 gts maybe or something like that to bealbe to play the game? not just for yourself...
Oldfaq

[Flyby]

Careful with the PR statistics there...
Don't believe everything you're being told.

The polygons most graphic card builders are boosting about are not the ones you end up seeing in a game. To start with those are theoretical bandwidth numbers, where as real life test benches show a lot lower numbers.

A game needs to do a lot more then just spitting polygons, so it turns out that a CPU still is one of the most important factors.
EA set their polygon standard (per object) that low, because they wanted to keep the min. config. system specs as low as possible, so they can maximize their sales.

The game however can take a bit more if you use a modern PC (P4), although you still need to evaluate how many units you want to build...
a few units of 1000 polygons is ok, but if you start making 25 or 50 of them, even your fast system will go on its knees...

My rule is to be so efficient as possible in polygon modelling, without compromising the silhouette of your model.

added:
small remark about the number of tanks you think you can keep rolling : You need at least 30fps to be playable, so start by deviding the 113m by 30...

[Kyp678]

I always laugh when I see people yelling about that, about how they gotta bring the polys down. I can laugh because I've got a few friends that do insane modelling for another game, Lightwave stuff that can get as high as a million polys and over.... and they just use those models for reference for the scaled down versions. So, sometimes it doesn't hurt to go all out, just to see how awesome in detail you can make it, then bring it down with editing so you can actually play it in the game. :lol:

[Flyby]

There is a distinct difference between making cover-art for games, that needs all the detail to be as convincing as posible, and the in-game art.

Although the quality of ingame graphics is rising rapidly, it is out of the question you can compare the 2 with each other. The serve a different purpose...

As far as "millions of polygons" concerns, I use an addon renderer for 3dsmax, called Vray, capable of handeling well over a hundred million polygons. My most elaborated project only scratched the surface with 5.5 mil...