Home Technical Talk

do you know any tutorials which can help me create big assets, like the whole map itself in zbrush?

polycounter lvl 6
Offline / Send Message
napelazam polycounter lvl 6

see pictures. what you see there could be one level, or even just a tiny part of a bigger level. and id looove more theory about workflow and so on. i did that in substance modeler. was very easy and fun. cause i can sculpt in all dimensions at same time.

doing this in zbrush i imagine is cumbersome?


Replies

  • Alex_J
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Alex_J grand marshal polycounter

    For a diorama do whatever you want.

    For a game you need to design with future changes in mind. In that case, this workflow is going to cause more problems than solutions.

    Think about what sort of changes you'll need to make over the development of a game. "Character can jump 10 meters high, so all reachable platforms have to conform." "Character now jumps 20 meters high with double jump, and we added a jetpack, so the levels need to change completely."

    Just one example. Every game is different of course, but a content creation workflow that allows you to separate every little entity so that they can be composed in the game engine in a modular way is going to most beneficial.

  • napelazam
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    napelazam polycounter lvl 6

    vr game. i am planning to use gorilla tag movement™.

    Run, climb, and jump in VR using a unique locomotion method that only needs the movement of your hands and arms. No buttons, no sticks, no teleportation. Push off of surfaces to jump and squeeze them with both hands to climb. 

    with that movement method... this map should work.

  • poopipe
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    poopipe grand marshal polycounter

    It'll work, doesn't stop it being a bad idea .


    We all build levels out of many small pieces because it has proven to be the best way to build levels.

    Over the last 20-30 years, thousands of people have come to the same conclusion. i.e. that its less work overall, it's more flexible and it's much cheaper to render.

    Where your idea makes sense is for blocking out. If sculpting the level in zbrush works best for generating ideas etc. Then do that, iterate til you're happy and then use it as a template to position your final assets.

  • Alex_J
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Alex_J grand marshal polycounter

    that sounds like a prime candidate type of game for a modular environment workflow. If you stick with the best practices you can find all over the internet, I think you'll be set up for success and not need to do anything out-of-the-ordinary.

  • napelazam
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    napelazam polycounter lvl 6


    but i dont know how to make it modular. just having few assets for walls, and floors, that wont make it. that works for a house i think. with walls looking all the same . but not here. here look at the first pic, the 1. that is a hero asset. i cannot make this modularly inside ue. just no. i want all the nice bevels u see there. if i make the center platform in 1 seperate, and the outer wide ring another mesh. id have 2 drawcalls. but same poly as if it would be one asset. regarding 2.i want all the details u see there.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------

    or look the wall 1. i cant just sculpt it 2 meters wide and then make a very wide wall with those assets. i mean... i cant imagine that working? because the wall 1 there has different vertical heights. and that is important. caue the ground isnt flat. it goes up and down. if i would do modular, and if we go under the ground, player can see the wall sticking out. and yeah. i am planning the level to be very vertical. so a lot of the space will be used.

    look how many different details the ground has. u cant make that with modulars.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    with modular, the wall would stick under. and i never know if player will be able to go there. and if i cut the meshes into "somewhat modular" assets, then the final level will look much different than here :( just googled "modular environment workflow". only showed modular buildings. nothing for what i need.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------

  • Alex_J
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Alex_J grand marshal polycounter

    separating elements of your environment so that you can change it in the game engine will not effect how it will look. If it does, you are doing something strange.

    It's a change in your workflow that seemingly adds a few steps and decisions you have to make up front, but it saves you much more problems down the road.

    Everybody is doing it for a reason. If you try to make a game, you'll understand. When you are watching some tutorials, try to look for the broad principles at play, not specifics. If somebody is making a house, forget the house and just focus on what idea's you might be able to use in your own project. What problem does the workflow solve?

    It's hard to understand the why even if somebody explains it thoroughly. It helps to encounter the problems directly through experience, then it's easy to understand the common workflows and why people choose them.

  • Neox
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Neox godlike master sticky

    maybe you should look at the UE5 demos, there use a lot of megascans to make their scenes, check out how they did that :)

  • pior
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    pior grand marshal polycounter

    Hello,

    This thread is running in circles because your angle doesn't make sense. For instance :


    -----

    "but i dont know how to make it modular. just having few assets for walls, and floors, that wont make it. that works for a house i think. with walls looking all the same . but not here. here look at the first pic, the 1. that is a hero asset. i cannot make this modularly inside ue. just no. i want all the nice bevels u see there. if i make the center platform in 1 seperate, and the outer wide ring another mesh. id have 2 drawcalls. but same poly as if it would be one asset. regarding 2.i want all the details u see there."

    -----


    First of all, capitalization and full words please, thanks.

    Now in the few statements above you communicate that you seem to know quite a bit about game art/game dev - mentionning things like "draw calls", "modularity", "hero asset", what you know would works and wouldn't work in UE, and so on ; and even knowing in advance the gameplay you're going for. Yet at the same time the whole thread gives the vibe that you discovered VR sculpting last week and spent a couple evening improvising your first voxel model.

    So ... what is it ? Have you actually done some game environments before, used terrain editors, created modular assets, and so on ? Or are we starting from scratch here. Because if indeed you are new to all this, then the course of action is to do just what everyone else did : Do some simple levels in UE (or even Hammer or Radiant or Unity ...), learn a basic set of tools that allows you to build some kind of map, and then apply that to your grandiose VR project.

    That said there's absolutely nothing wrong with starting out with something slightly more ambitious than the basics - but then you need to actually start working on it, using whatever skills you already have as opposed to theorizing what may or may not work.

    You might also want to give a link to some of your previous work so that people can give you advice appropriate to your skill and knowledge. This alone will likely clear up most of the confusion.

Sign In or Register to comment.