My first project for Unity

narticus

Longtime 3ds Max user, mainly for architecture, but I recently started working on my first model to import into Unity from Maya.

It's a diner, based on Al Mac's in MA:


I have a few simply questions for the forum (aimed towards people withgame industry knowledge):

1. Should I plan on baking all of these textures onto one sheet?

2. How many polys would be appropriate for a model like this?

3. Is this too ambitious to start with?

My main concern is the signage. Maybe it should be on it's own texture sheet?

I have been following a tutorial on Lynda.com titled "Creating Game Environments in Maya and Photoshop" and it has been extremely helpful for a first timer.

Any advice is appreciated. I will post progress when appropriate.

PyrZern

Is this for FPS/TPS game where you can run around and inside the building ?
Or is this for top-down RTS or Isometric RPG.

narticus

FPS/TPS

ChaosWWW

For something like this you want to break it down in a modular fashion, since you state you're going to get up close and personal with this building in a TPS/FPS. That way you can repeat textures on elements of the building that repeat in order to get a higher quality look. With using multiple textures, you can also take advantage of looping textures and different shaders for different parts.

Yes, technically speaking including everything in one texture sheet would be more efficient but requires a lot more planning and arduous work to wrap your mind around how everything is going to fit together, and you could instead spend that effort on making it look awesome. Being incredibly economical by including everything in a texture sheet is starting to become a less relevant concern anyway, with PS4 and Xbox One technology being the baseline for games, you can really start doing more advanced stuff without worrying about it lagging.

Same kind of answer for poly count. Model the parts that seem logical to model and bake the parts that seem logical to bake, but I wouldn't worry that much about a set poly count. Computers can render millions of polygons easily. Not saying you should make this model millions of polygons, I'm just saying it's not really that important, just stay in a somewhat logical range.

That being said, if you want to challenge yourself this level of optimization might improve your skills, but since this is your first Unity project I'd get used to the workflow first.

Earlier I mentioned breaking down the reference. As a way to show how you might do this, looking at how people are approaching it in the latest noob challenge might give you some ideas.

Good luck, looking forward to seeing this come to fruition.

narticus

Thanks Chaos, you answered some of the questions I have been asking myself while following this tutorial. I've been wondering how much of a concern polycount and uvs are on the new consoles.

I have already started it as a modular design though. So I will probably finish this up as an exercise and then move on to making it more detailed for a portfolio piece.

Where could I research more on what kind of models they're using on the latest consoles? Would love to see a breakdown on poly counts and texture sheets just so I have an idea.

Anyway, here are some screencaps to see what I've done so far. All feedback is welcome:

Hi Poly modules:


Lo Poly:



Texture sheet (just AO right now):

narticus

Bump. Any comments would be appreciated.

Also a link to sources with more info on models used in the latest games would be helpful (ie: polycount and texture sheet/size).

DougClayton4231

Definitely finish modelling everything before you worry about UV'ing and baking texture maps for the surfaces. Also, make sure that you keep a human sized reference in your scene for the engine that you are using.

Like ChaosWWW said, breaking this into a modular environment, comprised of pieces that snap together like legos is much more efficient and allows you to make changes to the design on the fly, rather than re-model, re-UV and re-bake the entire model each time that you want to make a change. There's a bunch of great information on the Polycount wiki covering best practices.

narticus

They way I have it planned out, all of the different modules are already modeled. My next step was to UV and texture them, then clone them around and snap them in place. It might be hard to tell from those screencaps, but each window is a module with the wavy metal pattern underneath. Then there's the long fins in between each window, the concrete base, and the wavy metal panels above each window. I am planning to model half of the diner, and mirror the geometry to the other side. All after texturing so I don't have to go back and apply textures to each module. Does that make sense?

I will check out the wiki.

Also would like to participate in the noob challenge. Maybe next month.

Thanks for your input! More is definitely welcome!

narticus

Updated some of the textures and finished with the exterior modeling. Planning to add the back of house, which is a different type of structure. Also want to do the signage.

It's at 462 faces right now (956 tris). Here is the material sheet so far:



Still working on the door texture. Also need to add a handrail.

Any thoughts are welcome, thank you.

DougClayton4231

I'd remove the AO from the multi-color panels, it's creating a huge seam in the horizontal tiling.

narticus

The seams are intentional, but maybe I should tone them down. Check the reference image and you'll see seams between the panels.

It's most obvious in the bottom center 2 panels.

Also, I wanted to ask: What is a good game engine to start with? I'm not committed to Unity by any means. Just was the one they used in this tutorial. If anyone has a suggestion, please let me know.

Ravenok

I see no reference image anywhere, could you reupload maybe?

Right now the thing that bothers me most is the horizontal and vertical stripes all over the structure. They're really straining my eyes and I can't stop looking at them, a reference would help a lot in understanding what should be going on there.

narticus

Let me know if that works. If it doesn't: try this

Ravenok

Just to make sure what I'm going to write is relevant - could you share some screens?

-A closeup of the clock, no textures or wireframes, just the model itself.
-A closeup of one of those striped horizontal/vertical patterns, just the model, no textures or wireframes.

One thing to take into consideration when making game art - don't be afraid to model the most detailed, beautiful version of your asset you could possibly imagine. The idea is to take that high-poly model, and create a very basic, low poly version of it, that will be able to hold all of that high poly detail when baked onto it.

It looks like you're going all over the place, the model isn't finished but you're already making UVs and creating textures... take it one step at a time.
Model a High Poly->make your low poly->make UVs for that low poly->bake out maps from your high poly->start working on your textures.

narticus

Yeah, still figuring out the workflow. But this is my process so far:

-Created each unique module I planned to duplicate
-High poly first, then low poly, then baked normals and AO
-From AO pass I created the diffuse texture sheet

Wanted to create the transparency channels for the windows next, as well as texture the door. Then bring it into a game engine just to light it and see how it works. Then I was going to go back and make more of the model. Was just hoping to get a general feel for the whole process, then dive back into it and refine it. I learn better that way.

Regardless, here are some screencaps:

High poly clock


Low Poly clock (one sided plane)


Low poly clock with diffuse and normal map


High poly wall panel




Low poly wall panel


Low poly wall panel textured


Also, the normals map, which I forgot to post until now



Please let me know what you guys think. I love criticism!

narticus

Bump.

Will be revisiting this project soon. Any feedback/comments are encouraged.

Kridian

Very nice. FlorianSchmoldt did an interior scene in Unity of such a Diner – check it out! (if you haven't already)

It would pretty neat to have these two projects merged so you can go inside.

narticus

Wow, thanks for the link! Maybe I will get in touch and see about merging. Though I'd love to make my own interior for it.

narticus

Going to work on the signage today. Will probably make an individual texture sheet for that. How would that normally be handled? Should I try to cram the signage into the current texture sheet I have posted above?

Also, what would be a reasonable polycount for the entire exterior of the building, including the sign?

narticus

Been bringing this into Marmoset. I will probably use this in CryEngine after all, as I've taken a liking to it over Unity.

Some progress (up to 3500 tris)

narticus

Updated

Mr Significant

Looks very nice! Subbed!