Task 3: Project Progress

Introduction

In this task I will be explaining the production of my final major Project. In this task you can expect to see screenshots of my work and a analyses explaining what im doing and why im doing it. The purpose for this task is to show how I have created my game environment, I will creating my project using principle 5 and will be applying the 80/20 rule. ,This means that I will be creating the environment in small bits, instead of creating the environment as one. I will also be using the 80/20 rule by using most of my time and effort on the assets that really matter other than the assets which are just for detail.

Task 1: Creating Planning - I.e Planning Map, Map Detail

I have decided to change the map for the environment I am going to be creating. Below you can see the original map and the new map which I have quickly made up. I prefer my original map and believe it has more detail in than the new map. Although it would not be possible to create my original map before my deadline due to all the ideas I want to include and because of some issues within unity, for instance, my original map was a really large map with a lot of features, this would be impossible to run unity without lag or difficulties. Because of this, I have decided to create a mini-map which is a smaller version of my original environment. Creating this environment will be more possible and more effective for unity. If I were to create the environment with more time and resources, I would extend the environment and add a lot more features and assets. 

Original Map

New Map

Task 2: Build Terrain On unity - Create mountains etc on the terrain within unity

Now that i have created a brief idea on what i want the environment to look like, it's time to sculpt the environment in unity. To do this click on game object and scroll to the terrain. 
Once the terrain is imported, you should see several tools in the terrains inspector. 

The tool I mostly used to create the mountains in my environment is the paint height tool. This allows you to choose your terrain brush and adjust the opacity and target of the height. This means you can easily  make soft or hard mountains to the opacity you want. The bigger the mountains the bigger the opacity.

In the next tasks you may notice slight changes to the environment because i will be adjusting the mountains etc as i create the environment. 

Task 3: Texture the terrain. 

Before I begin to texture the terrain, I am going to be creating the trees and the grass which I am going to be using in the environment.

Tree

1) Import tree

Select > Game Object > 3D object > tree

This will import a tree asset into your project view.

2) Adding branches

When you first import a tree it appears as one single branch. To make the tree look more full, it's important to add branches to the tree.

Select the tree and in the inspector, you can see the tree hierarchy window. This allows you to add branches and leaves to the tree. Simply press the branch option and it will add the branches to the tree. You can adjust the branches by using the inspector. 

3) Adding Bark material

In order to make the tree look more realistic you need to apply materials. To do this I created a material and assigned a bark texture to the material, I then proceeded by assigning the material to the tree. 

4) Add leaves

To decorate the tree with leaves, you must add a leaf group which is similar to adding the branches. Simply click the add the leaf group button. 

5) Add material to leaf's

Add a leaf texture to a material and then add the material to the leaves. At first the leaves will appear as planes and the only way to add the leaves is to texture the planes. If you add a texture and you can see the background of the texture, making your leaves still looking like planes then simply go into the material and change it so the shader is 'tree creator leaves' this will give you a transparent background for the leaves. 

Grass

1) Add tree

select > Game Object > 3D object > tree

2) Delete Branch

Delete the branch in the tree hiachary, you should be left with nothing. 

3)  Add a leaf

Now you have deleted your branch, add a leaf. 

4) Plane > Cross

In the inspector, change the geometry mode from plane to cross.

5) Add grass material

Add a grass material to the cross. Adjust the grass until it is at the correct rotation and size. 

Texture
In the terrains inspector you have an option which allows you to paint texture onto your environment. Simply click add texture and drag whatever texture you want to use. I have used a lot of different textures which kept changing throughout the progression. Whilst creating the environment, I used the small initiative principle. This means I focused on a small area at a time, this is why some of my environment might be textured and other bits not textured throughout the progression photos. 

Waterfall

This is how I created the waterfall in my environment.

1) Add particle system

Click on game objects and import a particle system. Simply call this particle system PS water.

2) Adjust particle system

In the particle system inspector, simply adjust the particle system until it looks like smoke shooting downwards. 

3) Add water material

Simply add a texture of water waves and assign it to the particle system. It should look like it is shooting planes down, instead of smoke. 

4) Water material (Standard > Additive)

For the water material to look more realistic, simply change the shader of the material from standard to particle > additive. This will give your water a more transparent effect. 

5) Make Adjustments

I then decided to adjust the waterfall and add several more particle systems to create the foam at the bottom of the waterfall and make my waterfall look more full. 

6) Import water

Using unity's standard assets, I added the nighttime pro water.

Task 4&5: Build & Texture assets within blender

In this task, I am creating 3D assets for my environment walk though. I want to create assets such as houses, fences and rocks just to add more detail within my environment. I wanted to give the environment a module effect, this means that the houses will look similar and is most likely going to be used as a module set which I can duplicate around my environment. Due to this, most of the house's progression is going to be really similar. I will still be including screenshots and explanations of how I have created the particular house although I will only be going into deep detail with one of the houses because the technique is repeated just to create the other houses. 

House #01

1) Create a Cube

Press Shift A to create a cube. Scale this cube until it is big enough to be a 'house'.

2) Extrude to face

Go into edit mode and select the top face of the cube.  Press E to extrude the face and move it along the Z axis.

3) Make roof

Once you have extruded the roof, it should look like a extended cube. To give the roof a 'pointy' look, simply click both sides of the extended cube and press on your keyboard CTRL S, X 0. This means that blender will scale the sides along the X axis which is the red line you can see in the graph. This will get the sides of the cube to scale in the middle of this axis, making each points meet in the middle. 

4) Split house in half

To make it a bit easier I have decided to mirror the house, this will make the house look identical on either side. To do this, i first added a subdivision in the middle of the house tpo split the house into two sections. I then pressed B to create a box and selected half of the house, Press X and then select vertices to delete the vertices. this should leave you with half house. 

5) Mirror modifier

Add a mirror modifier by clicking the ranch icon on the right hand side. I ticked the X axis so the house is mirrored along the X axis and made sure that merge and clipping is checked in the options. I did this so i dont make any gaps within the house and everything is clicked together. 

6) Extrude walls & Roof

Create a Cut loop down the side of the wall so you are able to extrude it to create a wall. Because the house is now modified with the mirror modifier, blender should automatically do the other side of the house. Extrude the wall again until there is 4 walls. Extrude the roof upwards and scale it along the x axis again to create the point. 

7) Split house in Half AGAIN

I used the same techniques as I did when I split the house in half to use the modifier although this time my original house is a quarter of its size, instead of half. I then mirrored the house along the X and Y axis to create a full house again. The reason I done this is because I believe it makes creating the roof more easier and less time consuming however this step inst necessary. 

8) Create roof

To create the roof, simply extrude the Roof edge outwards (See image below) and then extrude the roof till it clips with the other mirror and the roof is fully mirrored. 

9) Texture & Add indent detail

I decided to add a loop cut half way down the house. I then extruded the section in, to create a indent in the house. I then added a new material, in cycles and used a image texture and selecting a image of wooden planks. I then unwrapped the texture

10) Create doors

I simply created a cube and edited it till I was happy with the appearance. I then alligned the door till it was in the correct position and dupilcated it to make three. 

Once I had finished completed my first house, I understood which techniques I should be using to create a good quality house. I didn't use this partially house in my environment hence why it isn't finalised with texture. Although I created several more houses, using the same techniques. Below you will be able to see screenshots of the progression of the other houses I have created although I will not be going into detailing every step since it is the same technique as I have explained above.

House #02

House #03

House #04

House #05

Villages

I imported the houses so they were in one blender folder. I did this so i could create the little villages which i will be importing into my environment. 

Village #01

Village #02

Castle

Bridge

Rock's

1) Create sphere

2) Sculpt rock

I decided to sculpt the rock using the grab tool, this made making the rock a lot easier.  

wheel of pain

Task 6&7: Export the assets & Import them into unity (Fix any problems)

When importing models from blender into unity, you can simply drop the blend file into the asset file in your unity folder or you can simply right click in unity and click import asset. Simply find your model and import it into unity. Sometimes the 'gravity' can be a bit off in blender and some models could be rotated the wrong way. I personally didn't come across this issue in this assignment although I have previously came across this issue. To fix it, simply rotate it in unity. 

Once you have imported the model, you can simply drag the model into your perspective view and adjust the size. Normally I need to enlarge the model from blender to make it appear in unity. 

To make your houses solid you must add a component onto the model. To do this, click on your model and scroll down to a component in the inspector. Click on the component button and a lot of options should appear, scroll to mesh collider and click okay. This should then stop other meshes colliding with the model, so when the player goes to walk into the house it will 'block' it making the house solid and unable to walk through. 

Task 8: Place lighting within the game environment

For the lighting in my game environment, I added a sky box which turned the sky to a pink texture full of clouds. I love how the sky box looks because it makes the environment look more fantasy and magical. 

I also added fog into the scene, I adjusted the fog so it has a blue/purple colour to add more of a eerie effect and adjusted the density of the fog just to make the fog more subtle. 

Task 9: Create video of the environment walk-through

Game walk through

For the walk through of my final environment, I wanted to add a little extra. Instead of having a camera walking around I wanted to have a character. For me personally, I found it extremely difficult to add animation for a third person controller. Unity does come with its own default Third person controller although the avatar which is being controlled does not match the character I wanted and you cannot change the avatar and keep the same animation. Due to this, I started to think How I can adjust the character to make it look like the player is controlling him. 

To do this, I added the character just in the first person camera's and adjusted it so it looks like the camera is over the characters shoulder. This has created a effect that almost looks like the player is actually moving the character. 

Camera overview

I want to add a bit more to FMP and to do this, I have decided to add a camera overview of my project. I want the camera to zoom through the environment, showing the different features. To do this I need to animate the camera.

1) Add camera animation

Create a animation and then simply name it 'camera'. Click on the main camera and add this animation into the inspector. 

2) Create animation

Open up the animation window by clicking on window and click on animation. Then click on your main camera which you have just assigned the animation too. Whilst still clicking on your camera, open up the animation window. This window allows you to animate your actual camera. To do this, press the record button and then simply just move the camera. Unity will automatically record the key frames. The most difficult thing about animating is to adjust the speed of the key frames.