How to properly texture buildings/interiors/architecture for video games?
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My head is a mess right now, I can't find anything that goes deep enough on that.
So, here's the deal: I'm going to model a lab facility. It's not that big, just big enough to let the player explore the area. Before the player gets to the actual lab, there's this abandoned bunker. The bunker is just a gateway to the lab, so there's no much detail there and it's a small area. I did the bunker, and I put materials on it (one for the floor, and one for the walls. Two materials). I UV unwrapped the model, scale it up until the textures looked right, and then I was going to bake the materials onto one texture on another mesh. Once I unwrapped the UVs, I noticed that, even if the model was not that big (...), I would need a really big texture if I didn't want any blurriness on the texture. So I created a 4k texture to see how it looked.
Unfortunately, even at that resolution, the texture still looked blurry. Of course, the issue was that the model was still...somewhat big. It is an structure, many big walls, thin walls, floor, ceiling, etc. Just the structure. It's not the first time I do some kind of...architecture? well, I have modeled small houses before. Usually, I separate the textures into details (doors, windows) and the structure itself (walls, sometimes floor and ceiling. Depending on the size of the structure, I sometimes separated the floor and walls as well). Definitely, the houses were far more complex than the bunker, but somehow easier?
I could maybe separate the floor, ceiling and walls, so each part of the building can get more texture space. This may work for that relatively small area, I guess, but I'm not sure if it's going to escalate well with bigger props.
Also, I'm trying to separate each part of the scene as much as I can, so each part can have its detailed texture, but also, I have to keep in mind that I can't have that many meshes, since the entire scene it's going to be in the game.
I've been investigating to see if I can find some useful info on the matter, but it seems there's no much on the internet. I have found this video, but apparently he did the same I was doing. I found some others but they weren't as close as that video.
I'm really not sure on what should I do now. Should I just simply do the same thing I did with the houses? Or there's actually the right way to do it?
Btw, I'm modeling in Blender 2.90 and the game engine I'm using is Unity 2018.
So, here's the deal: I'm going to model a lab facility. It's not that big, just big enough to let the player explore the area. Before the player gets to the actual lab, there's this abandoned bunker. The bunker is just a gateway to the lab, so there's no much detail there and it's a small area. I did the bunker, and I put materials on it (one for the floor, and one for the walls. Two materials). I UV unwrapped the model, scale it up until the textures looked right, and then I was going to bake the materials onto one texture on another mesh. Once I unwrapped the UVs, I noticed that, even if the model was not that big (...), I would need a really big texture if I didn't want any blurriness on the texture. So I created a 4k texture to see how it looked.
Unfortunately, even at that resolution, the texture still looked blurry. Of course, the issue was that the model was still...somewhat big. It is an structure, many big walls, thin walls, floor, ceiling, etc. Just the structure. It's not the first time I do some kind of...architecture? well, I have modeled small houses before. Usually, I separate the textures into details (doors, windows) and the structure itself (walls, sometimes floor and ceiling. Depending on the size of the structure, I sometimes separated the floor and walls as well). Definitely, the houses were far more complex than the bunker, but somehow easier?
I could maybe separate the floor, ceiling and walls, so each part of the building can get more texture space. This may work for that relatively small area, I guess, but I'm not sure if it's going to escalate well with bigger props.
Also, I'm trying to separate each part of the scene as much as I can, so each part can have its detailed texture, but also, I have to keep in mind that I can't have that many meshes, since the entire scene it's going to be in the game.
I've been investigating to see if I can find some useful info on the matter, but it seems there's no much on the internet. I have found this video, but apparently he did the same I was doing. I found some others but they weren't as close as that video.
I'm really not sure on what should I do now. Should I just simply do the same thing I did with the houses? Or there's actually the right way to do it?
Btw, I'm modeling in Blender 2.90 and the game engine I'm using is Unity 2018.
Replies
Modular Environments
Texture Atlas
Multitexture / vertex color blend
Decal
Edit to add a missing resource for the people stumbling upon this thread in the future:
All You Need to Know about Texel Density
Okokokok...so, from what I've read, I would need to:
- Create some modular pieces, each with its own uv/material/texture etc etc etc.
- Create something from those pieces, let's say, a tunnel.
- Merge all of those pieces, so we can have one mesh.
- Even though the entire mesh shares the same UV space, each piece is unwrapped according to the piece itself, but now I can assign a different material per piece (now part of the mesh).
- Now I have a properly made tunnel...I guess
Did I get it right?Then I advise to check out works posted by other members here in the 3D showcase section. Seeing the thought process behind the environments, the questions other people ask and the answers can be highly informative.
Oh, and I forgot a resource covering textel density! It's a framework to help with the blurry textures issue: All You Need to Know about Texel Density