FMP - Week 18 The ends drawing near

   Last week I mentioned a sudden drop in the frame rate of the level. An unexplainable one at that. When I came to open the engine file this week, and expecting it to drop again. It didn't, and I haven't had any problems at all in that respect. So I just ended up leaving it, as there's nothing I can do until it happens again.

   Over the weekend I spent more time working on the LOD's for my assets. I soon realised that I should have put more geometry into some of them, as I don't feel I can scale down a lot of them to the point of making an efficient LOD without ruining the silhouette. This isn't really a problem, more of a future reference point for further projects. The LOD's aren't a hard process, they're just time consuming, but I did set aside a week for optimisation, and between this and packaging the textures, I think I'll be fine on the time I have left.

As me and Sharn are switching the engine file between us, it gets to a point where I've added models and textures, among other bits like switching tiny things around, no big deal really. But after a while these things add up. So I spent a little time adding the tweaks I'd made, back in and altering other little bits too. Just general house keeping bits too, such as naming conventions and foldering assets. I did a test package of the engine too, to see how it runs as a finished application. I'm happy to report, it runs perfectly well. Not only does it run well, we've gained about 10 fps!! Happy days!

I'd been waiting for a clear day to get to work on the landscape I had left. The one which spans from the main door of the wall, and down the side leading to the opening which the ship sits in. In my head I wanted to have a base of dirt with grass, pebbles and puddles mixed in. Towards the door I intended to have either the same again, if the ship zone worked well with this combination. Or something along the lines of tarmac, or a series of stone tiles, but that might get too repetitive with the market zone having a similar set up.

With the landscape tool unreal recommends only having up to 4 different textures to blend together. But from what I found online, you can have double that, and maybe more. To do this its as simple as clicking on the texture sheet and changing the "sampler source" to "Shared: Wrap". Its not recommended to go crazy with the landscape textures. But the 7 I'm using should be fine.

Landscape material.

As a test I used the grass I made in the style matrix project and laid it out over the landscape for more interest. I intend to make some new and improved grass before the end of the project. But this will do for now. The test grass is too dark and a bit too clumpy. So when I make the new grass, it'll be lighter and more spread out. For now the grass isn't casting shadows. I'm sure its just a tick box somewhere. But I cant seem to find it at the moment, but I will return to this in the future. As for now I've got bigger fish to fry.

I went back and added more of the macro variation to the majority of my tilables too. Its amazing how much you can improve your scene by doing this quick and easy process. The key to this is to use tilable textures for the macro variation. I ended up using a few non tilables because of the detailing on them. but I'll probably go back and change them when I have time. Just because of a few seems I can see on the variation pass.

Before macro.

After macro.

I felt the environment needed a bit more movement in it. So for the "BAR" sign outside the bar. I added a flicker too one of the letters. This added that extra bit of depth and interest to the market area. Along the lines of lights, I added more to the scene in general, so its a bit more true to life now, rather than extremely harsh shadows.

With the end drawing near and degree show shortly following. We've been having a few chats with Chris and Craig about what'll be happening. So far we know theirs going to be food, booze and industry people coming in to see our magnificent work. We've been discussing the seating arrangements and what we need to have done. We intend to have a playable level each (Myself and Sharn) Along with a fly through each. Additionally to this I'll probably be making some changes to the engine file to add more interest for the player.

Texturing also continued this week. But im nearly finished!! I textured the mechanics. My favourite building currently, as a i lathered it in graffiti. With a little help from Jake's book on the topic. I took inspiration from a few of the artists. A french man named Boxcar Jeim AKA Jeim, and an Argentinian called Julian Pablo Manzelli AKA Chu. Their Graffiti consists of wacky cartoon characters. So I thought it'd be a nice fitting for a humorous background art to sit in this bleak scruffy looking world.

Boxcar Jeim.

Chu.

Mechanics with my graffiti.