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Assets to bring detail & fidelity to your game worlds

December 6, 2011 in Games | 2 min. read
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When creating compelling video game levels, the idiom 'God is in the Details' couldn't be more true. Detail in your world design is a sign of artistry and aptitude that motivates players to invest interest (and money!) in your game. Often we find that the lush and detailed worlds themselves are as much the star of the game as the player! Outdoor settings, in particular, are really important to get right. You'll find mediocre foliage even in AAA games, foliage that reveals flaws when examined closely, like aliasing and alpha sorting glitches. Since modelling nature well takes a special kind of eye, while at the same time is considered less mission-critical than core game assets, designers often re-use plants from previous games. Generally these tend to be simple stem or trunk structures with transparent quads for leaves-- but now there's a more elegant solution.

Green Stash Mesh Plants

As graphic cards, game engines and mobile platform capabilities evolve, so must natural detail. That's why we're especially thrilled about 3DAttack's mesh plant package, Green Stash Mesh Plants, now on the Asset Store. With 3-4 level of detail meshes, the highest levels of detail are entirely mesh: not a transparent texture on a quad among them. While the lower poly LODs have conventional quad leaves, the highest versions are glorious mesh reproductions of existing species of appealing plant life. With Green Stash, 3DAttack sets a new standard for years to come.

See for yourself!

GeoPainter

If you're working on a terrain with Unity Terrain's detail mesh feature, it's not at all difficult to quickly populate a terrain environment with Green Stash plants and other detail meshes. But imagine you are working on complex mesh surfaces too.. like huge mesh boulders, mesas, middle-earth style rooftops, roads, whatever-- all which should have plant life, rocks, debris and other details atop them too! What to do? Hurry to the Asset Store, get your copy of GeoPainter, and place game objects into your scene by simply painting them on! Need to make a messy pile of bricks or logs on the floor? Normally this kind of thing is surprisingly time consuming, but GeoPainter makes messes easy! Instead of manually placing each piece one by one, use GeoPainter to instantiate and position them in your scene with a single brush stroke. With built-in parameters for randomization, you can easily add chaos and irregularity for a more organic feel. While you're at it, use GeoPainter to plant bunches and rows of great new Dexsoft vegetables in your field or garden. Just be sure to keep the crows and bugs away! One of these should do the trick!

December 6, 2011 in Games | 2 min. read

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