Building A Realistic HD Sci-Fi Floor
Today I am building the first part of a sci-fi control room in my new project, which will be the basic floor layout.
Today’s Objective: Build a sci-fi floor, where there are enough details and differences to sufficiently mask the repetition of pieces.
The Blueprint:
The intended design of this room is as follows:
- A short, slim, but fairly high hallway will mark the starting point. No side-doors will be present, but on one end, an archway will open up into the main section of the level; The Control Room. The opposing end will be blocked off by a locked door.
- The main section of the scene will be the Control Room, which is a large open room positioned at the end of the hallway. It will have walls on all sides, and will be comprised of various miscellaneous scientific equipment. This is where the majority of the scene detailing will be focused.
The Parts:
To build this floor, I am going to make use of 5 premade 3D models from Filebase, GameDevHQ’s asset library. These are made by GameDevHQ artists, and are usable by anyone in their program, or with a Filebase subscription, along with thousands of other assets.
I am making sure to use a few different variations of floor pieces in order to reduce obvious repetition/duplication in the environment.
The Process:
I can use Unity’s convenient snap settings to make placing the floor pieces very easy and clean.
I create the shape of the main Control Room and the Hallway for the walkable part of the floor.
Next is to surround the main walkable area with an edge zone, which will be under the walls of the room, and add aesthetic value and visual difference/interest.
Visual Differences:
While they might sometimes go unnoticed or seem tiny, having variation makes the environment seem more realistic and natural.
While my implementation here is quite simple, the variations in colour, pattern, direction, texture, and height make the environment more visually appealing to the players who will walk around in it later.
