UDK - Magrat's Cottage (Discworld)

Our main project for our 3D Portfolio module at Uni this year was to take a scene from a book and model it in 3D, following the typical standards used in video game asset creation (specific texture sizes, keeping poly count sensible, normal maps and specular maps, etc).

The scene is Magrat's cottage from Terry Pratchett's "Wyrd Sisters". It's the first book by Terry Pratchett i've read (I'm trying to get into the Discworld series). Unfortunately for me Terry Pratchett doesn't tend to describe locations in as much detail as his characters, so I had only Nanny Ogg's and Granny Weatherwax's brief comments about it to go off. I tried to make it colourful and flamboyant to match Magrat's interest in being a stereotypically flamboyant witch. Things to keep note of note are:
- She has a sigil made from twigs in the shape of "The Spiral", the symbol of nature.
- The plants on her shelves are linden, which are commonly used as a herbal remedy.
- Dribbly candles! Gotta have the rite stuff ya know!
- The dresser and the mirror, the same one Granny Weatherwax uses when trying on the crown, and subsequently storing it away.
- The crystal ball which the three use to watch over Tomjon.
- Robes. Modern.

Aside from all that there is another Discworld reference hidden in there, cookie for those who see it.

I decided that rather than doing the final scene and renders in 3DS Max like the project assumed, I would instead do it in the Unreal engine (to get a clear view of what it would actually look like when used in a game). It started in UE3 (the official level editor for Unreal Tournament 3) and was finished in UDK (Unreal Development Kit) so I could take advantage of global illumination, ambient occlusion, and lit translucency. There is a minor problem with the mirror on the dresser concerning it's reflection; cubemaps aren't that effective when it comes to flat mirrors. Worked splendidly on the crystal ball though. I also got parallax mapping to work on the floor, which made me a happy bunny.

I've definately grown to love the Unreal engine (so much easier and user friendly than Source), and look forward to doing more things with it in the future. Perhaps next I could make a level that's actually playable (and isn't bordeline liliput...the player is barely as tall as the table, oops). xD

~~~~~

The song playing in the background is Hatsune Miku's "Can't I even dream?" as performed by the fantastic Rockleetist, and can be downloaded at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwOVBTGE60E

The fire texture was sourced from a royalty free stock photo from http://hatestock.deviantart.com

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• unreal
• development
• kit
• discworld
• terry
• pratchett
• game
• mod
• level
• epic
• games
• university
• student
• Huddersfield

[NecroRogIcon]

Your ambient occlusion is fantastic. Specifically it's making your wall surfaces & corners look very warm and natural.

Is that UDK's built-in ambient occlusion via Lightmass? Or did you bake it into your textures with your meshes?

[SailorTaurus]

@NecroRogIcon It's the built in ambient occlusion. I had some troubles with it initially as it didn't seem to like the normal maps I had on the walls (making some of them pitch black), but after a bit of tweaking it came out wonderfully.

Couldn't get colour bouncing to work though, so I manually put in some coloured lights around the veils to give the impression of light diffusing through them.

[SailorTaurus]

Good news everyone, I got a "B" for this! :D

[Shmaitotem]

@SailorTaurus

Is a B good ?

;P

I mean what is the best what the worst?

A -?

BUt anyways cool work!

[SailorTaurus]

@Shmaitotem A "B" is good! The highest is an A and the lowest is an F I believe (and then after that it's a "referral", meaning incomplete or unmarkable).

[BigArtek1]

nice

[TheKwahz]

Wooo Sir Terry!

[micahpharoh]

you can remove the HUD by typing "togglescreenshotmode" into the console

[hydzior]

Bumpoffset is to heavy on the ground :] . Or maybe try to create new heighmap for it .

[TimberWolf99]

Awesomeness.