Modular Environment Asset Creation

PaK

So...

I would like to get your thoughts about creating small peices of modular geometry that click together to make an antire level for a game.

Think of it like building tileable textures only in 3D.

I am interested to know:

-what portions are the most time consuming (iteration?, assembly?)

-what are the most repetitive steps that could be automated

-what are the most frustrating parts of this process

-what are the parts of the process that are not artistically creative.

My goal is to design a free-to-download tool for Maya that addresses all the concerns associated with modular asset creation, and I need some guidance. I know what I would do...but I need to make a tool for the community...not just me :P

Thx!

-R

Eric Chadwick

Sounds great. Do you remember the thread from Rorshach awhile back about his modular work on Gears of War?
http://boards.polycount.net/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=164474&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

Mark Dygert

I'm a Max user but hopefully some of this applies to Maya as well. I'll mostly speak to the pipeline issues with regards to buildings since that is the most common form of modular construction.

[ QUOTE ]
-what portions are the most time consuming (iteration?, assembly?)

[/ QUOTE ]Explaining to others (and myself) what pieces go together.
I take extra time to copy and lay out the pieces in rows and assign object colors. Red for 1st floor, green for 2nd floor. This is also important because the colors also corresponds to the texture sheet used. Each 512 texture sheet is a 512 block of the building, arrange those pieces how you like knowing only one texture will be called. subsequent 512 blocks on the first floor are colored a different shade of green. A red piece might look good in with a bunch of greens but you'll know two texture sheets are being used and the second is more than likely wasting memory unless you plan on using more red pieces in another part.
*Color coding helps with texture memory management, automating the color coding, based on the textures default defuse color would be a huge time saver.
*Naming/labeling the pieces would be very handy. (see naming convention below)
*Spacing all the pieces evenly next to the example would be icing on the cake.


[ QUOTE ]
-what are the most repetitive steps that could be automated?

[/ QUOTE ]Prepping the low geometry for sculpting. Making sure everything will sub-d well. It's nice to be able to paint detail and stamp damage into buildings. It also helps to create several different chunks from one piece just by damaging them differently. I normally plan out how many alternate damaged pieces I need and make sure they have space in the texture sheet.

Since the high geometry isn't going in game I often use the slice tool and grid the pieces so they sub-d well. Also doing some auto smoothing right before exporting is something I forget to do all the time and would be great if it was automated. I go into sculpt, hit sub-d and watch all my cubes turn to little spheres. I then go back and re-smooth everything, export and I'm back on track. Having a script that smooths right before export would be a minor time saver but pretty easy to write. I'm going to do that for max right after I finish this post hahaha


[ QUOTE ]
-what are the most frustrating parts of this process?

[/ QUOTE ]Not having a fully fleshed out clear idea of what the building should look like. "just get started and we'll let you know the details later" I don't think you can script a new creative director can you? I need the details assjack otherwise I'm going to give you a green cube and call it done.


[ QUOTE ]
-what are the parts of the process that are not artistically creative?

[/ QUOTE ]
Arranging the pieces, labeling them, uv unwrapping, and testing the different pieces to make sure they all mesh together and cap well. it would be amazing if the artist could flag each piece and have random sections assemble as a test. Maybe flag the objects with a naming convention?
Examples:
1.1:TrimOakOld
1(1st floor) . 1(lowest row of detail next to the sidewalk): TrimOakOld(Artist Friendly name)

2.8:CrownCrete
2(2nd floor) . 8(highest row of detail next to the sidewalk): CrownCrete(Crown Molding, made of Concrete)