Diary Page #5: Reliefs and a Relief

Dear Scholars,

I usually try to focus on one thing per entry but this time I have several different things to write about. I'll try to keep them condensed in return. [note from future self: alas, I failed]

Behind the scenes

The process of creating games was always something I was very passionate and enthusiastic about - not any less than about the end goal to release the game and see people enjoy it. Because of that the idea of live streaming the development process has been lingering in my head for a long time. The reason that I've waited so long to do it is probably that I haven't really had time to do much 3D art in the recent years since programming has always been the most time consuming and high priority thing to work on for Selenwald. I also mostly stopped doing 3D modelling for hire years ago because I needed a more time efficient way to earn for a living. Tech art (shaders, tools, etc.) and programming are paid better and they excite me no less than 3D modelling so I transitioned naturally. Ironically though, it's art that's the most interesting thing for people to watch as indicated by a little poll I conducted over on our Discord server. The most requested topics were 3D modelling and shaders/VFX so I chose to create a model of a fireplace and then make a fire effect to burn inside it.

Half-improvised

Creating a full blown 3D model from scratch using a traditional workflow is something too complex to be done from scratch within a time span of a single stream session, let alone along with the VFX. In order to make the show more digestible I decided to split it into two separate sessions.

My friend Jakub was kind enough to lend me some professional lighting equipment and a camera and after a failed foul start caused by some hardware and connection problems I've managed to get my first stream going.

The goal of this first session which took place on 4th January was just to create the 3D model, without the fire effect. As I said, the traditional workflow would still prove too long for such a prop to be done over ~3 hours (especially that my 3D modelling skills are very rusty these days). This is why I've chosen to model a fireplace in the first place as it wouldn't require me to go through all the usual steps - it's an unusual prop. Typically when you create a 3D model for a game, you need to go through the following stages (as I've described thoroughly in Dev Diary #3):

• Draft / block-out (making sure the dimensions and the general form are good)

• High-poly (modelling a high fidelity version of the model with tons of geometry)

• Low-poly (modelling an optimised, simplified version of the model that will be used in the game)

• Baking (transferring all the detail from the high-poly to the low-poly through special textures containing all sorts of information on the form, enabling the low-poly version to imitate the high-poly one)

• Textures (creating textures by utilising the baked maps in a texturing software)

• Implementation (exporting the final version in a way compatible with the game engine's pipeline and setting everything up in the engine)

However, in the case of this model only 3 stages were required:

• Draft / block-out

• Low-poly

• Implementation

Why was that? That was because this fireplace was about to become part of a modular wall set that uses a workflow called trim sheets. In short, this