Best modeling-tech for enterable buildings?

michi.be

I have the feeling that I'm modelling interior rooms not the best possible way.
Most times I have problems selecting all the faces to assign my mat-ids through the walls.
Modelling proper floors and ceilings and to connect the vertices to my outer walls is sometimes a pain.

Is there a good way to model rooms in a modular fashion or should I use boolean operations? Maybe a simple brush-based leveleditor for the work with the possibility to export to max and do the detailing there? I have the feeling 3dmax is not the best tool for work like this. Sketchup seems nice and easy but not for all of the work.

It's really tricky for me. I would like to hear some tricks here.

Ryno

Booleans can be fine for doing this stuff, but I'd recommend doing your inner volume boolean early in the process when the shapes are still simple. From there, Editable Poly modifications and cleanup.

Isolating your selection is a good idea when working on interiors. Either detach, or Editable Poly > Faces > select exterior faces > Hide (from Editable Poly Menu).

I personally would rather detach the interior once its outter bounding area and doorways/windows are determined. Then the exterior can be hidden, I can tear into the interior and give it all the detail needed, and worry about the connection of exterior to interior later. Depending on your engine, it might be better to leave them unattached, as there's no reason to be drawing the exterior of the building while you are inside.

Ott

Working modular-ly can be difficult, but another option for you might be to

1. Take advantage of the grid and use a power of 2 with your snaps
2. Block everything out with boxes, delete faces, and then use the shell modifier and cleanup as needed.
3. Make each individual wall, floor, ceiling piece separately while adhering to your snaps and unit sizing. (512 for wall, 512 for ceiling, 1024 for floor, etc.
4. Work with layers to hide individual elements.

Is it absolutely necessary that everything be welding together? Most Engines allow for floating / separated objects these days. If not, then keep things separated and work with the grid and a unit guideline.

michi.be

Thank you both for your good explanaitions. It's for Cryengine2 in this case but also applies to other engines I worked with.

I think I will try out the booleans for the simple shape next time. I also made a set of windows,doors and other attachments for reuse.
Finally I think I will do some premade wall or door parts for the inside.

Tumerboy

Modularity works JUST as well inside as it does out. Also, I feel like a lot of people hear the word "modular" and think it's going to look tiley and repetative. But if you set up your pieces properly, you can get a great deal of variety out of them. Also, after doing your initial layout modularly, at any time you can just collapse it down to a single mesh and do all the custom work you want.

For building modular interiors, Stick to a grid of some sort (decide on your piece size, 10' 25' whatever) and make sure both your piece edges, and your pivots line up on said grid. Then do whatever you want within that space.

Minos

Alright since going 100% modular isn't an option I'd do a mix of both:

1) Create two boxes and invert the normals of the inner box. This will be your blockout.
2) Convert teh outer box to editable poly and remove the top and bottom faces
3) Attach the inner box to the outer box
4) Select both inner and outer faces of a given side and cut a hole with the quickslice tool.
5) Close the gap by connecting the edges with the bridge tool
6) If you weren't a fool and kept everything on grid it should be quite easy and quick to get a clean base mesh
7) Now you can just place your modular pieces (doors/windows/pillars/trims/whatever) and decorate your blockout