Curved sci-fi hallway planning

supremedalek925

I wanted to try an environment with curves since that's something that I have not tried before. Does anybody have any lessons learned from making snaking or rounded environments or have any good resources for planning them out? Thanks for taking a look.:)

AndroidBebop

This is a good idea, I would like to see where this goes. I love experimental stuff.

passerby

really just good pivot placemeant, and trying to keep the start and end points of a section on the grid.

supremedalek925

passerby wrote: »

really just good pivot placemeant, and trying to keep the start and end points of a section on the grid.

Well, that sounds like the way I went about doing it. I started with a 20 sided circle whose radius fit snug in the grid in my scene as a guide. I'm looking into interesting ways I can take this concept.

passerby

also modeling using a lot of splines can help too, make a profile spline and extrude it accross a other spline or do some lofting.

pixelpatron

Using Max or Maya?

supremedalek925

pixelpatron wrote: »

Using Max or Maya?

I used Maya but I might end up doing some things in Max.

Sythen

Good pivot point placement as previously stated, Sticking to a grid system is also hugely beneficial when doing any kind of curved area. I'd also stick to 22.5 degree (90/4) segments for corners, you can go smaller if you like, just once it's evenly divisible so that you get snaps

supremedalek925

I went with 18.0 degree segments and I think it's been working very well. I have a problem though, as you can see in this screenshot.
Does anyone know what I need to do to make the lighting smooth? You can see how it doesn't look like a rounded wall right now.

ZacD

Either make 90 degree turns 1 piece in your 3d package and put it together like a modular train set.

Or you could try to make it look like modular pieces with hard edges. You can try to bevel the corners so it looks more natural.

supremedalek925

ZacD wrote: »

Either make 90 degree turns 1 piece in your 3d package and put it together like a modular train set.

Or you could try to make it look like modular pieces with hard edges. You can try to bevel the corners so it looks more natural.

I have them as modular pieces which fit together at 18 degree angles right now (so 20 pieces would make a complete circle) but I feel like I should be able to get smooth lighting around the edges. Will adding edge loops around the edges give me smoother lighting?

ZacD

You could try to set the vertex normals so that they line up where the 2 pieces meet. Or you could have multiple modular pieces for different situations, and just use a 90 degree turn for this piece.

Mossbros

supremedalek925 wrote: »

I have them as modular pieces which fit together at 18 degree angles right now (so 20 pieces would make a complete circle) but I feel like I should be able to get smooth lighting around the edges. Will adding edge loops around the edges give me smoother lighting?

Is there any point to doing it like this? I'm not trying to be rude but it over complicates the ideology behind what modularity is.

If you made a few different pieces with slightly different angles that included 90 degree's 180 degrees and 45 degree's you should be able to get what you are looking for but with smoother shadows and it's easier to assemble within engine.

Using very small sections and assembling them in engine will just make your life harder unless you plan on making each individual section unique.

ZacD

Mossbros is right, it's also less draw calls to have a 4 large pieces vs 24 small ones. You can even use the same textures for both. And you can have a 180 degree piece, 90 degree, 45 degree, and 18 degree, and just combine them together to fit your needs.

supremedalek925

Mossbros wrote: »

Is there any point to doing it like this? I'm not trying to be rude but it over complicates the ideology behind what modularity is.

If you made a few different pieces with slightly different angles that included 90 degree's 180 degrees and 45 degree's you should be able to get what you are looking for but with smoother shadows and it's easier to assemble within engine.

Using very small sections and assembling them in engine will just make your life harder unless you plan on making each individual section unique.

I had thought that it would be bad to use larger pieces like that since it would mean my meshes would be more complex. (A 90 degree section would have 5 windows and 5 times the triangles, etc.) but it looks like that's probably the right way to go about this. Thanks.

Mossbros

supremedalek925 wrote: »

I had thought that it would be bad to use larger pieces like that since it would mean my meshes would be more complex. (A 90 degree section would have 5 windows and 5 times the triangles, etc.) but it looks like that's probably the right way to go about this. Thanks.

I know what you are saying, But majority of the time the easy route within the modeling stage usually affects the final in engine mesh more, resulting in a lot more headaches and a lot more time trying to fix the issues that were caused by trying to over think things.

I have a friend that does this all the time so I know exactly what you were thinking with making more than one mesh, but it's always good to think logistically with environments than over complicating things.

The less you have on your plate in engine the more fun you will have assembling it

Rhoutermans

(From the polycount wiki) this workflow is pretty awesome ;

http://www.thiagoklafke.com/modularenvironments.html

glhf with the project

supremedalek925

Thanks for all the tips. I've replaced what I had with a 90 degree module. It's looking quite a bit smoother.

AlexCatMasterSupreme

You should work on your materials it all looks like cement.

supremedalek925

Materials are not final.

supremedalek925

Just posting my progress as of this evening.


It's been interesting planning this out in my head.