Swamp/forest UDK environment WIP
Hi all
I'm working on a small environment to go in UDK. The scene is a mossy woodland or slightly swampy area. Whilst it will be playable there won't be any gameplay as such, it's mostly just to show off the environment.
The scene will consist of a hut, some rocks/boulders, a few ruined stone walls, a gate and a few trees. The style is realistic, with signs of age on all the assets, moss will have grown on everything.
Below are a few images of where I am so far. I will be updating this regularly as I'm almost finished at uni and this is one of the final projects.
Any feedback would be welcome, thanks.
(everything is rendered in Marmoset)
I'm working on a small environment to go in UDK. The scene is a mossy woodland or slightly swampy area. Whilst it will be playable there won't be any gameplay as such, it's mostly just to show off the environment.
The scene will consist of a hut, some rocks/boulders, a few ruined stone walls, a gate and a few trees. The style is realistic, with signs of age on all the assets, moss will have grown on everything.
Below are a few images of where I am so far. I will be updating this regularly as I'm almost finished at uni and this is one of the final projects.
Any feedback would be welcome, thanks.
(everything is rendered in Marmoset)
Replies
TIling textures?
Vertext painting?
As for what everyone says, I have to agree. I started off making a few buildings and importing them in UDK and I felt things were slow for a while because instead of blocking it all out I did each piece one by one. Eventually things changed drastically and now I have to remake it all.
where do you usually do the blockout? in the game-engine itself, or in the 3d software (3ds max etc)?
I started a project, did the blockout in 3ds max using the normal scales for the cryengine (1 unit= 1 meter) and then when I exported it all to the cryengine it seemed everything too small for the player...
Sorry for spamming your thread Finalstraw
Basically I'll mash up some models in Max, nothing too fancy and import them into UDK and mess around with it. A lot of the design direction comes when I decide if I'm going for realism or stylism and from there I'll tweak the lighting and decide on a time of day.
Really from there it's just back and forth from Max to UDK and constructing whatever it is I have in my head or reference. I'm always constantly tweaking the lighting because the lighting "defines" the entire direction of your static meshes and materials. It's no good have a rim shader and a high spec if you're using a light style that adds bloom to anything with white.
As for scale, I'm not sure about Cryengine but for UDK it's something like 2cm per 1 unit. Don't quote me on that, I have it stored in my settings. So I'd google up Cryengine units.
I have simply unwrapped in max and textured in Photoshop, so it will have a unique texture. I realize this may not be the most efficient way to texture a wall, however I was using it practice unwrapping (the end stones in particular).
Habboi
I agree, I have been careful to make sure I keep the project scoped so it is achievable in UDK, however I should have got onto blocking out first. Also your method of blocking out is useful thank you.
a-k-m
Don't worry about it, it is something I was wondering in fact, as I have always blocked out in max. However I was interested in doing it in UDK using BSPs for some of the blockout.
It might be cool to add some relief to the tiles, just to mix it up a little and give it some variation.
Also, I would recommend changing the sky light to something more directional. The Dawn setting is very ambient and doesnt show normals or specular very well.
Using a floor plane would help sell that shot more too
Here are some images of the blockout in UDK.
A few things to note...
The trees will have full foliage on them, that is merely the trunk and main limbs of the tree so far.
The blocks near the pool will be wall, and the tree in between them will have taken out some of the surrounding wall, as can be seen in the wall above.
The surrounding rock area is made up of a rock from UDK, don't worry it will be replaced with my own surrounding wall as the scene should show a lowered part of a wooded area, with raised rock walls and shrubs/vines hanging down.
Any feedback would be welcom, even at this late stage in my uni year I still plan on working on this once I have finished.
(Tones them down a lot)
The lighting however, needs quite a bit of work. Shadows are not that dark with that kind of lighting. I would look at some reference images of lighting. (But be aware some pictures have distorted lighting, either underexposed or overexposed)
Also you have god rays forming thin air. That shit be Godly.
You may also want to consider revisiting your tree, the vertex normals are making the leaves look super planar and you also have some super huge leaves and a lot of really tiny leaves.
As a general suggestion, when making trees I'd try to make them a bit more asymmetrical so that it's less obviously repetitive. And you should avoid making your leaf density too thick, it's really important with foliage to be able to see through the tree in areas where there aren't as many leaves.
When you make a tree too symmetrical and your leaves are too dense then you end up with a broccoli tree which is pretty much what you have.
It'd also be good if you varried the height of your objects more. Everything is pretty much uniform in size, cliffs in the background are all the same height, trees are all the same size, rocks are all the same size....
Thank you very much for all your comments so far. I've toned the lighting down, and tried to cut down on some of the god rays. I've also added some assets, bits and pieces and looking at final composition shots. Let me know your thoughts if you can , cheers!
There are some max scripts in: UDK\Binaries\SpeedTreeModeler\Scripts\3ds Max
The mesh utility script does a similar thing as the normal thief script, except that it's faster.