Hello. After a huge bit of work on the Utopius project, I'm taking a break from it. The scale of it alone has slowed the graphics card down to a slow crawl at times, as there is so much detail and lighting data. So in moving on, I am now on to another project which is another Temple project. In this scene, I started the process out by using Gia Procedural Worlds to generate the terrain and add the details. I also spawned the camera effects as well as the 3rd Person character to verify scale and playability.
This is the territory Stamp I started with. It isn't a large island but it will serve the purpose. After accepting the stamp, it is ready for the inclusion of trees, rocks, and vegetation. I had to deactivate all of the many farm and village assets as they do not fit the theme. A tip I learned here was to create a 3D cube and scale it to cover the area I wish to build on. In doing this it creates a collision surface so that grass and trees don't spawn there. This is what it looks like during that process.
After the vegetation spawn, you can simply delete the cube and the map shows all of the new cover, except in the area the cube occupied. This is what it looks like before the foundation structure is started. Quite a view, isn't it? :)
So far the view and detail are good. The directional lighting is basically still stock, and you probably saw that particular Skybox in other projects. It will be changed later as I am thinking of using a Dawn setting for this to accentuate the structure lighting. For the time being it will remain as a bright light setting is best for this so you can detect gaps in the assets as you build it out. Many assets are designed to 'snap' together holding the Shift key while you drag the asset along the NSEW axis points. No vertical axis work at this point. Sometimes they just don't snap into place right. What I mean by this is that when they snap, there is sometimes a visible seam or gap between the two objects, or they snap too far in, throwing off the mechanics of how the fit should be. Most of the time I zoom in and visually confirm the seam fit. It's meticulous, but I prefer to do it this way to insure visual aesthetics.
I decided to create a base platform for the structure due to the contour of the map. In this map, in order for the Temple Complex to directly face the lake, it would have to be rotated about 45 degrees, which would throw off the moving axis of all the assets and would be a huge pain to assemble everything having to use two different axis moves to seat it properly. So everything is still on the initial compass settings. But in this project, the traditional compass directions are very fundamental in the Asian culture, so we will keep the 0 degree axis. At this point it is just fitting all the pieces together precisely. The bottom level of the platform also had to be manually aligned due to the slant of the walls, and the wall panels had to be aligned to match the offsets. I started off by creating the floor and insuring there are no ground intrusion onto it. This sets the level of the base floor. From here it is a matter of adding in all the wall pieces including corner pieces. Once the base walls are fitted in, I normally add the fence railing, just to cage in the working area.
Above is a during, and after shot of the initial base platform. At this point I tend to find a desirable area to place the entrance. So after the fence was laid in, I chose a spot and modified it to accommodate the entry. And in this case since the platform is elevated and disconnected from any logical path, I decided to create a setup to get onto the platform. In this case I added a large jade staircase and doubled it for a grand approach. In front of it I also placed a receiving area joined to a bridge over to an approachable entry pathway. The receiving area also required base work so the wall panels were duplicated and used to create this as well. This is as far as I've gotten so far. I will be working on it more today, but this is where it stands at this moment. Against the far left railing is the 3rd person character, for scale.
I will append to this as progress continues :)
8/8/21: So here we go with day 2. Not a whole lot today as It's just after lunch and I've been awake for 11 hours already. I wanted to get the rough in for the Temple started today, and I've done that. Just for general reference, these walls are all one sided as shown below. So an interior and exterior walls have to be used, and in this case, properly aligned for the window cutouts. The top pic shows the player for reference. As you can see the exterior walls are single surfaced. Usually in these asset types, one can walk through the wall but won't be able to go back through. So limiting access by using doors and interior walls is practical. The bottom pic is the same player on the outer side of the wall.
From here, the exterior walls are all placed carefully together to insure squareness. Once the first floor had been completed, the entirety was copied and the second level was created. Around the doorways, there were large gaps between the walls, so framework for the doorways had to be scaled and placed in. At this point, the interior walls have also been placed and finalized.
At this point, the wall work is basically complete. Everything is placed with no gaps or height conflicts. The best way to insure all of these panels lay in correctly is by using the position specs. As seen in the pic below, in the upper right corner, in the red box, you can reference these locations to insure everything fits together down to the last millimeter. All 3 axis locations for every asset is found here, and is very useful when trying to align walls so there is no deviations in height or horizontal placement.
Besides roughing in the structure, I also changed the Skybox to a moonlit starry environment, so we can have some really impressive light distribution. Lighting will be implemented in the near future, but for now, the structure needs to have a roof. This will be covered tomorrow. So below are a few more closing shots of the progress showing a few different areas I also worked on.
Thanks for checking this out. I'll return tomorrow with more shots and narration.
8/9/21:
Ok, so today is roofing day on the Temple. Let's get started! :)
Yesterday we finished roughing in the interior and exterior walls, and I knew the roof would be a tricky thing. The biggest problem with roofing-by-the-piece is making sure it is square and even on all four corners. You start off at one corner, and craft your way through 2 sides. At this opoint I can go back and check the fit. Once 2 sides are done, the remainder is mirroring. Remember to check the X/Y/Z axis numbers to insure a seamless fit. Here is how it started.
First, the gable has to be fitted in. And once the gable is in properly placed, the roof has to be fitted atop the gable. These pieces are one sided also, so all the gaps have to be concealed so you can't see through the whole assembly even after it is in place. From here on it's simply fitting in the 3 other corners and double checking the seams and height fitting. After the first row of roofing was finished, I decided to do a tiny riser half way up and add some detail and architectural elements to it. After the tiny riser was finished, I added in a short wall element for more visual appeal, and topped it off with the remainder of the roof. At the roof top, I added a copper topper to complete the exterior. At this point it is still a rough, as I will inevitably add other details to the roof to make it a bit more traditional.
As you can see, it turned out pretty well, but I'm not quite finished with it. Here are a couple more shots of the aerial views.
Although the exterior looks done, a view from the interior still shows that everything is 'invisible' looking up. So in the next few days, the interior will be underway, and I'll post pics of that as well.
Until then, I hope you are enjoying this blog, and I look forward to posting more updates soon.
8/10/21: Alright, so today is the day to finish the interior. As you can see in the above pic, the walls are already placed in and aligned with the exterior walls. You can also see that the ceiling is missing, creating a see through situation. From here, I had to place beams atop the walls in order to design the ceiling. I decided to go with a vaulted ceiling as well as using a different material than was used in my other Temple/Shrine/Castle projects. So I decided to use lattice work wall assets. I'm notorious for using floors and walls for ceiling work. 😁 After matching the roof pitch of the exterior, the interior 'wall' pieces were adjusted accordingly and placed. It had to be the same angle on all 4 ceiling sides, so the only thing I changed was the NSEW axis in order to maintain the exact height. Once they were laid in place, I wanted to use another unique approach to finish the ceiling, so I used yet another wall piece for the uppermost ceiling. This is a wall with see through properties as it is designed to be windows. So I used it anyway, and placed a single color wall piece behind it to serve 2 purposes. It blocks the see through property, and it gives the look if a visual contrast with shading and a little added ceiling depth. I also added in support beams around the interior to give it an engineered look. The top corner beams were the trickiest as they had special corner angles, but they turned out nicely. Below is a series of pics taken from the 3rd Person Controller. The reason will be apparent after this series of pics.
So this is how the interior has shaped up since yesterday. And the 2 pics below are why I also run a 3rd Person Character through the structure. As it turns out the stone decking on the receiving platform had no collision elements, so my character fell from the steps, through the floor. After changing the floor, the character can now smoothly transition the entire area without 'dropping' through.
Later on, I will begin adding more details to start wrapping up the project. I hope you enjoyed the tour so far, and can appreciate the effort that goes into designing something for a game. There is much that goes on behind the scenes. As for me, since I do not code or develop game play, or animate,, I just make functional scenery with what I have. When it's done, it will just be data spinning on my disc.
8/12/21: Hello. So, today I began adding more lighting, details, foliage, and props. I didn't want it to look too busy or cluttered, so emphasis was placed on what was placed, and how it appeals. When using minimal props and stuff, paying extra attention to the smaller details gives the scene a better feel. The screenshots below are all taken from the 3rd Person perspective, as 'build shots' at this point still show the markers for lighting. It can be distracting but you get used to it at a certain point.
These 4 shots are of the exterior with scene lighting in place. The corner lanterns were added with a green light source to accent the Jade environment of the scene. The 4th shot shows a roof addition to break up the 'boxy' look of the structure.
These 3 shots are of the interior after a few details and props had been added to bring a bit of life and calm to the environment. The shelving units were added along with books and scrolls to bring a bit of detail. And the following 2 shots are from the bridge/deck area showing miscellaneous details like a broken branch beside the bridge, the bamboo growth on the one large boulder, a sign post, along with a few other details. In one detail added, but not shown, I laid a few bamboo sticks against one of the stair columns to show a noticeable level of activity on the site.
So, at this point, I'm calling the project done. I may check in and tinker with it at a later time, but for an RPG scene, it only needs the NPCs and such and it's ready to go. I hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did. I'll post projects like this from time to time with hints and tips on making this kind of stuff 😀
