When we started working on our UE4 map durring last summer as students, we thought that the only thing we would get out of it was the fun of doing it.
Now, as IndyGo! Media, a company that formed out of this student project, we are currently virtualizing the entire campus of the Białystok University of Technology. This will be a virtual walk though each important part of the campus, with implemented elements of games and interactions, as well as setting placement. This will allow the university to have the first in our country (maybe even in Europe), games about itself to display on many occasions such as expos, trips to high schools and other events; of course with the use of VR headsets.
We would like to share our journey, which of course is still on its way!
The primary idea was to create a simple virtual walk (Faculty of Architecture) without any kind of interactions, mini games and special effects. It was to be a visually nice looking, simple, but with as much realism as possible – identical colors, forms, and materials. We want to show here complete step-by-step breakdown of our work, so maybe it’ll be helpful for UE beginners:]
This is what the site looks like in real life:
&stc=1Our faculty – positioned away from the main campus of the Bialystok University of Technology, the building is surrounded by smaller buildings and trees, located very close to the center of town…
&stc=1The first view that our students see when entering the site, enriched with the morning caffeine that just hit the bloodstream
The back door for spies and ninjas.
&stc=1The great hall – one large space for basically everything, where the entire magic of the faculty happens. Oh, and as you can see, a very rare sight of empty parking spaces!
&stc=1The side façade with its eerie simplicity (distortion for empowering the effect)
The first steps
Before we started work in Unreal, the group had to get acquainted with the free 3d modeling software Blender.
The amazing Bart taught the team everthing they now know from scratch, from simple forms to efficient use of the tool. After two weeks of modeling, we had a complete model of the building of the Architecture Faculty…
&stc=1 &stc=1Blender model
The finished model and its way into UE4.
&stc=1Model in Unreal Engine.
Bart started to teach the team everything, all of which he learned some time before that We started to tinker with things like ligting, shadows, postprocessing, and the most simple interactions. We should highlight another important factor – we started from absolute zero. We had no idea on how to create games, or how to prepare models for the engine. Nothing, nada, zip, zero, null…
And** this forum** proved to be the ultimate guru for us, for which we are greatly gracious!