UDK Egyptian Temple Environment WIP

engelmanna

Hi,

In an effort to learn the Unreal engine, and improve my environment work, I've started work on an Egyptian themed environment (It's layout is based off the temple multiplayer level from goldeneye). Its obviously still a WIP, but I wanted to get it in front of some other people to get feedback as I go along. Without further ado, here are some pics.

Ged

looking great so far, love all the damage detail and quality of the materials.

Serp

Looks great. Im curious though, what is that mist/haze quality that makes it look so good? Is it something in postprocessing that you can change?

engelmanna

Thanks for the comments so far.

Serp- I am using a fog actor and some color correction post processing. Here is an example of the scene with the fog and color correction turned off.

Gilgamesh

Yer I prefer it without, gives it a nice rich colour and gives it a late evening feel.

Serp

Thanks mate!. I'm going to do that with a scene I'm making based on a screenshot from Rage. Rage seems to have a similar effect to yours.

vj_box

Feel like a POP environment,coming along nicely.Would love to see more shelled out.

Mime

Looks great, i can't tell where the mirroring seam is ... would you mind posting some wires ?
The brick wall is vertex blended , right ?

engelmanna

-Mime: Yes the wall is vertex blended. Could you be a little more specific on what you would like to see wires of? (e.g. the whole scene, or just indivdual assets) I would be more than happy to post them.

Mime

the whole thing looks like its made out of one continuous mesh , and i was just curious where you mirrored it.
So and individual asset wire would be nice.

Shogun3d

Your first set of screenshots appear rather flat due to the strength of the fog and lighting however the second strikes a much stronger contrast both in terms of value and colour. I feel both are at extremes and finding a good balance in between the two will add for a very nice balanced scene. Going in afterwards with specific lighting to accent areas of stronger contrast such as foreground elements will bring in some nice relief.

As for materials I think you can push the normals on the bricks some more, as well as pop out different materials via specular. In this case, the brick vs wood and metal etc.

The scene overall is looking great. The mood is very nice, natural and feels very convincing.

brandoom

I would keep the fog, just lessen it.

I like the scene, definitely add in some more props along the walls and floor to fill some space. maybe lamps, earns/pottery, carpet, dare I say crates? lol

The only other nit pick I have is the skybox texture. The sun is clearly behind the clouds, which would result is far less sharp shadows. So I would either change the skybox to fit the shadows, or change the light to create suitable shadows

Looks great though. Well done thus far.

engelmanna

Thanks everyone for the feedback so far! I must say I am surprised with the feedback on the post-processing and fog. I thought the post-processed version would be favored over the plain version. I think I'll try to find a middle ground with the post processing.

-brandoom: The skybox is a default skybox from UDK. I am planning on painting my own eventually.

I've been trying to build modularly. Here are most of the assets I'm using with wireframes:

gauss

Don't listen to these nancy boys, the post processed version is far superior as a game environment--it just upsets them when they can't see all the fiddly bits with perfect clarity

The fog/post gives a better sense of atmosphere and of place. I think especially building an ancient-themed local, with some sort of mystical or royal overtones the heavier atmosphere is a real plus. I like the highly saturate red/purple colors coming through, fits well with the subject matter.

Now maybe a minor adjustment on the color of the fog to bring it in line more with the overall ambience, less white--but overall I'm heavily in favor of keeping the post.

Skamberin

This looks incredibly good, really want to walk around in it. You planning on getting some symbols up on those flags? Right now they look a little boring, you should also give the cloth material a little more definition as it looks a little flat right now. Other than that it looks great man !

engelmanna

Skamberbin - Thanks! I plan on adding quite a few props all around the room. I also plan on adding a throne by the windows. Once I get the interior done, I am planning on modeling out a bit of the outside to give the viewer something interesting to look at. I haven't tried anything on the banners yet, however I was thinking of putting an eye of hours symbol on it.

I'll post more updates as soon as I can. The feedback I've gotten here has really inspired me to keep on chugging. Thanks!

engelmanna

It's been a few days and unfortunately I haven't been able to put a ton of time into this environment. I've refined the "throne" area quite a bit. I also added a hole in the floor, and I added a better door material. Below are some screenshots of the most recent progress. Critiques and comments are always welcome! Thanks!

Orb

beautiful work! and yeah keep this post process!

brandoom

Nice progress Blot.

What do you plan to do with the hole in the floor? Fountain came to mind when I first saw it. The new statues are cool as well.

As for a the PP, I like it, but I would lessen the fog a bit. Feels a bit too heavy atm.

bluekangaroo

this is looking pretty sweet. I dont mind some fog but what I think would be best is some distance fog as opposed to having fog just blanket the entire scene. I forget which is the correct actor but you should be able to control at what distance the fog becomes visible as well as its density