Guides On Creating 3D Game Environtments
polycounter lvl 18
Hey all,
I was wondering if there are any comprehensive guides on creating game level environments from start to finish? I'm pretty brand new to the subject and it's techniques.
Here's some examples of the kind of environments I'm hoping to make,
http://www.laserlemming.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/namcobandai_Screenshots_3983339633At_Ni_no_Kuni_01_Normal_Resolution_copy.jpg
http://legacy-control.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Ni-no-Kuni-2.jpg
My basic understanding is that for larger terrain type pieces you paint them with blended tiling multi-textures, then place traditionally textured props and scenery on top of that. And then bake light into the whole scene with the editor and lightmaps?
In that first example there's a small brown cliff on the left, would that be a unique prop or is it built into the terrain? It doesn't look like it's painted with the typical directionless tiling maps. Any neat tricks to blend unique props into large terrain seamlessly?
I'm working on an endless runner inspired game for mobile. We want the environments to feel more open than the typical cramped pathway setup. Our plan so far is to have a dozen or so "trays" 100m x 200m that can interchange with each other. These will provide large scale terrain variation and then we'll randomly spawn medium and smaller props on those to mix it up further. I have a feeling randomly placed props won't work, I envision lots of weird placement and intersecting.
"trays"
Bad render of rough mockup in max
Any advice on how to approach this much appreciated!
I was wondering if there are any comprehensive guides on creating game level environments from start to finish? I'm pretty brand new to the subject and it's techniques.
Here's some examples of the kind of environments I'm hoping to make,
http://www.laserlemming.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/namcobandai_Screenshots_3983339633At_Ni_no_Kuni_01_Normal_Resolution_copy.jpg
http://legacy-control.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Ni-no-Kuni-2.jpg
My basic understanding is that for larger terrain type pieces you paint them with blended tiling multi-textures, then place traditionally textured props and scenery on top of that. And then bake light into the whole scene with the editor and lightmaps?
In that first example there's a small brown cliff on the left, would that be a unique prop or is it built into the terrain? It doesn't look like it's painted with the typical directionless tiling maps. Any neat tricks to blend unique props into large terrain seamlessly?
I'm working on an endless runner inspired game for mobile. We want the environments to feel more open than the typical cramped pathway setup. Our plan so far is to have a dozen or so "trays" 100m x 200m that can interchange with each other. These will provide large scale terrain variation and then we'll randomly spawn medium and smaller props on those to mix it up further. I have a feeling randomly placed props won't work, I envision lots of weird placement and intersecting.
"trays"
Bad render of rough mockup in max
Any advice on how to approach this much appreciated!
Replies
http://www.artbypapercut.com/downloads/
There is some good shit in there from naughty dog env artists and workflow overviews iirc.
The cliff on the left could be done many ways. The easiest is probably to model it into the modular segment, use multi-texture to blend between grass and stone, and flesh it out with grass & flower detail meshes.
http://wiki.polycount.net/CategoryEnvironmentTerrain
http://wiki.polycount.net/CategoryEnvironmentModeling
http://wiki.polycount.net/CategoryEnvironmentModularity
http://wiki.polycount.net/CategoryEnvironmentTexturing
http://wiki.polycount.net/Multitexture
The Vertex book is also a really good resource.
Eric - If that cliff is part of the terrain and multi-textured, is it possible to control the orientation of the rock texture? For example if the texture was handpainted to have light coming from a specific direction or you wanted cracks to run vertically up and down the cliff face then it'd only look correct on geometry facing a certain way?
Is multitexture painting something always down in the editor? We're using Unity 3D and from what I can tell it's multi-texture painting tools can only be used on the specialized "terrain" heightmapped mesh types. We're planning to hand build the modular terrain trays in max.
Handpainted lighting, yep it will only work a certain way.
I would paint the blends in 3ds Max, much more control. You could use vertex color, you need to make a custom shader for Unity that works that way.
And it would help to have a sister shader setup to run in Max so you can see what you're doing while you're doing it. Shader FX is (was) great for this. Max's standard viewport shaders really suck when it comes to multiple UVs... a DirectX shader is way better.