Making Modular Terrain, Rocks and Teacups
polycounter lvl 18
Ok, so if theres one thing I have NEVER got right, its terrain in any way, shape or form. Be it lighting, modular pieces, rocks, detail, foliage or slender loris, Ive never quite got it right, and for some reason seem to struggle in ways that most people seem to be able to just excel at.
So, Im going to use this thread as a sort of launch pad if you will, to try and show how I do things, pick up hopefully a multitude of tips, and maybe, just maybe, sort that slender loris out for good.
So first things first, what kind of terrain are we talking about? Well, Im not talking epic X square mile terrains, or something you would find in an open world game. Im talking more along the lines of something you would get up close and personal with, something you could have in say COD. I will be looking at distance later on, but for now, lets just say I dont need to draw miles upon miles. I just need to draw the immediate area from, say, Fallout, or Skyrim.
So, what will I need? Well, Ill need a base terrain mesh. This is a low detailed, smooth mesh that covers the entire section of our terrain. It can/will be vertex painted as required, but is otherwise a fast process. On top of that, is where my issues lies. I need to create modular rocks, that is rocks I can place with random orientation, rotation, scale etc, and create a believable looking terrain. Examples of which are:
So these rocks are clearly made of modular assets that vary in tris count and detail, ranging from quite low, almost blob like base meshes with tiled surfaces, to larger, more complex detailed shapes, that will provide a little more visual detail for the terrain when viewed as a whole. Of course they also include lod models, but for this exercise and at this moment, I dont need to worry about automatic lod popping. Once the rocks are done, and I get a decent enough visual style with them, I can fix making multiple lods for each mesh later. Also, the engine I use currently culls any tris that has all three verts into a surface (such as terrain). This means I dont need to worry about deleting unseen triangles.
BE WARNED What you are about to view contains high traces of shite, and you may need a beer or two after. Any help, tutorials, examples (in forms of tuts or meshes) helps save my computer screen from going through the window.
Ok, so, lets start
Step one: Create some small high poly pieces that we can use to create larger modular meshes. So, Ill start with three:
Now, I use these few basic shapes to create a few more, more complex shapes. So I get these high polies from them:
Now, at this point I know I need to do much larger more complex shapes, flat shapes etc. Some examples would be great.
Ok, so I take these high poly pieces, create a low poly mesh, Boolean, texture, render normals etc etc, and I get these:
Now at this stage, I would take these models, and also create a few separate materials for them. They would range from a 1x scale material, that would be a normal, hand painted d/n/s set. Then, the larger, 2x, 4x and 8x materials, would use tiled textures instead, which would blend together the sculpted normal map as well as a blended edge texture. This allows me to create models that are the size of a mountain if needed, but still have nice texture quality when looked at. I also make a single, ultra low poly mesh that uses the same textures and still looks fine. This is used in cases where I need detail, but not too much, such as poly heavy areas.
Anyway, at this point I will always fall apart, because no matter what I do, it will look like total shite. Likely because my first few meshes simply are no good, at all, for modularity in this way.
So what next? What should my actual modular pieces look like? How do I spread them over the terrain? Just how do I make coffee with old socks?
Any help guys, at all, would be awesome, because Im going out of my mind
So, Im going to use this thread as a sort of launch pad if you will, to try and show how I do things, pick up hopefully a multitude of tips, and maybe, just maybe, sort that slender loris out for good.
So first things first, what kind of terrain are we talking about? Well, Im not talking epic X square mile terrains, or something you would find in an open world game. Im talking more along the lines of something you would get up close and personal with, something you could have in say COD. I will be looking at distance later on, but for now, lets just say I dont need to draw miles upon miles. I just need to draw the immediate area from, say, Fallout, or Skyrim.
So, what will I need? Well, Ill need a base terrain mesh. This is a low detailed, smooth mesh that covers the entire section of our terrain. It can/will be vertex painted as required, but is otherwise a fast process. On top of that, is where my issues lies. I need to create modular rocks, that is rocks I can place with random orientation, rotation, scale etc, and create a believable looking terrain. Examples of which are:
So these rocks are clearly made of modular assets that vary in tris count and detail, ranging from quite low, almost blob like base meshes with tiled surfaces, to larger, more complex detailed shapes, that will provide a little more visual detail for the terrain when viewed as a whole. Of course they also include lod models, but for this exercise and at this moment, I dont need to worry about automatic lod popping. Once the rocks are done, and I get a decent enough visual style with them, I can fix making multiple lods for each mesh later. Also, the engine I use currently culls any tris that has all three verts into a surface (such as terrain). This means I dont need to worry about deleting unseen triangles.
BE WARNED What you are about to view contains high traces of shite, and you may need a beer or two after. Any help, tutorials, examples (in forms of tuts or meshes) helps save my computer screen from going through the window.
Ok, so, lets start
Step one: Create some small high poly pieces that we can use to create larger modular meshes. So, Ill start with three:
Now, I use these few basic shapes to create a few more, more complex shapes. So I get these high polies from them:
Now, at this point I know I need to do much larger more complex shapes, flat shapes etc. Some examples would be great.
Ok, so I take these high poly pieces, create a low poly mesh, Boolean, texture, render normals etc etc, and I get these:
Now at this stage, I would take these models, and also create a few separate materials for them. They would range from a 1x scale material, that would be a normal, hand painted d/n/s set. Then, the larger, 2x, 4x and 8x materials, would use tiled textures instead, which would blend together the sculpted normal map as well as a blended edge texture. This allows me to create models that are the size of a mountain if needed, but still have nice texture quality when looked at. I also make a single, ultra low poly mesh that uses the same textures and still looks fine. This is used in cases where I need detail, but not too much, such as poly heavy areas.
Anyway, at this point I will always fall apart, because no matter what I do, it will look like total shite. Likely because my first few meshes simply are no good, at all, for modularity in this way.
So what next? What should my actual modular pieces look like? How do I spread them over the terrain? Just how do I make coffee with old socks?
Any help guys, at all, would be awesome, because Im going out of my mind
Replies
that aside i think that your biggest issue might be that they are too "organic". read up on the differences between metamorphic, igneous and sedimentary rocks. decide on one of those types, get refs and mimic those.