Introduction

From an interesting blog entry from Rick Stirling, a character artist, about the polycount of game character models.

“So, I’ll warn casual readers again – the number of polygons used don’t matter if they are not used well. This is simply a technical markerpost to try and identify what certain games used on certain hardware at a certain time. Supposedly Halo 2 used less polygons for Masterchief than Halo 1, and I’ve heard that Call of Duty 4 used less polygons for the character models that CoD2 did – I suspect this will due to relying more heavily on normal mapping to create the details.”

Count

Dead or Alive series, Xbox, 2001-2004
Character – ~10,000-15,000
Gears of War, Xbox 360, 2006 (according to D’Artiste book)
Wretch – 10,000 polygons with diffuse, specular and normal maps
Marcus – 15,000 polygons with diffuse, specular and normal maps
GTA San Andreas, PS2, 2004
Characters – 2,000 polygons with 1 256×256 8bit texture
GTA IV, Xbox 360/PS3, 2008
Story Characters – 8-10,000 polygons with multiple 256×256/512×512 diffuse, specular and normal maps
Half-Life, PC, 1998
Zombie – 844 polygons
Halflife 2, PC, 2004
Alyx Vance – 8323 polygons
Barney – 5922 polygons
Combine Soldier – 4682 polygons
Halo, Xbox, 2001
Masterchief – 2,000 polygons
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, GC, 2002
Link – 2800 polygons
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, GC/Wii, 2006
Link – 6900 polygons
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, PS2, 2005
Snake – 4,000 polygons
Project Gotham Racing 2, Xbox, 2003
Vehicles – 10,000 polygons
Project Gotham Racing 3, Xbox 360, 2006
Vehicles – 80,000-100,000 polygons
Quake, PC, 1996
200 polygons with 1 320×200 8bit texture using predefined palette.
Quake 4, PC, 2006
Player model – 2,500 polygons with multiple diffuse, specular and normal maps
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, PS3, 2007
Main characters – ~20,000-30,000 polygons
Drake – ~30,000 polygons
Pirates – ~12,000-15,000 polygons
Unreal Tournament, PC, 1999
Player model – 800 polygons
Unreal Tournament 2k3, PC, 2003
Player model – 3,000 polygons
Unreal Tournament 3, PC, 2007
Weapon models – 4,500 to 12,000 triangles for the first person view
Virtua Fighter 5, Arcade/PS3/X360, 2006
Character – ~40,000 with diffuse, specular and normal maps
Background – 100,000 – 300,000 polygons

From Assassin’s Creed II

Links :

- Original Rick Stirling post
- Assassin’s Creed 2 Artworks with polycount
- PGR3 polycount discussion