Modular Level Design

Creating a 3D modular level set was the the first major assignment that we were given. The tool we were using was Maya 2017. I had not used any 3D modelling software prior to this bar for a very, very short lived attempt at Blender many year ago. If I recall I rage quit several times. The feelings were occasionally the same when it came to Maya, which is daunting to say the least upon opening it's Pandora's Box style menu system.

I often found myself somehow destroying things by mistake or adding extra vertices (Somehow) at random, and with only a limited history to reverse actions, this made errors potentially costly. In one way this is a good thing, as it can encourage version control and regular saves. However it often felt like one wrong button would cause everything to come crashing down and not working....refer to the GIF below (Ishamael 2014), for how it sometimes felt...

The first thing to do was to work from a simple form and build from that to meet what was mentioned in a mini design document that was created. The theme was a Sci-Fi FPS type game. For me, I went for an aerial city with Bespin style 'Cloud City' inspiration, at least as far as wall paneling and colours went. Initially I ran into a lot of issues with the modelling. I managed to somehow create things that shouldn't have been there. However, throughout the nightmare of trying to build a simple object, there came a lot of knowledge. The biggest issue with Maya is the learning curve on it. At the modelling stage I was still learning the foundations. I created eight set pieces which included a door, wall, floor, two corners and three window pieces.

Getting to the UV stage was a similar issue, again new processes that have not been done prior. My models had a few cylinders on them, which made unwrapped certain sections more difficult as some parts had to be 'stitched' together to minimise seams. After this there was the texturing step. In this case we were to use existing textures that can be found on the internet. These did not all fit my pieces too well, (Or I couldn't find suitable tillable options), and I had to create my own textures from scratch for some components. This is good practice given that the next main 3D assignment due is complete hand drawn textures.

I had an odd issue when exporting the models into Unreal Engine. Despite the fact that all the models snapped to a grid perfectly fine in Maya, as well as had proper pivot points, upon being brought into Unreal, none of these aspects works, which made building a level more of a hassle then expected. Despite this, building the level in Unreal was fun. From the texture materials, I had a standard Diffuse material for each object, which is the basic colours etc. Some pieces had Spec map components, which add a metallic effect, Normal maps, which add depth to a texture, and Emissive maps, which add a glowing effect to the texture. The great thing about Unreal was being able to create dynamic textures that pulsed and flashed.

Below is a video I recorded of the level that I built using all the pieces. Overall, despite the earlier issues, I was very happy with the result, especially as a first attempt. Modular Level Design is invaluable, as it allows quick and efficient level generation (When assets are working properly!). This is a huge time saver and allows for quick prototypes of levels to be built with minimal time and effort.

References:

Ishamael. (2014). Forklift crash at a vodka warehouse . [Online Image] (Available). Retrieved on 13/11/2016 from http://imgur.com/gallery/lkEd8L4

#GDS210