Post-Mortem

When I first started thinking about my FMP, I knew that what I really wanted to focus on was atmosphere. Very early on my main idea for this project had been to make some kind of rainforest treehouse-style base, but the more I thought about it, the more science-fiction aspects I wanted to include. One thing stayed constant though, I wanted foliage but I wanted it a little more colourful than what people are used to. Eventually it all formed into the idea of using the setting of an alien planet.

Project Details

Initial Brief-

“The subject of this project will be a small, three room futuristic house with a living area, bedroom, and bathroom (which will not be modelled) situated in a remote and possibly very alien forest. The interior should be populated to have a believably lived-in feel, as well as featuring some traditionally futuristic/spacey elements such as screens and holograms to sell the setting. The main assets outside the house will be a large radar dish and as a stretch goal, a landing pad, and a vista to be seen from the main window.”

As I was on my own for this project, I had to be very careful managing my workload. In my initial proposal I underestimated how long we had by a couple of weeks, but I decided to stick with that plan to allow myself as much extra time at the end as possible.

The project was to begin on the 12^th January and end on the 24^th April, giving us 12 weeks of term time. However the deadline was extended to allow everyone extra polishing time, adding an extra 4 weeks.

My technical goals were to have the level run at a bare minimum of 30FPS, aiming towards 60. Textures were to be roughly 512x512 per square meter, and that would also be the minimum size per sheet as I was informed that how Unreal stores assets there was little space saved by going any smaller.

Project Recap

Week 1- Concepting, whitebox, paintovers

Week 2- Refining whitebox, modelling main building

Week 3- Refining layout, modelling main building, texturing building

Week 4- Texturing building, satellite dish

Week 5- Grass, trees, outdoor steps, landing pad

Week 6- Bed, collision for building, working doors, seating

Week 7- Kitchenette, modelling cupboards, modelling/texturing base of orrery

Week 8- Orrery with holograms, freezer, foliage with lighting tweaks, high poly rocks

Week 9- Baked rocks & arranging, foliage, bridge, modelling patio & stepping stones

Week 10- Hanging chair, arranging foliage, table, small rocks, tree LODs

--Easter Break--  Water, skybox

Week 11- Clutter, orrery animation

Week 12- (working on another project), Lighting fixes

Week 13- Distant terrain, tree variations, terrain improvement, texturing patio, lighting fixes

Week 14- Improving existing assets, platform, forcefield, blinds

Week 15- Tweaking main building, minor assets, ivy and lights for patio, remaining collision

Week 16- Better wall texture, player respawning, landing pad details, lily pads, file management

What Worked Well?

I feel like the design I went with was pretty solid an interesting, and as the project progressed the architecture and layout of the scene became something that looks good from many different angles.
The integration of the house into the natural landscape adds to this, and the blues of the foliage balance out the warmer shades of the sky reflected in the metal of the structures. Even the colours of the interior are accentuated by the skybox as I limited my colour use to those blues, oranges and pinks.

The key assets and features I designed turned out to be quite successful focal points. Having the Orrery illuminated and moving really catches the eye, and with the way I arranged the furniture and the lit up platform it is very much the centre of the scene. The forcefield also adds some light and motion, and it brings the view out of the huge windows back to being more of a finale than if it were visible the whole time.

I think the space theme has been conveyed well with all of the theme-specific assets, but it is difficult to say at this point without the eyes of someone new to the project.

What Didn’t Work Well?

I believe the biggest problem with this project was a combination of the trees and the lighting. With the project lighting set to allow a darker atmosphere, shadows are baked much darker. This is especially visible on two sided materials, such as those used for foliage, and it is hard to brighten up these shadows by a lot without simply making the material self-illuminate. Add to that the style of tree I decided to make already being best viewed from above and you have some very flat looking branches.

I could’ve added more planes to the trees to make them look less like they were made of paper cut-outs but I had been warned of the risks of overdraw and was too worried that performance would be run into the ground with such dense areas of overlapping alpha channels.

The density of the foliage would’ve been less of a problem if the level were more compact. I probably could’ve gotten away with having much denser foliage if the playable area were smaller and I put more work into creating a better vista. I feel like I achieved my goals but not to a high standard.

Having to split my time up between working on the interior and the exterior would also have contributed to this. Sometimes it felt like I were working on two different environments- I found it hard to devote proper time to assets as I knew that if I focused on one area for too long the other would suffer. Maybe this would’ve been an advantage of working with a partner as both aspects of the level would’ve been able to receive simultaneous attention and development.

What Changes Happened?

The biggest changes to the plans occurred early on. I realized quite quickly that the landing pad was going to have to be more than a stretch goal as it added so much to the theme and to the layout of the level. The house design also changed a lot during the whitebox phase as I learnt what was and wasn’t practical. I ended up adding an extra aspect to the design with the hollow that the orrery now resides in, as said orrery made for a better focal point than a simple screen.

The only major late-game change was the water. This served two purposes- to fill a large area that would otherwise be filled with more boring foliage, and to add interest to the rocky cliff using the waterfall. I was quite apprehensive when making this change because I wasn’t sure how I would execute it but I am glad I did.

What Would I Do Differently?

 If I redid this project, I think I might try to do a smaller scene with the foliage arranged more tightly packed. I’d also make the house smaller- I made it the size it was to help with believability but it really stole my focus away from the surroundings. The ground foliage definitely received less work than I originally intended.

A smaller visible area would also have allowed me the extra performance to model my assets with greater complexity and detail, possibly even with higher texture sizes, to make the level look more next-gen. This would help with this project’s relevance in today’s industry with today’s technology.

Since I dabbled in animation for the Orrery, my next thought is that it would significantly improve my level if I could get the trees to move to simulate wind. I am unsure of what performance costs this would have but having a little more motion in the scene would really bring it to life. Additionally, a bit of rain would create an amazing atmosphere, although this probably wouldn’t work without significantly changing the skybox as a clear sky would make no sense.

As for the visual style, I’d definitely consider making some aspects of the house and landing pad look more alien. The patio area in particular. In addition I’d consider making the ever-problematic plants look more alien too, possibly considering bioluminescence.

Finally, I’d think of a better way of restricting the player. Right now there is too much freedom to wander around areas of the level that have had less focus. I do not want to be forced to implement invisible walls as that suggests bad level design.

Conclusion and Plans for the Future

I am fairly pleased with how this project turned out, and I think I learnt a lot. The feel of the level is very unique, taking a few more risks with performance would really make it something special.

I am glad that I had the opportunity to spend time on this project by myself, but I also wonder if having a partner or two working alongside me would’ve encouraged my own assets to improve more. Managing my time wasn’t a huge issue as I tackled the most important assets first. It is definitely something I have improved a lot on, though some assistance would be very helpful especially in terms of flexibility. For example I considered making a statue to sit in the front garden at the end of the project, but I was too worried that I might not finish such a complex asset in time. It would be more ideal if I could split the work between people to have simultaneous focus on extra assets and polish.

For the future I know I can afford to make assets more detailed, allowing things to be higher poly but of course still efficient. With so many rounded edges in my designs it’s really easy to see where I was trying to be careful. In addition I only really got the hang of working with vertex normals during this project, so I can use chamfering to greater effect.

As I have mentioned, I think it would be a great idea to focus a little more on animating assets to bring scenes to life. I was quite apprehensive when approaching the orrery but I am pleased with the result and I learnt a lot. It would be a waste to not touch the subject again and allow myself to forget such useful skills.

I think I also need to concentrate more on scale. I made the doors to be the exact same size as those in engine but they look a little too short so maybe I should’ve just gone with what I felt was the right height. It’s one of those things that’s very difficult to change later on in the project due to all the assets being the same scale, so I have to notice any issues with this kind of thing early on.

For my next project I am considering doing something stylized, because I have not done so before and so I don’t know if it’s something I’ll take a particular liking to or not. Texturing in particular is still something I feel I need to work on, and exploring different methods could yield interesting results.