3DForge Exteriors

Hello,
I have question about style of building. It will be simple rectangle with 4 walls or is possible to build more complicated buildings? For example, in the shape of litery L.

 

@gromerr
Welcome to the thread

Your question is important, for who just want square or rectangular buildings.

On one of the earlier pages I showed the following images

There is a large selection the "central / joining" modular blocks for L-Shape, T-Shape & X-Shape
Then in between extension pieces as well as "end" extention parts.

So your building footprint will be your choice, can make U-Shapes, O-Shapes, S_Shapes ...

This with the 2, 3, 4 & 5 wide modules with both the Slate & Wooden Roof-tile textures












Cheers
Cobus

 

Hey Cobus, these WIPs look fantastic! The building in the right bottom corner in the second image reminds me of the older buildings in my home town. Even more eager than before to get this pack.

 

@kittik
Thanks for the compliments, glad you like what you see
Must be nice to live in a place that has such old history and architecture

@gromerr
Those pics I showed earlier showed the 2 wide versions only, so wanted to show the T-Shapes with another, so quickly slapped this one together with the 4 wide, so can be for a large Inn or Mansion, something more substantial.

The non square shaped building creates some interesting roofs, adding some dormer windows and some first floor balconies and stairs to the first floor.

Each of those wall parts are interchangeable between the 6 texture types, all reading of the same 4096 map, so you can just imaging the almost unlimited variety that you will able to create.

And then when you done, add your Interiors that will "SNAP" right into place as they were meant to be.

When I am done with the pre-built buildings and I generate the marketing screenshots, I will show examples of the interiors and exteriors together.




Cheers
Cobus

 

@AdamGoodrich Caves and overhangs is a must Does your code also split the mesh up into smaller sections for LODding purposes? that would be a great saving too.

 

Actually my focus was more on standard terrain generation because then you get all the benefits of unity terrain. I could adapt this to also export mesh terrains (with additional work of course). Would need to work out how to do LOD'ed meshes.

 

That's a very large inn Multiple floors... possible basement as wel...

 

@smada luap
Yes it is, can even build larger ones, just wanted to illustrate that even though I showed examples of smaller 2 or 3 wide buildings that you are going to build much larger expensive an upper class types, down to very small Inns & other medieval Fantasy buildings.

You can also make it as high as you want to, maybe add another building next to it, or one with a veranda that is same height as say the first of second floor and make a wooden walkway there.

Your imagination will be the limit, and with 6 wall textures, 5 rooftypes at release, styles, themes and final results, there are 1000's of possible combinations

You won't have to buy another medieval building asset again.

Cheers
Cobus

 

Enough with the constant teasing. Get it for sale already! Lol
Absolutely love the work you are doing.

 

I'm waiting to put an exterior to this...



... just to see what it would look like from the outside lol

 

@smada luap
Very nice interior from your game man.

 

Is it not on the store yet?

 

@Whippets
I will be done with all the example buildings today and already well under way with the demo scenes needed for marketing screenshots to show the Modular buildings in a cool environment with flora and props, so progressing

 

So..... tomorrow morning then? lol

 

XD hehe, we just teasing...

 

@smada luap ROFL

 

Now..if only we had a program that would allow our players to put together the parts of the house during runtime, hence each building their own home. I can dream right? Someone should make something like that eventually.

 

@Teila
So presume something like that is very possible becasue of the way that the parts are provided.
So the player could maybe do some kind after "crafting" so to speak and gain the parts and they pop into place or sections of the structure at least

 

That is not a trivial thing to add, but it is absolutely possible.

The difficult part would be instancing the pieces in the game world, and allowing the player to move/rotate the parts, using a grid system, and then finalising the position.

Then having some sort of array of pieces on the server so that once a piece is finalised, it then becomes part of the game world so that everyone can see it.

I don't think I'll be adding it to my first game, but it's a great idea to ponder on.

 

@Whippets Maybe have large chunks say Ground floor, first and so forth so that parts that needs to be available WAY less

 

Uhoh.. That gave me another idea for the extra buildings kit.. Building parts in various stages of construction. Framed wall, finished plain wall with windows/doors only having cutouts, finished wall with any embellishments along with windows, shutters, and doors. Same with roof options.. Framed only, framed with partial coverings, framed and done.

Then interior kit would also need similar options.

This would allow us not only to have buildings in various stages of construction within our villages, but also give us the parts to display the models. In Vanguard when players built their houses, they were built on a set blueprint depending on which house they were building. Once you added so many materials it would display the framed house.. Once you added so many more materials it showed a different stage. And finally when the house was complete, it would show models like we already have in the kit.

I think we already have the pieces to prefab out different fully built house models. But it would be cool to be able to also prefab out the stages. Framed walls raised, then framed roof added, then roof covering in progress, roof finished, outer walls covered, outer walls finished/windows added/doors added..

Maybe even have chimney parts where the section is only partially complete as well...

 

@Shawn67
That is exactly they way I was thinking about the parts.

You could have a town that slowly is being built over time, so if you away fro a while and you get back the buildings have progressed, so can create a kind of town "time-line" and over that timeline it injects data that let the town expand an naturally grow. So you preset these timeline events as dev and then when it plays out they occur at a certain time in the timeline, call it a "Time-Line Manager"

Just think of it this way, they player will want to revisit places becasue the towns "grew" and expanded.

On message boards or chat in a Inn of a neighboring town you could even let news drop of the new Taverns or Forge, or Backsmith that opened here or there.

That would be really cool, dont know of any game that does that yet

 

This idea gets my vote

 

Actually this is very possible. There is a tool that you may have heard by Becoming called SnazzyGrid. This can be leveraged at runtime to work just like it does in the Editor. The other way is as described above by Crafting or Purchasing a Housing Part. This would be Interiors and Exteriors. The design would have to fit on a square grid where all the squares are the same size and the Prefabs you design must be perfectly aligned to that grid.....which is where SnazzyGrid works perfectly in creating the Aligned Prefab in the first place.

The only other thing you have to figure out is your Naming Conventions.....say for example....
HouseA001_AALLXX <= the AALL represents 4 sides of the Prefab and rotate clockwise on the sides as well as Up and Down attachments....you could also see this as NESW....so if you want to place something on the Right/East side there MUST be an A in the 2nd postion....
HouseA005_BACAXX would only fit in the East side since the West side if this part has an A.
X's above would have no connection points.

It is a simple matter to dissect the part and get them to Snap Together with something like ootii's Mount Points or perhaps the snap together system I am privately making (as well in UE4).

For Data Storage you would need to figure out how many house pieces you will allow each player to build a house. Then also the number of Furniture Pieces that are allowed to be placed. These Part Numbers would be stored in each of their own Arrays then tucked away in a database....such as Easy Save 2.
*Note: In my Olander's Realistic Weather System.....free for all here on the Unity Forums.....has the Database Code to get started as well as showing how to use it with Time and Weather Persistency.

@S4G4N
3DForge items have been good about being scaled similar....some like the Cave Kit were not so well scaled (Scaling the 3D Asset and importing it should Always be 1:1.....adjusting the scale within Unity/UE4 is unacceptable since math and % is used to scale by script). Many artists have no concept of proper scaling....which needs lots of fixing. As long as Cobus here has a decent 5 or 10m grid scaling then implementing should be fairly easy....including walking from outside to inside type designs if someone decides to do it this way.

Side note: Love the new pics! Really looking forward to getting my hands on this package.

 

@Olander
Glad you like the new pics

Scaling with the cave is a difficult matter for my idea of what a "rock's size" needs to be and what every other user's idea of that size, you will land up with many different requirements. I think becasue it is some more organic that make it difficult as well.

Now with the Interiors and Exteriors it is a completely different for we all across the globe should end up with very close to the same idea of the size of a doors & windows and so forth.

To make a modular system work as well as it does here, one had to keep to a very strict system & sizes.
It was one of the main time eating tasks at the start of each of the Interiors & Exteriors, getting the framework of a system to work, snap together and work 100%

When you look at the interiors and when you going to have the Exteriors at hand, they might seems simple, but figuring out and making it all work is one of the reasons users buy the packs for I solved that problem and I sell a solution.

I just yesterday had a user that contacted me and expressed the amazing results using his Oculus with the
Village Interiors Kit, specifically commenting on the accurate scaling and presetting all the coliders

Here is another one that I posted on Facebook
VR Game JAM 2015 http://vrjam.challengepost.com/submissions/36733-polo

Carrying across a consistent scale is very important, I want users to be able to use sets together.

Cheers
Cobus

 

Thanks, Olander! I will look into this. One of my programmers has been testing your weather system and loves it. Seems like whenever I check on his progress, it is snowing or raining.

 

Right, the rocks and such would have basically a starting scale of some dimension to provide some tight pathing....too many options here. However, what I was really referencing in the Cave Pack was the Tree Ferns (should be 20m or so), Ground Ferns, and Mushrooms.....the scaling was quite off on them. Not really an issue....I simply fixed them in MayaLT then updated.
*I compare everything against a 1.83m Character Model to make sure the scaling is right prior to making prefabs/blueprints (UE4). Many underestimate the importance of True 1 to 1 Scaling at Import.

Since I am ruining your day. ROFL!!

I am not certain what program you use for making your normal maps but I need to remake the ones that have them and make them for some that do not have them.....Village Interiors Pack for example. Most of your textures work out perfectly in GIMP v2.8 with the Normal Map Filter Addon....type set to 3x3 and scaling set between 3.0 - 7.0. Your stone, wood, and materials really come to life.....paper and leather look like paper and leather.

I would be more than happy to donate the normals back to you if you so desire.

 

I am happy you are enjoying it! It works extremely well....people underestimate it since it is free. Hopefully soon we will have spiffy new clouds for Time of Day post update.

I cannot wait to see how the rain bounces and the snow lay on the 3DForge Exteriors. Will be really cool.

 

@Olander
My thinking with the plants was to have "fantastical plants, so the mushrooms were "Giant Muchrooms" and over-sized on purpose, with the ferns, well if Top Down, 20m tall ferns would have been way to tall and FPS, I liked the lower down ceiling.
I think if the user wants to build taller interiors , then taller ferns would most certainly cool.
I will keep that in mind when I do pass an update to that package.
It was my first baby in the Assets Store

No ruining, we all learn every day

There are currently no normals with the Interiors Kit, that is one of the elements that will be added when the HD update gets done, no use to have added them recently and then 2 X textures are going to be added and redo those.
I will contact you in private, since you have already found a cool setting that works I am open for suggestions.

I am excited to see the results on the HD textures, you seem to be very happy with the results with even the vanilla textures . Can you share a screenshot maybe ?

Well the other reason for posting,
You will see that the example builds are done YAY!!! and marked as such on the first post.
While finishing off I saw that it is easy to add some cool basic prefabs for watchtowers and also used the same low wall, that can be added, to create like a hatch kind of counter top, that a shopkeeper can have a shop run from.
Maybe have the vertical shutter used to cover them at night time. Very simple but easy solution.

Working on the demo scenes now and then submission.

Would you mind posting alink to that FREE tool that you speaking of ?





Cheers
Cobus

 

@S4G4N
Yes I do understand about the cave and Village Interiors. I made several different new prefabs and ported them to UE4....they work very well in both engines. No complaints at all really...they were just comments is all. I would very much like the HD Textures you are speaking of. I will use them for certain.

As to the Links...Certainly
Olander's Realistic Weather: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/fr...ers-realistic-weather-for-time-of-day.310180/
**Works with any directional light but uses Time of Day to make the Day/Night Cycle portion....ORS does control the time.

GIMP v2.8: http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
GIMP Normal Map Addon: http://registry.gimp.org/node/69
**Pic is attached of Normal Map Filter Setup. Use Filters>Map>Normalmap
It seems Skin is Best at 2.0-3.0, 3DForge things 3.0-7.0 depending upon texture and affect desired. 7.0 is very strong.

On the Textures Note....I am extremely consistent with PNG format usage for all textures. There are a very few instances when I will be forced to use TGA (some like TIF...count me not among them ) because of a shader needing alpha specifically. I am not certain about how the transparent windows are being used in this new pack but I am fairly certain PNGs would be fine since they are loss less and carry true transparency in the RGB.

Thank You Cobus!

 

Love the shop window! I have had this idea to create a shutter that folds up and then down again when the shop is open. I can easily add that to the window you showed in the samples. Great job!

 

@S4G4N

EDIT: Removed pics and comments.

Set your Normal Map Filter to 3.0 then save as PNG.

First is to set the Material to Standard Specular (Opaque/Cutout....depending upon type of tex). Set the Specular Color to 15,15,15 to start....will be very close. You will see an improvement straight away. Now add the Normal Map and adjust the Power as needed.
**I changed the textures to PNG instead of TGA.

 

Yes, yes, and yes @Olander This is going to be a beautiful pack! Thanks for all your hard work.

 

Nice, Olander! I have had luck converting some of textures for the interior props to PBR. They look pretty good!

 

@Olander
Glad to hear that my pack contents also work UE4, have had several people email me asking.
I want to say a BIG thanks for sharing your experience and tips & tricks with everyone here.
It is one of the things that makes Unity great, the fact that users try to assist each other.
It just creates an awesome vibe and we can all learn from each other.

The Images that you have posted really shows these all working very well

@Tayer
Welcome to the thread, and glad you like what you see

Cheers
Cobus

 

Hi All. For any that are interested. Here are two base shaders for UE4. These work very well with 95% of the materials needed for Interiors, Exteriors, Vegetation, and Props as well as Landscape Texturing.

One of the pics show the 3DForge Fern using the Transparency Cutout the other is base for all materials.
Enjoy.

**Sidenote: I wonder how many Unity zealots are going to butcher me for posting these here. haha!!

 

Not me

It's interesting to see how UE4 does it. It's just appears to be a more visual way of how Unity5's PBR shaders are set up.

 

Speaking of PBR shaders, are your kits eventually going to get a makeover with PBR, Cobus?

 

Oh that would be awesome To be able to fill out all of the standard shader fields and really make the asset pop.

 

@Shawn67
That is the plan
Sooner rather than later

 

Yep, full PBR maps for the Standard shader (metallic or specular don't mind) gets my vote too. Will be icing on the cake when they arrive.

 

I should think they could now. The settings above are the PBR settings. Of note....unless there is some very very specific reason to use a specularity map texture I have seen much better results just setting the Specular Color for the Unity PBR Standard Spec set up.

I think to be very honest the current textures do work for PBR but I think as Cobus stated we will need the HD (2k or 4k textures to make proper usage of PBR in Unity and UE4 with 3DForge products.

I would be happy to give the normal maps to any but I think Cobus needs to give us direction since these are his assets.

Completely different shader method. Unity uses the much older CG Method and UE4 uses what is based upon Disney's custom PBR method. Unity's new shaders work really well but the naming conventions did not change to reflect PBR for some reason.

In any case....regarding 3DForge....I would personally help Cobus make an Enhanced set of Materials for those that want that option. Perhaps 2 separate packages or folders inside one package. The real issue in Unity is that all of the Prefabs would need to be updated from one material to another.....a tedious task. (Have done this far too many times already). To be very honest everyone can benefit from the enhanced materials with very minimal added processing expense. I do realize that some mobile devices cannot handle normal maps very well if at all.....so the materials would need to be click changed for those projects.

 

Wouldn't it just be a case of updating the original materials to use the higher-res textures?

 

@Olander @smada luap @Whippets

Just so everyone reading this do not get confused
The talk here right now is about the HD update for the Village Interiors Kit and the future HD update of texture data for the Village Interiors it.
It is not relevant to the actual thread subject as in Exteriors Package

Thanks for the offer, I will further chat with you in PM and lets see how we can mabe get the current resolution plus then the future HD versions to people soonest

Cheers
Cobus

 

All those interested in a good looking terrain package that is also in development, head over to
Terrain Generator for Designers

It is looking great

 

The subject is related because you seem to be using the same style as your Fantasy (Village) Interiors. It helps to have the textures larger from the Artist then downscale them. I do not we are trying to confuse the issue. Apologies for opening a can of worms.

I am still going to purchase this pack in any case because of the 3D art meshes. Whether the textures need to be adjusted is to be seen. Whatever the case it is being provided in.

I shall leave you to it then. Fare well and good luck on your sales.

 

@Olander
I merely wanted to make clear to users that the discussion had developed and changed to a different package than what the forum thread was about, that is it

There is no can of worms, I did the Village Interiors Kit, it was well received by hundreds of users, received 48 excellent reviews and 108 X 5 STARS average.

I am listening to users as can be seen by the 9 FREE updates that Village Interiors Kit has received, that is why the HD update after this package has released, to bring the insides up to the same texture resolution as the exteriors.

I have had many users email me and say that the thread has become to long to read everything, so I did not want new users to the thread start on the last few posts and thing that the Exteriors package is being talked about in the last few posts, like I said "Just so everyone reading this do not get confused"

Thanks for your constructive input and viewpoint

Cheers
Cobus

 

Hey there,

These are some of the pre-built buildings that will be shipping with the package, just wanted to show how they work together, creating a nice village feel.

Also added the good looking torch flame particles from the Village Interiors Kit for the night time scenes.

Did one test render with the torches added and I am very happy with it.






Cheers
Cobus

 

These are lovely, Cobus. I can't wait to play with them. The joy is making them your own. You have given us a lot of play things!

 

@Teila
Yip, to place something out there and then hold your breath hoping for positive feedback, and to create prefabs and then show them is a fun process.

It is really motivating and exciting to get the great feedback that I have received, makes me even more excited and wanting to get it in everyone's hands so I can work on the updates.

My hands are itching, but if has been many months work altogether so want to have it 100%
It is any day now