When designing a level, I always have to ask myself do I want to use a bunch of modular pieces to create houses/buildings. Is it performance efficient to have a lot of modular assets on the level, I’m guessing the answer to both is going to be “Depends” but I thought I’d ask.
or my other option is just build the main level in a 3D program like Blender, then import it, add blocking volumes to the main level then import small assets like trash cans, benches, trees and what not (fluff) to add to the level. This might take more time because I’d have to import a fairly sizable .FBX file every time I wanted some kind of change to the main geometry.
Basically:
Modularity with built in collision boxes on the meshes vs. Build level in 3D program and using a lot of blocking volumes. Which would be more efficient.
Note: My maps aren’t going to be super duper huge, but they’re going to be sizable.
You’re definitely right about the “Depends” part. It’s hard to say for certain since there is more that goes into performance than modularity vs non-modularity. The materials involved, the size of the level, the size of the object, the number of polygons for the asset, ability to cull, etc.
It’s been suggested a number of times, but the best course of action is to setup some tests and run these often. If something isn’t working you can profile your game for what may not be working and tweak accordingly.
I would not recommend building an entire level in any modeling software. Typically, my workflow is to start setting up my very very basic “lego” blocks in 3Ds Max. I set up a grid spacing to match UE4 with 10cm snaps. I build to that specification with all my assets, well most anyway, keeping them snapped to the grid is very important! Once I’ve got my basic legos out of the way I snap together a quick layout in Max or UE4 just to make sure my scaling and playability work well for what I want to do. Once I’ve finalized the size and things work for with my intent I can start fleshing out the modular pieces.
For blocking it’s also much easier to add this in most cases with the collision primitives in UE4. For unique objects it can be better to create custom collision.
From my experience it’s better to work with your legos and build levels out rather than doing all the work in your modeling software.
Current rig:
i7 4790K
GTX 970
16gb of 1800 ram
Asus Z97 Sabertooth MK2
So I’m not really going to feel much of a difference between a level that has 4K/High quality textures/materials, high quality lighting, high poly count etc. I was just thinking for more of a low-mid end type system. But I’ll just run tests to see which is better/smoother.
I was designing my map with the lego block type system where I can test angles and heights and what not. But once I finish that, I’m kind of stumped on what to do next. Like I like the feel of “Sanctuary” in the ShooterGame example, where it’s a very basic level “look” but it has some complex angles and different jumps you can do, which I like.
I think I’m going to do just the “lego” type designing and then see how it feels and might just add facades to help with performance. Kind of like how CS:GO does their levels.
I’m guessing you can’t really answer this fully, but with destructible meshes, is there a way to like blow out a hole in some cover. Because when I try to play around with DMs I blast a hole in it, then it just falls down. I basically blow the wall down with a few shots, which isn’t realistic or what I want. Any tips for that? I realize this thread is for something completely different, but why create another thread for such a noob-ish question.
No worries. Additional questions are fine since it’s your thread, within reason of course. Some would benefit from new threads, but it’s all good.
So Destructibles are an area I’m very familiar with and there are some plans to better explain these and their setups in the future, whether it be official documentation or a Wiki Guide that setup. It’s just a matter of making the time to do so, which a lot of focus lately has been on the Lighting Troubleshooting and Tips guide (linked in my signature) that Eric and I have put together. I want to do something along those lines with Destruction Meshes.
Short answer: Yes
There are really two routes to go with to shoot a hold and knock out chunks in a wall.
**Support Depth: **In this setup you just need to set the Support Depth to 1. This means anything at that depth will be supported and not break free without an appropriate amount of damage applied. There are many other settings that can determine this behavior as well, but that will give you the most basic setup. The problem here would be that there is nothing to hold the wall in place and it will fall over with any force and break any chunks away that receive enough force. To fix that you can set the flag for “World Support” to true. This will anchor the mesh chunks to any piece of geometry it’s overlapping or touching.
This is good if you want the entire wall to be destructible.
Do Not Fracture Chunk Parameter Setup: In this setup we can specify specific chunks that we want to not be fractured at all. This is a great option for having specific holes for your mesh. It’s using a similar approach as before. Set the Support Depth to 1 and then select the chunks you want to not fracture. You may need to adjust the view to click the chunk. Also try exploding it more in the preview viewport. Once you’ve selected all the chunks you want to not be fractured go to the Chunk Parameters Tab and select “Do Not Fracture.” This will prevent these from every being damaged.
Video demonstrating Do Not Fracturehttps://www.dropbox.com/s/ici2m0bx5a7b65n/DM_Fracture_Chunks.mp4?dl=0
This will help you get your player through the wall’s hole if any of the chunks are in the way that could prevent the player from passing.
Again, there are a lot of different setups using these settings and as you become more familiar with them you can achieve different results that will fit within your needs.
