Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
way down. However, if there is not going to be a lot more on the screen
(i.e., characters), 8000 polys is really a low number for an entire scene. Most
characters in current generation games have more polys than this. This means
that we can do some refining, or add a lot more visual elements to this level.
Visual elements can include additional polygons (like trash on the sidewalk,
or the big gun shown in the extra challenges). Alternately, it can include
“up-rezing” elements that are already created. Up-rezing is slang for adding
additional polygons (higher resolution) to make surfaces smoother or more
complex. This should be used carefully because a very efficient scene can
suddenly get out of hand with someone who is up-rezing their work.
Deciding what to up-rez can be tricky. Generally, if you are in the lucky
situation of finding you have a nice low polycount, the first thing to do
is generally to add additional elements. In our case, we will be using
the up-rez process to add a bit of visual complexity to the columns. The
reason we're doing this to the columns is that the player will be able to
get up close to these things, and perfect corners and edges (like they
presently have) can really quickly rip the player out of the experience
as the artificiality and “computerness” of the game is suddenly revealed.
Beveling
Step 33:
Select the edges highlighted in
Figure 2.31
.
Figure 2.31
Beveling edges of a column.
Tips and Tricks
You can probably do this by double-clicking on an edge. Maya will attempt
to find
Contiguous Edges,
which essentially are edges that are within a
particular angle of each other. It's a quick way to select rings of edges.
Step 34:
Select Polygons>Edit Mesh>Bevel (Options). Match the settings
in
Figure 2.31
.
Why?
Beveling
is the process of taking an edge (or all the edges of an object)
and splitting it into a defined number of
segments
. It then offsets each of
those segments over a given
width
and softens these new edges to give
the corner a rounded look. It's a sort of corner-softener tool. The default
