Quick note for those of you working on a Warframe helmet right now: we're increasing the maximum tri count!
A lot has changed in Warframe in the past 3.5 years that TennoGen has been around, including more complex helmets and Warframes. So, to reflect the added complexity -- including FX and cloth details that you have with Warframes like Revenant and Wisp -- we are increasing the Alt Helmet tri count from 5000 to 8000. The guides have been updated, so this change is in effect immediately.
We've put a lot of careful thought and research into this polygon limit increase. As our game has grown and evolved, we've seen many complex new Warframes Join the Ranks, with helmets that have flowing cloth, moving parts, and intricate forms pushing the polygon count higher and higher.
While other categories of items have been kept fairly consistent in their polygon counts throughout the years, the Warframes themselves have grown in complexity. We feel it's time to increase the limit on helmets so TennoGen creators can see their own creations grow the same way.
This isn't to say that efficient topology on your lowpoly creations is any less important; in fact, the opposite is true. Regardless of your design, you are still expected to create a game-ready asset for Warframe: please pay attention to the character's polygon density and use that as a guide for how small your polygons should be. Remember to do test bakes often and zoom out to view creations at in-game distance to see if that tiny bevel leading into an even tinier emissive light is absolutely necessary. Get rid of lowpoly detail where your design never breaks the silhouette as you turn the piece, and let the normal map do the work on those parts. Every polygon should represent a significant change in surface direction. Make each one count!
We will be looking over each helmet's lowpoly model with great care when we are testing pieces that are close to acceptance, so that we can help you reduce polygons in places where they are too dense/not needed. This especially applies to pieces with higher polygon counts. Please keep this in mind when designing a cohesive piece, as excessive embellishments are usually not necessary to communicate a strong base design.
Auto-remeshing tools should be avoided, as they tend to create topology that violates the logic of edgeflow and polygon efficiency. For example: Such tools don't understand where the bottom/connection point of a helmet is, and might create a very dense mesh there that will never be seen. It can't tell what details are important to the silhouette of the piece, or where you might want a certain density/edge Flow for cloth. It's always best to learn how to create good topology by hand for maximum efficiency.
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