rooftop reflection

rooftop one month project finished my plan for my roof top was to build big interactive assets and to really push the project as far as i could throughout this project the main think i wanted to achieve was an interactive level in a game something that someone would want to play through and i think ive managed to achieve something like this because of the way you start in an elevator that takes you the top level and there lots of cover and that you can make your way through the map higher and higher till you reach the top of the crane. i varied abit from my original ideas like starting on the crane and working your way down because i felt it wasent really a feasible idea also i dint make as many small asset's as i original thought like lunch boxes and rubbish about just from not having enough time in the end and by the end i think  i pushed my textures as far as they could possible go without of space i had in the end i ended up with sixteen two-five-sixes.  but im glad i made my last minute revision for textures especially for the crane getting a much better colour and metal texture really gave a better contrast in the level and stopped everything from look so similar and boring. i tried to really maximise my big textures and use as many tillable as possible because of the nature of how low resolution the textures are but im quite happy with them especially the skyscraper for a 256 came out quite nicely.

the main thing i think that would of improved my level was better lighting i seemed to have allot trouble with lights and colour i think they ok in the end but i think i could of made them look allot more atmospheric for a night scene, and i couldn't manipulating in engine lights like how i wanted my flood lamps to look so i resorted to using alpha cones which look better but still not as good as id of like because my idea was really strong lights shafts . also i would of like more assets because i modelled it modular i think i may have done to much modularly and not enough unique elements. also if i had more time in the project i would have give it a weather theme but i dint feel like id have enough time to learn how to do that with all the new things ive had to learn on this project but i would of like to a really cold night with frosting the metal and maybe even light snow or really dense wet fog would of been nice i did play allot with the fog and sky box but i think it could of been pushed more with an overall theme like frost  and reflective surfaces . i think i could of have used some more interesting textures maps  in stead of the normal bump diffuse an specular i would like to have maybe some parralex maps and reflective maps but time got away from me but i think if i did again i could do the project alot faster and allot more efficiently.

i think what helped get through the project on time was putting things in udk within the first week really getting out the ideas in  the first few days and working on it straight away and not spending to much time concepting an rushing to get everything in level because i knew udk interactive things that i hadent done before could potentially slow me down alot so i tried to start those as soon as possible. which also was one of main problems was making my interactive assets did take some time setting up my lift and spawn point was the main think that miffed me for the longest i found out that i already had a spawn point hiding of somewhere easy fix once i knew where it was , i had to do alot of tweaking with the elevator to get to work the way i wanted it to in the end i changed the hole shape by making it open like a window cleaners elevator , but i think it made it alot more dynamic and interesting to play rather than a big boxy elevator with one window to see out of an also would have used more texture space. apart from that the project seemed to go pretty smoothly just chipped away at it and slowly built up the assets and filled it out.

the lessons ive learnt in this project are problem the most ive got out of a project so far because the last big level i built was in a team which is very different to making a level on your own. i think this project really brought my work into its own working in udk its allot more comfortable and no where near as daunting as used to be and my workflow speed has massively improved. my biggest task in this project was my interactive asset like my crane elevators doors and sound which now i can do well enough .

overall i have learnt alot from this project there's always things that could be improved with more time but my main thing i think ill take away from this project is to really organise my time efficiently and now i no how long things take to build in your own level so i can much more efficient in my future projects.