scale of your levels

[umranA]

Just want to ask that how do you decide on the height of your doorway for example? Is there a formula that you use or do you keeping sizing it until it looks about right? For example, door heights are about 6 foot 4. Is there a calculation to accurately simulate this in unreal ed or is this the wrong approach?

[iniside]

Just want to ask that how do you decide on the height of your doorway for example? Is there a formula that you use or do you keeping sizing it until it looks about right? For example, door heights are about 6 foot 4. Is there a calculation to accurately simulate this in unreal ed or is this the wrong approach?

1uu = 2cm.
Also put sample character in your scene.

But it depends. For simple assets I try keep things proportional to each other. But for some epic-use assets (like walls, trims or columns for temple) I scale them way up, so when you enter to it you feel so small and building feel so big compared to player character.

[Kinos]

Keep it simple, do you see iron guard-skeletal mesh? Add him to the level. He's about the same height as your character. If your character is taller/smaller, scale him appropriately.
I learned that trick from watching a god of war doc vid. they used scale models of Kratos to measure how big the room should be.

[umranA]

can't seem to find the iron guard-skeletal mesh. How do I find it?

[grgcucu]

Go to the content browser, put as a filter: SkeletalMesh. Then you should find SK_CH_IronGuard. Place it in your world and use it as a reference. I use scaling by units just for stuff that have a lot of smaller stuff, so it looks right.

Use your imagination and your eyes to see a proportion that looks right, there's no formula. Or if you want some super cool eye candy architectural stuff, use the golden ration as a reference.

[umranA]

Golden ration? By the way grgcucu if I use your method of using my imagination to see it if looks in proportion, then won't the 3d modellers who are creating the static mesh for the door build one that is a completely different size than the doorway that I created?

[Soggybread]

Hey umranA.

I haven't been using 3D modeling packages, but i obtained what the art team uses for my project.

The Maya grid needs to be set up to conform with the UDK. While this is not essential to creation of assets for use in the UDK it is required to allow is to create items in Maya knowing that the stuff we make will be roughly the same size.

The following explains how to do this:-

Display>Grid + Options
Length and width: 5000
Gridlines: 256
Subdivisions: 16

Setting up the camera correctly:-
Windows -> Preferences
Cameras -> Set the far clipping plane to 5000
If it doesn’t display correctly save and reload the file.

Creating a reference block allows us to get a decent scale of how big something should be setting. A block created that is 96 units tall then 32 x 32 units wide and deep, is the same height as an UT3 character. Use this as a sample when creating our assets.

[umranA]

Very useful SoggyBread. It there a setup for 3ds max?

[umranA]

Vey useful! Is there a setup for 3ds max?

[Wyldhunt]

This should help with 3d max.
http://www.chrisalbeluhn.com/UT3_Max_Settings.html

[Piranhi]

Be careful when creating assets like doors, although they may look the right size in max and even in the editor, when it comes to playing it, they always seem too small. Make doors, rooms, stairs etc always a bit bigger then in real life

You can find more about this subject by watching the 3D buzz videos.

[Tom Shannon]

I'd like to politely disagree with chris albeluh here. Max's scene scale is complicated and pooly documented, but once you understand ONE THING, it all becomes easier:

"Display Unit Scale" This doe NOT affect your scene AT ALL. It ONLY effects the UI. Meaning, the input fields in the program will convert from the system unit scale to the display unit scale.


"System Unit Setup" This is what sets your scene scale. As you see here, it's set to 1 generic unit = 2cm to match the scale used by Epic.


So with this setup above, I can create things in real-world scale, import real-world assets I already have (people, cars, trees, etc.) that are already built and just create things in feet and inches, the way I'm provided data.

I've used this setup for several large, very accurate engineering visualizations and driving simulators and it's worked phenomenally.

However, chris does have a good setup for the grid and snapping to ensure good alignment if you're using a modular system for your levels.

[umranA]

So let me try and understand this. If 1 unit = 2 cm then a door that is 7 foot high and 3 foot wide will have dimensions of approx 107 units high and 46 units wide? That seems a bit tight.

[plugh]

If you are creating assets for a game, then try to keep the size of your meshes snapped to a "power of 2" grid, ie 1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512 etc. If you are using BSP (CSG) then it is almost imperative that you keep everything snapped to a large a grid as possible. Keeping everything on the grid makes the whole level design procedure so much easier, meshes scale easier, materials tile easier and you reduce the risk of BSP errors. It's worth having a look at some of the Epic made maps and meshes, and measuring them, you'll see what I mean.

Another thing to bear in mind is the difference of how we perceive the real world and how we perceive a 3d simulation on a 2D screen. Usually you will need to scale things 1.25 to 1.5 times in game to lose that 'tight' feel.

So, when making your doorways, do whatever looks right, feels right and plays right, and try to keep the dimensions and the geometry on the grid. For example a doorway of 128 x 64 would be ok for a default UT character to fit though, but it might seem a little small in UT, which is a very fast paced game.

If, however, you are making real life simulations, and need everything to be exact, then by all means work to exact measurements or at a scale, but bear in mind the issues I mentioned above.

[KenD]

I generally make my standard doorways 64 wide and 112 high in game. I use a grid setting of 8 and things work pretty good. That is using the Iron Guard as a reference for my room height which I usually set to 192.