What you need to know about polygon count and when do you need to worry about it.
Level: Basic

Polygons and Poly Count

Surfaceof any 3D object in The Sims 2 game is made of triangles that are called polygons.The number of the polygons the object has is what’s known as polygon count or poly count of that object. The more complicated the shape of theobject is, the more polygons it usually has.

When do you need to worry about Poly Count?

Thehigher the polygon count of the object, the more computer resources the gamewill need to display that object on your screen. If your computer is notpowerful enough, high number of polygons may visibly slow down your game. Ifyour computer is mid or low range and you notice that your game slows down whenyou start adding objects to a lot, it might be a good idea to start checkingpoly count of custom objects you download, avoiding the ones with high poly.

Recommended Poly Count

Maxisown recommendation to object creators is 1500 polygons per tile. But fromexperience of many 2000 polygons per tile should be an average maximum.Some Maxis objects are even higher than that. However, you have to decide foryourself what is acceptable for your own game. There are many users who testedhigh poly objects and had their game running just fine. It really depends onyour computer. Still, I think it is ethical for an object creator to try andfit his creations into recommended polygon limit.

What does “per tile” mean?

Playfield in the game is divided by a grid. You have seen it already, it becomesvisible when you enter Buy or Build mode. One grid is what we refer to as onetile. A single object in the game can occupy one or several tiles. You can tellthe number of tiles the object takes by the number of green rectangularplaceholders under the object when you pick it up from a catalog.

Thenumber of polygons per tile refers to the total number of polygons an objecthas divided by the number of tiles the object occupies. Don’t forget about thatwhen you check the poly count of an object.

Example

Let’ssay you downloaded a flower vase and a sofa and both of them about 4500polygons. The sofa will still fall within acceptable range, it occupies 3 tilesin the game, 4500/3=1500 polygons per tile. The vase however is over therecommended limit, 4500/1=4500 per tile. You can use similar calculation todecide on any custom object you download. Also keep in mind how many of thoseobjects are usually on the lot. If just one, it might be still acceptable foryou.

Recolors do not have Poly Count

Donot confuse custom object mesh with object recolor. Mesh is an object createdwith the use of a 3D program – a chair, a statue, or a door. It normally has adifferent shape that any object that came with the game. Recolor is basicallyjust a color of that mesh. The chair can be green, yellow, or polka dot – allthose would be recolors of that chair. You can have any (reasonable) number ofrecolors in your game, they do not slow down your game that much compare to themeshes.

Exceptions

Bodyand hair meshes can have a much higher polygon count than objects. I’m notaware of any recommended poly count limit for those. However, you still need tounderstand that 30,000 poly hair mesh will require a lot more resources fromyour computer than a 3,000 poly one. You should take that into account as wellif you watching your “poly diet”.

How to check Poly Count of a mesh?

Ifa creator of a custom mesh did not indicate its poly count, you can check thaton your own with the use of SimPE program (http://sims.ambertation.de/). Open themesh package in SimPE. Locate Geometric Data Container in the list onthe left and select it. Note, if you do not see it in the list, it is not amesh file. Now click on the Geometric Data Container on the right. The PluginView below will change.

Numberof Faces indicated in the Plugin View will be the number ofpolygons that object mesh has. Note that some objects might have multipleGeometric Data Containers. In that case you should total the number of faces inall of them. Don’t forget to divide the poly count by the number of tiles theobject occupies to give you the real picture.

How to scan your Downloads for poly count?

Youcan scan your Downloads folder with SimPE program to see the global picture ofpolygon counts of all the custom objects you have. Start SimPE, select Tools menu and then Scan Folders.

Thiswill open Folder Scanner window. By default the scanner is set to yourDownloads folder, but you can change that if needed. Select Mesh Scanner checkbox in Active Scanners list and remove all the others. Select Recursive checkbox. Press Scan button.

Once the scan is complete, you will see the list of all the custom meshes andrecolors you have. Notice that polygons are once again called Faces in thisview.

Scrolldown the list to see the polygon count for all of the custom objects in yourDownloads folder.