Michael Hughes - 3D Unity Game engine workflow

3D Unity Game engine workflow

Introduction to task

I have been asked to create a landscape using the 3D Game engine: Unity. This task will including texturing, particle systems, generally shaping the landscape and other miscellaneous features that can later be added. My idea for the design was to create a large land mass followed by smaller landmasses that are all surrounded by water. This gives the level a vast appearance at first; this could be added to a game for exploration and searching for resources. I wanted my level to have a natural feel to it; this is because the feelings of desolation and desertion would hit the player straight away if they played this level alone. Not only that, but there won’t be much too see that’s eye catching and I want a bland feel to the level followed up by sheer scale and size that it’s completely disproportional to the player making them feel small upon generating the world. The land mass below is a prototype land mass and has since been changed and has different features added to it such as, waterfalls, crevices, rifts, I could have changed the sharper edges towards the right of the land mass and I could have softened the world in general.

(My first attempt at creating a small land mass, this is the first and only scene so far and is very rough and very smooth in some areas, this was more testing than anything else.)

Michael Hughes - 3D Unity Game engine workflow

I have decided to add an animated object that mimics water. The reason I updated this was because my previous attempt at water was simple adding a still object, this time the water looks realistic, with moving animations, and size that fills the entire map. The water itself has been created through a series of code which I have imported into Unity. I believe this update is worthwhile as the water (and the waterfall) both work well with eachother – as seen in the screenshot below.

The water animations have been changed slightly as I increased the speed my changing the X and Y speed, aswell as the reflective cube so the water analyses and reflects on the landscape.

A lot of changes have taken place over the course of the previous update, I have mixed textures to make grass look a lot nicer, I did this by changing the opacity and target strength of the texture. Aswell as this, I have finally added objects into my level with appropriate colliders, the reason for this is because my level was looking alittle bare, and abit dull. To brighten the atmosphere I added a number of camps to my level and added colliders to each of the separate objects in 2 ways: Mesh colliders (a fixed collider that adapts to the model of the object) and Box colliders ( A set boundary that goes around an object to stop the player moving within that box). For instance, the fences were more suited to the box colliders as it makes it smoother to run along, where as most other objects used mesh colliders because the models are too specific and would not be suited to a boundary type of collider. I also removed the water, reason being is because a vast and baren landscape wouldn’t have looked as nice as a diverse and intricate world (A over head view of the few camps and a path way I have begun construction on.)

Michael Hughes - 3D Unity Game engine workflow

The camps themselves were downloaded from the asset store. This was done by going to this website and downloading the features, https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/11256 , then importiing them into my level.

The framework for the camps was causing my game to lagg between 10-20 fps rather frequently, I modelled another mountain like area and decided to put just one camp inside of it. The reason I only added 1 is due to the issue of space and lagg, the 1 camp was just enough to fit the new area and looks great with it, and the lagg has been reduced, but is still there. Since this I have also constructed a small kind of cemetary. In order to make the game work smoothly without lag, I was required to remove an asset that was used in the campfire “pack”, this was a directional light that emitted a purple light from it in a single direction, I figured out that a second directional light was causing a less smooth game and when I deleted this, the game was running at 50-60 fps again.

(The final version of the camp with the purple directional light removed)

Michael Hughes - 3D Unity Game engine workflow

The volcanic rift idea in my level came from the harsh and unpredictable geometry of the earth. I wanted to add a seemingly “Natural” feature that was out of the ordinary, bold and impressive to look at, I did this by scaling up the terrain script “height” option to 76, this made it so all the terrain that was created was capped at a height of 76 and could not go any higher, to make the fissure seem more natural, I smoothed the landscape at the top and in some areas made it mountainous and realistic. The idea of the volcanic rift came from the inefficiency to deal with natural disasters in the medieval times, and anyone going near the vast structure would be fearful throughout gameplay. Grass was place behind the wall to show the fertile land that surrounds a volcano, the land mass in which the structure is situated is large and higher up than some others, making it more of a challenge to navigate to, there are also jagged edges to the landmass and a mountainous texture was used for the most part to portray a very rocky effect.

The town was created with the intention of bringing life into my game, the thought of having a town in my game was designed in the beginning however, the town itself is behind a lot of rock outcrops away from the volcanic rift and cemetery, to avoid the “danger” of the game. I created this by importing models from the asset store: ‘https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/25602’

the reason I used this is to make the entire area seem a lot more medieval because without it, it can easily be mistaken for modern day landscape. I added 3 houses (2 with the same design and clipping and another with separate design and clipping) 2 taverns, with box colliders to stop the player going near them, and lantern’s that resemble street lights, and a miscellaneous cart that is rested against the middle tavern. I placed each of these next to one another, but separated them off with a short, shallow and thin trickle of water that resembles the source of a river coming from the mountainous landscape behind it. One thing I could improve about this is the light; the lanterns do not emit a

Michael Hughes - 3D Unity Game engine workflow

source of light, so they don’t act as actually street lights, more of a cosmetic to improve the look of the level. I could have added a “flare” or a “directional light” that shines over the terrain and gives the buildings shadows, although this would’ve made the game less smooth, I believe it would’ve been worthwhile to show the detail of the town.

Another thing to note is that the taverns can’t be set foot on, the only way I could get the clipping to work was if I added a “box” collider (a barrier that blocks any form of player or NPC movement near the object) so a player can’t walk up to the tavern without getting stopped. The only way to work around this would be to add a custom mesh collider that I would need a set up for; I simply didn’t have time to make this change. The rocky “spikes” or outcrops were created by first adjusting my brush size to 1; this gave whatever terrain I was sculpting a sharper and thinner look and made it so I could create slim walls and rock easily, I then set a limit to my height just like I did with the other walls in my level and drew randomly over and over the same portion of the terrain until I achieved the look I wanted.

I decided to construct a cemetery after the medieval theme was thought of; these are very common in most RPG games recently and they give off a spooky vibe if done correctly. I personally don’t like the current version, as I didn’t have time to expand on my concept and the rest of (a rather large) island was left blank and textured very simply. This is solely because I didn’t have time to create any more of it. Even though I didn’t complete the graveyard, I constructed a tomb with an orange light emitter, with 2 tombs, a cracked grave and a grave leaning against it outside, I believe this builds an eerie feel to my level (even though the skybox and overall directional light are bright) and it shows the destruction of the tomb inside – due to the cracked grave. For this cemetery I used a lot of the structures from unity asset store: ‘https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/8312’ The reason I used this pack is because it was exactly the type of build I was looking for, a stone, dark and generally creepy type of structures that should best be left alone. Whilst I think I did poorly on the overall thought of a graveyard, I still believe that the structure I’ve made is fairly good, it runs very smoothly even when up close to the light emitter, the entirety of the room uses mesh colliders so everything is solid and cannot be clipped into. However the whole structure would’ve worked better with a darker type of world and sky box, I could have even added a black directional light over the land mass and made it darker.

Michael Hughes - 3D Unity Game engine workflow

The primary land mass: this is the land mass that existed in the first picture, the main changes I have made since then is the whole terrain has been smoothed out, it now is easier to navigate compared to the older version and also a little less bugged, as well as this I added rocks with mesh colliders so the player is clipped to all the rocks on the terrain and cannot run through the game as easy anymore. Although I like this terrain, I believe I could’ve made it greater by making the “holes” in the terrain have a kind of staircase so the player can get back up to the top when they fall down, at the moment, a player is required to restart the entire game if they fall off. As well as this, the terrain has been re-constructed, it now appears much bulkier, I did this by raising the height of the “terrain (script)” tool and made the entire land more “hilly” by adding different slopes with both the “smooth” tool and the “height” tool, both of these created a higher terrain but also allowed me to make it so even the highest peaks of this land mass can be explored by the character. I could’ve done this better however, the rocks are only in place around the centre of the island and I should have spread the rocks further out in the island and tilt them so I could add them to the cliff side’s. I

Michael Hughes - 3D Unity Game engine workflow

believe I have done well with this section of my map, I have re-made it many times and tested it so I knew a player can walk along it without getting stuck on anything (besides the rocks) and have also made it so there is some form of “danger” in my level where a player can fall off and never escape (unless they restart the game).

In conclusion, I feel as though my map could have been constructed better, I had so many ideas I would have liked to add into my level to make it really come to life and interact with the player, such as more villages, a much larger cemetery area, and a main continent which would have NPC’s etc. Although as far as making a map goes, I feel as though I have accomplished what I set out to do, coming from a non-textured blocky landscape to a fully textured variation of landmasses with a different range of objects and environments, I also tried to make the level as realistic as possible by adding naturally occurring features such as the rift and the village with a mountain like area behind it. My level could have been designed much better, providing I had an extended period of time although I am happy with the outcomes. I also believe each of the tools such as colliders, texture blending etc. were done to a decent standard.