Low Poly vs High Poly Models for Games and the Web
"Low poly" is both a technical budget and an art style. Knowing the difference helps you decide how detailed an asset needs to be, and how to get the most look out of the fewest triangles.
Two meanings of low poly
As a technical constraint, low poly means keeping triangle counts small so a scene runs smoothly on the target hardware, especially phones, web browsers and VR headsets. As an art style, it means deliberately faceted, simple shapes with flat colors that have their own appeal. You can use the style with plenty of performance to spare, or use a constraint without the style, by hiding the low count behind smooth shading and textures.
Why triangle count matters
Every visible triangle must be processed by the graphics card each frame. One prop is nothing; a forest of 500 trees at 10,000 triangles each is five million. Cost also arises from the number of separate objects (draw calls), material complexity and texture size, so triangle count is only one part of performance. Still, it is the easiest lever to control at asset creation time.
Practical budgets
There is no universal figure, since it depends on engine, device and scene. As orientation only:
- Small background props and items seen at a distance: a few hundred to a couple of thousand triangles.
- Main props and enemies on mobile: roughly a few thousand to ten thousand.
- Player characters on desktop: often tens of thousands.
- Web pages showing one product model: usually fine with tens of thousands, but keep total download size in mind.
The best practice is to test on your weakest target device rather than trusting a number from an article, including this one.
Getting detail without triangles
- Textures carry color detail. Panel lines, stitching and dirt can be painted on a texture at zero geometry cost. Our texture step does this for you.
- Normal maps fake small bumps by changing how light bounces off a flat surface. A common technique is to bake the details of a high-poly model onto a normal map applied to a low-poly copy. You can generate a high-poly version from a photo, then decimate it in Blender and bake.
- Silhouette first. Spend your triangles where the outline changes, since that is what the eye notices; flat areas need almost none.
Level of detail (LOD)
Engines can swap a model for simpler versions as it gets further away. A hero prop might have 20,000 triangles up close, 5,000 at mid-range and 1,000 in the distance. You can generate the same photo at several polygon counts (say 20,000, 5,000 and 1,000) to serve as LOD levels, though the meshes will not match exactly, so pop-in may be visible; check the transitions.
Choosing a style
| Goal | Suggestion |
|---|---|
| Stylised, faceted look | Low-poly style at 200 - 1,000 triangles |
| Mobile or web prop | Smooth style at 2,000 - 8,000 triangles, texture on |
| Hero asset on desktop | 20,000 - 50,000 triangles, texture on |
| Block-based look | Use the voxel tool instead; see voxel art |
A workflow that works
- Generate a moderate version (around 10,000) to check the shape.
- Generate the final version at the budget you need; see polygon count explained.
- Download GLB and test in your engine; the steps are in using AI models in game engines.
- Adjust: add texture, reduce or raise triangles, or fix the pivot and scale in your engine.
Try it on your own image
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