Vertex shader and level design.

Work In Progress / 13 January 2020

Creating a coastal type level with crazy dead coral stuff as juxtaposition. Using the Unreal 4 top down camera layout. Made a simple tile kit. Each tile fitting within a 1000x1000 unreal unit square on the grid. This is so I can quickly iterate and snap things together. The map denotes different zones and themes. With some reference and inspiration images for the creation of future assets.

With the simple kit pieces I grayboxed the level.

From this point on I worked on a vertex paint shader that is triplanar worldspace. This was so for most assets I do not need to worry about UVs or seams. This video shows how it paints 4 different materials while projecting triplanar and worldspace.

With the shader template done I can model without worrying about UVs. And it also means I can build a smaller amount of assets while getting lots of reuse out of it. Because depending on the textures used the forms of the models can change based on the height maps.

Tile Kit.

Rock and cliff kit.

Applying the vertex material and starting on figuring out basic worldbuilding.

With the basic ground kit and materials I'm starting to figure out how I want the materials to work together. Mostly a blend between 2 sand textures at varying wavy frequencies, a smoothed scalloped rock, and a darker pock rock. In general the smooth rocks are on the edges and cliffs, the lower frequency sand will be painted down in "combat" areas to be a bit more restful on the ground. While the higher frequency sand will be painted on the edges of tiles and rocks. Pock rocks will be scattered throughout to break up open spaces.

Exploring how edges will be worldbuilt as well as basic vertex painting usage with these particular textures.