Month: May 2023

This week was on finishing up some of last weeks tasks and improving the player experience by working on zooming out the camera to capture more of the environment.

Camera Placement

This was inspired from a level in Death Stranding (2019) when the camera pans out as the player starts to scale a mountain, revealing the pure scale of the environment. 

I found that scene really powerful and wanted to do a similar effect in the Beach level. So I positioned the camera to a similar angle. This will hopefully give a similar effect once the level is complete.

Texturing

The texturing this week was mainly on the cliffside as there were issues with texture stretching that haven’t been fixed.

It however still gives the impression of a cliff, so for now it’s workable.

I also textured the floor with a sand texture which I think completes the look of the environment in this screen shot.

This week was a continuation of last weeks implementation of assets and blocking out the terrain on the beach. I also forgot to mention in the last post that all of these models are made in Autodesk Maya as I have worked with the program for a few years now.

Blocking out Terrain

Here I was using Unreal Engine’s landscape sculpting tool to make the mountainous background and uneven beach surface.

I also added a basic water material to simulate the ocean in the environment.

Implementing

I finally imported the cliffside into the game engine, this took a bit of trial and error. I first attempted to import the models separately and combine them in Unreal, but this cause issues as I couldn’t properly combine them accurately enough.

I then reimported the model as one which seem to have worked much better.

Next week will focus on texturing and camera placement. 

This week was focused on working on making a start on models and importing them into Unreal Engine 4.

Modelling

One of the first models I made was obviously the basalt rocks, this was a simple hexagon shape that was extruded out to make a pillar.

The next model I made was the cave and cliffside that surrounds the environment. This involved modelling a cuboid and slanting it to make it look more “cliff like” which will blend well with the basalt rocks I think.

Implementing

I then implemented the basalt rocks via FBX into the engine using the third person template Unreal provides.

I wasn’t satisfied with the material applied to the rock so I swapped to another darker rock material provided by the Unreal Starter Pack.

Next week I will import the cliff side and block out the terrain.

Concept Art

This week I wanted to visualise the level in some concept art so that I can model around it when implementing. 

These concepts were drawn in pencil first, then fine lined, and finally scanned in:

Hopefully I can adapt these images properly in engine at capture the scale and atmosphere I’m aiming for. I am hoping to start creating and implementing models next week.