Need some help with Modularity Layout and Scale

zachagreg

So I keep noodling this stuff back and forth in my head and in 3DS Max. I am doing an environment based off of the below concept art by Casey Fallon. (Link at bottom of post). Creating most of my modular pieces in 3DS Max, then Zbrush and finally getting them into UE4. The issue I'm running into is how exactly to do my modular kit and to what extent I should make it modular.

I have gone through the wiki and have made a modular kit before, but it was for a much smaller environment at the time. My question is what scale should I be shooting for with this environment. By scale I mean should I be doing wall by wall, building by building, somewhere in between?

I began making the pieces for the town wall by wall but it just feels so bland right now with the flat pieces. Since I kept questioning whether or not this is the way to go I wanted to ask before I got too deep into developing that scale of modular pieces.

I have been looking around and I really like the approach that Horizon Zero Dawn seems to have taken with their buildings in making them one whole piece it seems. At least that is what I can gleam from these images posted by Alex Zapata. It appears to be one whole mesh that is no doubt covered in different tiling materials, decals, and trims. I may be mistaken on this though.

Both some tips and guidance on how the town should best be approached and how the castle in the background should be approached would be extremely helpful. I separate them as they seem they would be different case scenarios.

Some more information for ease of you all answering. The environment does not have to have any gameplay in it whatsoever. I still want to maintain a workable and realistic framerate in UE4 because I want to showcase that it is still a game  but I doubt this will be an issue with the scope of this project. I don't intend any close up shots of the castle except for maybe the floating top piece. I would like to make use of tiling materials, trims, and decals. I intend a few close up shots of the town as well as a couple of different wide views/compositions and possible a small fly through of the central street.

Link to Casey Fallon: https://www.artstation.com/cfallonart

Link to Alex Zapata: https://www.artstation.com/lexisflex73

Benjammin

I'm no expert, but I am doing a modular environment myself at the moment, so maybe what I've learnt will help:

Blocking out is really important. Don't worry about things looking bland, and don't spend time detailing pieces at the beginning. Look at your reference, find the repeating elements, and build around that. The key to avoiding a ton of rework is to make sure your pieces fit together from the start. Also, once your block-out pieces are in Unreal, you can just overwrite the files with more detailed versions and they will update in your scene.

Once you have things fitting together, you can start thinking about texturing. How you texture/UV will influence how you create detail. 

Hope that helps

zachagreg

Hey Benjammin, thanks that does help I think going further into blockout will help tell me what I need. My main concern is that I will get into blockout and then just have to go through and redo it since I am starting with a kit that is wall by wall and not some other scale. I just keep going back and forth on which way it should be honestly.

Benjammin

Yes, I understand that concern. But there will be more rework if you start detailing pieces before you know how everything fits together.

zachagreg

Alright so update on this, I feel like I might be on the right track with these pieces. I still need to make some more and explore with destroyed variations. Also to satisfy my craving for doing a singular house as a unique asset, I think I'm going to do one or two of the really destroyed and run down buildings uniquely modeled with tiling materials and the like.

Mark Dygert

Careful when you dig up reference, those Horizon Zero Dawn images are "concept benchmark sculpts" not final assets. Think of it more as a visual target or 3D concept art, rather than what the final in game assets turned out to be. Pieces of it might have been used to make final assets or bake textures but they didn't just sculpt out an entire building and drop it in.

If you compare the two side by side it's pretty clear they had to convert some of the unique cattywompus details to straighter lines so they could build in a more modular fashion and not impede player movement. It's all cool to see a super sloped and stylized roof but if your player pawn can't get inside, you have to rework some detail. They managed to keep the roof, but the walls, doors and windows aren't exactly unique.




They did a great job of preserving as much as they could, it's amazing how close they got, but if you take the time to compare them, you will see it's not just 100% pure unique detail, especially if you move around the game, the reused assets start to pop out.

Just don't get trapped into thinking "that's how the pros did it!" Because you're only looking at one piece of the pipeline.

zachagreg

Thanks Mark for all that info and taking the time to showcase those examples. I definitely see what you mean with the walls of the buildings not being unique. I had that idea myself today when I got home from work to see if I could map out some of those repeating pieces of geometry. Specifically with the Nora homes.

I did not however take the time to compare it to the sculpt and it makes it much more clear now. I've been evolving this after a short play session of horizon just to knock in some of the greater shapes of a couple of the references. I've been using.

Also, please, if you've any knowledge on these types of architecture, or if things are looking odd at this stage, I'd love to hear it. I'm currently following more of the Daibutsuyo architectural style as it became prevalent during the Kamakura period. The shrine pictured was constructed prior to that but the style during the Nara period evolves into Daibutsuyo with more emphasis on showing structural elements as ornamental rather than covering them. I'm kind of meshing the two because the Nara was used on smaller buildings while the Daibutsuyo was primarily used on large temples that would have intricate inner support systems.