Where can I find game tests?

[NeoNautica]

Stainless Steel Studios has a art test of making a low poly Nina (ship) from a reference pic they give you. Art Test can be found here. (http://www.stainlesssteelstudios.com/jobs/ArtTest2.html)

EA has a test of modeling a WWII truck, but its not on their site. Here is an example of it (http://www.bobolo.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=000197;p=)

Terminal Reality has a art test of modeling part of a gothic cathedral hall. Its not on their site, but an example can be found here. (http://www.bobolo.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=000191;p=)

[Lightbased]

can any of the people here who are in the gaming industry say what specs they are using right now on the models they are making? Could you give the poly count limit, maximum number of textures to be used and there sizes. Plus what is the nature of the model. Main character, background model, vehicle, etc, etc...

Thanks.

[Artician]

Alot of this you will learn from experience, and what people in the industry tell you should only be taken as guidelines because it varies greatly depending on what kind of project you are working on.

For characters, most of todays models range from 3000 to 8000 polys. Some of the higher end consoles have characters up around 12000 polys, but that's getting up there.
If you're just learning to model for games it's best to model at the lower end when you start out. Just work around the 3k mark for a few weeks until you get the hang of defining the shape of a character with as few polys as possible, limiting your mesh density in particular areas to make it animate as smoothly as possible. Doing this will get you tons of experience on the more technical side of character modeling. Once you go up in detail from there your models will benefit greatly from these abilities.
Environments are the most different. If you're developing a title that has a top-down perspective (i.e. Neverwinter Nights), then the game camera won't take as many polys into view from the total environment, and you can splurg a bit more. If you're developing a first person shooter, you have to limit the count of your individual models, or limit the areas that are viewable at any one time in order to compensate for the number of polys on the screen at the same time. A full level for a first person shooter can be anywhere from 35k to 250k+ (someone correct me if I'm wrong on that last part, it could be more), depending on the target hardware and the type of engine you're building it in. This is something that you will have to learn by researching existing games, and your own trial and error.
Unfortunately there's no way I could break down individual model poly counts (like background objects and vehicles), because it varies so much for the type of game. But this is where you're ability to model with technical experience is priceless. Your goal should be to get something to look as good as possible with the smallest amount of polygons. Use existing games as reference, and then try to create something better. You need to snag a game engine somewhere, create your artwork, and test it out. If it doesn't work well, then identify your problem and redo your content.

Textures vary quite a bit between console and PC games. The size of your textures directly affect the amount of RAM taken up on your target machine. On a console, some machines have incredibly little RAM to spare, so the lower end would be around 128x128 size textures for characters, and 128x128 and lower for environments.
PCs have scads of RAM, and can dynamically adjust the textures in memory for machines that don't have as much available. This makes PCs MUCH easier to develop for, as you can get textures up as high as 1024x1024 for characters and environments in many titles on todays PCs.
The same recommendation that went for modeling goes for textures as well; start small. See how much detail you can work into a texture before trying to create a massive master piece. If you give yourself too much room to work when starting out, you'll get sloppy quickly and your work will suffer. Your goal should be to become an god-like graphic-development *machine*. Get the best possible looking visuals while using the least amount of space. If you can do this, you'll have a job in no time.

Just remember to practice, practice, practice. You are going to have to put a long time and a lot of work into this artform to be able to compete in this field, so if you have a strong will and perservere, you'll do fine. Just don't give up, because it will never be easy.

Good luck!

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