HL2 Level poly count?

..yeah..im wondering how heavy are levels in HL2...what is average polycount..anyone has any clues about it??

A level or what you see?
Because HL uses BSP it can use far more polygons and details than a pure polysoup / polygon based level can have.

yup..I know..but how much will be that BSP level regarding poly counts??

does bsp still have proprietry restrictions? If not, whats the best program to make em?

Torque Contsturctor is free and can save out as a .map file. Of course Leadwerks also makes 3DWorld Studio or Cartography Shop ... but why pay when you can get Contructor for free?

don't think DSP has any proprietry restrictions, as far as I know it was the issue with people using id Software's editor to make 'em for other projects.

bsp never hat proprietry restrictions.
But you needed licenses to use the bsp compiler

but that is long time past now ... Valves as IDs bsp compiler can be used now, Hammer 3.4 is even a +- official tool for the torque engine with the official OK from valve ...

the usage of the format never was prprietry ... otherwise DBP and B3D would support it

..mm..andd..polycount?? anyone, aa?

hehe, actually BSP generaly isn't well suited to modern GPU's. Older hardware prefered more low poly meshes which suited maps. But these days modern hardware prefered fewer high poly meshes.

BSP is still handy for quick efficient underlying calculations, but not as usefull as it once was. Much depends on the kind of game your developing.

Check out Nem's Tools "Crafty" for viewing HL2 BSPs. It might have a polycount feature.

You could also export a .map from Hammer, load it in 3D World Studio, and view the brush polycount.

My guess is most levels use about 60,000 polys in BSP geometry.

Can only find polycounts for the character models, was surprised how many Alyx has. Seems to be a lot more than she needs.

HL2 Polycounts:

Soldiers: 4682
Police: 3852
Resistance: 4976
Zombie: 4290
Helicopter: 6415
Strider: 6444
Alyx: 8323

We all know where the polygons go in all 3d female models, hmmm.

That's also only for the highest detail model.

As part of my personal RPG project, I've just finished my HL-2 BSP to B3D model format - ie just now.

What I have done is basically strip away the BSP structure to create a mesh/meshes.

I'm currently looking at a Dark Messiah HL-2 BSP that weighs in at 14MB - 1,695 objects - 187,588 vertices - 57,011 faces.

I can collapse the model into a single mesh that has the same amount of vertices and faces - but is obviously 1 object, instead of 1,695.

I'm still analysing what effect the conversion has into B3D format.

I'll see if I can load up a vanilla HL-2 BSP.

HL-2 works all the way up to Episode Two.

Taking the Lost Coast level. The free one where Valve were showing off the HL-2 engine's new HDR features.

That BSP weighs in at about 5.3MB - 118 objects - 68,328 vertices - 21,147 faces.

Interesingly, there are 3 of them. The second seems to be used in conjunction with the first and weighs in at about 1.7MB - 1 object - 20,927 vertices - 8,434 faces.

The 3rd one is the one they used for the benchmarking - it weighs in at around 5.2MB - 119 objects - 67,731 vertices - 21,028 faces.

I also managed to steal Minas Tirith out of Battle for Middle Earth.

This thing here (not my picture) - it is actually very close to the film version of it: