low poly city

[gsokol]

Everything looks pretty good to me so far, keep it up!

[Heist]

hi,i been having too much free time lately , so trying to start of a project of my own to kill some free time . i'm planning to create a city out from scratch , model the building following my mood>< here some start off.
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/1368/citywip.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-08-11

here some stuff i done in my previous company, hoping to reach this standard or go beyond it.
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/3703/building03.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-08-11
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/7510/building02.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-08-11
http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/9583/cranedockb.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-08-11

will keep on updating this thread , any comment are welcome.

How can I create buildings like that in Maya? do you have any tutorial?

[vandlister]

hmm since i gonna start some new building for practice maybe it would be better if we start together and i will update my wip with each step so u can track down and question what going on ? normally this kind of modeling is for in game purpose, mostly for racing game which are not meant for extreme close up , for fps game it will require different budget , time used for these are around 4 to 7 man days depending on the size and difficulties of the building . i been using 3d max mostly , just started to move on to maya. there are some really nice maya real time shader around . this one had done a really great job , i'm still playing around with this shader ><.

http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=49920

well , just start by getting references , this is the house that i will be doing for practice ,
a house located in some rural area with some good variation to build.
get a few different angle shot and some close up which are good for texturing in the future .
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/5514/p2130279.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-01
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/7459/p2130280.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-01
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/7310/p2130281.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-01
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/7310/p2130281.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-01

this is the basic guide line i used to judge the resolution of my building , the total size of the texture are 1024x1024 . depend on different games , some will go further until 1024=2meters for games which needed extreme close up. for this 512 = 4 meters are enough for a building that will be viewed from a short distances. you can create your own guideline depending on ur requirement. mostly 2 x 1024x1024 texture is enough for this building , i'm actually over the budget that i normally use in the company , since this is for practice just be generous

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/4009/textureguide.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-01

[Heist]

hmm since i gonna start some new building for practice maybe it would be better if we start together and i will update my wip with each step so u can track down and question what going on ? normally this kind of modeling is for in game purpose, mostly for racing game which are not meant for extreme close up , for fps game it will require different budget , time used for these are around 4 to 7 man days depending on the size and difficulties of the building . i been using 3d max mostly , just started to move on to maya. there are some really nice maya real time shader around . this one had done a really great job , i'm still playing around with this shader ><.

http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=49920

well , just start by getting references , this is the house that i will be doing for practice ,
a house located in some rural area with some good variation to build.
get a few different angle shot and some close up which are good for texturing in the future .
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/5514/p2130279.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-01
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/7459/p2130280.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-01
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/7310/p2130281.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-01
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/7310/p2130281.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-01

this is the basic guide line i used to judge the resolution of my building , the total size of the texture are 1024x1024 . depend on different games , some will go further until 1024=2meters for games which needed extreme close up. for this 512 = 4 meters are enough for a building that will be viewed from a short distances. you can create your own guideline depending on ur requirement. mostly 2 x 1024x1024 texture is enough for this building , i'm actually over the budget that i normally use in the company , since this is for practice just be generous

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/4009/textureguide.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-01

I need all the help to learn Maya. Thanks! So...when do you want to start? Right now this week and next week will be my last day's of finals in school. Well next Thursday sounds good?

[vandlister]

sure , i will post some update today.
so you left around 8 days to finish your stuff ?
we will need to rush on saturday and sunday which is the only time i'm mostly free .
had you downloaded the real time shader ? just read through the forum , it will help you to understand more .

[Cocefi]

Nice job with the buildings there. I've just started learning Maya too. Hope to learn a thing or two from your progress here. :)

[Sean121]

Hi Vandlister,

I'll look forward to your updates. I started a low poly city about 2 weeks ago myself. My project will be an ongoing WIP in my spare time. I'm hoping to make a PC game with it available to download for about $5. It should be ready in about 50 yrs :D

Have you played with Unity yet? Its a good way to see your city in realtime.

What kind of city are you looking to create? I'm going for a NYC style environment set in the future. I'm going to mix old and new style buildings. Do you have a poly budget set for each building? Are you planning on creating different LOD models?

Keep it up!

[vandlister]

hi , here some update >< i'm still felt a bit unfamiliar with maya seting and hotkeys ><
basically i will start by creating a basic shape of the building mostly just to judge the proportion of the building, just combining different basic shape to form how the building would look like, try to adjust different height and thickness of the shape to get a interesting result. the poly budget i plan for this building is 2k of poly , let try how far we could go with this budget.
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/2210/basicshape.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-06
after making sure that the basic proportion is correct we would go into detailing . notice i had added some subdiv to the roof area to make some unevenness on the roof , this should apply to most of the building , try to avoid straight line .we will optimize the roof later, i had bevel the pillars to get a nice highlight , apply bevel for most corner , most likelt those area recieve light the most. for most of the simple object , it would be nice to unwarp the uv first , the pillar and some of the wood frame should had thier uv unwarp so we could save some time when duplicating these object. do question every poly that you create , notice that i do intentionaly make my roof wider and longer so in a far distance there will still be some sharp shadow that will catch the viewer eyes , some of the thickness might need to be thicken to avoid flickering and create a interesting shadow to ur building adding up all these detail will be pick up on the occlusion.
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6793/detailed01.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-06
tool that i use is simple , extruding and split polygon tool , assigning tools that will be used frequently to a hot key in hotkey editor will speed up ur workload .
http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/2470/extrude.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-06
make sure no hidden face , delete most faces that are hardly been seen or intersected with other polygon.
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/6210/backfaceg.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-06
do the same for stray vertex .
http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/7781/weldedvertex.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-06
if the subdiv is not serving a propose , it might be a good ideal to delete it .
in some cases , intersecting poly is a good ideal to save poly but some time it would be a good ideal to had most of the vertex weld together so we could have a cleaner mesh.
http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/8981/notneedsubdiv.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-06
hmm i would build most of the larger part of the building first , then arrange the uv and go into texture placeholder , it would be better to come back for the small little detail later after we arranged the texture for most of the important parts .
i'm not sure am i doing a good job here >< , i hardly give any tutorial before .

sean : haha >< i think i would take forever to finish this city . i am easy distracted and hardly had finished my personal project although i could deliver my stuff on time in office but it seem i just cant do the same way in my spare time >< i had the same ideal with you , mixing the modern and old building together. i was thinking of making some building to be having accessable interior , fps style of modeling but i'm not really sure about the budget cause i didnt have much exp in fps games , mostly the building i did is for racing games ><.
http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/4857/distictbuilding01.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-06
tested this building in 3d max , poly budget would be 3000 and texture would 2x2048x2048 .the texture budget is high so i think i would lower it down to 1x2048x 2048 and 1x2048x1024 . or i will just share this texture among 2 building , see how it will work out . this is still very rough rightnow , too many straight line and look boring ... more work needed . hmmm for lod part i will make a lodx1 a half budget of the building in term of poly , the engine i used in company is different , i'm not sure how to swap the lodx1 with lodx0 . how unity work out ? i never try that engine before.

cocefi : i just start using back maya after 2 and a half years of using 3d max ><
my maya stoped at a quite basic stage >< i would be happy to know i could help out . we could learn from each other , there a lot i missed out in maya.

[Cocefi]

Wow, you're doing great with the progress. The tips you've there are really useful and will be something for me to keep in mind when I start my modeling!

I come from a Lightwave background (but haven't done any 3D for a few years) and only started learning Maya few days ago by myself, so I'm in a much worse position than you, haha. I'm still having a hard time with Maya's modeling tool and workflow, but hope to get familiar with them soon. :argh:

[vandlister]

just done unwarping my basic uv , after placing the texture placeholder i will go into detailing and go crazy with the budget i had left. is there any real time shader that support ao that directed to uv set 2? i think i'm stuck with ambient occlusion . anyway remember to make a copy of current uv set by copying it to new uv set. oh ya sean, do u know how to import the model that we done into unity ?i havent got time to read thier tutorial ><
cocefi : ya i felt the same when i switch back to maya after being stuck so long with 3d max >< , felt like going through hell when i need to switch to different platform. i guess we can get familiar with it after a few project and a few sleepless night ><.

file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/vand/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-2.jpghttp://img704.imageshack.us/img704/3866/uvdone.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-10
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/8521/backside.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-10
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/8908/backside01.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-10

file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/vand/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpgfile:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/vand/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.jpg

[vandlister]

hi, done blocking out my texture , at this stage i focus more on the arrangement and resolution of the texture. this is roughly how i arrange my texture , during this stage i will try to make the arrangement as flexible as possible any mistake is still easy to change right now . dun get into detail for now.

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/3466/basictexture.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-22
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/9003/kampunghouse02col.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-22
http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/962/kampunghouse01col.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2009-12-22

[urgaffel]

This might be a silly question but why are you tiling textures on the sheet? The brick stands out the most, it's been copied 3 times over. If you are going to put it on a sheet, make it unique instead of the same thing tiled, you're wasting your texture. If you're going to tile it, use a separate texture instead...

[vandlister]

><
urgaffel : sorry for the confusion , at previous stage i am not finalize with my texture, the texture is just for placement of material and resolution testing , they are there to sketch out the arrangement of uv, mostly we skipped this step and end up found out we need more space for a particular material and found out it's too late to make major changes , that why i will always start by sketching out the material with temperory texture placement so i could figure out which part need more attention and which part need less texture space.
here some update, please check it out ^^ and give me some critic ^^

[/url]http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/4913/detailed03.jpg (http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/4913/detailed03.jpg)
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2010-01-20
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/5418/detailed02.jpg (http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/5418/detailed02.jpg)
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2010-01-20


still, i think more detail should be added in , a bit boring and too many straight line . i left myself around 500 more faces to add in detail and a texture space enough for object around 1 meter height .
the brick look abit generic and too even .hmmmm some wood look over destroyed and the window look too clean , i think i over do the dirt on the wood at the top part of the building everything still need some balancing. mostly this is what i think about the building , hope to get more comment from you guys.

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/3964/kampunghouseb01col.jpg (http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/3964/kampunghouseb01col.jpg)
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2010-01-20
[url="http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/9163/kampunghouseb02col.jpg"]http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/9163/kampunghouseb02col.jpg (http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/9163/kampunghouseb02col.jpg)
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2010-01-20

mostly i would get the maximum out of my diffuse map before i head on to specular and normal map .
the building need to look at the best just by the diffuse map itself .
sorry for the slow porgress , i had only an hour or less a day to continue with my project after work .
cheers
tong .

[vandlister]

hi, here a update with ao preview , moved my model to 3d max , abit unfamiliar with max now ><, i didnt touch max for a few month and everything felt like a stranger to me . anyway there some bug and more improvement are coming up .
http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/1411/ao01.jpg
By vandlister (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/vandlister) at 2010-02-07

[fieldscarecrow]

I am also interested in environments and this thread is pretty educating! thanks for sharing your knowledge vandlister :)

I look forward to more!

[rybeck]

Vandlister,

good progress here... I am watching your way now, and will stop by often. Keep up the good work~


Rybeck

[Katzenminze]

hi, you might wanna look into realistic placement of the buildings. look at different city layouts, usually streets are never 100% flat, to add variete you could add bumps/slopes, or angle the streets so the houses are ascending into one direction alá san francisco or so? looking good. i bet you can top the companie's standard :)

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.