Today I was working on completely random items, but I’ve managed to made quite a few big and important ones. I’ve made another desk, as I felt like the shed interior is still empty. I’ve decided that I’m gonna make another desk, this time more like a sitting area with a chair and PC.
Desk (Tris: 1167)
It also has an open drawer and will have something inside to make it looks more realistic. It also will be a place, where I’ll put a very important item for the gameplay – a map. I want the player to be able to find it in the game and use it to find their way around. The area itself is not gonna be as big, but a map may help to orientate in the space.
The rainforest area isn’t just a shed, so I’ve made a fence that will be placed all around the lab area. It has few different parts that now I’ll be able to make a proper fence. It’s again a modular design, as I still don’t know the exact placement of the fence.
Different Fence Parts (Tris: 492, 9922, 18458, 5305)
The fence is a high hologramic fence, that is suppose to keep the dinosaurs out of the lab area for safety. It may be switched off at the beginning and the player may want to turn it back on again during the gameplay, so I’ll have to learn how to make it work.
Although it’s slightly high poly, I believe it’s the absolute minimum that’s needed to make it looks god. I’ve also already unwrapped it and placed materials onto it, so it starts to look pretty good.
Today I was working on something completely different. I’ve had a great idea of what I want to include on the interior of the LAB, so I had to focus on this asset today.
It is suppose to be a hologram of the Earth with the information of its current state. The dinosaur spices count, the population etc. I wanted it to looks real as a hologram of current planet state (day and night circle as well), but I’ve decided to only go for rotation and moving clouds. Preparing everything from a scratch took me entire day, but it was worth it! I love the final result and it will add a lot to the interior of a lab.
Hologram Globe with Stand (Tris: 10792, 2978)
The actual asset is quite big in a game, so I went for a quite high tris count. I had to copy the planet’s sphere three times and place it inside each other to get the final effect (each one for: clouds, base planet, internal planet). I had to experiment with it several times, as I wanted to be able to see the hologram from the inside as well. It required an additional sphere to be placed inside. There may be another way of doing so, but I don’t know any other way around it.
I’ve used a free texture from a real satellite and manipulated it to get the final look of the futuristic planet Earth. I wanted to distort the current look of the continents, as currently everyone talks that in the future, most of the land will be flooded by water. That’s why the planet looks a bit different than right now.
The final hologram inside UE4.
The bigger challenge was to create the visuals of the rays that are getting from the stand to the actual hologram. I had to make an additional geometry and texture it separately to get the effect. I believe it works well at the end.
For two days I was working on a model of a car. This took me slightly longed than expected (the model isn’t as detailed, but it takes a while to make it). I’ve already unwrapped it and textured as well. I’ve also made different maps (roughness, metalness etc.), which then helped me to create a final material in Unreal.
I am not super happy with the actual model and texture, but it is a jeep that may be found in a place like rainforest area. I also had to find a way round to do not model the interior of a car. Because of that, the windows doesn’t looks as realistic as they should, making this car unable to be used. I may rethink adding the interior, but at this stage, I’m a bit behind, so I’m trying to save some time as much as I can.
I had several problems with the car texture and couldn’t get the details I needed into the roughness map. The dirt on the car should be lest shiny than the metal part of the body, but each time it was really hard to achieve with no reason.
Car’s Roughness Map
The roughness map seam to have all the details required to be able to get the shines of the car, but it didn’t work for some reason. It worked at the end, but it took longer than expected and several tries as well.
Car material in UE4.
I know that this could have been compressed into one texture, but I never had an opportunity to learn how to do so. Right now is not the best time to experiment and spend even longer on trying to get it right, so I decided to leave it as it is. I may learn how to make a proper packed textures in the future, bur for the purpose of this project it’s working well enough as it is.
Final look of a Car in UE4.
I have also added emissive elements for the light and actual light to make it slightly more interesting. I may also make a car alarm going on, but I’m not sure how long that would last until the car’s battery would run off…
In overall, I am not as happy with the final look as I could be, but I believe that I have to live it as it is because of the lack of time. I may come back to this at the end of the project if I’ll have any time to spare.
Augmented reality is becoming more popular mostly because of the still growing amount of interesting mobile games such as Pokemon Go or Wizards Unite. So far the real world locations were mostly transformed into the games as a background to pregenerated animations, but the weather network have done something special to their forecast – used the real-time rendering as part of their hurricane announcement in Florence. The result is really impressive and I’m looking forward to see more of this type of technology used in more common situations.
Unreal Engine 4 used in the weather network
Creating as dramatic scene for such an important announcement can be a challenge to the artist, but at the same time shows the possibilities the real-time rendering gives to the developers.
The Unreal Studio presents the real-time rendering for free for the certain amount of time. So hurry up if you want to try it out.
Real-time rendering for the fotorealistic terrain
So far this type of graphic is mostly used for VFX in other media rather than games (because of limitations), but I hope that maybe with the come of the next-gen technology, we will be able to produce such a beautiful environments using this technique.
Sparckman, 16 Sep 2018, [online video] ‘The weather network CAUGHT using UNREAL ENGINE 4 for their effects LOL’, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMmLTH5E2vA [Accessed: 13 June 2019]
As I still had a bit of a time this day, I’ve finally made the windows for my shed!
Shed Wall with Window (Tris: 544)
I’ve used several different assets to create this one, but at the end it looks perfect, as I’ve imagine it. The wall fits perfectly with the other walls but adds a lot to the actual livability in the shed. Now it become to looks a bit more like a small house than a normal shed, but it’s fine as it fits with the idea perfectly.
The final look of an external of a Shed in UE4 (no textures).
Today is a big day I would say. I’ve managed to make a lots of small assets that will fill the shelves in the shed. I won’t explain much as most of them are just simple models, but I have already unwrapped all of them, so I only need to make some final textures.
Hammers (Tris: 750, 1022)
I am really happy with this hammer, as it took me a bit to create it. It could have been slightly slimmer at the top, but the geometry is really clear and simple.
Bulb Box, Nails and Nails Box (Tris: 36, 96, 48)
I know that those boxes are gonna be really small in a game, but just that bit more geometry will make them looks more realistic. The real boxes are never a perfect cubes, so that’s why I’ve decided to add that bit of a geometry to the actual model.
Wire on the Reels (Tris: 4046)
The last asset is really high poly even after deleting most of the invisible geometry, but I didn’t wanted to do it any other way (alphas). I’m still gonna make a normal map for the area in between the wires to add some more wire onto it, but I really wanted to get those main details as the actual geometry. I believe this looks much better, than details on the normal map.
It was a good day and I’ve catch up a bit with the schedule and assets list.
Today I’ve decided to work on the interior a bit more, but I guess it wasn’t a good day, as I only managed to finish three assets. One of them is actually bigger and slightly more complicated one, but it’s still only one asset.
Desk (Tris: 2054)
Although it’s a bit blocky, I wanted to have several open drawers to make it more interesting. This took me some time, as I wanted them to feel quite natural.
This desk is more like a working area rather than a sitting area with a PC or something on it. Because of that it has that one side with a longer countertop. The design is simple again, but I’ll add some normal maps and more interesting materials to make it a bit more interesting.
Because it’s a working area, I’ve also made a saw. In fact, I’ve made two different ones (one that will be hanged on the wall and normal usable one to be placed around). The only difference is just in the additional nails as hangers.
Saw (Tris: 632, 904)
I don’t know how I’ve managed to make it as high poly, but I’m fine with it at the end. It’s not as bad, so it will stay as it is for now. I may come back to it later and edit it, but only if I’ll have enough time.
By the look of the Gantt Chart, I should be finishing off the rainforest area. So far I’m working on a shed (which is a part of the rainforest), but this is definitelly not even near the end of working on it. I only have been working since last week, which puts me in a difficult situation now. Decisions has to be made.
In this situation, I’ve decided to work on the rainforest area for one more week and see what will happened then. The activities for the next week include finishing of the final touches, which means I can catch up while doing so at the same time. I still have to make textures, which slightly complicates the point that I’m in right now (this will take some time as well…), but I hope that at the end of the week I should be able to finish of the current state.
This week and the next week are also the beginning of creating the exterior of the lab facility. I may start doing so alongside other tasks, but to be realistic, I may move that part and work on the lab in general starting from week 3 of June (together with the interior). The exterior shouldn’t be as complicated as the interior, so it shouldn’t take as much time.
I hope I’ll be able to catch up with that at this point, so I’ll be able to focus on making a lab.
Today I was working on several different doooors. I wanted the shed doors to be quite similar to the actual shed and be a part of the actual walls, so it was quite hard to came up with the idea of how it should all works to fit perfectly.
I did the walls yesterday and they fit well with the rest of the shed, so this was time for perfectly fitting doors. I only knew that I want them to have double wings and have only one opened. This required some small fitting manipulations (shortening several plans that won’t be as much visible). I also had to came up with an idea for a perfect hinges that would make it looks realistic. I also had to add planks on the top, as there was a huge gap between the walls. This is the final result for the main doors:
Main Shed Doors (Tris: 2459)
Although those doors looks very simple, I was struggling a lot while making these. The most problematic were the lock as the planks had to be cut in different places. Luckily they were just simple rectangles, so it was easier to do, but it still have me some problems.
Another complication came with the actual lock placement. I had to rethink how it works several times before I got it kind of right. Because of that I’ve made a lock separately first, then I’ve added it to the closed doors (which I’ve later used as additional back doors).
Separate lock (Tris: 1181)
Closed Back Doors (Tris: 1841)
As I’ve already mentioned in this post, the most time consuming were the hinges. I was redoing them several times to make it looks realistic, but at the end I believe I’ve managed to do so. I know that they won’t be as much visible in the game (just a bit), but every single small bit adds realism to the game like mine.
The close up of the hinges.
Another doors that I was working on today were the internal ones. I’ve decided to block the view to the second room, as now I’m planning to use that space for a bathroom area (every liveable space needs one right?!). I’ve used wall model as a base for it (as it has to connect with that) and added the doors that I’ve made for the other doors (I hope it makes sense).
Internal Doors (Tris: 238)
I decided that I want them to be slightly open, to have a small view on the interior. I’m not planning to model a bathroom, but I may place some other things to block the view of it. I just thought it would make it more obvious that these are doors (as they are mostly gonna have similar textures as the walls).
I was thinking about adding a handle, but resigned on the idea at the end. It would looks kind of weird to have a handle inside a shed (even if it’s a liveable area). The last thing to do to the shed walls would be adding windows, so I’m planning to do so tomorrow.
Today I’ve finally finished all the walls required to make a shape of my shed. This is looking good and I’m happy to see it coming together pretty well.
Shed side walls (external and internal view of the same assets; Tris: 458, 467)
I had to make two different side walls for the different purpose. One of them is suppose to cover the side entirely as an end wall, while the other one has a place for the open door to allow player to get inside. Both of them are similar and were unwrapped in the same way (with some small changes). So far it all fit perfectly with the rest of the shed so I’m really happy with the result.
The next step will be making the actual doors and windows, so it will looks more liveable. I would also want to make a quad and place it inside the second room (garage), as the person living in there would be responsible for keeping the area in a good condition (maintenance).
As I have already mentioned, I want this shed to be liveable, so it has to looks like an occupied area. The first idea was to make a BED for the person who lives in there. It’s again, simple but good looking bed. I’ve seen many similar ones in a shops now. The modern beds are simple with straight lines, so that’s what I’ve went for with this one.
I had multiple attempts to make a bedding. I even tried to model it by myself, but I’ve finally resigned. Eventually I’ve used a cloth modifier to make a nice looking duvet that covers the bed.
Multiple bedding tries (my own modeling on the left).
After making several different duvets, I’ve noticed that the main issue is that the bed doesn’t have a pillow yet. I’ve made a pillow first then I was finally able to make the final shape of the duvet.
Final bed without and with bedding (Tris: 276, 5954)
I have decided that if I’ll go for a simple shape bed, I may add slightly more geometry for the actual bedding. The total tris count isn’t even that high, so I’m eventually happy with it. I have to say that it took several tries, to get it into this shape! I was working on it for most of the day, trying it out multiple times with different settings for cloth.
At this point I’m happy with the final look of it. The bed looks like it’s been used before, so it convey the right message. I decided to delete some geometry in the invisible areas, so it slightly reduced the final amount of tris. I have decided to leave the bed details under it, as I’m planning to use it several more times that those details may be visible to the player (bed without a mattress).
Deleted geometry (TRIS REDUCTION from 4848 to 3758)
I could probably delete many others, but I wanted to be sure, that the player won’t see the inside of this duvet. I’m quite happy with the final tris count, so I’m gonna leave it as it is now.
This was a different type of experience, as I haven’t done much cloth work before (only few times). It took me longer than expected, so I was only able to finish the bed today. I’m still happy with it, but I could have make some more assets instead (or more different versions of the bed) if I would be more experienced with the cloth modifier.
Raptor's Rage 