Environment Practice
Hey guys, I'm spending the summer trying to get as comfortable as I can with the hi to low poly way of environment modelling as well as modularity.
I'm doing a sci-fi corridor scene, cliche I know but theres tons of ref and as its a confined environment it's easier than an outdoor scene I think. I'm using this project as a big learning curve not only for this workflow but also getting it into the Unreal 3 engine.
Here's where I'm up to, I've started to UV map the low poly and when done am going to bake the normals and see how it comes out.
Crappy lighting paintover but gives you a rough idea of the scene.
Low poly on left and high on right, is this enough detail for a high poly object as things like dents and scratches would be overlayed in photoshop?
Unwrap in progress, going to overlap parts that can be done and when I generate the normal map will move parts over by 1 in the UV space, is that ok?
The objects I have so far, trying to keep it modular. Should I just make sections for piping on walls and then make those modular too?
I'm looking for any crits and suggestions, anything I'm doing majorly wrong or which doesn't make sense I'd love to hear and be as harsh as you like because I know that's what I need to hear. Sorry for the long post but wanted to be as clear as I could so I can get some good feedback
I'm doing a sci-fi corridor scene, cliche I know but theres tons of ref and as its a confined environment it's easier than an outdoor scene I think. I'm using this project as a big learning curve not only for this workflow but also getting it into the Unreal 3 engine.
Here's where I'm up to, I've started to UV map the low poly and when done am going to bake the normals and see how it comes out.
Crappy lighting paintover but gives you a rough idea of the scene.
Low poly on left and high on right, is this enough detail for a high poly object as things like dents and scratches would be overlayed in photoshop?
Unwrap in progress, going to overlap parts that can be done and when I generate the normal map will move parts over by 1 in the UV space, is that ok?
The objects I have so far, trying to keep it modular. Should I just make sections for piping on walls and then make those modular too?
I'm looking for any crits and suggestions, anything I'm doing majorly wrong or which doesn't make sense I'd love to hear and be as harsh as you like because I know that's what I need to hear. Sorry for the long post but wanted to be as clear as I could so I can get some good feedback
Replies
The unwrap is ok, bit of nasty texture stretching on the depth axis, I'd consider fixing that. Alongside the first point, the top of your model is very densely mapped, are you sure about that?
Thats enough detail on the hi (normally) but could we see it without the edged faces? Also the detail it has is determined by the target map size you are using. If your going for 2048's a little more detail could go in. Theres a good quote from Ben 'poopinmymouth' mathis, "[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]if anything is less than an 1/8th inch thick, it should be left to this stage [photoshop] to create.[/FONT]"
Replace 1/8th inch for something a bit more relevant to your instance.
Make modular piping, yeah.
Maybe consider splitting this model down the center, and make two seperate halves (as I notice its asymmetrical to a degree) and then those two halves can make a few more variations to be played with.
Its going to be aimed at an FPS game, this project is more of a "getting thrown in the deep end" for me as it will force me to really nail new techniques. I'm trying to incorporate mudbox into the workflow too, I just couldn't grasp Zbrush but mudbox seems to be more user friendly and I am starting to understand it.
Screenshot taken from Xnormal of the bulkhead and floor textured with diffuse, normal and spec maps:
Wall piece in progress, the UT3 thread has really inspired me to try and put more detail into the hi-res meshes this is just the start:
I'm starting to think about the low poly for this and I'm unsure as to how I'm going to tackle the large piping, should I have those as seperate objects from the wall and just place them relevantly in the editor or incorporate it as one?
maybe they are pipes I guess. if it is pipes I'd rather see them go from floor to roof instead. makes no sense to have pipes sticking out like that really unless there are valves or something on them.
now I learnt something new!
There are a few choices you can take now (so I'll only write what I would do), but what I would do is, if they are integral to this elements design, keep them on the wall actor like youve shown and carry on as normal but then rip the pipes off the wall and import each in to UEd as a static actor. You've already got them textured, then, and you can place them around to decorate with.
If the design doesnt work without the pipes then theres always a chance it could be put together, without the pipes. Disaster!
I'd love to animate the fan in Unreal 3 too so its just constantly spinning, another thing to add to my long list of things to do!
I decided to keep the pipes integrated into the design of the wall but I'm going to take your advice ImSlightlyBored and create a couple more pipe variations and use them across the ceiling later on.
They are pipes Kawe lol they did look weird so I added the little connector, I hope that helped. I'm going to add some more detail in the diffuse texture so its easily readable that they are pipes.
Ironwolf, I'm making the high poly first before I make the low to match it I think a lot of people do it this way. Or do you think its too much detail for a wall? It is going to be for a corridor scene so I don't want it to look too empty.
The horizontal vent lines are probably too small to translate to a normal map. You will likely run into similar problems with the pipes in the top inset and the wires of the fan.
Oh I just saw those metal brackets holding the fan plate on. Those won't show up either. If it doesn't show up in a screenshot of the source, it probably won't do anything in game.
I like the teethy trim at the top and bottom.
here's some ideas off the top of my head
I took advice from your paintover cholden, it really did push the wall further and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I just hope my texturing doesn't destroy the detail lol.
At this point, you're better off making the low and testing things out for yourself. We can tell you all day how to improve it, but sometimes you need to see how it actually works.
id add some more variation to the colour of your metal, at the mo nearly every panel is the same metal, pick 3 or 4 metals and use those, say one base, one fro panels, one for the pipes and one for the details. dont over-do it but if you use a set of metals in consistant places it can be quite effective
I'd try to give some of the parts different metal properties, as if some beams maybe were built with a heavier metal while the rest was done in a lighter one, with slight different shades and tones (if you really want to keep it all close to gray).
Thanks for all the advice cholden, heres the flats for the objects sorry for the external link they were too large to post here. I haven't seen tron for years but i can see the resemblance, weird!!
First one is bulkhead, second is floor and third on right is wall.
Just thought I'd wait and see if I get any feedback on my flats as well to take into account when taking another go at them, sorry if I confused you shepeiro!
p.s. thanks for all the advice so far guys, just wanted to say this community is awesome!
Been tinkering with U3 for most of today, now i read somewhere that U3 supported mirrored UV's before I started this so with that in mind I ran into this problem when I imported my model:
Its mirrored across the middle, worked fine in Xnormal but when I brought the mesh into U3 it didn't like the fact I had the mirrored UV's outside the 0-1 grid space so I overlapped them again. I used the "double half bake" method, to quote from the post I read it in.
I have searched but the posts I've read just don't make much sense to me in terms of a solution.
in my experience with using U3, it should not have any problems with UVs outside the 0-1 grid space. Almost every asset I've made has UVs outside the grid.
Baking the lighting in your scene can sometimes solve weird shading issues like this.
Other than that... I'd ask if you'd reset xform and normalized the faces.
I have been looking at the materials that come with the game, and their material set ups are so complicated with all the different nodes and I was just wondering was there some sort of specific set up I had to do so that it knows to flip the normal map for the mirrored UV's.