Polygon Counts, Bone & Joint Counts, Texture Counts

UPDATE 1: Added sources and updated some numbers. Separated the counts for the bones/blendshapes and the joints:

UPDATE 2: Added texture capacity per character and texels per texture (excluding mods).

UPDATE 3: Added texture capacity per scene (excluding mods).

Note: The "+" indicates "more than".

POLYGON COUNTS

Here are the highest known video game polygon counts:

Polygons Per Character (40,000+)

• Agni's Philosophy (PC, 2012 Demo) - 400,000
• Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge (Wii U, 2012) - 122,883 (21,499 body polygons)
• InFamous: Second Son (PS4, 2014) - 120,000 (60,000 head polygons, 7500 hat polygons)
• Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae (PS4/X1, 2015) - 100,000 (20,000-30,000 hair polygons)
• The Order: 1886 (PS4, 2015) - 100,000
• Star Citizen (PC, 2015 Demo) - 100,000
• Ryse: Son of Rome (X360, 2013) - 85,000
• Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4, 2015 Demo) - 81,000 (over twice TLOU count)
• The Dark Sorcerer (PS4, 2013 Demo) - 67,000
• Watch Dogs (PC/PS4/X1, 2014) - 64,769
• Crysis 3 (PC, 2013) - 60,000
• Dead or Alive 5 (PS3/X360, 2012) - 59,967
• Ninja Gaiden 3 (PS3/X360, 2012) - 58,158
• Halo 4 (X360, 2012) - 55,939 (24,534 body/suit polygons)
• Without Memory (PS4, 2016) - 50,000
• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3, 2009) - 45,000 (4000 hair polygons)
• Bulletstorm (PC/PS4/X360, 2011) - 43,709
• Ninja Gaiden II (X360, 2008) - 41,697
• Tomb Raider (PS3/X360, 2013) - 41,245
• D4 (X1, 2014) - 40,956
• The Last of Us (PS3, 2013) - 40,101
• Virtua Fighter 5 (Arcade, 2005) - 40,000
• Killzone: Shadow Fall (PS4, 2013) - 40,000
• Sunset Overdrive (X1, 2014) - 40,000

Polygons Per Scene/Frame (1 million+)

• Star Citizen (PC, 2015 Demo) - 11 million+
• Infamous: Second Son (PS4, 2014) - 11 million
• Agni's Philosophy (PC, 2012 Demo) - 10 million
• Gran Turismo 5 (PS3, 2010) - 8 million+ (500,000 per car, 16 cars)
• Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae (PS4/X1, 2015) - 5 million
• Halo: Reach (X360, 2010) - 4 million+
• Gunslinger Stratos (Arcade, 2012) - 4 million+
• Dead Rising (X360, 2006) - 4 million
• DriveClub (PS4, 2014) - 3.12 million+ (260,000 per car, 12 cars)
• Crysis (PC, 2007) - 3 million
• Lost Planet (X360/PC/PS3, 2007) - 3 million
• Assassin's Creed: Unity (PC/PS4/X1, 2014) - 3 million
• Project Gotham Racing 3 (X360, 2005) - 1.56 million (1 million for Manhattan Bridge, 80,000 per car, 7 cars)
• The Dark Sorcerer (PS4, 2013 Demo) - 1.1 million (1 million background, 67,000 character)
• Forza Motorsport 4 (X360, 2011) - 1 million+ (1 million for car in Autovista mode)
• MLB 14: The Show (PS4, 2014) - 1 million+
• STALKER: Clear Sky (PC, 2008) - 1 million

Here are the highest known video game polygon counts for their time:

Polygons Per Character (1993-2014)

• Virtua Fighter (Arcade, 1993) - 2600
• Virtua Fighter 3 (Arcade, 1996) - 8000
• Dead or Alive 2 (Arcade, 1999) - 9246
• Shenmue (Dreamcast, 1999) - 14,331
• Sports Jam (Dreamcast, 2000) - 18,357
• Virtua Fighter 4 (Arcade, 2001) - 20,000
• Resident Evil Zero (GameCube, 2002) - 25,000
• Dead or Alive 4 (X360, 2005) - 39,659
• Virtua Fighter 5 (Arcade, 2005) - 40,000
• Ninja Gaiden II (X360, 2008) - 41,697
• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3, 2009) - 45,000
• Halo 4 (X360, 2012) - 55,939
• Ninja Gaiden 3 (PS3/X360, 2012) - 58,158
• Dead or Alive 5 (PS3/X360, 2012) - 59,967
• Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge (Wii U, 2012) - 122,883
• Agni's Philosophy (PC, 2012 Demo) - 400,000

Polygons Per Scene/Frame (1988-2016)

• Winning Run (Arcade, 1988) - 1000
• Virtua Racing (Arcade, 1992) - 3000 (180,000 per second at 60fps)
• Virtua Fighter (Arcade, 1993) - 5420+ (2600 per character, 220+ for background)
• Virtua Fighter 3 (Arcade, 1996) - 33,333 (2 million/sec at 60fps)
• The House of the Dead 2 (Arcade, 1998) - 37,000 (2.2 million/sec at 60fps)
• Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast, 1998) - 50,000
• Dead or Alive 2 (Arcade, 1999) - 70,500 (51,894 background, 9246 character)
• Shenmue (Dreamcast, 1999) - 100,000 (57,150 background, 14,261 character)
• F355 Challenge (Arcade, 1999) - 150,000 (3 screens, 3 million/sec per screen, 60fps)
• Test Drive Le Mans (Dreamcast, 2000) - 166,666 (5 million/sec, 30fps)
• Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (GameCube, 2001) - 250,000 (15 million/sec, 60fps)
• Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike (GameCube, 2003) - 333,333 (20 million/sec, 60fps)
• Virtua Fighter 5 (Arcade, 2005) - 380,000 (300,000 for background, 40,000 per character)
• Project Gotham Racing 3 (X360, 2005) - 1.56 million (1 million for Manhattan Bridge, 80,000 per car, 7 cars)
• Dead Rising (X360, 2006) - 4 million
• Halo: Reach (X360, 2010) - 4 million+
• Gran Turismo 5 (PS4, 2010) - 8 million+ (500,000 per car, 16 cars)
• Agni's Philosophy (PC, 2012 Demo) - 10 million
• Infamous: Second Son (PS4, 2014) - 11 million
• Star Citizen (PC, 2015 Demo) - 11 million+

BONE & JOINT COUNTS

Here are the highest counts for the bones/blendshapes and joints:

Bones/Blendshapes Per Character

• Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae (PS4/X1, 2015) - 600 (150 for face, 300 for hair & clothes, 150 for body)
• Ryse: Son of Rome (X1, 2013) - 500 (230 for head, including 30 for face)
• InFamous: Second Son (PS4, 2014) - 500
• The Dark Sorcerer (PS4, 2013 Demo) - 388
• The Order: 1886 (PS4, 2015) - 130+ (130 for head)
• Yakuza 3 (PS3, 2009) - 107 (43 for head, 64 for body)
• Average PS3/360 Games - 50

Joints Per Character

• Ryse: Son of Rome (X1, 2013) - 700 (260 for head, including 80 for face)
• Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae (PS4/X1, 2015) - 600+ (150+ for face, 300+ for hair & clothes, 150+ for body)
• InFamous: Second Son (PS4, 2014) - 500+
• The Order: 1886 (PS4, 2015) - 250+ (250 for head)
• Yakuza 3 (PS3, 2009) - 107+ (43+ for head, 64+ for body)
• Average PS3/360 Games - 50+

TEXTURE COUNTS

And finally, texture counts (excluding unofficial mods)...

Texture Capacity Per Character (Texels Per Texture)

• The Dark Sorcerer (PS4, 2013 Demo) - 150 MB
• Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae (PS4/X1, 2015) - 30 MB (4096×4096)
• InFamous: Second Son (PS4, 2014) - 28 MB
• Ryse: Son of Rome (X1, 2013) - ? (4096×4096)
• Star Citizen (PC, 2016) - ? (4096×4096)

Texture Capacity Per Scene/Frame (Texels Per Texture)

• The Order: 1886 (PS4, 2015) - 2 GB (1024×1024)
• Agni's Philosophy (PC, 2012 Demo) - 1.8 GB
• Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae (PS4/X1, 2015) - 1.6 GB (4096×4096)
• GRID Autosport (PC/PS3/X360, 2014) - ? (4096×4096)
• InFamous: Second Son (PS4, 2014) - 200 MB+
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PC/PS4/X1, 2015) - ? (2048×2048)
• Average PS3/360 Games - 50-100 MB
• Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (GameCube, 2001) - ? (512×512)
• Shenmue (Dreamcast, 1999) - 25 MB
• Virtua Fighter 3 (Arcade, 1996) - 8 MB
• Fighting Vipers (Arcade, 1995) - 4 MB (128×128)
• Daytona USA (Arcade, 1993) - 4 MB
• Sim Drive (Arcade, 1992) - 128 KB (64×64)

Any more?

Rouge squadron 2 - 15 million

:O

That's polygons per second. Rogue Squadron II uses 250,000 polygons per scene, at 60 fps, giving it 15 million polygons per second.

Look at all those polygons! :O

Hmm I skimmed the thread too fast. Thought it seemed silly for a gamecube game to have so many, but that game was impressive :p

Whats Starfox at?

...original Virtua Fighter?

@Blabadon This is important because?

Real life - 3000 billion polygons per scene :)

The SNES's Super FX chip in 1993 was reportedly able to do only a few hundred polygons per second. Since Star Fox ran at around 15 fps, that would work out to around 30 polygons per scene.

The original Sega Model 1 arcade version of Virtua Fighter in 1993 used 2300 polygons per character. The Saturn port in 1994, however, only used 550 polygons per character, but with textures and Gouraud shading to make up for it. The background used only 220 polygons for the Saturn version, but I'm not sure about the arcade version (it was most likely higher). Assuming the background was also 220 for the arcade version, that would work out to at least 4820 polygons per scene for the Model 1 arcade version and 1320 polygons per scene for the Saturn version.

Allow me to be the first one to say it: Who fucking cares?

I agree. Kudos to those developers not afraid to push the polygon count. I like round to look round close up instead of round at a distance and polygon-looking close up.

Sega did an amazing job, artistically, on those model 1 games. Are you referring to the remix VF on saturn? The first one is all flat shaded. I thought the remix was rather ugly. It is a shame that the 32x version is actually better than the saturn one.

This got me thinking though. Now I could be wrong but did the Nintendo 64 really only draw what was on screen? I'm thinking polygon counts and I'm thinking of Twisted Metal and its low framerate and psx hardware. The polygon count on that game seems pretty low on a scene by scene basis. Did psx/saturn have to render whole areas even outside of player view?

...i might not be making sense.

@Zen_Light: Are you actually stupid

I guess you can admire the numbers but at the end of the day it is what our eyes tell us. "My God, it's full of stars"

Looks like the x1 can't push any polys. It does have 6 billion transistors, tho.

This is true, yet even to this day there is something about flat shaded games. There is no trickery. What is there, is there.

Star citizen 7 million?

thats wrong the bengal carrier a single capital ship is 7 million polygons just by itself, a city scape scene was roughly 30 million when landing and each ship is from 300,000-1million and the characters are 100,000+...where did you get the numbers i suspect more are wrong

Star citizens scenes are going to be from about 5- 40 million polygons depending on the scene

But saying all that who actually gives a toss about polygons nowadays.

Sounds horribly optimised, gonna need a super computer to render that at 60 FPS.

what?

This is not the 90's video cards have advanced,its not difficult for a PC card to push that many polygons...where have you been

how does a game pushing a lot of polygons mean its horribly optimised?????

I suspect you don't know much about hardware or software right?

Crazy when compared to a film like Avatar, which is in the billions.

To be fair, I think we should rate finished products to be on the safe side.

I'll be the second then ....

The Saturn version of the first Virtua Fighter used some texture mapping, but only for the eyes, ears and mouth. VF Remix was fully texture-mapped.

I think what you might be referring to is hidden surface determination? As far as I'm aware, the first console to use that technique was the Dreamcast. However, some games on the N64 might appear to have lower polygon counts because they are handling a lot more effects, such as anti-aliasing and texture filtering, which the PS1 or Saturn couldn't do. If the effects are reduced to match the PS1 or Saturn, then the N64 would easily outperform them.

I don't think that poly count is that relevant anymore with the bazillion of post process effects that devs use in the games these days.

Spirit Within's characters are supposed to have 500,000 polygons yet all the characters look worse than The Order's 100,000. Like outdated as ****.

David Cage will be happy.

I've raised Star Cruiser to 10 million, just to be safe, until Cloud Imperium give a more official figure of the overall polygons per scene.

250 head joints??? Dayum! Dat mocap tho. :O I really want to see that rig. :P

Not fine to rate which game has the biggest polygon count But its fine for you lot to over rate how good a game will be and over hype them before they are out?

Riight. :D

None of what you said applies to my post.

I have no idea what you are talking about nor do I care. I simply suggested finished products should be rated (if there is to be ratings at all).

Yes it does :) it also applies to and your comment ;)

No it doesn't. ;)

It makes no sense. It applies to whoever you were having an imaginary conversation with, because it's full of random illogical assumptions. ;)

Rate Polygons all you want. Have critics rate games...but have them rate the polys and games when they are complete.

Really meaningless numbers.

because it's full of random illogical assumptions. ;)

HAHAHA like you can talk champ :P

Polygons dont mean jack if the game is crap.

Impressive numbers though

And you have 6 brain cells at most.

Infamous SS, 120k per character, max 10 on screen because it can't push it => 1.2mil polygons. SSOD, 40k per character, easily 50 on screen => 2mil polygons. And that's without scenery.

You must be on something.

It's clearly a dumb statement as a reaction to a dumb statement. Try to keep up.

Jelly?

Peanut Butter?

About what?

Sense?

****, I thought this thread was going to be about how Polygon (the SJW clickbait website) was somehow relevant for anything related to gaming.

That your precious exclusives are nowhere near Star Citizen's league.

Huh?

I'm buying Star Citizen. I have four gaming PCs and in every Star Citizen thread in SW I've always said I'm looking forward to the game.

Star Citizen is a precious exclusive that I'll be owning.

This is a "polygon counting" thread, lol. How the hell did you make that colossal leap of logic based on me saying we should wait for a finished product?

Star citizen

One-man Ships - What people will likely see most often

These are ships mostly used by a single person, like the Aurora and the 300 Series.

• 300i, with engine, power plant & landing gear: 178,323
• 315p: 170,252
• 325a: 169,358
• 350r: 170,223
• Aurora LX: 326,392
• Hornet: 300,000^[1][2]
• P52 Merlin: 315,652

Multiple-crew Ships

These are for ships that can support more than one person, like the Freelancer and the Constellation, but aren't larger than an Idris.

• Constellation: 1,549,723
• Cutlass: 718,813
• Freelancer: 1,606,338

Large-scale Ships

Ships like the Bengal Class Carrier.

• Bengal Class Carrier: 7,503,016 - This is probably for the exterior only.
• Bengal Class Carrier Hanger: Under 2 million.

Don't have a count on the 6km long mining station from Squadron 42 chapter one yet.

The large ships do not have loading screens when you leave them. If you fly from the deck of a Bengal in a Hornet and fly past the command deck with a mate at the window, you'll be able to wave at each other.

Sauce

High on life, just high on life, and you of course ;)

Also source would be nice as well.