Spanish Town - Unreal 4 VR Environment + Tutorial

[Minos]

Hey everyone! Think it's time I start sharing progress on my new personal project here with the Core

I've been working on this environment for VR, at the same time recording my process to create a tutorial (which I'm aiming to release around March 2021). I occasionally open pre-orders for a very good discount. If you want to be notified when that happens, I invite you to sign up to my mailing list (I always message people in the list earlier than everyone else): https://www.thiagoklafke.com/mailinglist/subscribe/

Here's the latest WIP. I've been working on the back alley area and I'm finally happy with the compositions. This area posed an interesting challenge, and I learned quite a bit about what works in VR and what doesn't (tip: lots of random lines, stairs that go up and down cause instant motion sickness ). I redid this area twice, but now it feels amazing in VR. No motion sickness and navigation is much better, because I have different points of interests. I'm planning to do another Dev Log video soon focusing on what I've learned in VR, for now, enjoy some screenshots 

And here's a Dev Log where I show where I landed with the design blockout:

 

[Minos]

Update time!

Finished the blockouts, and did a lighting pass. Now onto my favorite part: Texturing

 

[FMPONE]

Can't wait to see this textured, I hope to see some juicy spheres as well.

[Minos]

New Dev log is up
 

 

 

[Minos]

When I was learning SD, I was put off by how long the official videos are. So I recorded a crash course introduction, where I show only the main tools you need to know to make cool textures, and also the general method that I use for most textures, so you can go from zero to this in about an hour and half

There's a lot more I can do to this texture to make it look much better, but I wanted to keep it simple and not overwhelm the user with too many different concepts:

[Minos]

Another weekend, another update

I just finished recording a "crash course" on making textures, by using a combination of Substance Designer, Photoshop and Zbrush. I start from zero and assume that you never used SD or Zbrush before, and walk through the tools I use the most. Still a lot of polish to do with these, but I'm digging how graphic they look already

[blackdog]

I love the minimalistic-yet-realistic look you have going on, not sure how much you’ll push it in terms of fidelity going forward, looking forward to the next updates 

[Minos]

18 hours ago, blackdog said:

I love the minimalistic-yet-realistic look you have going on, not sure how much you’ll push it in terms of fidelity going forward, looking forward to the next updates 

Thanks man!

I think the style is starting to become clear for me now. I don't want it to be super stylized, but not super realistic either. Hyperreal would be how I'd describe it

Here's a blend material to paint damage on the plaster wall:
 

and a screenshot with messed up UVs

[-HP-]

Looking awesome broseph!!

[Minos]

lol, haven't updated this thread in a long time  I've been working on this on and off throughout the year and I'm getting close to calling it done. The architecture is about 90% done, then it's time for the backdrop, foliage (all temp assets now), set dressing and polish... well I actually still have quite a bit left to do, but feels good to be over the most critical part (architecture).

Here are some pics of where I am at:

[-HP-]

Yeeeh, that AO is baking really well. Looking fantastic man, the color is adding a lot to the ambient bounce too, less of that boring grey ambient lighting to it.

[ZZZ]

I suppose having high specular surfaces is what makes the environment look photorreal.

[will2k]

14 hours ago, Minos said:

You can almost feel the warmth of sunlight in this pic