UT3 environment Daoist

evilmrfrank

A little history about why I'm doing this map (Other than because its fun :P ) - This level was overall an experiment on several fronts. After making levels several years I have over time realized that most levels in games seem to keep their overall blockyness that the initial layouts had. I don't believe most players will realize such a thing but at the very least it's leaving environments in games looking very boxy. There are some games that stray from this idea very well, such as Rage, and the latest Tomb Raider. So this level was an attempt to stray from the regular box feeling that most levels have.

Overall my goal was to create an environment that felt rugged and natural, everything from the flow, to the buildings were created to give the sense of a lived in but very nature filled environment. This was not created using UDK but by using UT3. The level is currently 85% finished







I still have quite a lot of lighting work and just overall polish and decoing to do. I am looking for any and all feedback no matter how cruel or straight forward. Thanks in advance!

Dubzski

:poly008: ooohh very nice, you sir win a giant cookie.

Really digging the lighting and layout, i think you achieved your aims quite well. I'd definitely explore the crap out of that place =P.

DWalker

Nice overall, but I think your foliage could use some work. The grass clump in the second picture reads like a set of crossed billboards. The small plant with the purple flowers in the third picture seems to linear, and the edges have some serious aliasing issues. The leaves on the trees also feel very planar; perhaps smaller clumps set at slightly different angles would work better.

I'd tone down the high-frequency part of the normal map on the wooden columns in the third image - they make the column seem almost fuzzy.

The texture on the stone in front of the stairs on the second picture seems stretched.

easterislandnick

It feels quite claustrophobic to me. Giving a little more space between buildings may help it 'breathe' a little more easily, especially in the second image. A little more negative space might help the foreground buildings pop, I would up the fog a little bit.

Looks great though. Are they all stock unreal 3 assets?

silkroadgame

DWalker has pointed almost all your places that needed to modify,seems that you still have lots of works to achieve the natural feeling.
Anyway,it's very good so far,keep going!

ambershee

easterislandnick wrote: »

Are they all stock unreal 3 assets?

The scene is composed largely, if not entirely of Unreal Tournament 3 assets.

evilmrfrank

Thanks for the feedback, will get as much of this feedback in as I can. Ambershee is mostly right. Most of the meshes are stock UT3 meshes but I am doing a lot of custom meshes and touchups of existing meshes. For most of the cliff edges in the play area I used custom meshes. A lot of meshes were reimported with correct lightmaps and I am also using a lot of custom meshes for things such as the roofs to make them feel a lot more uneven and not so perfectly straight.

The roof changes will be very subtle and I've only switched out a few but the ones that came with UT3 were 100% perfectly straight so they looked a little off to me :B



It will take me awhile to replace most of the roofs but I think it will be worth it in the long run, replaced roof means more natural looking roof, a lot less drawcalls, and quite a bit less tris overall.

Shogun3d

Ahh, thought those assets looked familiar.

evilmrfrank

Map is currently 95% visually finished

DWalker

Unless you are trying to work for JJ Abrams, please tone down the lens flare. Seriously, though, it's an artifact you'll only see through glass (e.g. a camera lens), and tends to break the 4th wall.

Wingednosering

I'm loving this! I've just started something similar so it's great to see what an artist with more experience can pull off.

In terms of constructive criticism, all I can say is that it's very 'busy'. There doesn't seem to be anywhere for my eye to rest in most of these shots. You could also up-res the rock/cliff textures a bit, since they're noticeably lower res than the buildings.

And yes, tone down the lens flare!

What is the lighting going to look like once it's done? With all those lanterns lit, I'd expect to be evening/early morning.