Modular Dungeon

Orangeknight

So this is my first project on polycount and I'm hoping it will go well. My environment is a tile based modular dungeon based off games like the original Elderscrolls. Well here are the screenshots, be aware that it looks crappy because I just imported it into UDK and haven't touched lighting and basic plugin material. Also not so sure about the design of the ceiling design, still have SO much to do and I plan to use alot of vertex paint.

Orangeknight

Sorry To Double Post but I would like to know what you guys think on the general design. I especially want to know what you think of the roof.

cholden

I'm making one of these too.

My initial concern is that this is extremely basic. Check out Legend of Grimrock and Amnesia for reference. Even those small budget, small team projects have vastly more detail. Model in bricks, major shapes, etc.

You may run in to a lighting issue with UDK if your pieces have no backface. Essentially, lighting passes through open meshes. This won't be a problem if you build a tight interior and light it from the inside. However, using that default skylight it can pass through and cause a lot of problems

Stromberg90

Agree with what cholden said here.
And you should at least remove the seams in you texture

TheGoozah

Indeed... I ran into some problems myself with lighting because of no backface. I'm not sure if you're using BSP's in that UDK shot, if not, I would recommend it... I hope that wasn't a silly comment
Secondly like cholden said, it is very basic... Also take a look at the witcher 2 for reference. Not only for texture, but also for all the props, differences, etc. Take a look at this screenshot and try to analyze how much the scene difference in 6 meters.
Hope this helps a bit

Orangeknight

I had just imported into UDK, I am Nowhere near done and I plan to add alot of props and decals to spice it up. I plan to add things like a throne room probably, and prison cells and stuff like that. You have no idea how basic this is and I posted it so you could help me along as it grows.

Edit: So I fixed the issue's and its looking better but my materials are still crap.

Orangeknight

So more work done and yes its still crap, so much vertex painting will be required. Yes I know there alot of seams but hopefully the vertex painting should fix some of that. I changed the roof and texture hopefully to make it less repetitive. My problem is finding photo refrences that match my enviroment and look as awesome as that witcher 2 art. If anybody has any good textures please put them my way.Also conteplating switching from the yellowish bricks instead to the classic gray bricks. Do you like that idea? So here is the new roof

njc6425

The new one definatly looks better, however i would think about how they would build that. It fine to just slap a tiling texture on it and make that look good but you need to think about the physicality of the object... in the witcher 2 screenshot you can see the entire hallway is made of a brick archway. whereas yours has brick walls, brick pillars and then ontop of that a brick arch.. it just doesnt seem to flow right? if that makes sense. Maybe make the walls and roof one object and then make the pillars a different texture like sandstone?
Definatly heading in the right direction though

Orangeknight

Yeah I have been talking to my tutorish guy and he has been helping me kinda pull this in the right direction. I'm gonna be sculpting alot of it and hopefully pulling it in the right direction. So instead of focusing on modular textures I'm just gonna do modular models which should make it look nice. So I hope to post the sculpted wall when I can, alot of my stuff will be based off of witcher 2 and Legend of Grimrock. Chose this because what I have right now is kinda crappy and I know I can do better.

Also to reply to yours witcher 2's wall is seperate from roof, you can see a little seam right on the left hand of the screen.

Orangeknight

So I'm laying out the bricks for my sculpted wall, but I have a problem. So the polycount was high but it was running and so I saved. I then quit and loaded it later on and it was stuck on wireframe no matter what I do. Does anyone have a solution for this, even exporting as a .obj doesnt work.

Novian

As has been mentioned my two cents are also about the LOD: One suggestion for the overall look and level of detail is to follow closer to how real dungeons and tunnels were made. You might want to add things like wooden beams, torch sconces, chains, pools of water, aged stones, cave ins, some dirt / dust on the floors, greater color variety in the stone (they didn't get all the stone from the same place).

Hope this helps. You've got a great start. Looking forward to progress!

Cheers~

Orangeknight

Thanks for the idea that was really my plan though, This was just kinda a basic blockout of the wall and stuff. Also about the previous problem I was talking about I use maya.

DennisGlowacki

Looking forward to seeing the sculpted version.

Orangeknight

So here is my barrel, I have some other work but I want to keep it to show you in a better presentation. I know there is a normal Issue in the bottom, should be fixing that. Also the lighting is not great so try not to focus on that. Please be harsh, I know its only a barrel but I have some new sculpted walls to show you guys later . Also I did fix the issue were the top and bottom and metal is darker.

Orangeknight

You guys deserve a bigger update. So some notes, to me the barrel color and wall clash to much should fix that so it has a equal pallete. Lighting has no work just a quick directional lighting with slight orange tinge. Lastly the I need to get some moss on the wall. I have decided to later try to add a story behind the dungeon, its gonna be like a prision escape with like barricades up and blood spattered on the wall. But enough talk here is the screenshot.

Orangeknight

Sorry to bump but I would like some crits, or comments to make sure I'm not doing everything wrong.

ParoXum

The barrel texturing is not efficient at the moment, it could use a lot more repetition and stacking, for a smaller texture but same or better texel density

Also, avoid white bg in your textures, or any other color that isnt an average or a padding of the actual uv islands. This will create Mip bleeding sooner or later.

The top of your barrel appears black, in that picture. Could be a normal map or lighting issue

Not much to crit on the rest in your latest picture because there's really not much going apart from just a test wall.

Selaznog

Never repeat anything in photoshop! See those 4 holes you have in the middle of your crate texture? They are the same image. If you're going to have the same image like that, it's better to tile it in Maya on a smaller texture. If you want to have a big texture for the crate like that, you should take advantage of the variety you can have.
This is what I mean:


I did this quickly so the textures dont really make sense, just an example really. I have the logo on the side of the barrel, and the splatters at the bottom are all different. If this was a tilable texture then you wouldnt be able to do this without using layered textures or decals.

Obviously it's more efficient to do a tile texture but if you dont have a texture limit then whatever works I guess. Hope that helps :P

Orangeknight

Thank you for the tips, to address the first post what do you mean by stacking? Also the top part black is a lighting problem not a normal. Thank you for the tips Selaznog they help alot, that got me thinking I should have some custom logo for the barrel for some made up company. Like some burned in symbol, I really appreciate the help and once I polish the barrels make a better roof I should have something bigger to show you guys. I then will start adding some smaller assets and make it a real scene.

ParoXum

Stacking = stacking uv islands to reuse parts of texture.

Orangeknight

ParoXum wrote: »

Stacking = stacking uv islands to reuse parts of texture.

The thing I'm wondering is how would I stack it. First of all the wood cant get any wider because the uv Island is at the left right border. Also if I put the cirlular top in, it would get the metal in it. Any way to reccomend to do it.

Orangeknight

Okay here is some progress, but I'm having a wierd problem. Whenever I build the lighting some parts get very dark/ black. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Simmo

It looks like your lightmap UVs are overlapped. Make sure no islands are overlapped on your second UV channel (lightmap channel)

Orangeknight

The pillars or the wall?

Simmo

Well every model you import should have unique lightmap UVs. Right now your arches look like they don't have that. The wall on the right looks really dark too for some reason, maybe turn up the lightmap resolution in the static mesh window.