A cathedral work-in-progress (video in post 133)

**Digital Nightfall** · 11-26-2009, 09:10 PM

Hi, just thought I'd share my UDK work. Any feedback is appreciated.

**Digital Nightfall** · 11-26-2009, 09:10 PM

**ambershee** · 11-26-2009, 09:22 PM

Lacking a great deal of fine detail, notably in the textures, but obviously that's because it's still quite early. Geometry is looking pretty good, I must say

**Viion** · 11-26-2009, 09:29 PM

Wow, amazing detail in the Geometry, very nice.

**DELTATHUND3R** · 11-26-2009, 09:40 PM

Thats excellent..Love the design of the church..Wire frame image plz

.

**micahpharoh** · 11-26-2009, 10:52 PM

looks very nice indeed

**Digital Nightfall** · 11-26-2009, 11:24 PM

Thanks, guys! I didn't expect such a quick reaction.

Textures and additional details will come. Also, I will very likely redo the whole front facade. It was done while still getting my bearings and I didn't yet have a sense of the scale or direction I wanted to go. In fact the whole thing is still in a very "proof of concept" phase.

Oh, and all of the meshes (34 of 'em, though there's 358 in the scene) were created from scratch in 3dsmax 2010. The only thing that's BSP is the ground. Build time... around five days, not counting the time I spent daydreaming.

Is this what you mean when you ask for a wireframe?

**genetransfer** · 11-26-2009, 11:52 PM

yeah really inspireing work, and a really haunting atmosphere!

**immortius** · 11-27-2009, 01:00 AM

This looks really good. I look forward to seeing it develop further.

**DELTATHUND3R** · 11-27-2009, 04:06 AM

Yep thats a wireframe ty ty..very nice indeed.Great eye for detail looking forward too your progression matey.

**Moose_Head!** · 11-27-2009, 04:20 AM

That's very nice. Wireframe looks quite dense, how many polies are you pushing so far?

Look forward to seeing the finished product.

**EmbryoFILLET** · 11-27-2009, 05:42 AM

Avoid making you're entire level with static meshes, try using BSP. It allows you to make changes relating to level design and flow without having to jump between Programs constantly.

Looks pretty good though, consistant visual style and detail. Keep up the good work!

**saymoo** · 11-27-2009, 06:10 AM

from what i heard/read it was not wise to use many bsp based geometrics (for performance sakes) i could be wrong though..

**Denny** · 11-27-2009, 06:14 AM

All articles/tutorials I've read related to UE3 only uses BSP to block out the flow of a level and get the proportions down. Then it's all replaced with StaticMesh. I could be wrong though?

Quite funny how no one seems to know about this. :P

**Digital Nightfall** · 11-27-2009, 06:25 AM

Based on what I've read and seen in tutorials it's considered perfectly acceptable to create a map entirely from static meshes. This is according to 3D Buzz and Mastering Unreal Technology Vol 1.

**GamerKnight** · 11-28-2009, 04:37 AM

VERY VERY NICE

Would you be interested in doing some more. i have started up a small dev team. finding people here on the forums. we have 5 or 6 members now.

Would you be interested in joining or providing some basic meshes for us to work with.

You are very talanted

**EmbryoFILLET** · 11-28-2009, 05:33 AM

Originally Posted by saymoo

from what i heard/read it was not wise to use many bsp based geometrics (for performance sakes) i could be wrong though..

No, thing is you need to keep a balance, for basic rooms, floors, ceilings and walls use BSP. For detail, high poly objects that are repeated a lot use Static Meshes.

**ffejnosliw** · 11-28-2009, 05:38 AM

Originally Posted by Denny

All articles/tutorials I've read related to UE3 only uses BSP to block out the flow of a level and get the proportions down. Then it's all replaced with StaticMesh. I could be wrong though?

That is pretty accurate. It might not all get replaced all the time and there are circumstances where some BSP might be used in visible areas of the final level (if the designer can fill a need without bothering an artist, for instance), but the vast majority of what comprises a finished level is made up of static meshes.

**EmbryoFILLET** · 11-28-2009, 05:47 AM

Originally Posted by ffejnosliw

That is pretty accurate. It might not all get replaced all the time and there are circumstances where some BSP might be used in visible areas of the final level (if the designer can fill a need without bothering an artist, for instance), but the vast majority of what comprises a finished level is made up of static meshes.

I guess it's just because, at Epic they would have object creators make tonnes of random architecture items. Rather than the mapper, but when it's one person working alone it is different.

Also, about the BSP for testing purposes. Level Design and flow are one of the most aspects of a map. Let's just leave it at that.

**Digital Nightfall** · 11-28-2009, 07:35 AM

I think it all comes down to technique. Everything I've done here so far it seemed easier to do as meshes because that meant I could create it all in one program rather than having half of it exist in one that can't exist in the other.

Thanks for the offer, GamerKnight, but I'm already involved with several projects!

**fallingbrickwork** · 11-28-2009, 07:58 AM

Excellent work indeed. I especially like the overall lighting! I'm assuming these are UDK shots... I would love to see where and what lights you had place, it's a great look and feel.

Regards,
Matt.

**Digital Nightfall** · 11-28-2009, 11:05 AM

The lighting setup is actually extremely simple and quick. I just put one up in the sky with a huge radius and half brightness to give a sort-of full moon effect. Other than that there's just a light under the ribvault of the nave, one under the southern flying buttresses and one in each of the lower levels under the aisles.

While we're here, is there any actual screen-capture function in the editor? So far I've just been doing cropped prtscrs. And what about some AA?

**Secret_Squirrel** · 11-28-2009, 12:09 PM

You can hold F9 and click a viewport and it should export a screenshot to your \UTGame\ScreenShots folder, you can also type shot in the console at any time in game.

Alternatively, for higher resolution and more customisable screenshots you can play in editor, get up the console, type rc which will allow you to access a menu to configure certain aspects of your view. Then type tiledshot x into the in game console, where the x is replaced with a number (I recommend no more than 4).

There are a few other console commands which are good for screen capturing, such as showhud (to hide the HUD) and fov x (where again the x is replaced by a number to customise the field of view).

Hope that helps.

**Denny** · 11-28-2009, 12:25 PM

I love you Secret Squirrel. I didn't know about the rc command! It's awesome!

**Digital Nightfall** · 11-28-2009, 12:51 PM

I just took a screenshot at 5120x3840!

(I put in tiledshot 5... couldn't resist. Turns out it works just fine!)

Thanks Secret Squirrel!

**Contrails** · 11-28-2009, 05:55 PM

Looks great

Would be pretty interesting to see it with light streaming in stained glass windows

**JohNLA** · 11-28-2009, 08:26 PM

Very Nice! Reminds me of The Hunchback of Notre Dame

**Digital Nightfall** · 11-28-2009, 11:43 PM

Here's a few more since you guys are such good sports.

**Viion** · 11-29-2009, 12:34 AM

I love its =O so motivated by it, I really want to do one myself!!

**DELTATHUND3R** · 11-29-2009, 12:41 AM

Digital its looking great matey...keep those images coming nice too watch progressions.
OOO and Secret Squirrel ty for screeny info..

**DarkUnreal** · 11-29-2009, 03:01 AM

Very nice work! may I ask how you imported from 3ds 10?

**RT-Visualization** · 11-29-2009, 09:05 AM

Really nice architectural work, keep going!

**Digital Nightfall** · 11-29-2009, 10:11 AM

I'm glad if I motivated you, Viion, but it's all of these great comments that are motivating me!

(Actually I'd be doing this even if I wasn't getting any comments, but they make it more fun.

)

To answer your question, DarkUnreal, in as many small parts as possible! Once I plan out what I want to do I create it using as few unique parts as possible. Here's an exploded view of the unique meshes seen in the three new shots I posted last night.

Then these fifteen or so come together inside the UDK, some instanced over a dozen times to the total of around ninety meshes, to create what you saw in those screenshots.

**raxell** · 11-29-2009, 11:23 AM

Wow, nice!!

How do you import mesh form 3dsmax10 to udk with flat faces?
I can't do it with 3dsmax2010. It always import mesh with some shading group, even cubes haven't flat faces.

**Vald** · 11-29-2009, 11:43 AM

Originally Posted by raxell

Wow, nice!!

How do you import mesh form 3dsmax10 to udk with flat faces?
I can't do it with 3dsmax2010. It always import mesh with some shading group, even cubes haven't flat faces.

That's because they are smoothed.

**Digital Nightfall** · 11-29-2009, 12:16 PM

Right. Before I export the meshes I run a smooth modifier on them. I just use the default setting of 30 degrees. (In some cases I'll use more when there's fine details that I want to appear rounded without using my polys for it.) This smooths all edges which meet at less then 30 degrees and makes sure that edges greater have a sharp corner.

As an aside note pertaining to Secret Squirrel's advice, when you use tiledshot x from the console it captures the console as part of the screenshot. However it you use the "t" talk command prompt, it hides the prompt and just gives you the screen!