Modular environments

Modular means pieces are made to fit together according to a common pattern, so just a few pieces can be reused multiple times to create a bunch of variety.

Modular Design & Workflow
How to plan out the development of modular environment pieces, and the workflow for creating them. The design of modular pieces is closely linked to game design; see Category:GameDesign for more.


 * UE4 Modular Building Set Breakdown - by Jacob "jacob07777" Norris. Gritty urban city modular system. [[file:JacobNorris_Building_Breakdown.pdf]] (1.5 MB)
 * UDK Gears of War Inspired Environment - Modular - by Paul "Ahniketos" Mandegarian. Gears of War themed modular palace environment. Latest art is here on his website.
 * UDK Modular Masterclass - Efficiently Creating and Entire Scene with Tor Frick - ($) an Eat3D tutorial by Tor "snefer" Frick. Abandoned warehouse modular workflow in UDK, using Modo and Photoshop.
 * Post apoc scene Breakdown - by |Helder "HP" Pinto. Details about the creation of a modular abandoned warehouse.
 * the Ensign Tavern - by Patrick "PatJS" Sutton. Breakdowns for a modular multi-floor 19th century building.
 * Modular Building Workflow - ($) a 3dmotive tutorial by Tyler Wanlass. Covers planning and workflow for modular buildings using Photoshop, 3ds Max, and UDK.
 * Skyrim’s Modular Approach to Level Design - Transcript from GDC 2013 talk on Skyrim"s Modular Level Design. An excellent in-depth article on Bethesda"s environment art system.
 * Modular Environment Design.rar - by Kevin Johnstone. East Coast Game Conference 2011 slides of the talk "Modular Environment Design, Or how I learned to stop worrying and love the grid".
 * [[file:Investigation_into_modular_design_within_computer_games_v1.0.pdf|Investigation into Modular Design within Computer Games]] (8.6MB PDF) - by Scott Jones. Research paper on modular workflow. Definition, benefits, history of modularity, usage, methods, case studies, UDK and 3ds Max. See the Polycount forum thread Modular design within games.
 * Workflow techniques and modularity with Unreal game technology - by Epic Games. A guide to setting up your art-to-level-design pipeline and designing modularly.
 * Modular Environment Art applied from plaster tabletop sets - by "Makkon". Polycount forum thread with great visual breakdowns of modular tabeltop models.
 * Environment workflow from an artist working on a Crysis mod - by Stefan Morrell. A modular city building and its texture sheet.
 * Mod Facade Challenge - by Joe "EarthQuake" Wilson. Breaking up a building into modular pieces and designing the texture sheet.
 * Adam Bromell"s sketchbook thread - by Adam "adamBrome" Bromell. Breaking an environment down into modular pieces.
 * Chris" sketchbook thread - by Chris "cholden" Holden. Environment design & modular workflow.
 * Visually Appealing Building Guide - by Christopher Albeluhn. An excellent breakdown of how to create visual interest with game buildings. Additional tutorials here.
 * Modular Building Design Workflow? - a Polycount thread. Discussion about creating modular buildings, with interiors and exteriors.
 * Modular Environments in UDK - a tutorial by Thiago "Minotaur0" Klafke. Covers the techniques used to make Zest Foundation.
 * Environment workflow @ EpicGames - by Kevin Johnstone. A summary of the modular workflow used at Epic on Unreal Tournament 3.
 * Gears of War 2 modular modeling (Polycount Forum) and Gears2 Environment Art Step by Step (ZBrush Central) - by Kevin Johnstone. Tips and screenshots of using the grid for modular work, as well as a ton of useful insight into the Environment worflow at Epic. A highly recommended read!
 * Modular Mount & Blade - by "gutekfiutek". Modular workflow for the mod "Polished Buildings" for the game Mount & Blade.
 * Modular brick wall tiling - by Glynn Smith. Tips and screenshots for sculpting modular brick walls.
 * Generic wall tutorial - by Bram "Peris" Eulaers. Using 3ds Max and Mudbox to sculpt tilable modular sections for a stone wall.
 * Rock modeling approaches - a Polycount thread. A variety of approaches for sculpting individual rocks and tilable cliffs.
 * Creating Perfectly Tiling Meshes in Zbrush for use in Videogame Environments - by Owen "SHEPEIRO" Shepherd. Using ZBrush"s 2.5D canvas to tile stamped meshes, then using Maya to model tilable geometry.
 * Working with Modular Sets - by Philip "PhilipK" Klevestav. How to design and texture modular sci-fi wall panels.
 * Working with Modular Rocks - by Philip "PhilipK" Klevestav. How to design, model, and texture modular rock assets, using Crazy Bump, Photoshop, and 3ds Max.
 * Modular Floor Tiles - Outlined in Shadow - a Polycount thread. How to work around UDK modular problems.
 * Modular Building With More Natural Angles - by Aidy Burrows @ CG Masters. Getting more natural looking angles in the modular kit.

Units and Scale
The units and scale you use is very important. Modular meshes should be built to snap to a unit-based grid, and physics calculations depend on certain scales. Fortunately, game editors usually have a scale setting you can use on import to convert from 3d modeler scale into proper game engine scale.


 * UDN: Unreal Units - what units and scale to use for scenes in Unreal Engine. (Gears of War: 2 units = 1 inch, Unreal Tournament: 1 unit = 2 cm)
 * CryENGINE SDK: Measurement Reference - what units and scale to use for scenes in CryEngine. (Crysis: 1 unit = 1 meter)
 * Unity: Import Settings for Meshes - what units and scale to use for scenes in Unity. (Unity physics: 1 unit = 1 meter)

More Information

 * Category:EnvironmentModeling
 * Category:EnvironmentModularity
 * Category:EnvironmentTexturing
 * Category:GameDesign