Customers often have polygon “budgets” or limits for their work, particularly when using assets for games or real-time mobile applications. When you provide your polygon count in the metadata section of the publisher, it is important for you to provide an accurate count. Otherwise, it is possible that a customer will buy your model with one set of expectations, and ultimately find out that they can’t use a model without having to modify it. This can cause returns, and no one wants this.

The most common problem occurs when an artist reports a polygon count that is based on subdivision smoothing rather than the actual base mesh. It’s easy to forget if you have subdivision smoothing on for the various elements of your model. So that you don’t provide an incorrect count, you should turn off subdivision smoothing for all parts of your model before you gather up the polygon count information.

Accidentally capturing the triangle count instead of the polygon count is another issue that artists can encounter. Unless your model is built of all triangles, you should provide the count of both the triangles and quads that are part of your model as one aggregate amount. Since most programs can show both the polygon count and triangle counts, make sure you read the correct one for your model.

Finally, if you have a model that consists of multiple elements (e.g. a car with separate wheels), make sure you select all of the parts and not just the main body or biggest element when reporting the polygon count.