But with game models... sure, you can spend 2000 polygons on a turret, but why? It's not like players can actually zoom in close enough to admire how smooth the 40-sided cylinder barrel is compared to a standard 12-sided cylinder one.
Well, my turret are around 140 poly... last optimization have reduce the poly count by 20 without changing the shape ( have lead to sparing more that 3k tri on the whole model )... believe me, i am a maniac when it is related to any type of optimization... by the way, my barrel is 4 side
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Again, it is about modeling technic... i use less poly on little thing and more on the bigger pieces... when i have remake the 40k poly sharlin for the B5 mod, the initial model ( let call it a 3d sketch ) was less that 1k triangle... after 3 pass, model ended at 15k, poly count requested by the mod leader...
- pass 1 and 2 : http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_EpX6GUNLABE/SrbZuvscp0I/AAAAAAAAAME/pnOM-Of7G8g/s1600-h/sharlin.jpg
- pass 3 : http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_EpX6GUNLABE/StIFoLfC56I/AAAAAAAAAUM/e1xc5OGJuJI/s1600-h/sharlin_progress_01.jpg
Work this way because some other game allow a LOD system at the poly level... ship is far, low poly model used, model is near high poly one...
More, in some model, i include a skeleton ( by example for a robot arm or the rotation of turret / elevation of barrel )... and if i have time, i create a pass 4, a very high poly version... put the pass 4 and the pass 3 in the Melody Nvidia tool ( http://www.nvidia.com/object/melody_home.html ) for create high quality normal map for the pass 3 model...
Point is that i am a lazy guy and don't wish to rework a model for the next generation of game engine... maybe it is why i am slow at modeling/texturing...
Point is, don't waste time on something only you will end up knowing is there. Also, lower polygons mean that your model is easier to later modify, fix, UV map etc.
Well, it have happen with the textures from my last model... by example, turret and missile silo are so small that they look mainly like black cube in game... unless you play with the devs.exe and unlock the zoom limit... i have use a lot of time for paint detail that nobody will see... but it is not a wasted time, because it will pay back for a futur sins2 ( or other game ) where i will have less or no work for adapt it to the new level of quality...