Forest Valley Level Build

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https://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=afJBNP9vcJs&t=36s

This is a large open fantasy forest level.The grass animation material system is used a lot for the plentiful grass and trees.

The landscape tool is used for the mountains in the background and probably for the core foundation for the geometry. However, some of the environment such as the rocks are too detailed for the landscape tool and are likely normal 3D models.
There is a fair amount of attention to detail with a collection of tents having their cloth blowing slightly in the wind, this was likely achieved by the cloth physics interacting with the wind. The fireplace cooking pot in this area also glows and produces and ember particle effect

There are clouds in the air that seem to be in the environment rather than attached to the skybox, which creates a great atmosphere. As the clouds fly directly next to the mountains and the tower the player gets the sense that they are in a high up location.

I like the position of the camera in relation to the character emulating a third person style shooter camera. Having a third person perspective gives a good sense of scale as you man measure objects up the character and the closeness of the camera to the characters back and low position helps ground the player in the environment. That being said even with the benefits this kind of camera provides to exploring an 3D environment if this game had melee combat this camera wouldn’t be ideal. The size of the character model would mean that almost half the screen real estate is dedicated solely to the character, potentially blocking the view of enemies and pieces of the environment. Ideally the camera should provide the player with as much visual stimuli as possible: the position of enemies, what enemy type they are, whether they are attacking, what attack and how far they are into their attack animation are all important pieces of information the player needs to be able to see so they can act or react accordingly. Being hit by an attack off screen is a frustrating and arguably unfair experience for the player but developers still struggle to create a perfect camera that works in a 3-dimensional space that gives the player the best view of the area whilst making sure the player can still track their character




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