Sci Fi Enviro off Deus Ex concept Progress thread.

Hayden Zammit

Just got back from a 3d animation job overseas and thought I'd start a game environment, as I eventually want to work in games and not animation.

Normally, I don't use other people's concept art as reference, but I think I might give it a go this time.

I'm really looking forward to the new Deus Ex. Really loving its sci-fi goodness. My concept art is from that game. You can see the concept art here: http://www.giantbomb.com/deus-ex-human-revolution/61-21358/all-images/52-181261/art_029/51-1846241/

I plan to hit the concept as closely as possible and eventually finish up in UDK. It looks like the concept was pretty rough, so I'll improvise in those areas.

So this is going to be my progress thread for this environment. I picked this concept because I'm not used to making full scenes for game-use and I thought a more simple one might be good to start with, but mainly because there are a few things that I know I'll stumble with if I try and do it as a game environment, and I don't think I spend enough time addressing my weaknesses.

So yeah, I'm hoping everyone can help me along the way.

Also hoping that I don't get too flustered by it all and give in and just make it as a high-poly Mental Ray render, as I'm prone to do and more comfortable with, heh.

Going to start a blockout now. Will post that when done.

Hayden Zammit

So I done some tests with the floor and normal maps. No texture yet.

I made the floor in 256 unit long sections. They snap together fine, but when I rebuild the lighting I get this problem with the normals where the pieces join.

Any ideas what this is and how to fix it?

BIGSOG

if its just bsp brushes you can make one long brush instead of many shorter ones.
oh and maybe post your material setup and all other information that might help us analyze your problem

Hayden Zammit

BIGSOG - It's not BSP brushes; it's a series of static meshes. I used meshes because the UVs for the floor pieces aren't square. They're more of a rectangle. Each piece is 256 x 384.

Should I be using BSP or meshes for the floor?

Also, my material is basic. Just a grey diffuse map into the diffuse slot and my normal map into the normal slot.

BIGSOG

if its just a flat surface BSP is better. triangulating your floor meshes or setting them "hard" might solve your problem

Hayden Zammit

Okay, I was already triangulating when exporting out of UDK, and I just tried both hardening and softening the normals for the floor plane mesh. Still no go. Does this seem like a normal thing that happens?

BIGSOG

then check your normal map, reimport everything, change the normals file format, change the meshs format etc...

Hayden Zammit

Well, I downloaded the latest UDK and tried importing my floor mesh. I tried it in one of the pre-built test scenes that come in the latest UDK and the problem doesn't occur.

I'm glad its working, but I do wish I knew why it wasn't before. I might as well just continue on using this starter scene for now.

Thanks for the help. Hopefully I can get a bit further along before getting stick again, heh.