Military Facility Circa 1940 - Environment

nathdevlin

Hi all,

I've gotten around to starting a new personal environment project. The goal is to learn new workflows, develop and hone my skills whilst learning UDK. This environment was originally created for a tutorial and produced in under 2 weeks of evenings . I want to improve upon it and produce a section of the environment suitable for a current gen FPS.

I also want to maintain a narrative in the piece that will influence the direction it takes.

First up is the overpaint of the original model. The premise of the concept will be it's a secretive military facility circa 1940 in the UK that deals with "illegal scientific experimentation". An experiment has escaped and left a wake of destruction.

There will be an undercurrent of retro sci fi running through the scene. The facade will be based on typical buildings of that time. The real facility will be seen underground and will be a cross between a submarine and bunker.

nathdevlin

The door concept below displays the aesthetic I'll be applying to the environment. The facility has period features on the surface but a harsh metallic core beneath. The facility infrastructure will be slightly advanced designs of existing technology in the 1940s. There'll likely be some room for maneuver.

nathdevlin

This is a blockout WIP for a portable metallic barrier influenced by armour plating on AA guns. The concept for this is incoming.

nathdevlin

The image below is a render from 3DS Max of where I left the environment last year. Some assets may remain but most will likely be replaced.

Leodido

love the style of this

nathdevlin

Hi all,

I'm currently working on the door asset. The game res model is now ready with normal and AO maps. This model will need to be combined with the existing wooden door that needs improving.

nathdevlin

The door is complete for now. I've placed it in UDK and setup the materials. Further balancing and tweaking maybe required once more of the scene is complete. For now the door can be used as a double door or single and be with or without the handles.

A diffuse and normal map was used. I also created a "data" texture ( not the official term) this was a map that utilised each channel:

Red Channel : Glossiness map
Green Channel: Specular map
Blue Channel: Diffuse texture for glass
Alpha Channel: Opacity texture for glass

Here's the asset in UDK

Eric Chadwick

Looking good!

Glass is a different style than the concept, seems like it should be reinforced with embedded wire mesh, and more opaque. The glass panes should probably be inset into the sides of the metal frame, currently they just stop at the metal and have no interface there.

The hinges kind of float on the door, they could use some grime and AO and dimpling to connect them with the door surface.

Kind of a waste of texture space for the X part of the door. You could isolate the yellow text to its own quads, to reuse the triangle shapes.

oobersli

Just at a glance, why not just make the glass portion its own texture? I would think that adding the alpha channel to your spec map just for the glass diffuse would be a tad more expensive than just creating a seperate smaller rgb texture for the glass.

Plus you could use the spare blue channel in your door texture to put in a AO map. just a thought.

nathdevlin

Heh Eric,

Thanks for the comments. It's still a WIP so elements such as the glass can change. The original door model had opaque reinforced glass. As I've changed my goals for the scene I want to create transparent glass. The glass here is a test to use all channels in the "data" texture. Reinforced glass could be created with it's own material/textures later leaving the unused channels free for decals ( mentioned below )

Agreed on the hinges, I was hoping as it's geometry an AO render pass in UDK and or light mapping would have worked on this. It'll need improving once the final lighting and scene are in place.

For the "X" support I choose to have two panels in the texture as it means I can create a generic door and have the more bespoke "hero" door which can have additional wear and tear in the texture.

I was tempted to use the blue and alpha channel of the "data" texture to create text decals which can be placed on all the doors. I've been considering numbering them around the facility as there may well be over 15 doors in the end. As there'll be so many it was the other reason I choose to keep the two "x" panels in the texture as the variety could help later in the project.

nathdevlin

oobersli wrote: »

Just at a glance, why not just make the glass portion its own texture? I would think that adding the alpha channel to your spec map just for the glass diffuse would be a tad more expensive than just creating a seperate smaller rgb texture for the glass.

Plus you could use the spare blue channel in your door texture to put in a AO map. just a thought.

Hi oobersli,

I'll likely end up having a separate map and using the blue/alpha channels on the door map for text decals later. At the moment I was only working on the door itself so thought I'd use what was left in the texture rather than creating a new one.

The suggestion of a separate AO is interesting, I already have a hint of AO in the diffuse texture. I'd imagine this with lightmapping and SSAO should be enough. It would allow the other channels be used for the door numbering decals.

Dysengaged

Looking really good
Love the concept