Maximum poly count in Unity

Hello,

I have been trying to figure this one out, but can't seem to. I know that the poly count ultimately depends on the targeted platform, but the Unity docs say this:

"The number of polygons you should use depends on the quality you require and the platform you are targeting. For mobile devices, somewhere between 300 and 1500 polygons per mesh will give good results, whereas for desktop platforms the ideal range is about 1500 to 4000."

Now, I am kind of a newbie to game dev, but aren't those numbers EXTREMELY low?

I see devs in many forums talking about numbers way above those, speaking of thousands and even millions.

I really hope someone can clarify this for me.

 

Maybe the documentation page is outdated or maybe it's meant in a different context? Can you post the link to the page please?

 

Also context is important, if you want a ton of characters on screen and you’re targeting mobile 1500 tris is reasonable.

 

This is the link. It's in the 2019 manual, if I am not mistaken:

https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/ModelingOptimizedCharacters.html

 

Yeah seems outdated.

 

I see. So what would be the actual current numbers?

 

There are no numbers. On most platforms you are much more likely to lose performance from something like fillrate or shader complexity than actual geometry, so I don't really know what to tell you.