Realistic maps?

[Grimbleton]

Hey guys. What’s the best way to get a realistic look in my maps? I guess my biggest problem is that I don’t really know much about what to do in maps after actually making the map itself to make it look good. And by that I mean, whenever I make a map, I just put the map together, model by model, throw a light in, and use it. Is there anything I’m supposed to add to my map to make the game look better? Aside from a few lights here and there, I don’t really add ANYTHING to my maps for stuff like that. I know that good models and textures help, but in games like Unreal Paris (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6PQ19BEE24), it’s not just the textures and models that make it look nice. It’s something else, but I don’t know what it is. Here’s a picture of a map from my most recent game:

That one wasn’t really intended to look realistic, so the sky/textures look a little bit more cartoony, but that’s how most of my games end up looking - even if they are supposed to look realistic.

I’m having a bit of trouble explaining this, so I hope you’re able to understand. I guess what I’m trying to say is… Is there anything that I need to add to my map after I’ve finished the design of it to make it actually look good from inside the game?

[ixicalibur]

it is all about the models and textures. there is no real magic thing you can do, it’s a combination of everything that makes it look great. unreal Paris is an arch viz, it has really high quality models and textures that use pbr, and it probably uses a tweaked light mass. post process can help a little to polish a scene, but if the models and textures are low quality it wont do much.

edit: also at that level of quality, you cant run it in real time. that’s just a matinee render.

[Grimbleton]

@ixicalibur;454317

it is all about the models and textures. there is no real magic thing you can do, it’s a combination of everything that makes it look great. unreal Paris is an arch viz, it has really high quality models and textures that use pbr, and it probably uses a tweaked light mass. post process can help a little to polish a scene, but if the models and textures are low quality it wont do much.

edit: also at that level of quality, you cant run it in real time. that’s just a matinee render.

What’s just a matinee render? Unreal Paris? Unreal Paris is an actual game actually run in real time, at ~60 FPS (for me, anyways).

[Grimbleton]

@Chariots;454493

I’ll just go through the screenshot, this isn’t meant as a criticism of the scene, rather the process behind how to make nature scenes more realistic.

• Cabin seems to have lots of sharp edges. Wood doesn’t work like that most of the time unless it is brand new. You need to have bevels and more imperfections on the model itself.
• Sky looks pinkish, but lighting seems uniform white. You need to match the sky and lighting color, this can take a lot of tweaking sometimes. Make sure to look at some reference photos like this.
• Terrain seems too flat. Snow is usually very lumpy because of wind and terrain features. Right now trees look like they are almost floating there.
• Even though the snow seems to not go beyond the base of the cabin, there are no other foliage besides trees on your scene. So it creates a disconnect in the mind, is this a really heavy snow that is supposed to be 2-3 meters thick? or is it supposed to be something like this?
• Normal and roughness maps are very important, especially in snow scenes, they need to be spot on. The terrain seems to have stronger normals than what you’d expect from a fresh powder snow. It has lots of low frequency detail like lumps but still seems very flat.
• I don’t know why but shadow settings seems a bit off. It is as if you are using a point light as the shadows are low detailed and seem to go in different directions.
• Scene composition on screenshots is what makes or brakes a screenshot (much like real life photography). I don’t have any specific advice to give on this other than studying scene composition and photography videos on youtube.

Overall, you need to work with reference photos of real life and meticulously go through your scene again and again. I’d suggest trying to work on something like a portfolio screenshot first to get the sense of your own workflow and the amount of detail you are happy with, and then try to transfer those things into a game.

Okay, thanks! Also, what exactly do normal maps do?

[kirk.clawson]

@rabidworm333;454594

Okay, thanks! Also, what exactly do normal maps do?

They are a rendering trick to make a surface appear to have details that aren’t actually modeled in the polygons. In your screen shot, the small, grainy/bumpy texture on the snow is simulated by using a normal map. They are a better/more convincing version of the old “bump map”.