Hi-tech research facility (UDK environment)
 

Final screenshots:

http://www.thiagoklafke.com/misc/temp/Zest_HiRes_06.jpg
http://www.thiagoklafke.com/misc/temp/Zest_HiRes_01.jpg
http://www.thiagoklafke.com/misc/temp/Zest_HiRes_02.jpg
http://www.thiagoklafke.com/misc/temp/Zest_HiRes_03.jpg
http://www.thiagoklafke.com/misc/temp/Zest_HiRes_04.jpg
http://www.thiagoklafke.com/misc/temp/Zest_HiRes_05.jpg
http://www.thiagoklafke.com/misc/temp/Zest_HiRes_07.jpg

Some of the modular pieces:
http://thiagoklafke.com/images_2011/...e_zestf_09.jpg

Thiago Klafke - Environment Artist
www.thiagoklafke.com

hey thats pretty bad ass looking... only part i do not like at all. is the ceiling. It looks like I'm going into a fancy European house with that tray ceiling style. I would nix that personally... but everything else looks great!

Real cool. I love how clean it is, that's refreshing. So used to everything being super damaged like it's been through a war.

The modeling looks great, but I've never really been one for low-ceilinged sc-fi stuff. It makes it feels cramped, especially since sc-fi hallways usually have a bunch of blocks and gizmos on them. Like Orbital in Halo 3 I never really liked to much because of the low ceiling. Just a personal opinion.

I'm enjoying the design and layout for sure! The only issue I have is the sense of scale, there's nothing to compare the ceiling height, and width of wall sections to. I'm sure that'll be fine once props make their way into the scene.

when i only saw the shots of the modular assets i thought that those bevels are incredibly large and would look like toys but when all put together it works rather well.
looking forward to updates on this.

That looks liuke a good start, but the you just have very strong plain shapes - you need to get in close and do the dirty work! Some more noise and variation on the walls would be good ns its screaming for a specular map. You dont have to make it dirty by adding detail, But you really need something to get rid of the doom 3 plastic wrap look!

@JonathanF @SasoChicken: You guys are right :) I'll see what I can do!

@divi: Yeah I exaggerated the bevels so I could have more depth in my normal maps. My previous tests with this kind of sci-fi stuff on UDK turned up kinda bad because lightmass tends to make normal maps look flat... it's either that or you crank up indirect lighting influence and get huge blobs on your lightmaps...

@kaburan: You are right, I plan to improve the sense of scale by adding props and doors :)

@fearian: I think it looks like doom because of the viewport shader I'm using for visualizing the mockup. I'm pretty sure it will look a lot different when I put this on Unreal. I'm planning on having some direct lighting and windows where the light comes through, and that alone will give this a whole different look I think!

First UDK test. I plan to fill this place with green and plants to give a nice contrast to the walls!

http://www.thiagoklafke.com/misc/tem...i_udkwip01.jpg
http://www.thiagoklafke.com/misc/tem...i_udkwip02.jpg

This looks good, but you should think about breaking up the repeating in your meshes with some color variation, or perhaps some signs or lights or decals. You may want to try vertex paint to discolor some of the red panels or floor.

I understand that yo may be going for a clean, new look. In which case this would look fine, but not that interesting.

The green should add a nice touch as well.

Looks great, love the lighting. Only thing I would suggest is to increase the shadow map resolution on your walls.

Can't wait for more :)

Hey! Looks better than I would have expected for such simple textures. I think you could do with a more complex specular, which might lend some more realism to the material and scene.

Wow. The lighting has come a long way, although one obvious and major flaw is that you have lights coming in like there's big windows and skylights, but there's zero windows of any kind. I'd say keep the lighting, it gives it a good feel, but add in the sources of those lights in the appropriate spots.

Also as far as modeling goes, you might want to add in some high-tech looking computer terminals and whatnot to give it the "Hi-tech research facility" feel. Right now it reminds me a lot more of the inner corridors of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.

Also, you might want to consider using cubemaps ala Mass Effect, that's how they did their "reflections" on the walls.

@Virtuosic - Yeah don't worry I have a lot of props planned for this scene to break repetition =)

@brandoon - I'm using lower res lightmaps at the moment to keep iterations fast. The final version will use higher res maps!

@ScoobyDoofus | @Xendance - Cool! I'm planning on adding detail specular maps, just need to figure out how to make good tiling detail textures that don't look tooo repetitive from the distance. Far Cry 2 did that and it looks really good.

I also plan on using spherical maps for "reflections", but I can't seem to find any good tutorials on this. The one on UDN is obsolete :/ Does anyone know how to do it? I wanted to make a few tests with spherical mapping before switching to cubemaps.

@SasoChicken - The ceiling holes are not visible in the screens because they are just placeholder bsp atm ^_^

Tonights update:
- New wall set
- Using placeholder plant meshes by Epic at the moment
- tweaked the floors diffuse map, which was way too dirty

http://www.thiagoklafke.com/misc/tem...i_udkwip03.jpg
http://www.thiagoklafke.com/misc/tem...i_udkwip04.jpg

lookin sick. i like the sunlight coming in. how bout angling the light a bit so that it goes into the room a bit more?

i think the darks in the corners are a bit too dark. i dont know if thats the realtime AO or what.

sweet!! yeah man! looking so much cooler now! feels a lot more open! especially needed the open spice like this with the plants, nice touch! really gives it some great color. and that sun light is awesome to!

Awesome work

Looks good but looks like alot of static mesh loading and less use of BSP's should probably try to mix and match brush usage and mesh usage rather then 100% static mesh level building.

Wow.

The plants in the walls really add life to the scene. Although I still think some wall panels and lights would make it looks more like what it is

Pardon my poor mouse-painting skills:

http://i392.photobucket.com/albums/p...-paintover.jpg

looking nice like the lighting

needs:

some signage, leaks n drip decals, moar plants (maybe a new section with a planter that stickout into the pathway some, with a nice trailing plant that could creep into the rest of the scene

It looks ace, but not wha ti would have expected from a research facility, usually they pride themselves on extremely clean, totally anti-bacterial rooms, so that experiments can't be messed with by any other factors. Those plants would have an effect on the climate of the rooms, also its easier to make somewhere look clean by using brighter colours (whites, light blues, yellows, etc.). Just my thoughts anyway..

Did a little paintover, hope you dont mind... Its a bit of a washout, might want to make noticable lighter areas, instead of just brightening up like i did,

http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/9324/paintover.png

I think its going well as it is saso, nice work, might look nice with a shiny polished floor using a cubemap or something?

How about giving the sunlight some volume so we can see it coming through the windows ;)

skulburn - i find the original more interesing to tell you the truth, and more realistic...even a welll lit interior like a labs lights is nowhere near as strong as the sun
and the retaining glass for the plants makes the Env less interesting...when IMO it needs more breaking up with organic elements....SOrry dont like it

Imo, If its a bit dark in that area, you should add some artificial grow lights or something because in that darkness I don't see how a plant could grow or germinate without that said light.

wow nice ideas everyone! Keep em coming, loving it so far =)

might be cool to have some tanks of blue and green phosphorescent algae and kelp instead of ferns. might lend more of a scifi feel and avoid contaminating the environment?

I'm not too worried about this area not looking too clean, this is supposed to be a corridor/lounge area (There's an area not shown on the screens where I plan on placing couches, magazines and stuff).

I might even change the theme to something else to justify all the foliage I want. Maybe some sort of futuristic residence or a human colony in a lush distant planet? hmm that would make a bit more sense considering everything I have planned for this

Maybe some flowers, like on the movie avatar? Something that is supposed to look like a weed but has really nice blooms. I dunno when ever i look at those things i get inspired, And in a scientist's research facility, If you want plants, wouldn't you want something that inspires you? Just my opinion, Cuz the ferns look great too :P

I love what you've done so far - It looks great. You don't see many 'clean' and sterile environments and this is a nice change. The plants added a lot to it and I don't like the glass covered version (ie. paintover). Some wall panels would be nice and maybe some artificial subtle lights shining down on the plants. Otherwise - beautiful work so far.

I think the research facility is still a nice setting, but perhaps deciding on what is being researched would help determine an atmosphere. For example, a weapons research facility wouldn't need so much of a sterile environment as a medical research lab would.

I like what you have so far...please continue

Absolutely awesome work! I'm getting a slight ME feel from this. It certainly would fit.

Really coming together! I'm enjoying the lighting and the foliage is doing a great job off adding color to the scene. Really balances well.

Nice work. Already it is really starting to come together. As Kaburan just mentioned, the foliage really helps give it some balance.

Perhaps the AO is a tad too intense for how much light looks to be coming in.

Regardless, awesome looking scene! Can't wait for more updates :)

NOt to hijack, but in UDK, how do you keep those crisp highlights from the light? when i run lightmass it totally ruins the effect.

@Asteric: Crisp highlights on normal maps you mean? I toned down "DiffuseBoost" to 2.3 on lightmass settings (default is 5.0 which is way too exaggerated for the clean textures I'm using imo). Normal maps will never look as crisp as they look with dynamic lighting only though :(

@Brandoom: Agreed. I haven't looked into a way to tweak the SSAO effect yet. I don't even think it's possible though :/

@Divine Rage: Can't avoid being influenced by ME, it is my favorite game this generation =)

@Saso: Yep I've never really decided what kind of research I wanted this base to perform... i'm seriously considering making this a settlement instead, with rooms like kitchens, lounges, balconies and gardens. The actual research base or factory (where the dwellers work at) would be visible in the backdrop instead. Would fit the assets I have in mind for this better I think :)

I got that ME vibe from these too, especially after those plants were added. Really cool stuff.

Indeed verry Mass Effectish:), (thats positive btw).

So far the panels look well designed and have a unique style to them really something I've not seen before, maybe its a tad too clean (even modern/newly built stuff has some dirt in places) but it doesn't distract me too much.

Always love scifi stuff, looking forward to seeing more.:)