Week 9 - Tuesday: Roof Damage

In addition to the debris that I have added to the interior, I am also trying to add external damage to the mansion. I took a look at reference of derelict buildings, some from games and others from real photos, to help me focus in on which details to create.

Days of War map Carentan.

 Bush Park, Detroit.

 A derelict house in Ireland.

One element that I really like across all of these images is the large holes in the roofs revealing the scaffolding underneath.

I decided this would be perfect to add to my scene because the roof takes up such a large space in the environment but is an almost featureless element. Adding some variation like holes and broken tiles will really help to break up the flat surface.

I started by cutting out a hole in the geometry of my roof in 3DS Max and then built some exposed wooden planks that would fit in the holes:

Wooden scaffolding that I created in 3DS Max and then textured in Substance Painter. I tried to make the wood look as old and warped as possible.

I created a few planks and then pieced them together into a pattern that I could repeat. I created a wooden plank texture in Substance Painter and then exported the pieces into Unreal Engine.

Here you can see the wooden planks repeated a few times in Unreal Engine. They have helped to break up the otherwise simple roof elements.

I am going to add similar holes across the roof and perhaps even some broken windows. I am aiming to make the exterior scene instantly tell the player everything they need to know about the state of the mansion inside.

Front view of my roof debris.

ALLEN, K. (2005), Derelict house at Raw [Online Image]. Available at: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/76559 [Accessed: 16/07/2018].

FERNANDEZ, M. (2012), Detroit o el atractivo de una ciudad hundida [Online Image]. Available at: https://www.yorokobu.es/detroit-o-el-atractivo-de-una-ciudad-hundida/ [Accessed: 16/07/2018].

RANSON, M. (2017), Days of War map Carentan [Online Image]. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/OVB6y [Accessed: 15/07/2018].