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 - ($) an Eat3D tutorial by Tor "snefer" Frick. Abandoned warehouse modular workflow in UDK, using Modo and Photoshop.
• Post apoc scene Breakdown - by "HP" Pinto. Details about the creation of a modular abandoned warehouse.
• the Ensign Tavern - by Patrick "PatJS" Sutton. Breakdowns for a modular multi-floor 19th century building.
• Modular Building Workflow - ($) 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 (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

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