Big update!
So this update is quite large. So I'm going to give you a before and after from what it was in my previous post to now. This is so you have some relevance to go off on how much its changed and what has changed.
As you can see just from the front view dramatic changes have been made. Most importantly the temple in the background has finally been textured. Seeing as this is the biggest change I'll start with it.
The temple has been reduced from 85.5K triangles to 55K. This is a loss of almost 30K triangles nearly cutting it down by half. As you can see there is no real change in the geometry from the first temple to the second in the before and after picture. The reason the temple has been further cut down isn't because of performance but actually because the UV unwrapping of the first temple was abysmal. It was awful. So, to fix this, I had to actually remodel the entire temple apart from the walls. This took an approximate 3 hours to do simply because I had a temple to already go off. The way I molded the temple made it both efficient in time and UV unwrapping space. A big thanks to my tutor Ian for helping me.
The texturing of the temple took a while to establish. The thought process behind how to texture it was messy. I went through many different ideas. I started originally by handpainting a seamless wood texture and then applying it to the UV map. Although this looked effective it didn't fit the style unless I hand painted all the textures. Given my time frame this wasn't an option. So then I opted to using substance painter materials. The material I have mainly been using for all my models is a wood texture that has variation of normal strength. This is good because not all wood would look the same. Although I believe all the structures would be made out of all the same wood as the trees were sourced from the same environment.
There are still a couple of things that need changing with the temple. For example the specular reflection on the roof is too much. The colour of the walls doesn't match the colour scheme for the rest of the environment. The roof joints still need to be textured. They only have a simple green material on them that unreal supplied.
I've stated previously that the normal maps appear weird when under post processing effects due to the cel-shader. However, in this picture I actually do not mind it to much. I think it adds to the style more. So I might not try and fix this visual interaction.
The only problem I have with using substance painter is that I feel as if the textures aren't mine. Everything within this environment was sourced by me. Either I took the photographs or painted it. This for some reasons bugs me but I guess this can not be helped.
I made some alpha maps in order to add to the Chinese aesthetic. In which I then just converted into a normal map within substance painter.
Although the one on the left doesn't look too good at first glance when converted to a normal map it turns out fine.
Next on the list is the flags.
The flags were a very long process. Not modelling wise but trying to get the animated within Unreal Engine. I first tried to add a cloth simulation to a model within max. Collapsing it and baking an animation. Then reversing the animation so it looped. It didn't look great but each flag on the model was uniquely animated and it looked close to how Tibetan flags fly in the wind. The problem with all this after spending a substantial amount of time on creating this was that I found out Unreal Engine doesn't support vertex animation... This was a huge waste of time. But I learnt something. So then I went on to plan B. Actually using blueprints to get an animation working. This didn't work so then I had to make a plan C. It turns out Unreal Engine has a great cloth simulation built into it.
The engine requires a hierarchy of models for this to work. You need to link the flag as a separate object underneath the rope model. This is so when you import it as an FBX the flag is a bone of the rope. Then by painting the weights within the engine you can tell it where the flag attaches to the rope. Then by drop and dragging wind from the engine search bar it then automatically works. This was a very informative tangent I unwillingly went down and I'm glad I did. The reference video for where I learnt how to use this cloth simulation with in unreal is here - > Thankyou to this guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjOq8OB_3AQ&t=317s
The only problem with this simulation is I'm yet how to work out how to get the wind to treat each individual flag differently because at the moment they all move near identical to each other. Changing the physical model of each flag does not change anything, nor does detaching them from one object. So the only Idea i can think of is through either scripting a wind radius as the wind radius within unreal engine doesn't seem to work too effectively. I think this is because the scale of my level is a lot larger than its Intended to be.
Next I'll talk about the new gate model.
So this model was more basic than it is now. This is due to the poly count on the temple decreasing, allowing me to update models that do not match the rest of the environment in its detail. The tiles are identical to the tiles on the temple to keep thematic consistency. I've textured the walls with the self made alpha maps. The normal maps on the circle entrance are very strong and need to be bought down. Apart from this I'm happy with the texturing on this wall and claiming it to be finished.
I've also changed the fences to be more wooden in nature rather than golden metallic. This is so it fits the environment to a greater degree.
Because of how contrasting metallic maps looking within my environment I've used them sparingly to bring attention of not only your eyes but of your thoughts to sparingly make a reflection of a temple that is not great in wealth but proud aesthetically.
Lastly I've added a foundation base to the temple. This is because the temple resting on solid ground looked unnatural to a real life Chinese temple. It also adds greater dynamic to the map layout so it's not boring walking around flat ground.
