Hello. I have modelled a simple character as i can. Tried to reduce triangle count as much as possible. Now my character has 1566 triangles. Is it ok?

What is the optimal triangle count for games? So i can feed this mesh to my engine and it will not die under the pressure? Maybe someone of you have worked in the industry? Can you tell me the number of polygons for characters, that 2011-year and older games were using?

ALSO, check out my model. I need critics. I am not a 3d-artist but a programmer : ) Thanks.

It's necessary to model in quads with good edge flow for animation. Tris don't animate smoothly.

Mostly these days, people just go crazy with the polygon count and retopologize into quads. And really, poly modeling of organic things like animals, people, monsters, etc are now sculpted in ZBrush, Blender or whatever software you prefer and then retopo'd. Then the details from the sculpt can be applied to the model with a special texture known as a normal map.

But you can just model in quads if you really want to.

You can also instead use the mesh you have as a base mesh for sculpting/retopo. You can improve your model by setting all the normals to smooth. That will get rid of the hard edges as long as they are connected.

But don't model in triangles, please.

There is lots of info that others can explain better so here is a video…

ED: These guys are pros, don't let them intimidate you with their skills.

What fleabay's answer describes is modern technology: rendering with shaders computing a detailed 3D shape from affordable amounts of data (a relatively simple base mesh and normal or displacement textures) and modeling with comfortable sculpting tool and extensive automatic processing.

What you seem to be doing, on the other hand, is very old school modeling, with carefully designed triangles, at the uncomfortable detail level that is too complex to be easy to edit but still too coarse to look really good (see the hands, the armpits and the crotch of your figure).

It's hard to tell, without knowing your rendering technology and the intended look of your finished assets and scenes (what kind of game is it?), whether you should embrace modern technology as fleabay suggests (probably the easier route) or adopt a more stylized, “retro” look with a much lower number of triangles (requiring more skill but probably less work than what you have now).

Suggested references for low poly humans and creatures: Quake, Unreal, Virtua Fighter, Darius Gaiden. Are you aiming for a more realistic style?

BANEBYTE said:
ALSO, check out my model. I need critics. I am not a 3d-artist but a programmer : )

Overall proportions look ok, but i doubt it will animate well. You need to rig it, bend legs and arms to see how badly it looks with deformation. Likely you end up adding some edge loops here and there. (1500 triangles is not much - don't worry if you have to increase this.)

Um… there are ripped game models around for reference. I remember a tool ‘XNA Lara’ on Deviant Art website, where people rip skinned models with skeleton form games. Somewhat shady, but a good reference to learn.