For games 3d models are usually created as low-poly models. What I would like to ask - what does it mean nowdays? Low poly model 10 years ago was something absolutely different than now. However I was unable to find any hints (if that is 30 or 300 triangles for example).

I am working on my first game. I will create it in Unity, for 3d modeling I use Blender. I would be very happy if I could have graphics like in first part of game Condemned criminal origins. I would be very grateful for images containing example meshes for characters, buildings and weapons so I could just see what is general density of the mesh.

Regards

Misery

It largely depends on your engine, your target machine, and the number of objects in the world.

If you have few objects you can have a higher number of polygons and denser textures. Lots of objects means fewer polygons and smaller textures. On the hardware side, if your game is mainstream and works on anything P4 or greater, or targets shader level 2 or greater, or otherwise allows for older machines, it is very different from a game that requires a 64-bit OS and 16GB of memory and a DX11 class graphics card.

On most projects the art budget was specified based on the size and importance of objects. A small object (quarter meter or less) had a limit of around 150 triangles and 1024 square textures. For important characters and large objects, 4000 polygons and large textures are acceptable.

Another thing to look into is the concept of LOD (Level Of Detail), which is still relevant today. The idea is that you create multiple versions of each model with progressively lower numbers of triangles, and you choose an appropriate one to draw based on the distance from the player. For example, a nearby human character may have 10,000 triangles for the face alone, including inside the mouth, nostrils and ears. If you draw the same model when it's 300 metres away, you'd end up with thousands of triangles smaller than a pixel - so you'd choose a low-res version to render.

There are techniques to do LOD using tessellation shaders, but I'd suggest not worrying about them for your first game.

Thanks a lot guys! :]