"Is there a certain terminology I should use when communicating with the client when describing how they need to optimize?"
This model can probably be cut to 1/10th of the polys. For real-time engines, you need to tell them to model as if this was going into a low-end game engine (think Wii not xbox.) What I always say is not to reduce the poly count of a high-res model. Just model from scratch using the least polygons possible and bake details into textures. One nice tool to integrate into the pipeline is PreFab. The modelers can use it to test their models in the Away3D engine and see how they will look and perform. They can even tweak UV mapping, bake shadows, etc. Prefab is brilliant and will save you a lot of time! Using normal maps will help with curved/organic objects. If you are not familiar with them, normal maps are rendered using a high-res model and then applied to a low res-version. The data is used to calculate shading and makes the object look high-res and smooth the sharp edges of low triangle model. There are demos of using normal- maps in Away3D in the source code, they do impact performance. If you still need high poly count, then you should look at Unity, at least until next year when molehill is released. ath. Jerome.
