Work in Progress: Row-House (Part 1)

Initially I was going to use this post to discuss other engines I have been looking at and discuss the merits of each system.  Unfortunately, at least for this post, I ran out of time to fully look over each engine to do it justice.  The two I am currently looking at are the id Tech 4 and Source engines.  The Source engine is proprietary, and I need to read over the licencing very well before I look at it, but I already have several Source SDK packages available on my Steam account.  The id Tech 4 took me a little while to figure out where to get it since what I was reading sounded like all games made with the engine were just total conversion mods.  I have since found the download but I need to look over it thoroughly, but it is open source pretty much so that is one aspect in its favor.

Now, onto something that is more than just my musings, some 3D modeling.  This is my next building for the suburbia set, a row-house.  There is still quite a bit to do, but I felt I was far enough along to talk about it.  When it is done it will be four units combined into one building (this section of the building duplicated four times with various changes).  The current model is up to about 450 faces, so the finished front section will probably be around 600, though it can be higher if I decide to add some finer details.  Some of what I have done might be baked done in the final project which will save me a large number of faces in my polygon count.

So I will start off by naming what is missing.  Opposite the door will be a first floor window, this window will be the largest in the building.  On the second floor I am missing two types of windows, a standard window and one with an air conditioner sicking out (this is an object I can move around to make each section a little more unique).  Finally the top molding is missing.  Once those are done the front would be for practical purposes complete, though there are a few things I would like to add, though I am not sure if my polygon count has room for them.  I would like to fence in the small property including a rail up the stairs and a gate in front of the stairs.  I have also been thinking about if I want to bar or add something else to the basement and first floor windows.

Okay, that is everything to add to the front, moving to the sides is much easier.  Each side is going to have a continuation of the top molding and a billboard, both of which should be fairly low in the polygon count.  The back is going to be a little more demanding, since I want to repeat the first and second floor windows from the front into a similar spot on the rear.  I also want to bring over one of the basement windows and finish off the top molding.  The only new piece (repeated once per unit) will be a cellar door.

Once all of that is done, the modeling is finished and some of the finer details which are eating up my polygon count right now can be baked into the texture.  This probably includes the doorknob, mailbox, house number and light, as well as some of the detail on the cellar door.  I may not bake all of it since it will be closer to eye level and somewhat noticeable, but if I add the fencing, much of the detail on the front will be kept some distance away.

~gunnah