Simplified Modelling Question

mathius777

I have been incredibly inspired by Chronos VR, and had some general questions for those of you more experienced than I. It seems that certain indie games execute a style that conveys detail with more stylized modelling and simpler, less noisy texturing(The Witness also does this). 

In the following screens, it seems that the textures add almost zero surface detail, through normal maps or otherwise, and that the detail comes from the lighting and form of the models.

Does anyone have experience executing this kind of style? I am curious if it is faster than other modeling methods, since it seems one has to worry less about creating super detailed textures. It would also seem that such a style lends itself well to modular world building, as one would make many rock pieces that they  piece together into a level and has to worry less about properly tiling a sculpt.

Progg

I might be able to offer some insight into what I did on the project. Most of the zbrush sculpts were very loose and I used a lot of similar premade brushes for the smaller details.  We simplified shapes and played around with more geometric patterns used as decal overlays to get the surface detail. The sculpts themselves do have a good amount of bumps and pock marks in them but they have once again been stylized. We spent a lot of time early on trying to figure out just how much detail we wanted to include in the sculpts and I would say overall we eliminated most of the micro detail that you would normally add into the high poly. The textures were also very simple. This approach was very fast as I and another artist were able to do entire zone blockouts in just a few days generating tons of fast sculpts, baking them down with simple textures, and then building out the levels in tandem. 

Also, yes the style works the same with modular building. The entire game was built modularly and most of the rocks were sculpted to be used at different angles. We were very mindful of saving drawcalls and lowering our object counts because of the game being for VR and having to run very smoothly at high frame rates. That is another reason for the style.