EXCLUSIVE TO PLANET LARA

"Wearing the outfit and gear that’s been seen in published screen shots so far, Lara Croft currently has 32,816 polygons.

That number is really deceptive, however, because polygon density is no longer the most meaningful measure of character fidelity. Rather than just drawing a texture with perhaps a light/shadow pass and a bump map, as was done in the past, Next-Gen hardware does a lot more work on each of those polygons every frame, so they deliver a lot more than what was once essentially a coat of paint.

Each polygon is rendered out after being processed and calculated for color, texture, specularity (reflectivity), ambient occlusion (a form of shadowing), and more. If you zoom into Lara’s sleeves you can see the bumpy weave of the fabric and you’d swear it couldn’t be a flat polygon because it appears to have bulk and reacts differently depending on the angle of incident light.

It’s almost impossible to tell now what elements are actually modeled in 3D and what is a powerful shader on a flat surface. Such is the power of modern shaders and other tech, that each polygon benefits from a lot of specialized calculations that make it appear much more complex in real time than the polygon count might imply."

ERIC LINDSTROM - CREATIVE DIRECTOR

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On an interesting side-note intrepid adventurer, Lara Croft, is head and shoulders above the competition again as shrewd Crystal Dynamics focus their passion on Lara's next-gen credentials, meaning Lara out-polygons Nathan Drake, star of rival game Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Uncharted's lead character artist 'Richard Daimant' was recently quoted saying - "Nathan Drake and the other main characters are in the upwards of 25k to 30k polygons. Probably one of the highest for a next gen game."

Unfortunately for Naughty Dog, it seems the sharp minds at Crystal Dynamics are one step ahead when it comes to producing realistic graphics. The arrival of this news also means that we are able to announce our long-awaited winner of the exclusive Tomb Raider Statuette competition launched on the 29th January this year.