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hi all, I'm new on this forum, and this is my first pot. so here goes... I am a modeller, and my Q is this:

1) is a polycount of 5000 to 7000 for an npc character acceptable? (lag and such)



That is a little high, but still decent. For maximum performance and the most detail, according to a benchmarking experiment, models between 2000 and 5000 polygons have the best frame rates for detail. Here's my chart I made:



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2) vehicles? what is a good polycount for vehicles?



That depends on how you want your vehicles and their shape. The fewer the polygons (and vertices) used, the better. For the shape, a distance between vertices of less than 1/8 quant (coordinate unit) is almost meaningless since the human eye can barely pick it out, even at 2048x1536 game resolution.

Some vehicles could get into the 1000's of polygons. Simpler ones in the 200's or so.

Also, remember to use LOD.

"You level up the fastest and easiest if you do things at your own level and no higher or lower" - useful tip My 2D game - release on Jun 13th; My tutorials