Interior and Exterior Environments

[J03W93]

Hi all,

This might be a simple question but I'm spending my summer working on creating a castle (I was inspired after playing The Witcher 3 haha).

Anyway, my question is what is the best way of creating an environment with both interior and exterior? Should I build inside first and model the outside around it or just build the level and fit the interior inside.

Also should I create one asset or use modular components to build this?

Thanks for any help

[darthviper107]

You'd need to plan it out and see if you can use modular assets. You definitely wouldn't do it as a single mesh, since the engine is able to hide stuff that isn't visible, but you would need to figure out what assets to build first.

If it's a large environment you'd also need to use dynamic lighting, since lightmaps would take up too much memory/storage

[SE_JonF]

I would model the interior first. Modeling the exterior after allows you to conform it to the shape of the interior, while doing it first will limit your creativity and options. Modular pieces is also the way to go, you won't want to make it one asset. Good luck. =)

[mariomguy]

Welcome to the forums!

I have an NVIDIA GT 640, and I can get 60 fps performance with 300,000 polygons. But stuff like vertex animation, foliage, landscape, and particles will all decrease the number of polygons I can use. First, I would have a plan for what exactly I want to do: in your case, do you want a castle interior, exterior, the world, and all the visual effects that make that world believable? If you just want a castle exterior, it would be pretty fun to blow your entire polygon budget on that, just to see what you can make. But if you want a nice landscape with trees, that will cost you performance, and time. Scope your project down to something reasonable, and then do it well.

Some parts of a castle don't need to be modular: stonework and brickwork can just be a tiling texture over a flat surface. Some pieces might be better off modeled out. Some might be better as separate models that you just shove into place. It all depends on your scope and what exactly you want to accomplish.