[Unity] - Apartment Environment
polycounter lvl 11
By rrxiii at 2012-07-27
This is going to be the main hub for an educational game that a friend and I are working on. But it's basically my first finished environment, and I know it could be better, but lack the experience to identify areas that can be improved. It's supposed to be clean, but I can't help feeling that some areas are just too empty and bland. I could probably remedy this by creating more props to populate it and that is what I am doing, but any suggestions would help.
Also for an environment of this size, what is a rough estimate of how big the lightmaps should be? At the moment the scene uses 60x1024x1024 dual lightmaps, which I think may be too much although I have no experience to compare it to.
Also would it be better to use props with more geometry / no normal maps over low poly props with normal maps? For this scene I tried to bake normal maps for every prop, and rounded out the corners of the walls and roofs with more geometry.
Replies
Id say its pretty good considering that. The top down shot is pretty nice.
Yea definitely add more props if you can. Get some more pictures on some of those bare walls...get a table in the kitchen...maybe a chest or a rug on the floor at the foot of the bed.
Jimminy Christmas! Yeah thats a lot. You can afford to go pretty small with lightmaps, especially on textured surfaces. Just throwing a number out there, but try to go with maybe 128 on the larger objects and less on the smaller ones.
Any question like this is going to warrant an "it depends" type answer. I personally would have not normal mapped every single prop...for instance the faucet, tissue box, toilet paper, etc...that would be overkill. If your adding a little bit of geo, like beveling the walls for better highlights....then that is the best way to go.
Your environment feels really flat to me, you have this super clean look going on...throw some cube mapped reflections on the hardwood floors and the bathroom tiles.
In general I'd say you've got the right idea as far as just adding props. I think what you want to go for is the idea that the space is lived in - think about what each room is for, and what kind of objects would be placed/left there based on that function. A recent game that I felt really did this effectively was Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Also, reference, reference, reference! In this case you can probably get a good amount of mileage just from looking around your own house/apartment/whatever.
A few points about this image:
*Make sure your props are the right scale. Some things look slightly off - the size of the tiles on the wall, the toilet paper vs. the toilet, the sink handles, etc - not glaringly so, but there seem to be some slight scale discrepancies. I didn't correct much of this in the paintover. Also use reference for your props - Although I'm admittedly not very cultured and sharp-edged toilets might actually be a thing that exists, pretty much every toilet I've ever seen has been very smooth.
*Think about what kind of objects you'd need in a given room to make it 'livable'. In a bathroom, we're gonna need a trash basket, some kleenex, a hand towel, maybe some other towels, something to read, soap, extra toilet paper rolls, etc. Make a list of stuff like this and throw it in the scene. Also there are some design tropes that are always present in a given piece of interior architecture, like the drawers under the sink, or the trim along the floor AND ceiling. Actually, I think that's a handy tip in general for environments: TRIM EVERYWHERE
*Also think about the kind of decorations people tend to use, and how they would arrange them. In this case I've make more framed photos like the one you had already, and figured that the people might also put some flowers by the sink. Also, you hardly ever see a bathroom without a mat in front of the sink/toilet, or some kind of stupid holder or shelves for magazines of knick knacks. Reference is super handy for getting ideas about this.
As far as normal mapping props: If it's big, and it's relatively likely that you'll see the effects of the normal map in a significant way, I'd say go for it; otherwise, don't worry about it. You also can only normal map big important props, and leave stuff like the toilet paper roll without normal maps if you want. The perspective of the game can make a difference too - in an FPS, you're more likely to get up close to everything and notice small details; in a third person game, you'll never be able to tell that the kleenex box doesn't have a normal map. Conversely, limiting geometry can sometimes cause sharp corners that DO attract attention.
Hope some of that was helpful, good luck!