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Creating an underground level in Unity

Discussion in 'World Building' started by CrimsonSight, Feb 6, 2020.

  1. CrimsonSight

    CrimsonSight

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2019
    Posts:
    36
    Not sure if this post belongs in this forum, but how does one make an underground 3D level in unity? I'm thinking about making a terrain asset and lifting the height of the whole thing to sculpt it from there. I could also create walls around a large area and add terrain inside.

    Additionally, what are tips to make a make of a 3D map/diagram for a unity level?

    Thanks!
     
  2. Inxentas

    Inxentas

    Joined:
    Jan 15, 2020
    Posts:
    277
    This won't work out of the box if you use NavMesh agents, but one trick to design interior levels is to flip the normals on a Blender model and dropping a MeshCollider on the model in Unity. If you do use NavMesh you'll need to use a workaround to ignore the ceiling. A seperate Blender model works, but is troublesome to update. There might be NavMesh settings for this but I'm not super experienced with them yet so YMMV. It looks really nice in FPS though, since the player is surrounded by a single mesh that can be as cavernous or industrial as you want without any clipping artefacts.

    Two terrains (floor and ceiling) also works, especially if you fog it up. The caveat is that walls will clip through the floor if they are not on flat terrain, but I'm not sure if that's an actual problem due to my inexperience in the graphics field. It could cause some artefacts I guess, but I've yet to run into anything really problematic having rock meshes jut out from terrain a little.
     
  3. CrimsonSight

    CrimsonSight

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2019
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    Thank you for your response! I'm very new to working with graphics as well as creating indoor environments. You gave me some useful advice.
     
  4. Inxentas

    Inxentas

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    No prob! Disregard what I said about using Terrain as a ceiling though, turns out you can't actually flip a terrain... derp!

    Making a Mesh with Blender's Sculpting tools comes down to the same technique of "painting" vertexes though, and you can flip FBX models all you want, so I'd use that instead. Also: if you're new to this (I am as well) go pick up some free assets from the store and see how they are designed. I have no teacher for this either so I have to learn by picking apart what more experienced people have made. Reverse engineer what you know least well, is my mantra :p
     
  5. CrimsonSight

    CrimsonSight

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2019
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    Gotcha! I actually found some assets in the unity store that might help. May hold off on blender for now.
     
  6. Inxentas

    Inxentas

    Joined:
    Jan 15, 2020
    Posts:
    277
    Does it happen to be ProBuilder? I was toying around with it lately and this alert reminded me that I might try using it for a "roofless" interior top down view.