Tile-based environments

Joshua Stubbles

Have any of you worked on environments that used tile segments? Something similar to the sims, or any console-based level editor? I've never dealt with anything like this before, and I wanted to try it out for a change.
Are there any good tutorials or suggestions you guys have, on keeping things consistent? Having edges always match up, or having the pixel density match?
I can think of a few ways to do this, but they're all a bit time consuming.

CrazyButcher

yes we used that in the xmas game bundled with luxinia. just for the terrain. and we also partially use it for another project's terrain. the xmas game also comes with a very rudimentary map editor, that makes sure only matching tiles can be put together.

matching edges is pretty crucial for it. I didnt do the modelling but friend set up his stuff so that he duplicated the outer edges of the various tileedge types. and basically built the "inner" meshes for variety.

be aware that if you want full support (ie all possible combos) that it will be lots of work.
texturing indeed should match as well. for cliffs or stones or other stuff you can have overlaps which are hidden, but mostly you need to make sure edges match (also normals, though that could be done in code).

Vailias

with 2d tiles, either making matching edges, or a lot of engines will allow for multiple texture layers with transparency, which makes things easier by allowing for simply creating a set of border tiles for any given material that have a partially transparent edge to them so the underlying material autoblends with it.

adam

Are you talking about modular designed environments for a game with an isometric view? Cause that's what the Sim's is. I'm wondering if by "tiles" you're talking about modular environment/level design.

Joshua Stubbles

Yeah sorry, I suppose I should have explained more
You're dead on, Adam. It's modular environment pieces.

adam

Vassago, for my current project the base/shell of the scene was built using modular pieces. It's simple and easy really - just start with a base shell of the area you want to use pieces on, then sub-divide that giant face in to a bunch of sqaure'ish quads which will ultimately define the size of each modular piece. Once you have that, build within the squares and copy/paste the tiles as neccessary.

Once I finish the scene i'll be writing about it more.

vahl

yah, the trick is to think about all the combinations before starting, you should be able to make a complete bunch of combinations (and a full set of different shapes) with something like a maximum of 10 different pieces, it will usually take more time at first, but then it's like lego, just put the modular pieces together to make a different room/corridor/walkway/whatever, the important thing is to make one unique piece per environment you create like that (as brome showed in his project, specific set of pipes, broken wall, that kind of stuff) will make each room different but looking like being a part of the same environment.

as you may already know, most the real life buildings/structures are built like that, they then have weather/life/usage alterations that make them unique, keeping this process in mind shows how good is modularity, even if you are merging everything in the end of cpu/gpu optimization, it will make your environments look more solid and beliveable(and save you a LOT of time, plus level designer will love you and will want to have babies with you - true story ).

kiril0t

this is interesting, could someone maybe put up an example up? i think i know what you guys are talking about but im not sure, and this interests me greatly

so lets say if you make a coridor(simple inverted box, same material all around), you make one poly and Uv to a certain (tilable)texture. Then you would paste that polly around to crate your 4 sides? *in very simple terms* and there you have your coridor?

cholden

I have a tutorial from a little while back that covers the basic idea of modular environments.
http://chrisholden.net/tutor/modular.htm
In actual execution, it would be taken MUCH farther than this. Another good example, is check out miniatures for table top game environments.

I'm also assembling an environment with modular pieces. Currently, there's a single wall, entryway, alcove and floor piece snapped around the room on a 256 grid.
http://chrisholden.net/dm01_floor03.jpg
(very, very WIP)

kiril0t

yes ok thanks cholden, thats kindof what i was thinkg with the tabletop mineature games but only in the texturing part, now i get it with the modeling, but would the peices be connected(maby stupid question but ive wondering) or can you leave them open?

cholden

reckon that depends on your game engine or how it's all built.

If you were using unreal, you could do these all as individual static meshes and just copy/paste them all around.

If you were assembling the scene in max/maya (or whatever), it might be better to weld all your verts when you're done. Again, this is really up to your engine. Test, talk to your programmer, etc.

Joshua Stubbles

How do you normally go about texturing these things, Cholden?
I've always built individual meshes with their own texture - nothing that has to share quite as much as those pieces do (like your building example).

adam

Same way you would a world texture - make sure the texture tile properly based on how the geo will be tiling.

Joshua Stubbles

So you'd tile the textures then? Wasn't sure if it were best to tile it or unwrap it. Never messed with this tile base assembly before

Thanks.

adam

D'oh, thats not what I meant.

Don't texture the pieces with tilable textures. Each piece is unwrapped so that the textures will tile from piece to piece, not tile within the piece. This goes for most environment stuff, but make sure each piece is as close in texel density as possible; besides a uniform density it'll make it easier to paint seamlessly.