How would you model destroyed Buildings?

TirvasFreeze

Hi,

Thats a thing which interested me a long time i was asking my self how some Artists especially in Games like Crysis or Metro model these Destroyed buildings? Is it just a load of Boolean on the building or is it sculpted .. how? I would be so glad if someone could explain it to me or give me some videos (couldn't find any)

Example:

icegodofhungary

Here's something I came across not too long ago on artstation:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/XBnL3l

It's a technique devised for a VR game that had geometry limitations so they accomplished that destroyed look using textures.

Personally I would do this.

- Create a basic destroyed building. This wouldn't have tons of detail, it would just be the walls, floors, doors, roofs, windows, etc. I would probably use modular pieces that can be repeated if it was a large area like that.

- Use something like this https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Engine/Rendering/Materials/HowTo/MeshDecals/index.html along with other decals and tiling textures to add more detail and break up the repetitive look.

- Have meshes for the large rubble piles. Just big smooth hills  you can push into the ground, repeat, and scale as needed. Use a tiling rubble texture on them.

- Create several props for pieces of rubble. Use these on top of your rubble piles to add 3D detail to them and sell the illusion of the tiling texture underneath. Place props in areas that make sense, using photo references of destruction as a guide.

- Create a few unique pieces where simple props and the above things won't work. This will also help break up the repetitiveness.

- Do a world-aligned texture blending pass to add dust and broken glass to large areas.

But you can do a ton of different things. It depends on if the player will enter these places, if they're background buildings, what kind of game it is, what are your tech limitations. You can do stuff like create a building then do a physics simulation of it being destroyed. Then use pieces from that to create your final meshes.

I don't think it's booleans as is in they create a solid building and then use booleans to make the floors and stuff. It's likely just box modeling + texturing. You can sculpt things if you like. I wouldn't sculpt every piece by hand as that would take forever. You're better off creating tiling textures (which can include some sculpting if you want).

Try to find models from those games and examine them. Or just play the games and study the environment closely. You can usually see how they did that stuff. Look for repeating textures and models. Look for what is unique. Sometimes fans extract models from the game and post them online, try to find that.

sacboi

Via a GDC panel in 2018:

Debris and Rubble Pipeline in 'Wolfenstein 2' with Substance Designer by Ben Wilson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBGDo7Y28FE

EDIT:

Also, probably worthwhile to checkout their channel for related material, as well.

TirvasFreeze

icegodofhungary said:

Here's something I came across not too long ago on artstation:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/XBnL3l

It's a technique devised for a VR game that had geometry limitations so they accomplished that destroyed look using textures.

Personally I would do this.

- Create a basic destroyed building. This wouldn't have tons of detail, it would just be the walls, floors, doors, roofs, windows, etc. I would probably use modular pieces that can be repeated if it was a large area like that.

- Use something like this https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Engine/Rendering/Materials/HowTo/MeshDecals/index.html along with other decals and tiling textures to add more detail and break up the repetitive look.

- Have meshes for the large rubble piles. Just big smooth hills  you can push into the ground, repeat, and scale as needed. Use a tiling rubble texture on them.

- Create several props for pieces of rubble. Use these on top of your rubble piles to add 3D detail to them and sell the illusion of the tiling texture underneath. Place props in areas that make sense, using photo references of destruction as a guide.

- Create a few unique pieces where simple props and the above things won't work. This will also help break up the repetitiveness.

- Do a world-aligned texture blending pass to add dust and broken glass to large areas.

But you can do a ton of different things. It depends on if the player will enter these places, if they're background buildings, what kind of game it is, what are your tech limitations. You can do stuff like create a building then do a physics simulation of it being destroyed. Then use pieces from that to create your final meshes.

I don't think it's booleans as is in they create a solid building and then use booleans to make the floors and stuff. It's likely just box modeling + texturing. You can sculpt things if you like. I wouldn't sculpt every piece by hand as that would take forever. You're better off creating tiling textures (which can include some sculpting if you want).

Try to find models from those games and examine them. Or just play the games and study the environment closely. You can usually see how they did that stuff. Look for repeating textures and models. Look for what is unique. Sometimes fans extract models from the game and post them online, try to find that.

Thats an awesome explanation thank you for your time !