3DForge Exteriors

Managed to get the communal areas complete (as is for now lol)

Near the entrance


From behind the bar


The communal area directly above the bar


The more 'formal' area (hence chairs and not benches). The door leads through to the kitchen, eating area and rooms


General shot looking back down into the entrance area

 

Thanks! Once I remembered how terrains are built from 2D heightmaps, I was able to figure out how to edit the terrain to get the result I wanted. Sometimes all it takes is just knowing that I'm not barking up the wrong tree with a certain approach.

I thought about stamping a square/rectangular hole in the terrain using Gaia, but it seems like it could be a hassle trying to get the stamp resized to the correct dimensions for the building.

 

It is a hassle to stamp holes or indentations the same size as a building/cellar. I found that creating a "skirt" mesh that fits tightly around the building to hide the fact that the hole is larger than the building is the easiest way (like the apron used on a canoe).

The problem arises due to two things...

1. We can't make holes in terrain mesh properly. I hope they fix this soon, it's the single worst thing about Unity terrains.

2. Resolution. The terrain might be 2048x2048 in size, but the heightmap is only half that (to keep things running smoothly). Therefore, holes/indents have a resolution of only half a metre. Things are even worse if you try to make a hole/indent for a building that is rotated. You get a very jagged hole needing a larger skirt.

 

That's one of the main reasons why I'm going with separate scenes for interiors - as long as I can get the outsides looking "okay" then I can build what I like for the insides as long as I don't break the footprint of the building otherwise those playing the game will wonder how come there's a tardis around here?

Seamless entry and exit? I'd love this but there's too many limitations for my liking. Best of luck to those of you who are going for this

 

If doing that I think the Sectr VIS component of this - https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/15356 would prove it's worth. Wonder how it would get on with the transparent windows?

 

There are some things i'am missing for the village interior kit:

for the cathedral a cross, churchbenches and an altar

Things like bathtubes and earth closet.

 

Hey there,

I have a short list of items that will be added with a future update with cool stuff that you have mentioned and several more

Thanks for the post

 

Not to forget a organ for the cathedral, a nice looking one !

 

Check the St Alesandro Cathedral Demo scene.
The benches used there has nice church bench type side, think they the ones that you might be looking for

 

I'am using now those bench !

 

Some screens from my current project:

 

ahhh, many usecases not seen before.
Love the little bit that I can see from the second last shot.
Nice central market place type setup

Be sure to grab the first of many Premium BLUEPRINTS, I a sure you will like it

PB Sword & Shield Inn



Thanks for showing your work

Cheers
Cobus

 

And here are some screens of the interior of the brewery (which I showed before at some point):

 

Nice to see someone else doing large buildings

Those stalls iin the market area seem familiar

 

Of course I'm curious as to when the Castle/ Cathedral and wall update will be released but I've got other things to keep me busy so I'm not in a rush.

I did want to chime in to ask or perhaps request something be considered as an addition to that update or to follow it depending on how far along it is. I'm wanting to build an old dilapidated keep or moat house. Ideally the kind that has been overrun by all sorts of baddies of course it will have it's necessary dungeon "underneath". The dungeon will be another game scene but you know. Any chance we could get some old broken doors crumbling parapets or something that with a little creativity could become such items? Weathered vine covered walls and ill kept roofs might also go well in many projects where one wishes to convey either poverty and squalor or abandonment and neglect. Figured I'd throw my two cents in there at the end.

In any case it's a beautiful project that I have and will continue to use quite extensively more than worth the price of admission keep up the wonderful work and thank you for it.

 

Hey @neason080
Thanks for the positive remarks and the support of 3DForge packages
I am not far from first screenshots for the next update.
I was very sick the last few days, but the meds the doctor has given is doing it's thing.
I do believe the wait for this new update will be well worth it

Prefabs as you have mentioned and suggested are in fact on the roadmap and I can agree, they will make a great addition to the package overall

Thanks for the constructive feedback and suggestions

 

Hey everyone,

A fellow publisher have set up a survey to just obtain a better perspective on matters relating to the Asset Store
At the end it's intend is to more accurately deliver and develop new products.

Please would you fill it out HERE and assist us publishers to hit closer to home when developing packages

Cheers
Cobus

 

Hmm, too bad you cant have multiple choices, i feel that would represent me as a customer much better : )

 

I did this survey, but I feel the survey is skewed to provide answers that do not accurately reflect the surveyed person's true feelings. I answered 90% of the questions with answers that did not represent my feelings on the subject simply because my true answer was not an option. Therefore, I don't think the survey will provide true and accurate information.

 

Likewise

 

suggest question on the last section maybe ?

 

I think it's always hard for publishers to try and gauge what their possible customers may be willing to pay for assets.

Weighing up the time it took you to produce them and the price you think that time is worth, you have to then divide that figure by the expected number of people who could possibly buy it from you. It's all a delicate juggling act.

Of course, with all the free updates that Cobus puts into his kits, his stuff just gets incrementally cheaper and cheaper per item within it - it's just a good job for him that he's getting new customers whilst he's doing the updates that he can continue to work on the things that he loves to do.


... and with that, I'll stop inflating his ego

 

I basically commented on the last page and said the same thing I said here.

 

Hi Cobus,
I noticed two things in the Interior Kid. Hope you can give some input.

1. Your Lightsources of your Torches shine through walls. It's mostly the "Lens Flare" in the Light Source of the Torch. If I disable it I don't see the light through the wall anymore. Did you observe this? Perhaps I have set something wrong? I am not baking any light right now just using realtime lights. By Baking stuff I get really weird wall tiling shadows so I am just using realtime for testing purpose right now.



2. Is it intended that the roof prefabs like "fi_vil_combs_vault_rooftile" or all other vault prefabs (fi_vil_combs_vault_small02_a, corner etc.) do not come with a mesh collider? I am using a Character Controller which can climb walls and was wondering why the roof do not have a collider. You are using for mostly everything colliders except for the roofs, so I was just wondering.

Looking forward for your upcoming exterior updates. Don't forget the Interior feature wishlist also
Hope you are healthy now!
Cheers
Ronny

 

You can just add a mesh collider component to the roof prefabs and that problem is solved : )
I guess he did not add that because you seldom need colliders on roofs, and having colliders that you dont use costs performance.

 

@RonnyDance adding colliders to the meshes should stop the lens flares showing through

 

Thanks a lot @virror and @smada luap for your response.
Interesseting that the Light problem is also because of missing colliders. For me thats a reason to add colliders in next update for the roof meshes because I can't thing of anybody who does want to see lights through roof walls. So Colliders in an update would be good in my opinion and would fix this issue for other users in the future also.
I anyway understand why colliders for roofs were not added because of performance or not being really necessary.

I will add the Mesh Colliders in my project this days to see if this fixes the problem.

Thanks again!
Ronny

 

Thanks, but no thanks. There is many of us that do not want them. For many reasons.

 

Hit it ... the Post button.

It's down here -------------------->

 

A Couple of quick questions, are the building pieces for walls and such 2 sided? Or are they meant to only have a front?
(They're going to be placed at runtime so I'm looking for objects with a front and back.)
Also, those HD screenshots (which I'm just seeing now) look amazing, but I've noticed they differ quite a bit from others' screens, was it a particular shader you used to get the result? My game has a fantasy setting and it would fit in perfectly looking that way. Thanks.

 

The walls in the exterior kit are single-sided and are designed to work in conjunction with the interiors kit.

Which HD screenshots are you referring to?

 

Hey @TheXWolf

The Exteriors package is an "Exteriors" package only and is single sided and has been created for optimal performance for people who only want exteriors. If you also want interiors, then the Village Interiors Kit has been designed to fit with the exteriors kit. When you have both, and being a kit you have the flexibility to assemble them together in any way you want.

Here are some images showing how the interiors snap/clip right into the Exteriors Content models
There are 4 window solutions, with the transparent version used in these images.






Cheers
Cobus

 

Hey everyone,

Many people have bought the Village Exteriors Kit and Village Interiors Kit with the recent SALE.
Head over to and grab your FREE PB Sword & Shield Inn.
Please dont forget to STAR rate this package and when you have time and write a short review.






Here is a video of the inside

Cheers
Cobus

 

@smada luap The screenshots shown: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/3dforge-exteriors.316736/page-24 Look exactly like the style I'm using, wanted to know if it's a default look. Also, my game uses a building system, so if I were to use an object made from the front of the exteriors and the back of the interiors it would work?
@S4G4N
Could I double up on the interiors objects or would it leave a seam? (The system I'm using is similar to Rust, where objects are 2 sided and snap together.)

 

Hi,

Those are screenshots that I made, it is vanilla Unity5 after the HD texture update.

I do not understand the question you have asked about the doubling up.
Are you asking if you could flip the walls around and use as Exteriors.
There are a HUGE amount of geometry that only exist in the Exteriors Package
So the answer would be a not then.

You want the frames, the roofs, the tries and all that only comes as part of the exteriors Kit

Cheers
Cobus

 

@S4G4N Ah I see, so in terms of the Exterior, if I want a 2 sided wall to be placed as a single object I'd basically need both kits for it to look right, do I have that right? (Too bad I missed the sale )

 

Not necessarily. You can just flip a copy of the exterior wall since they are stone / wood, it will still match the house. The inhabitants won't have any extra insulation, but I think they'll manage.

 

Ah I see what I was worried about is many single sided objects aren't even in geometry, so if you flip one around the edges don't meet, or you have to overlap the mesh causing that annoying visual bug.

 

Granted its pretty dark, but in this old screenshot my interior walls were just a flipped around exterior wall: Link

Fortunately Cobus designed these walls pretty much perfectly in these regards since the meshes line up exactly, and the wall with a face is only on one side that doesn't clip or overlap with a flipped side.

 

On a recent stream, a viewer commented on the normal on the exterior base (vil_base or so) being flipped and he send me a version made from the diffuse and it looked a bit better but it was not really awesome looking and that makes sense working from end user textures. Will there be a fix for that?

 

Hi, I do not recall what you are referring too ?
Nothing is broken that I know of. If this user did custom work, he would obviously get different results in line to a personal taste that he has.
You can contact me in PM wit more information and I will surely like to see what you mean.
At the end of the day if there are steps that I can take to improve the package I would gladly like to hear suggestion on how.
Cheers
Cobus

 

Hey there,

I bought the LAM toolset to add more variety to my toolbox for demo scene building.
Just pulled in LAM and the Village Exteriors Kit, dropped some of the pre-done houses in,
painted the ground to match up to the building entrances and added a few props
These were all dropped into the demo scene that comes with LAM.









Cheers
Cobus

 

Hi,

Same included Demo scene, added Aquas by @dogmachris for water and dropping in some pre-done buildings from the Village Exteriors Kit







Cheers
Cobus

 

Lovely pics there cobus. That new asset you are using really shines. A bit pricey but good results. Really like the waterside buildings.

 

Yip, it is a bit pricey.

I did not want to be the guinea pig, hoping that someone else would buy first and come show what the results look like. That lovely video just kept nagging me and I gave in.
I am happy though, for what I want to use it, it is def a bonus.
I don't actually build games, so I can not vouch for all the technical side of things, but on looks, it does everything displayed in the video.

So I reckon that the least I can do is come show some results and maybe put others 's minds at ease about the package

What is cool here is that even for Top Down the grass placement is excellent, not seeing ugly flat planes that are too obvious. So I think for RTS maps and such this will also work excellent.

Cheers
Cobus

 

How would you say the performance is compared to using standard Unity terrain and foliage? Do you notice a hit or an improvement or neither?

 

Hi,
If I look at all the trees lush grass and everything waving around, the lighting, the lovely dandelion particles,
To me it runs in my opinion better then what I am used to in Unity if I had to add all that in via several 3rd party assets.


I am happy with the purchase.
If I could reverse time and choose again, I will most certainly buy it again

Cheers
Cobus

 

WHOOHOO, it is Live and available on the Unity Asset Store, go GRAB IT HERE

 

Hi,

I saw someone asked about RTS map building, so I grabbed my own Tower Defense RTS Human Towers package and LAM some elves to show what it looks like with them all in and a more Top Down perspective.






Cheers
Cobus

 

There are a lot of post about other assets now that feel very unrelated, any news about the next update soon? : D