Planning And Modular Workflow

Text Version | Video

In my search to find more information on modular environment creation I've found many different resources that go about creating environments in many different ways. The planning, creation and usage of the modular assets can vary depending on the needs of the game in which it will be used, the limitations on which the environment is created around and also the workflow that is used by the team of artists.

Polycount Wiki - LINK

Even though the tutorial is based around using Unity3D, the theory and planning surrounding modular asset and environment creation is used in other game engines and workflows. I found this tutorial interesting as it showcases how not only models can be used in a modular fashion but also textures by means of a texture atlas which requires additional planning while modelling the assets.

Whats a texture atlas?

Full Blast - LINK

A texture atlas is the name given to a diffuse map that is used across multiple models and has a number of different textures on it. This is used in some environments and used on weaker platforms as it saves on memory usage as the engine will only be drawing a single texture for a multiple assets/large environment.

This style of texturing can be used not only to texture large environments like cities or landscapes very quickly but also to texture separate assets in a smaller scene thus reusing a texture and saving on memory usage and project time.

Planning & Analyzing Research

When starting off with planning and researching the environment and style of the scene, its good to collect various reference material to help break down what textures you will need and how best to break up your modular assets to create easily usable pieces.

This tutorial goes over a techenique where you break down how many textures you need and how oftern they are used. He also goes over vertex colouring were its possible to use alpha channels with details such as cracks or graffiti that can be placed on-top of the original texture, thus giving more detail and variation to the scene. Breaking down the forms of a scene will help me understand how many different models and textures you will need to create.

Modular assets aren't just limited to the assets that snap and pivot together like the skyrim examples in my previous post here. Modular assets in a game environment are anything that can be used multiple times but can be slightly changed and altered each time, an example of this is grass, trees and rocks which are all the same models and texture but can vary in size, rotation, vertex painting for details etc.

Methods

In the tutorial he goes over three possible workflows when creating a scene.

Textures > Models

•  The idea is to collect your textures in a texture atlas prior to creating the scene, this includes the spec/nor/gloss textures.
• The benefit of this method is that you can apply your textures as you model the assets and have visual feedback as you create the scene.

Models > Textures

• Blocking out your scene and planning out the modular assets as efficiently as possible prior to texturing
• This process is slower to get to a point where you can visually see how the scene is coming together and can result in lose of interest in the project.

Both

•  This method combines both previous methods together, this means you create a texture atlas then block out your scene. You can use these textures as a test prior to recreating the models and then recreating the textures
• This workflow is slower and requires a redo of your initial test textures and models but can result in efficient and well planned out scenes.

Summary

The tutorial has given me a good idea on how I'll begin to plan out my environment once I've decided on an art style and theme for the scene(s).

This has mainly been research into how best to go about understanding a piece of concept art and breaking it down into textures and assets prior to jumping into the software and making it and the importance of thinking modular about the environment where possible.

References

tucho. (2012). Top down ship shooter . Available: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=110194. Last accessed 31st Oct 2014

Metalix. (2012). Efficient planning and modular workflow for game enviroments. Available: http://cgcookie.com/unity/2013/01/07/efficient-planning-and-modular-workflow/. Last accessed 31st Oct 2014.