[Unity] Post Rain Street Scene
So after my Unity Sci Fi Bridge Scene I was keen to create something new in Unity. I decided on creating a street scene in Unity set at night just after a rain storm has passed. The plan is to have everything slick and shiny, steam rising from vents, trickles of water running down walls and puddles of water in the street.
I'm not used to sharing work in progress publicly but I've been pushed by a few people into it :P Bear with me here...
I'm keen to try and create something a bit different from most game scenes, it's going to be pretty clean and modern. I'm taking a lot of inspiration from the city set scenes in The Matrix, the nighttime streets scenes in The Dark Knight Chicago post modern design and one building in particular.
State Law Building, Brisbane by Oriolus84, on Flickr
This building is my main inspiration, it's called the "State Law Building" but local Brisbane people will probably recognize it as the "Batman Building" or "Gotham Tower"
Depending on how I go for time I may end up just doing this one building and variations of it...but we'll see.
Another main goal of mine with the buildings is to try get away from the flat empty facades of buildings many games have, while some of them look bloody awesome, most of them feel empty and unlived in with either dark textured windows that you can't see in to or if it's night time a generic bright glow coming from within.
So to begin with here's my surfacing and facade\interior test video
I recommend watching these in HD
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGlwbnjQGAs"]25/10/11 Work In Progress 1: Facade and Surfacing Test[/ame]
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLO3u21AzT0"]31/10/11 Work In Progress 2: Road Decals and Wet Surfaces[/ame]
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijFtsXfUv58"]6/11/11 Work In Progress 3: City Skyline and FX Tests[/ame]
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWnPG-zn2dw"]13/11/11 Work In Progress 4: Minor Polish and Camera Tests[/ame]
Nothing is final yet so I'm open to suggestions, critiques and if anyone has any tutorials or workflows to point me towards that they think is useful it would be much appreciated.
In particular I'm interested in any techniques for wet surface (water streams, puddles etc) texturing and road creation (at the moment I've done a few tests with decals which are briefly visible in the video above.
I'm not used to sharing work in progress publicly but I've been pushed by a few people into it :P Bear with me here...
I'm keen to try and create something a bit different from most game scenes, it's going to be pretty clean and modern. I'm taking a lot of inspiration from the city set scenes in The Matrix, the nighttime streets scenes in The Dark Knight Chicago post modern design and one building in particular.
State Law Building, Brisbane by Oriolus84, on Flickr
This building is my main inspiration, it's called the "State Law Building" but local Brisbane people will probably recognize it as the "Batman Building" or "Gotham Tower"
Depending on how I go for time I may end up just doing this one building and variations of it...but we'll see.
Another main goal of mine with the buildings is to try get away from the flat empty facades of buildings many games have, while some of them look bloody awesome, most of them feel empty and unlived in with either dark textured windows that you can't see in to or if it's night time a generic bright glow coming from within.
So to begin with here's my surfacing and facade\interior test video
I recommend watching these in HD
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGlwbnjQGAs"]25/10/11 Work In Progress 1: Facade and Surfacing Test[/ame][ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLO3u21AzT0"]31/10/11 Work In Progress 2: Road Decals and Wet Surfaces[/ame][ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijFtsXfUv58"]6/11/11 Work In Progress 3: City Skyline and FX Tests[/ame][ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWnPG-zn2dw"]13/11/11 Work In Progress 4: Minor Polish and Camera Tests[/ame]Nothing is final yet so I'm open to suggestions, critiques and if anyone has any tutorials or workflows to point me towards that they think is useful it would be much appreciated.
In particular I'm interested in any techniques for wet surface (water streams, puddles etc) texturing and road creation (at the moment I've done a few tests with decals which are briefly visible in the video above.
Replies
This is just a shot of the grating decal page, I've half laid out the road lines one in the distance.
If enough people are interested I'll take another little video clip of it in motion.
(if you wanted to add any breakdown images of your models etc that would be cool)
It's a cubemap with a few other bits and pieces thrown on it, I'm actually using a shader pack from the Unity Asset Store called "Hard Surface Shader Pack"
It's mainly meant for metals etc but I repurposed it for the wet road effects. it's got a cubemap reflection as well as a fresnel reflection to accentuate the effect at a distance.
When I find some time and I'm don't feel like making anything I will breakdown some of the models and textures.
Sorry I have a newbish question, how are the street lines done? Are they just a flat plane with an opacity map? Or some other way?
Best way I've found to do damage/puddles etc. on roads, is to blend between 4 vertex colours for the 4 textures. Line markings as floating geometry is definitely the way to go too.
Good job so far, moremore!
I recommend watching in HD
[ame="
I've done a lot of work on the decals and wet road textures, also laid out a rough street in the composition I think I'll go for using the same building repeated. I've also blocked out the top of the building, I need to finish and texture it.
I threw in some lights and flares to simulate what it might look like when I eventually get some street lights made as well.
So the question is, Trees or no trees? (see the video I've already posted for the no tree version) I'm a bit torn myself as it does as some needed depth to the scene but does it lose some of it's mood and coldness by doing so?
[ame="
Week 3 progress update, not quite as happy with this one for some reason, maybe I've been staring at it too long, anyone got any suggestions?
They are modeled, super low poly (50-60 tris per room) with alpha test billboard chairs, plants, water coolers and really basically modeled desks and cubicals using the same textures on the walls. They're also completely unlit and I've painted some lighting into the wall, ceiling and floor textures
The ones around it are identical for the time being, I'd like to do completely unique ones but it depends how I go for time, I may end up leaving the current one as a the hero building and just knocking up some quick variations using the same textures.
I keep debating which way to go with it, on one hand I only really need 1 or 2 screenshots for my folio and enough to warrant a 1 minute video (I like to keep them short and punchy) so any extra work seems like a waste if it's not going to be seen much.
On the other hand a complete street with unique buildings would be nice to do over the long term.
But at the moment I'm leaning towards quick variations in the same scheme, I'm thinking I should probably do some mobile quality work next to fill a bit of a gap in my folio.
Improved lighting, skydome and city framing, added some effects to the building top, some post effect tweaks.
How did you made he glow light for lamppost ?
The bulb is a standard unity lens flare type, with some slight modifications.
The shaft of light is actually a particle effect, large particles spawn at the ground level and shrink as they move up to make the cone\shaft shape. Not the cheapest of solutions but it was quick to knock up.
Watch in HD
[ame="
Here's a small todo list of things I want to try and get done for this:
- Fix dodgy mapping on the front of the building (water running sideways, upside down)
- Create new trees (current ones are unity standard issue)
- Metal grates around the base of the trees
- Light fixtures on the building, sidewalk (lights come from nowhere currently)
- Remake all street and traffic lights (the current ones I didn't make and are placeholder)
- Create trashcans, bus stops, rubbish piles.
- Possibly make a blowing newspaper particle effect
- improve end cityscape, fill gaps, low poly streets below, better low poly building models
- Tone back either the amount of street lights or their cone effect, I think I may have overdone it (Yes\No?)
- Some different high detail buildings for the street, they're currently the same one duplicated.
- Fix Z-Fighting inside of interior office rooms (noticeable on the last shot)
- Improved bottom floor facade, possible even make a low poly interior inside like the office rooms (thoughts?)
- *Maybe* buy a unity shader pack that will allow me to have realtime reflections instead of cubemaps on the road.
-*Maybe* add some cars off in the distance, going around corners, nothing close up. I have a couple of cars a friend gave me from a model pack, I'm iffy about using them though so if I do I won't be focusing on them as I want my work to be the focus of this scene.
-*Maybe* wait for Unity 3.5 to be released with directional lightmaps, a big gap in it's current features. If you want to see your normal maps you need to use realtime lights. Everything just goes flat if it's baked currently.
I've probably forgotten a ton of things but if anyone has feedback now is the time to let me know of any dodgy stuff I have on show here, as well as thoughts of the current cut\edit of the scene.
this is a great idea.
also, about the trees, why not have some leafless trees instead, or a very few orange/brown/red leaves
I have to do some research into what type of trees to use actually, something frequently seen in US cities like Chicago and New York.
It's a very particular style of building I'm doing though and I don't know if that way would work with a more traditional building with less glass.
Have 2 lots of big news regarding this scene coming up though.
Unity Pro Features: Quality