Game Environment Help

pookanimation

Hi guys,
I am planning on making a grand entrance hallway/lobby area, run down/abandoned type style. Will post progression but there's one major thing I could do with some help on regarding Texture maps.

When creating an interior whole scene, should everything e.g stairway walls floor props be on one map alone and what size? Or can I map everything separate..

E.g Staircase 1024x1024
Piano 1024x1024
Walls & All floor & Ceiling 2048x2048

This is my first time creating a whole scene and I just can't find any info anywhere!

Another thing.. If I was going to make some foilage/weeds etc would they also be mapped separate?? Basically treating everything like a prop.

Really appreciate any help!!

jp

8-bit kid

Hmm, it depends on what kind of environment your building and for what purpose. Working with limitations is what makes Game Art unique and texture sharing becomes important when you'd like to save on resources, such as iPhone/Android development, maybe even some console development, where putting different objects on the same map in encouraged, but, are you building this to render? in an engine? Need more info...

Paunescu.Daniel

every object should have its own texture, the size of the texture is determined by how big the object is or how visible it is in the scene (or how important)
Edit: also depends what kind of environment? will it have gameplay or just a presentation kind of video, or static renders?)

pookanimation

Well basically I'm trying to get a full scene into my portfolio, to eventually get me a job in games. So it is technically not for an engine, but I want to do it as if it was, so I know I'm on Industry level.

For example, Should I make the staircase then texture that on it's own map?

iniside

Depends. If you are gonna make stairs modular, you can use unique texture for it.
You can also use tileabe texture that can be shared along other objects. It really depend on what are you trying to achive.

euclidius

The size of the texture is in relation of how you consistently you distribute the pixel density of your scene, meaning, your wall and your piano must have the same amount pixels when you view them in your engine. In terms of map size, it is ussualy best work double the size of the original target map size on the engine. It is always easy to down rez a map from 2048x2048 to 1024x1024 in photosop, not the other way around. Plus, working on a big texture map is always better for detail

Butthair

http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryEnvironmentModeling?highlight=%28\bCategoryEnvironment\b%29

http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryTexturing

Those might help get you started in the right direction. My first step in workflow is planning, as I'm sure it is with many others. I'll make sure every possible problem I find is handled or accounted for.

If your scene has a stairway, for example, I would estimate about how many steps would it have, 10? 20? 50? Base on the amount, I'd make a tiling texture for them. If they are more damaged, I might make a few variations, whereas if they are clean, I might have less and break up the pattern with some overlaying noise through the shader.

If it's something unique, or at least doesn't occur in the scene anywhere else, let's say, a chandelier. Chandeliers are modular assets in themselves (usually), so making only a part of it, texturing those parts, then duplicating them to create the entire asset would allow more detail within the texture page.

Lighting will break up a lot of repetition in textures as well, whether color or intensity.

Some people might not agree, but I usually start my texture sizes pretty big, 4096 or 8196 (I'd go higher if xNormal allowed ^^). Then size them down when putting them in the scene. Starting from higher resolution allows more detail to be preserved at a pixel level, keeping everything crisp and readable, rather than blurry and possibly showing artifacts.

Before I ever did full scenes, I made random assets that kept my interest and kept me motivated. Whether they turned out nice is another story, but it helped me to refine my workflow. Kind of like drawing on paper (or digital), it's only after you've gotten mileage will things look better. You start getting your mind into a state that knows what to do each step of the way, planning becomes easier, problems are more predictable as well as can be handled easier, et cetera.