VR Weapons - [RAILGUN TUTORIAL]

Introduction

The task for the weapon was formulated simultaneously with the character task. Weapons made for sci-fi network shooter for VR platform. The weapon style was chosen under the impression of the design of the 90s, with a slight bias in Retro design. The project is a VR experiment and is under development.


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The idea of ​​a linear sniper weapon

The project allowed me to create weapons from the distant 2000. At that time, my soul was owned by games like the Unreal tournament and Quake. The goal was to convey the feel of good old Railgun. In the central part of the weapon with the help of sharp corners, triangles and bruises created a visual stress similar to a compressed spring, this is where the power generator is located. Sharp corners and chopped lines visually indicate that the shot is fast and the weapon is aggressive. If you look at the trunk in the direction of the barrel, then the details become smaller, the surface is cleaner and smoother. The visual tension in the direction of the barrel weakens and the charge is pulled out functionally. I advise the book .

Sketch and High Poly Model

For commercial orders, I try to do all the concepts and sketches in 3D, because in the first days it allows you to produce a result with which you can further interact. Rotate and place in editors for tests. Do not make a detailed 2D sketch, this is not my feature.



As my experience has shown, a good idea does not appear immediately. Personally, I have a good idea that appears only after the second draft. This approach to work took root immediately. It happened after I began to calmly accept the result of my work and indifferently.

Sketch correction

To date, this approach looks like a standard for game projects. The only thing I allow myself is to adjust the design in Photoshop in a similar way. At the last iterations of the model, many unnecessary lines and details are missing.



The first 3d sketch I do very quickly. The flat mesh topology is not in the first place, since I pay special attention only to the forms and design, I spend no more than 2-3 hours on the sketch. In one working day, I sort through 4-5 different options.



For the game with real-time materials, I use the Marmoset toolbag visualization. He gives to imagine what could be the texture. The render quality from Marmoset is sufficient for a presentation to the customer with minimal overpaint.



Grid for high poly model

In order to meet the deadlines, we had to sacrifice the quality of the subdivision of the grid and not waste time on the layout of all the stars. This approach is not the norm for all projects, but made an exception here.



In general, a grid with not divorced stars may not look bad, and this is usually enough. But for attentive customers this will not be acceptable.



The result was a good hard surface. The project also had analogues of hi_poly quality, and they gave a good guideline about where you can not waste time on the grid. (keyshot rendering)



Basic modeling tools in Modo

There are not so many tools. The speed of using several tools is important. It is advisable to use tools with closed eyes. To do this, all the basic tools must be on the hot keys and located on the keyboard, like in a shooter.



Only nine or ten basic tools, but this amount is enough to make almost any object.



Low poly model

For the re-topology model, the grids were rebuilt by polygon, by hand. The project had strict requirements for the number of polygons, the number of triangles ... ... Where within the framework of these requirements I could only get when I control the grid with my hands, that is, to each triangle.



Any last 5-6 years I do Re-topology in modo. For re-topology I use the tools: Topology mode (hot key 'O') - this checkbox turns on the transparent grid mode for the top item (layers) in the item window.



Pen (hot key) is a quick tool for creating polygons on surfaces.



To snapping polygons sticking to the bottom layer, you should activate the tab in the settings of Mesh constraints -> Background.




Check Normal Map and Low poly in Unreal Engine

Normal Map checked directly in the editor. This is the low_poly model in the UE4 editor. Model has only Normal map and AO map.



UV scan

Each element I try to deploy as square as possible. This is important if you want to occupy the entire area of ​​the texture. Such a method has its own peculiarity, where a repeating texture will be distorted at the edges of the square and the mirror reflection of the texture will have a seam. This feature can be corrected by making squares only those sides that are not at the junction of the specular reflection. To align one side of a uv piece, you must select a line of points or faces. Then click on the Align UV arrow with the desired orientation, in the UV tab.



Model Deployment Process

For uv pieces with an equal number of polygons, the UV Rectangle tool works well. He converts such a uv piece independently into a square.

The whole process of scanning looks like this: Selection of a piece of polygons, masking of all the excess or selection of a closed line-faces on the model body. The resulting pieces are required to align and apply UV Relgx. Relax tool has settings. I am interested in only one setting Mode -> Adaptive. This method is smoothing the mesh. It smoothes the uv piece, given the shape and geometry of the model. It must be remembered, not for all pieces, this is a good solution to use Adaptive.



Another important tool, the usual Transform with active checkbox Tear off. With it, you can detach selected pieces of polygons from UV.


For convenience, I place elements of the same object next to each other. The texturing process becomes more comfortable and there is no confusion in the search for the desired element. I form small conditional squares, from small parts of the scan. So it is more convenient and dense to stack the uv map in a square all parts of the scan.

Smoothing groups

Low Poly model is divided into smoothing groups only after uv map. In the future, this does not allow confusion and it becomes easier for me to separate the UV part for hard edges. Then it is more difficult to collect not logical small pieces in a heap.

Work with smooth group in modo. The first thing I do is set the correct anti-aliasing angle under gamedev. Go to the properties of the material, set a smoothing angle of 180 degrees. By default, the angle is set to 40 degrees. Below, different smoothing groups on the weapon model are marked with colors.





Tools for smoothing groups

After that, I can select polygons or pieces of the UV map and assign the opposite smooth group.

To do this, go to Geometry -> Polygon -> Set Smoothing Group. In the window you want to name the new Smoothing Group. ! Sure to! I assign a hot key to this tool, for example: shift + G.





In any case, I try to hide all the seams and hard edges and not apply them to prominent and face places of the model.

Texture in Substance paint

The baking procedure begins with checking the model for its position in the coordinate system. All models must have the same position "0". The best solution is when I exhibit a model at the concept stage and from this moment I haven’t changed it at all. In this case, any changes and returns are not terrible.



Low_poly model for baking and texturing mostly always a little different from each other. This is due to the symmetry of the object and some details. The basic texture resolution for model 4096x4096.



Texturing is divided into conditional subgroups: Color / Dirt / Infographics / Handmade. I rarely use the harvested materials, I like to customize them myself.



After working with color and materials. Sheet with different infographics Preparing for all types of weapons.



This is mainly technical information, conditional markings, warning labels and symbols. Set quite typical for any technique.! Each project has its own unique info-list, it is necessary to collect similar from all projects and store in one place. For most projects, small lettering is not important, but for me the use of similar sets from my other projects saves a lot of effort.



Aim

It was separated from the model. And prepare as a separate asset, in the future, to be able to rearrange it to another weapon. I needed to fix the scan and restart the texture with a lower resolution of 512x512.



The model has been approved and uploaded to the project. After a few days, it was returned to add transformation. Scope had to hide inside the weapon. For this, I cut a low_poly model with minimal distortion for the texture. And added morph transformations.


He hid all the distortions on the uv map, put new pieces of uv on the dark places in the texture.

Morphing in modo

To create morphing on the model. Just go to the Lists tab -> Morph Maps and double click on the line (new map). In the window enter the name of the new Morph map. After that, any movements of the polygons and the object will be saved in morph distortion.



Projectile

The model of the projectile is needed for decals when it hits the wall or barrier. And sometimes the shells can fall to the floor. We experimented a bit with color and glow on the project. We wanted to understand how it will be more effective, because in VR games, various special effects look extremely good.





CONCLUSION



Be sure to finish the first geometric sketch. It does not matter what quality it will be. Download it in the UE or Marmoset toolbag, turn on the shadows to assign materials and see in general. This will help you to see the 3D model from the Drugova perspective and not dig in the details, to understand why the details will be needed and where. I have a lot of new ideas at this moment of experimenting with render.

This is due to the basic non-spectacular lighting in the 3D editor that you quickly get used to.



We spent a couple of downhole nights with my brother, testing various new features with weapons. We managed to evaluate all the work done on the weapon. After the development experience under vr, I believe that a citizen could not yet have a better device. But this is still not the final product and not the final quality. You get tired of vr devices especially if the games are not made with high quality or without taking into account all recommendations of the manufacturer.



Work from small studios is relaxing

When a serious customer came, I was tense and wanted to show my maximum level, but such an overstrain binds my hands and head. On the way out, I do not get a better quality project. Another thing is when a customer comes in with an Indie project or from an unknown company, such a project provides freedom in the work process and there is no pressure of responsibility to it. As a result, absolutely. not afraid to fall face down in the dirt, which in turn relaxes and helps in the work. And between large projects Indie tasks give a breather and an opportunity for experiments.



Operation mode

We can not neglect the regime of day and night for a long time, after 16 days the digestion is disturbed and the state of health worsens. Since the scope of work on this project was large, I wanted to recycle it as soon as possible by working until the next morning during the month. In this connection, my health deteriorated and it took me several months to recover.