3DS Exercise 2.2 Derelict village

Derelict village

Using the techniques I have learned so far, I have created a derelict village suitable for a game. While set in a typical fantasy setting, the village is still suitable for an FPS. It features multi story buildings such as taverns and churches to enter. Holes and broken parts cover the buildings for the practical purpose of shooting from cover as well as for aesthetics and setting. The below images show a top down and front view of each building.

I first added my top down sketch as a material to the image plane. While only a rough guide for positioning, this is useful to keep proportions and spacing between buildings.

Tavern and stables
The first building is the tavern and the attached stables. Created by extruding a 2D spline, the building is a 'L' shape. The fence on the side gives it the 'derelict' look by simply rotating some of the posts to appear near-broken. The hay barrels are useful props for suggesting the purpose of the fence (as a stable), but would also allow a player to climb and jump onto the building from in an FPS context.

 

I also experimented with the text tool to create a swinging sign; the 'autogrid' tool allowed me to position the lettering accurately on the sign.

The interior features broken tables and a bar stool. Both give reasonable cover if needed in a FPS context. The 'autogrid' was once again useful for accurate placing of the legs on the table.

Good parts: 

• Interior with corners and props could be used for hiding if used as a FPS map
• Broken door and props break up the otherwise simplistic geometry
• Simplistic shape of building does not give a high poly count contribution  
   

Issues:

• Extruding splines leaves a hole where the roof should be, meaning multiple planes (to match L shape) needed to be created and attached, adding to the poly count 

Improvements:

•  A more interesting outline shape would make the geometry less repetitive and bland. Curved shapes could still be achieved with the 'bezier' spline option

Broken Cart

While this isn't a building, the broken cart is a large prop that immediately gives the impression that the village is war-torn. I imported the ship wheel from a previous exercise to save time and used them as the cart's wheels. 

Good parts:

• Imported wheels saved time in creating the large village
• By using the same wheel object simply laid on the floor the cart has a broken appearance without modifying any main geometry 
• Cart was created by subtracting a scaled down copy of the box rather than adding extra segments just to cut out the shape

 Issues:

• Aligning the wheels to the main cart gave a good starting position though still required some tweaking - the wheels are not perfectly lined up

 Improvements:  

• An axis for each pair of wheels would give the model a more realistic appearance
• A more damaged appearance could be achieved by editing some of the vertices or cutting out some shapes, though this would add extra polygons for a small detail

Watchtower

The watchtower is the second building to include an interior. It features a small window slit for shooting out of and a ladder to the top surface. The shape was modeled out of one large cone with the top face scaled in.

Good parts: 

• One primitive shape with removed height segments maintains a low poly count contribution. Changes such as scaling in the top do not add to this
•  Windows slits were achieved by simply cutting away a box shape, not requiring any extra surface polygons to delete the window shape

 Improvements:  

• A spiral staircase would be more realistic and allow for more windows slots as players could stop at any height and shoot out of them
• Battlements would distract from the appearance of the tower being one large shape and provide cover in a game 

House

The second object to be imported in, this low poly house was taken from the previous exercise. While it remains much the same, details of damaged walls have been added as seen on top of the second windows from the right. Creating a random shape with a spline, extruding it and using boolean subtraction allowed the wall shape to be kept while breaking away parts.

 

Good parts:

• Imported model was able to maintain most of it's shape as changes only needed to be made to surface faces
• The spline tool allowed irregular shapes to be cut out of the house rather than cubes or spheres

 Improvements:

• Larger, more noticeable details such as a boulder hitting the house would improve the damaged appearance
• If an interior was included, this could feature damaged furniture such as fireplaces or cooking fires 

Church

The final building of the village is the church. This is the main structure on the map and has the most places to hide in. The two story building features broken front doors, an altar and pews, a ladder and a second story with bed rolls.

  

Good parts:

• The multistory building provides enough space to include more detail and props
• From a game standpoint, the church could serve as a sanctuary or a defense point due to the two stories. The lack of windows and many props to take cover behind would work well in an FPS scenario
• The align and clone tools allowed multiple props to be be lined up and repeated accurately   

 Issues:  

• Due it's non-standard geometry after extruding splines and attaching floors, boolean subtraction caused issues with adding extra internal edges and polygons to make up for those lost

Improvements:

• Breakable windows would break up the single shape and allow an enemy team better access to it in a game
• Battlements or statues on the roof would provide another less obvious place for a character to reach and add interesting detail to the shape  

The final result is shown below in 'wireframe' and 'realistc' rendering: