Level 3 Games Development
By Eoin Matthews
Unit 7 Modular Environments
In this unit, we have been placed into groups to develop and produce a modular environment using a combination of different programs such as 3DSMax, Unreal engine and Photoshop to name a few. We chose a random setting from a hat and we received the setting of a UK Dockyard, as this was a large environment to produce, as a team we decided to focus on an individual building as we could input more detail into this rather than the overall location of this setting as this would require more time and input which we could not achieve within the time frame given.
Planning Stage
During the first lesson of this unit as a group, we assigned job roles based on our skills and strengths with most of our team working on asset creation in order to fill our environment with more varied items such as a box that is closed and one that is open for example. With the job roles assigned, we began to plan out our environment using a whiteboard to brainstorm ideas as to agree on a final concept along with some key points like a time period in which our project will be based on and most importantly the scale of our models to better fit our environment so not to appear out of place by being too big or too small.
As you can see from the presentation below, as a group we used this method as a way to show our work and to track our progress on the key parts of this assignment such as who is doing what and also as a way to contribute any ideas and information.
Here is the mind map we created as a group, It contains a rough sketch of the layout and appearance of our building that we will be creating, along with any additional items, ideas, features and size references. This is also where we chose job roles, as no one in our group put themselves forward as project lead I took on the responsibility of planning and orchestrating the project and also to help decide on a final design.
Structure Development
During the first stages of development, I began by experimenting with different wall and floor styles so that I could better envision the overall build of the project. As you can see I went through multiple iterations of designs based off of a similar style build I found on the epic store, once I had found a style I was happy with I began to develop further assets to be used together.
I learnt that for a better-scaled workflow, I needed to make sure that the measurements within 3DSMax matched those found in the unreal engine, doing this enabled faster creation of modular components that can be used unanimously.
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Here are the examples I used when creating the modules.
Game Engine Technology by Unreal
During the first stages of development, I discovered that the design featured too many polygons which in return would create more problems further on when texturing the model in the unreal engine. Also, I experimented with different wall pieces to better understand the different techniques used when creating modular wall models. Here is the first iteration I created after which I experimented with.
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Group Progess
As this was a group project, I tasked the others with creating mock ups of the different parts of the building such as the roof and other wall designs along with future assets to be placed within our project.
These are the models created to experiment with the workflow of asset creation and to also try out any additional ideas. After which as a group, we decided to focus on the different elements required for this unit, such as the menu screen, audio and a few more assets that have variances in order to give the project more life.​
Asset creation progress
I had tasked the group with creating multiple objects to be used in this project.
Here is workflow used to create these assets.
Concept > Model > Model Clean > Texture Mapping > Export as .FBX
Below you can see the before and after when creating these models.
We used this job list to allocate jobs with texturing the models and keep track of what is done and what needs finishing.
After most of the assets were finished I went on to develop the final building pieces, here are a few screenshots of my process.
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Here is my earliest finished prototype for the level, I think they looked okay for the level but once I had placed them into the Unreal Engine I soon found out that they had many errors in their overall design as you can see below.
This consisted of missing planes and textures, I did some researching into what caused these problems, once I had found the issue with the missing planes which had something to do with zero bi-normals and tangents. After checking my models with wireframe enabled I realized that they had faces inside them, so I cleaned up the models by removing these faces and fixing the problem.
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Although once I had finished these models and started to use them in Unreal, I had noticed that they appeared too modular which broke the illusion of scale in our level as you could notice the tiling created by these modules. So I decided to try and create some more modules which were modular by also being able to be combined multiple times to create new models and shapes.
In this image, I had compared the different modules to see which one would be scaled correctly for our level as not to be too modular.
After this, I started to build a rough layout of the level in 3DSMax all while combining the different modules. Additionally, I exported the player model from the Unreal Engine and also corrected the measurements in 3DSMax to the correct scale of the Unreal Engine for a faster workflow whilst creating and finishing assets.
Group Update - Concepts
I had tasked a member of my group with creating concept art for our level along with sourcing textures to be used. I spoke with my group and gave them the direction we should take whilst generating content for this project.
Barrel: FeltMagnet. (2019). How to Draw a Wooden Barrel. [online] Available at: https://feltmagnet.com/drawing/How-to-draw-a-barrel [Accessed 1 Mar. 2019].
Building: Rexdixon.com. (2019). Wooden Warehouse | Wooden Thing. [online] Available at: https://www.rexdixon.com/topic/wooden-warehouse[Accessed 1 Mar. 2019]
Group Update - Audio
I have tasked another member to start sourcing and creating audio for use within this project, for the direction I had suggested finding and using sounds that are close to the sea such as, birds, waves and chatter to be heard. As I was occupied with creating the level along with managing my group, I had little time to properly focus on the audio portion of this project, I decided to trust my team member in acquiring the right audio and implementing it.
Here is the final sourced audio created for this unit.
Module Update
When creating models that needed to scale between floors, First, I created a small mockup or the area then by using splines I measured the distance between the two points then by rendering them in viewpoint to be then edited as an editable poly.
I used this technique when editing the objects used in this level as a way to make sure that they scaled correctly.
Additionally I began to experiment by using destructible models in Unreal to give the player another interactive element the play with.
Here is the destructible glass used in this level with a short clip demonstrating this, unfortunately, I was unable to implement this into our level seamlessly as the player would have no means of interacting with this object.
Texturing Process
During production, I had tasked a member of my team in acquiring and creating the textures to be used. I had given them information about a program which can be used to speed up production of these textures in order to create the different texture maps required for our models, here is their slide on our powerpoint which gives information about their process. Additionally, I left this to the team member assigned with generating and applying these texture as I was occupied with level development at this time.
Materials
Here is a tutorial video created by the team member in charge of creating the textures for this project in Materlize, as you can see this program allows users to generable multiple layers quickly and simply which increased the speed of the workflow of this area of development.
Menu and Blueprints
During the late stages of development, a menu was planned to be placed into our level, Here is the final result of that menu. Unfortunately, as a team, we were unable to get it working in the final build and as such had to disable it due to time constraints.
I really would have wanted this to be a part of our final project but as we were working towards creating the level, we didn't have enough time to try and fix the issues of the menu not working correctly.
Blueprints
This video shows my process of creating an animated door which is unlocked by a key, I used this same process later on during development as to implement it into my groups level.
Final Build​
The image above shows what the final development of the structure would look like, I also used this to assure that all of the modular pieces connected correctly.
Once I was finished with creating and importing all of the assets into the level, I tested the level to make sure that it was structured as level should be, this included a triggered element which is the door and also implementing the collectable which would open the final door revealing the player reward.
Finished with creating the structure of the level I then moved on to generating the lighting for the level along with placing sounds.
Final Level Walkthrough
Evaluation
