Library Room Environment Critique
polycounter lvl 2
Hi everyone, I recently finished this environment and I'm hoping to add it to my portfolio. The scene is rendered in UE4. I created it to reuse a lot of old assets (including the lamps, chair, and table) from an earlier failed project. I also reused a trim sculpt from a different previous project to save some time. Currently I'm really unsure about how to optimize meshes for game environments. The older assets I made have problems because I modeled them all as one cohesive mesh, but I am uncertain if there are other things I need to keep in mind while optimizing. It is difficult to find information about the current industry standards for this. I'd appreciate any feedback or portfolio presentation tips you may have. Thank you!
Replies
Great work overall though!
One thing that bugs me is the high contrast in the lighting - i would suggest using an ambient cubemap to raise the dark spots and make the lighting more natural.
Also, those desk lamps should have the corresponding lights slightly tinted towards green and the ceiling ones tinted orange. Its not accurate but its what you would expect the overall outcome to be.
The models however, are very heavy in my personal opinion (I'm a fan of limited geo). Some places you'd of course need supporting loops and insets to make sure your bakes are not skewed, but you can delete those once you're done baking (planar ones at least). Otherwise a good rule of thumb is that if it doesn't support the silhouette, it might not need to be there. Also consider how close you'd get to the object, as subtle curvatures may be lost completely at a distance of 1m away. Exceptions of course apply to trim sheets or if you intend to use vertex paint extensively, but seems you've got that bit down
As for separate pieces VS continuous mesh, there is a thread in one of the technical forums saying that continuous mesh may be better for optimisation (something to do with tri overdraw)at the cost of larger tris count (which is less of an issue on current hardware) but it seemed an inconclusive conversation and "it depends".
There is a lot more contrast happening here, and it's a lot more interesting to look at, there are different elements, and shapes. The lighting is a little less uniform. (note the bulb on the back wall second level...one is more yellow than the other almost indicating one bulb is newer than the other).
Your green dome lights (while very cool looking) are very overpowering visually, as they are really the only pop of color in the scene. I'd reserve those for the main table, and use something more subtle for the others; also an opportunity to introduce a different material/color/light-source. I'm also not picking up on any bounce light from the green dome lights. It needs more work to be convincing.
The lamps you're attempting to convey would show a stronger light source coming from the center, and becoming more subdued as it reaches the edges (left lamp in image), also note the influence of the shade itself, they subtle yellowing of the hue bouncing off the table (global illumination). I'd introduce a little green to these (point lights?) sources in your scene to emulate that.
You have a lot of repeating shapes/features/lights giving the overall scene a more sterile atmosphere.
Good luck.