Low polygon environments with simple shades

Planning the low-polygon urban environment

The large urban environment is a pretty common setting in games. Driving is a primary activity, along with stealing cars and running over pedestrians. Large city areas offer some unique challenges, but, for the most part, they can be the easiest to deal with in terms of creating environmental assets. From a programmer’s point of view, it can be demanding to code the environment for driving in a very large area where the player can see distant buildings and drive for miles—that is, in terms of the textures and models needed to fill the city. These elements tend to be repetitive by nature and inorganic. In this chapter, we will establish general information so we can start creating the world.

Technological assumptions

The first thing we have to know is what we need to develop the game: two-dimensional (2D) and 3D programs, game tools, and what platform or machine configuration we are shooting for. As discussed in the Introduction, for the scope of this book, we don’t need to look at budgets or specific brand names for our development tools and user platform. The purpose of this book is to examine the task before us in universal terms that will plug into any situation in which you are working. At the basic core, you can use almost any commercial 2D and 3D software to create the needed assets for any one of a large number of the commercial game engines.

Point of view

It is assumed that this large urban space is being set up for a driving game. The perspective will be a third-person view. The camera will have movement and will move closer to the vehicle the slower it goes and will pull back at higher speeds. Like most games that have high-speed driving as the main activity, the environment is not meant to be explored close up. The assets tend to be lower quality in relation to the cars. Most driving games, even today (and rightly so), put the greatest focus and resources into the cars. Notice that, in most games, the car will have opacity on the glass, reflections on the paint, and high detail in terms of polygons and textures, but the buildings are lower in polygon count and texture resolution and have virtually no shades on them.

Theme

This is a basic New York-type setting that can be dressed to look like almost any city in almost any recent or near-future time period. In our special projects, we will look at three common variations of the urban setting: (1) a different or foreign city, (2) a grungy city, and a bombedout city. For the generic New York urban look, I went online and searched for images of the props and the city streets I wanted to create. From this, I was able to break down an overall look and feel I wanted and a list of the assets I needed to create.

Point of view

It is assumed that this large urban space is being set up for a driving game. The perspective will be a third-person view. The camera will have movement and will move closer to the vehicle the slower it goes and will pull back at higher speeds. Like most games that have high-speed driving as the main activity, the environment is not meant to be explored close up. The assets tend to be lower quality in relation to the cars. Most driving games, even today (and rightly so), put the greatest focus and resources into the cars. Notice that, in most games, the car will have opacity on the glass, reflections on the paint, and high detail in terms of polygons and textures, but the buildings are lower in polygon count and texture resolution and have virtually no shades on them.

World size

The technology (game engine) that runs the game and the game design will determine most of what you can and can’t do in your game world and what compromises will be made in order to make the game look good and run well. In games like Grand Theft Auto (GTA) and True Crime, you can go through all the streets and into many buildings. It’s possible to jump rails and end up in water or on a rooftop. You can get out of the car, and your character can run around the city.

Finally Comment

The back story of the game world will determine a great deal of what the game will look like. A utopian future will look very different from a post-apocalyptic world. Think of the future world as portrayed in me, Robot versus The Terminator movies. Although the look of the game will be determined by the designers, the producers, and the art director, it is wise to know as much about the world you are building as possible.