Week 4: Modularity textures - tiling and trim

Module: GAR106 environment art 2

Brief: “Model, texture and present in UE5 a Victorian three-storey terraced building with a shop on the ground floor facing the street.”

House: Gryffindor

Plot number: 16 (corner)

Bonus: Reading week (Mon 13th Feb to Sun19th Feb)

Week four: Mon 20th Feb to Sun 26th Feb 2023

(Week 4 was technically Reading Week in the university timetable. For ease of my record keeping, I am removing it from the list and going forward, Week 4 in the context of these blog posts refers to Semester 2 Week 5)

Textures in video games can be broken down into two categories: non-seamless and seamless (also known as tiling). A non-seamless texture will have visible ‘edges’ (seams) when placed as a repeating image, allowing you to see where the texture begins and ends as it repeats. By contrast, a seamless texture can be placed in both U and V directions on a surface and not show any visible edges or seams as it repeats.

Using a seamless texture has various benefits, mainly because these textures take up less memory space in a game as they are smaller. Large surfaces such as walls and floors are the usual targets for seamless textures and as such, game creators can get away with texturing large areas without sacrificing their memory budget, and fewer texture calls results in a better performance overall.

Something to bear in mind, though, is that a seamless texture is noticeable if there is not enough randomness in the design; an element that stands out in the texture, such as a different coloured brick in a brick wall, will be easily noticed in the repeating pattern and can put players off if the tiling is visible.

Trim sheets are texture sheets made up of various textures that can be repeated on various assets. For example, a trim sheet for a building might include windows, doors, windowsills, columns, drainpipes and building ornamentation. These can then be positioned or ‘cut out’ and applied to the necessary parts of a building without having to have UV-dependent assets, saving an artist time during the texturing process.

For my brick texture, I decided to use Substance Designer. Compared to Painter, it is more efficient for creating tiling textures, but I found it much harder to wrap my head around due to the number of nodes there are to keep track of. Although I attempted to create a brick material following the tutorial posted to the Mural board*, I found myself getting lost repeatedly and ended up seeking out the assistance of a YouTube tutorial instead. ‘Brick material in Substance Designer | Beginner Tutorial’ by the user Chunck was incredibly useful in talking me through the process slowly and I eventually managed to create and export my brick textures (exporting done with the help of another YouTube Tutorial***).

Although I can appreciate the usefulness of creating tiling textures and the benefits of Designer in this process, I found the application hard to use and after struggling to attempt the roof tiles in Designer as well following the Mural****, I ultimately decided that I would utilize another application to complete them (likely Substance Sampler) and to continue building on my knowledge of Substance Painter from last semester and texture most of my assets in that application instead.

For now though, I have a functional tiling texture for my shop's brick walls, although I do notice some discrepancies in the brick work that stand out a bit too much and the bricks themselves aren't as dark in UE5 as they are in Substance Designer. Back we go to fix them I suppose!

(An example of my texturing in Substance Painter for other shop assets).

REFERENCES

* Games Academy. DATE. ‘GAR106 – Seamless Brick material in Substance Designer’. Mural App [online]. Available at: https://app.mural.co/t/gamesacademy5502/m/gamesacademy5502/1676586688804/68e0003526a0b2953cb3a55130f2e787ad98bee3?sender=a02bcb08-afe7-41ce-a6aa-c56d749aa20c [accessed 3 May 2023].

** Trafagander, Chunck. 2018. Brick Material in Substance Designer | Beginner Tutorial [YouTube user-generated content]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji45Nmc93Nk [accessed 3 May 2023].

*** Adobe Substance 3D. 2019. 04-02: Exporting textures [Youtube user-generated content]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZt0eLeNx6c&t=28s [accessed 3 May 2023].

**** Games Academy. DATE. ‘GAR 106 – Seamless roof slate material in Substance Designer’. Mural App [online]. Available at: https://app.mural.co/t/gamesacademy5502/m/gamesacademy5502/1676664956992/431c831011bc76b7fcdfd18445cf7999ac8e10c7?sender=910c3807-3c71-4bab-a44a-b0ab7e27e0a0 [accessed 3 May 2023].