   Designing a car for game
  Hey everyone,   As I am new here so I am posting to the Beginners forum. First of all, sorry for my english, I am trying my best. So here is the deal: I want to make a 3D game (as most of you do) mostly about cars. Nowadays I am learning the way to actually make a car itself, but I have to take into consideration all the interactive parts I'm planing to use. As if my plans will come true, I am wiling to make something more or less like street legal with at least one car(city, cars and tuning as the main idea).   My main concern now is car detail, how many polygons and etc. I attached (I hope I did) a photo of front quarter or even less of a car just for you to see if I am going the right way. What I mean is: should I reduce the polygon count or can I increase the number of them while designing the rest of the car, keeping in mind as I move on I'll design the engine, exhaust etc. ?    Second thing is because I am starting everything from scratch maybe I should use just 16 mesh car (almost a box) for putting things together, graphics and game engine writing etc.   Thank you for your time reading this (and ofcourse for replying)!   P.S. I was trying to search gamedev.net and google for polygon counts on cars but maybe I missed something, so links would be helpful aswell.   
  If you're designing a car, it's best to work with NURBS surfaces first, and if the software has it, convert that to subdivision surfaces later on to give you the detail of NURBS with the added control and flexibility of polygons. As it stands right now, that mesh is too complex for real-time rendering purposes (considering how many cars there will be, and the environments they will be racing in). Maybe if it's for a next-generation console, but otherwise it's too much geometry. Many modern games use bump mapping to simulate extra surfaces without having to create extra polygons.You should finish the car as you're doing right now, and then create a copy, and convert that one to your low-polygon game model. Also remember to convert the quads to triangles, which are preferred for games. Perhaps use a polygon proxy model so you can fine-tune the geometry detail without having to alter the original. This way you can use the original model for FMV cutscenes, promo shots, etc.   ;  Thank you for your opinion. I was trying different techniques of designing a car like box, mesh, path, NURBS modelling but the easiest one I found is path modelling (dunno if you understand me, I use terms used in 3Ds max). Well maybe then I'll have to improve my skills and knowledge in NURBS modelling as somehow I find it a bit inaccurate, but that's my problem and area where I can improve. Thanks again!   ;  I just modelled a car from vertices.  Surface are the best but i never use them much due to lack of using them before.  I would post a pic for you but im not sure if i can on this forum or not.  If you are looking for a sweet software package, get blender. its free and amazing. pick up the book with it too.   ;  So I did as you said Chris, I used NURBS, althought it's a bit harder I might get used to it quite soon. The first pic is when I first modeled this part with NURBS and the second reducing the amount of Surface CV by hand. Although, I am not sure as if it is enough, but I (still) don't know how could I reduce even more CV's without changing cars appearance too much, it would loose its main curves.dpadam450 it would be really nice to see your final pics with surface edges displayed, unfortunately you can't upload pics here, so maybe you could send few pics to email (which should be shown in my profile).