Sci-Fi Computer Hallway

Hayden Zammit

I finished a gun that I posted on here recently. It didn't come out too great, but I got a lot of good feedback and learnt alot. This time I'm doing an environment. It's going to be in UDK, as I have a lot of trouble with UDK environments.

Concept isn't my own. It's by Aaron Foster (RazorB on here). I dig his concepts so I went with this of his:



I'm still working on the blockout. I've done a few of the high poly models as well. Here's where I'm at. I still need to finish the blockout and fix the scaling which is still pretty off:



More updates soon!

Spitfire

Beautiful concept, nice start!

Vysuki

Looking good so far, only part that looks like it could be slightly out is the beams on the window area, they look too thin going depth wise and too thick going width way.

Hayden Zammit

I had a question I was hoping someone could answer at this early stage.

At the moment everything is still in Maya. This is just going to be a single shot for my folio. So when I bring it into UDK, do I even need to worry about having correct grid sizing and all that stuff?

m4dcow

Hayden Zammit wrote: »

I had a question I was hoping someone could answer at this early stage.

At the moment everything is still in Maya. This is just going to be a single shot for my folio. So when I bring it into UDK, do I even need to worry about having correct grid sizing and all that stuff?

Some weird stuff can happen in UDK if the scale of an object is too small, but that is all I can think of.

As far as the grid goes, if you are just bringing the model in for a one off screenshot it should be fine, but you should get in the habit of building to some reference of scale and on a grid anyway.

cdevens

Are you importing everything as one mesh? If you import individual assets that don't work on the grid, they will not snap together correctly in UDK.

Alex3d

^ That
And also if you build everything to scale and to grid, you don't have to keep track of it later on (makes your life sooo much easier). You will run into severe seam problems and your assets won't be re-usable

Alberto Rdrgz

Hayden Zammit wrote: »

I had a question I was hoping someone could answer at this early stage.

At the moment everything is still in Maya. This is just going to be a single shot for my folio. So when I bring it into UDK, do I even need to worry about having correct grid sizing and all that stuff?

yes you do. also, each piece should be brought in individually, with lightmaps.

cdevens

Also, I am not sure what you are trying to accomplish. If you just want a render without going through the correct game asset workflow, I would suggest just doing it in Maya. A render in a game engine isn't worth much if your assets aren't usable. If your goal is to do environment art, then work through the problems with the engine rather than just avoiding them.

Hayden Zammit

Thanks everyone for the advice.

Also, I am not sure what you are trying to accomplish. If you just want a render without going through the correct game asset workflow, I would suggest just doing it in Maya. A render in a game engine isn't worth much if your assets aren't usable. If your goal is to do environment art, then work through the problems with the engine rather than just avoiding them.

I wasn't trying to avoid the proper workflow. I just rememeber someone telling me that just dropping in a fully built level was one option. He said you could build it piece by piece and place it all in maya. Then just import it in piece by piece and everything would still be in place. I'd still get light maps and everything this way.

I won't do it this way, though, I just wondered if it was a common approach.

Anyway, so I should plan out the sizes of each part? Like would I decide if I want the floor to be 1024 units long and such now? And does everything have to stick to power of 2? Is it so bad to have a piece that was say 390 units long or something?

I know these things probably seem rudimentary, but they always give me trouble with UDK.

Also, how much of this would you guys do as Mesh and how much BSP? I was planning to do it all as meshes. Is that a good approach?

Sorry to rant on. This project is meant to be a learning excercise, so just trying to address my problems.

Alex3d

Ohh I see where you got the idea. Yes the pivot point of the item during import into UDK will be determined by the position of the object in Maya from the center grid. And no, nobody builds environments like that (will you actually import every single repeating piece into UDK as separate assets?) Try to block out the correct scale first (relative to a person) and get to the grid. UDK uses generic units, 1 grid unit is the smallest drag snap (the rest is to the power of 2: 2, 4, 8, 16...1024). So the closer you get to the power of 2, the easier to is to assemble all the lego pieces into awesomeness :P Good luck!

EDIT: No, its not that big a deal if you have an asset 390 units long, its just better to have assets which can be snapped easier. For example: if you make your asset 384 units instead, you can use a 128 snap (128*3)...

Hayden Zammit

Alex3d, that clears thing up a lot. I'll probably move into UDK soon and start blocking it out there. Thanks a heap.