UE4 Modular SciFi environment [WIP]

SimonTG

EDIT: Video I made to show my progress and share a bit of my workflow: 






Hey polycount! 
I've been lurking these forums for a long time, finally decided to put myself out there and start posting. Here's a project I'm working on. I wanted to practice modeling modular assets and create a SciFi environment in UE4.

Mostly taking inspiration from this concept art piece by Atey Ghailan   https://www.artstation.com/artwork/rAyYL  but I wanted to challenge myself to create a kit that would be flexible enough to create a "full" level with various sizes of hallways, rooms, corners, etc... 


My main goal is to improve my modular assets workflow but I've got bigger plans for the scene depending on how fast I can advance... I can only work on this during evening/weekends. I have some ideas in mind for a very short cinematic and a few gameplay elements if time allows. Might try and release the final kit/project on the Unreal marketplace if there is some interest.

I'm done gray boxing most of the basic modular meshs and testing the kit to make sure everything snap well and is reliable.





Started to create some highpolys / textures: 




Did a quick first pass on lighting & FXs to get a better feel of how the level would play.
Unreal 4 screengrabs:

I'll be updating this thread with my progress.
Still an early WIP, comments/critiques/feedback welcome!




 

purplekami

Is that a hallway in the last picture? If so that feels rather wide to me. I'm loving the ground so far, kind of breaks off from the traditional walking hazard walkways that are often made in scifi environments.

SimonTG

It is indeed a hallway, admittedly a rather wide one. I took some liberties with the proportions, not going for a 1:1 of the concept. I started by camera matching the perspective in 3dsmax trying to match the concept but I found it felt rather claustrophobic once in Unreal engine. It didn't "play" well.

Slightly wider and higher hallways were much more comfortable to me when viewed from a 3rd person camera.  I also wanted to keep most of the main modular assets powers of 2 in size so that everything snaps on a grid of 32units. Makes them easy to use and allows them to "fit" with as many other assets as possible. Hence why I went for 512x512 units tiling floor pieces and added a "floor grill" to the sides. The way the assets are setup, I can also create thinner hallways and everything still snaps together on grid.

Do the proportion feel "off" when looking at the UE screenshots on their own? 

macoll

SimonTG said:
Do the proportion feel "off" when looking at the UE screenshots on their own? 

Hello!
It doesn't look 'off', it looks like a large 8-10m corridor, if it's your taste, no problem man If you want to fit the theme you showed, then reduce it, it looks less open wide indeed...
Thread subscribed, i love your Scifi meshes, gg

ZacD

Just remember if you are doing a wide/large scene, make sure you are including elements that reinforce the scale.

In the original concept, that hallway looks like an airlock, loading bay, or maintenance room. The flooring doesn't really look like something people would regularly walking over, but instead looks like it's part of an access panel, but having that type of floor design in a large open hallway kinda needs some visual justification. 

SimonTG

macoll said:

SimonTG said:
Do the proportion feel "off" when looking at the UE screenshots on their own? 

Hello!
It doesn't look 'off', it looks like a large 8-10m corridor, if it's your taste, no problem man If you want to fit the theme you showed, then reduce it, it looks less open wide indeed...
Thread subscribed, i love your Scifi meshes, gg

The width of the hallway pieces was mostly dictated by how it played in UE. Wanted a 3rd person camera where the player can zoom in and out, sorta like in most MMOs.  With thinner hallways, the camera kept bumping into walls and was forced to "hug" the character. It didn't play well. Not in love with how much it swayed away from the concept and looks really super wide but I think it's an acceptable compromise.

ZacD said:

Just remember if you are doing a wide/large scene, make sure you are including elements that reinforce the scale.

In the original concept, that hallway looks like an airlock, loading bay, or maintenance room. The flooring doesn't really look like something people would regularly walking over, but instead looks like it's part of an access panel, but having that type of floor design in a large open hallway kinda needs some visual justification. 

I think you're right, it would look rather odd if every hallways featured this design. As they're the only textured floor assets I have for now I slapped them on the entire floor but I'm working on designing a few floor variations without the central "hole". I Intend on using these current assets mostly for some kind of "pressurized decontamination room" at the start of the level.

purplekami

I think it's a worthwhile time investment to play with the lighting in the hallways versus the decontamination rooms. That way you can design the walls, ceilings, and light fixtures with how the assets will interact with the lighting in mind.

The proportions don't feel off to me, it's just it would add a lot if you can tie in elements that would justify the largeness, like it's made for transporting large mechanical parts or something.

SimonTG

About time I update this thread.
Here a video I made to show my progress on this project and share a bit of my workflow.

Still very much a work in progress,  comment, suggestions or critiques are welcome.

reckzilla

Wow, that's cool! I did this same piece of concept art myself a year ago. Good work and good luck making something awesome!