polygons

#1 54000 faces ! wow !
You should use the "multires" item on your tree.
Knowing that when there is a tree there are a lot of trees , you should decrease the face number below 5000.
You probably know where iss "multires" : in the modify panel , click "modifier list" and search "multires".

Or maybe this is a veryvery beautiful tree ? Send us a photo !

#2 Ouch..
5000 polies, sure if you only want one tree in the viewport..

lets be honest here ..
a 2000 poly character in the screen can seriously degrade the framerate on even a gforce3.

#3 my old celeron 566 and my old TNT2 work fine with around 6000 faces in the screen.

#4 Uhm..myabe with 6000 faces it did, but that doesn't mean it will work fine with hundreds of 5000 polygon trees, will it? cause that would be more then 50 000 faces:)

#5 umm yes ..
I did not mention that a game was playing in the background ..
with a possible exhisting 30,000 - 50,000 polies..

then adding the tree to that.
or for my example the 2000 poly character.

#6 I believe that the trees used in RealmWars around just between 400 and 500 polygons, so that's the target (both polygon count and visual quality) that you should be aiming for in my opinion.

You should be trying to keep you polygon counts as tight as possible so that the engine can perform optimial while maintaining a very professional appearance. Also remember that there is nothing worse than having to go back and "fix" your models at a later date due to excessive polygon counts.

Logan

#7 well honestly its not a good tree. compared to what i see on the net. ive only been messing w/ 3ds max for about 3 months. the tree itself only had i think around 50 faces. i made a particle system with 100 particles and made a leaf out a plane (textured w/ a scaned leaf from outside, using diffuse and opacity) i copied the particle system and filled the tree with it. what is the best way to make leaves on a tree w/ a low poly count (for games). any tips would be appriciated.

thanks!
mark

#8 sorry for doing 2 posts, i should have asked this in my previous, what exactly is the difference between Faces and Polygons? how many faces to a polygon (or vise versa)

thanks again!
mark

#9 Most people tend to use a plane and then create a texture map of leaves with an alpha for opacity to simulate the canopy/leaves of a tree. It is very kind on the polygons that it uses up and can produce a very nice result.

Logan

#10 Number of faces in polygon depends on the polygon. A face in 3DS max is a triangle. So if you have a square polygon you have two faces, a pentagon has three faces and so on.

Alc

#11 is there a tutorial somewhere on how to do a good tree model? this would be useful for almost any modeler.

#12 Hmm, you can look for tutorials on www.3dlinks.com and here are some low poly tree models people did for competition.....well, sort of..http://www.cgchat.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5074