Hardware Guidelines

Tutorial Author:Clifton Poli

Minimum game requirements:

CPU: 1 ghz Intel compatible

System Memory: 256MB

Graphics card: GeForce 3 or GeForce 4

Recommended game requirements:

CPU: 2ghz + Intel compatible

System Memory: 512MB+

Graphics card: Radeon 9700, 9800, or higher.

Guidelines

Characters

Average recommended Polycount: 3,000-12,000

Weapons

Average recommended Polycount: 3,000-6,000

Vehicles

Average recommended Polycount: 3,000-12,000

Level

Average recommended inview Polycount: 200,000 - 1,200,000

The amount of polygons that make up the entire level is virtually unlimited

Recommended mesh count (drawn) in view: 200-1000

Total recommended mesh counts in level: 1000-8000

Texture usage:

Texture count is indirectly CPU dependant, becuase the more textures on screen = higher drawn count (meshes), and mesh count is cpu dependant. Combining multiple smaller textures into a single larger texture can help performance considerably. There are no hard-and-fast rules for texture sizes, but multiple 2048x2048 textures are common for large or important objects. The majority of game objects use at least a diffuse texture, and can also use other textures such as a normal map or a specular map for added realism or effects. However, the type and use of textures, as well as how they are stored, are solely dependent on the shaders in your application.