Need some help with my environments

jetskee96

I have a good understanding of how to make next gen props, but when it comes to doing bigger things like buildings, I am lost.

I have done some modular buildings and really do like that concept. But is that the only way to make bigger things like buildings and bridges?

I have also read a little on making vertex painting, but I get lost when I look through 3ds max and xnormal. Is there really way to make an ao map for a tilable object?

If anybody knows of a good tutorial on making ao maps for tilable models, or anything else on this topic would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance and I apologize for maybe sounding all over the place.

Fwap

If you're looking to star doing bigger projects, rather than the usual one off asset here and there, Try blocking out a scene, get your basic shapes, and feel together then tackle each object in the scene like you would making individual assets but keep an emphasis on making them fit the scene.

As for the AO, you need unique UV's to bake out AO, you can certainly start with a tillable diffuse, but everything needs its own unique UV space.

An Alternative is to use an Engine that bakes AO for you, i.e UDK, CE3

jetskee96

Here is what i am talking about:
http://wiki.polycount.com/AmbientOcclusionVertexColor

But more importantly, is there any good tutorials for this process? preferable 3ds max to udk.

Chase

I was wondering about tiliable textures and ao maps. Do you have to enable ao within the engine. im using UDK