I am planning to include a lot of foliage and vegetation growing inside of my mansion environment to emphasize how much time has passed since people actually lived there. This will mean that I need to create some unique assets myself as nothing within the demo pack will help with this.
Before creating my own vegetation I have decided to research some examples at the forefront to better understand how the games industry approaches realistic vegetation.
One game that has used photorealism to great effect is DICE Studios and EA Games “Star Wars Battlefront” (2015). Whilst the game itself has been the target of much criticism due to EA’s business practices, few could argue that the games graphics are incredible.
The planet Endor recreated in Star Wars Battlefront 2015.
I consider Star Wars Battlefront (2015) to be at the forefront of the industry because of the level of consideration that has gone into recreating the iconic environments from the films, and the detailed processes DICE have employed to create photo-realistic terrain.
The team at DICE would shoot photos on-location and plan their trips using a breakdown beforehand so they knew which assets needed to be captured during that shooting session. An article from website 3D Scan Expert states that the team put in a lot of effort to ensure that these photo shoots were efficient, because with Photogrammerty often times people end up shooting either too many or too few photos. Below you can see an example of the breakdowns the team would use when going on a photo shoot.
An example of the breakdowns DICE Studios used to help organise their photo sessions.
The massive amount of photos were then taken and turned into usable game assets. The team would go through more of less the same phases as they would if they were creating the vegetation in a traditional way but in a quicker time frame. Below you see a comparison between the estimated time to create an asset for an earlier game (Battlefield 4) that used traditional methods and the Photogrammetry pipeline used Star Wars Battlefront. Compare the lengthy time for high poly modelling in a traditional way compared to creating the asset via photo scanning.
A comparisson of the time required to create an asset with Photogrammetry versus traditional methodology
It is quite clear that DICE have put in great effort into planning the creation of vegetation for their game. My project plan mainly factored in hard surface modelling and texture creation. I did leave myself a small window to create organic assets but it is clear that such a small window will not yield results anywhere near as impressive as Star Wars Battlefront.
This is not a huge issue for me as I am not focused on becoming an organic modeler for my career. Therefore I don’t wish to spend too much time creating detailed vegetation. Photogrammetry definitely seems like the best option for realistic vegetation and foliage due to the near perfect replicas it produces. Because of this, the ability to create detailed vegetation from scratch may not be the most sought skill in the industry at the moment.
Because I don’t have the resources available to create realistic photo scanned models, one option may be for me to download another asset pack from the Unreal Engine marketplace, one that is well suited to create indoor vegetation. I have already saved time on assets such as trees and grass on the exterior sections of my environment, however I am still interested in creating individual pieces such as ivy and weeds myself. Because I want them to conform to the shape of my building perfectly, this is something that I feel I will have better control over if I create them myself.
Ultimately I feel a blending of both my own and professionally made assets will be the best course. I have already made use of the Unreal Engine marketplace, so by studying the assets available I will be able to see how they were created and apply this knowledge to my own work.
DICE. (2015) Star Wars Battlefront. [DISC, DOWNLOAD] Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One. Redwood City: Electronic Arts.
DICE. (2015), EndorDICE. [Online Image]. Available at: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/battlefront/images/8/81/EndorDICE.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20151111221829 [Accessed: 20/07/2018].
DICE. (2015), PhotoBreakdown. [Online Image]. Available at: https://3dscanexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/star-wars-battlefront-3d-scanning-elements-768x432.png [Accessed: 20/07/2018].
GAMASUTA. (2016) GDC: See how DICE used photogrammetry to bring Star Wars Battlefront to life . [Online] Available from: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/265747/GDC_See_how_DICE_used_photogrammetry_to_bring_Star_Wars_Battlefront_to_life.php [Accessed: 20/07/2018]
LIEVENDAG, N. (2016) How 3D Scanning was used to create the worlds of Star Wars Battlefront. [Online] Available from: https://3dscanexpert.com/3d-scanning-star-wars-battlefront/ [Accessed: 20/07/2018]
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