I knew of procedural terrain generation, but I never knew it could simulate certain environments and the effects of weather which is amazing. Always thought it was just hand made.
It was, but it is being automated more now to help the process and get things done timely with same quality. May focus more on detailing or other aspects thanks to the time saved now.
@@randomstuffradar6248 As Ismahili said, there is a free version of World Machine which can be used for personal projects (and if you end up wanting to sell a game that uses it you can buy a license). I'd say just look up videos for it, there are a bunch of different ways to use procedural generation, but the main idea is you can regenerate the same stuff if you have the seed for generation like with Minecraft. Same thing for modular design, look up videos on it, but it really comes down to getting the kit (like it said all the pieces) and how you are going to put them together, for example without any tool it might be a pain to position the pieces just right, while some tools might help you easily snap them together. There are even ways to mix procedural generation with modular design, but that can be tricky depending on the pieces, for example if the pieces are 1x1 rooms with a set amount of doors and such it's not too hard, but otherwise it's not so simple when the pieces aren't 1x1.
Stylized Station: 2:14 "...the answer is another fundamental technique that's used in most games you play, maybe without you even realizing it" Me: "Employee crunch?" SS: "Modular Design" Me: "Oh... That too I guess"
I think you missed talking about painting the layer of object placement like grass tree rock. Also maybe the spline generator to build stuff that follow a line like road fence electric pole etc... These also generate stuff quick while doing exactly what the artist intended.
I was gonna say, normally you'd procedurally generate the primary layout and then etch very intentional details into the space after that. So in theory, you could generate a mountain but then the artist goes in and creates man-made tunnels and canyons to really make it their own. So a hefty combination is what wins the day.
Nice video! Having worked at Ubisoft before, I can add that besides the procedural tools which are a must for creating big worlds. There is also a huge team effort, tools and conventions that people need to follow to finish a massive project like those. It is a lot of work for sure!
i would like to know how they procedurally generate large terrain but still conform to historical map layouts, like they do in the AC series. how do they layout roads and other features?
@@SniffyPoo Things like roads are usually placed by hand, usually, with the help of splines which are like hidden lines you can tell the software to place assets along or bend assets to the shape of the line.
Yo this is exactly the topic I was hoping for, I could watch an hour+ deep dive on this, but thank you for even this surface level exploration. Procedural tools that empower artists more than replace them is super exciting stuff to me :D
Quick thing if you wanted another thing. building re usable assets is also a thing, were they make structures, objects and furniture that can be re-materialed usually with some premade textures for each peice that can be used in hundreds of ways in several diffrent types of games to flesh things out faster. if you pay close attention with certain series like skyrim and fallout theres alot of reused assets and alot of other projects do it too as it speeds things up alot and its done by alot of level designers.
This TH-cam Channel will be very helpful knowing that I want to start making videogames with Unreal Engine. This is one of the only channels I could find that has good Unreal Engine tutorials and tips. Thank you Stylized Station for making these awesome vidoes.
My maps are procedurally generated, and I also have quite a complex path finding algorithm that make it possible to place buildings and points of interest where they "make sense", certain distances from a list of other points, etc. It gives me so much functionality in terms of randomness, on-the-fly tutorial-stuff and AI play.
Very interesting! I always appreciate a well-made environment, especially for how much work it actually takes! I really appreciate the personal touches to make a world feel inhabited and crafted by artists and it's also really cool how much they can do with nodes. Just change a few things and it's doing massive amounts of work for you!
I love game design. Sadly, most gamers don't understand at all how much effort it takes to craft a good game. It makes me happy that good games naturally get the attention they deserve though (in most cases). MoCap, hand made animations, voice actors, programmers, environment artists, model artists, and the list goes on and on.
Thanks, always wondered the actual procedure of making in-game world environments. Never thought about modular kits, but it makes a lot of sense now that you mention it. Great visual presentation as well -- I'm a sucker for practical demonstrations and applications, and you did a great job on that part. I'll have to check out more of your videos :)
Thanks. Really dig your videos about all the topics and questions i never really had an answer for. As a 3D Modeller myself, getting to know those little details helps me a lot in my job actually.
You've earned a new subscriber!! I was excited to hear you mention Modular Design, because there's a Minecraft mod that uses that mechanic to make the procedural generation absolutely incredible! It's called the Wildlands mod
the map editor in Far Crys 4 and 5 actually have a user friendly version of this stuff and it's pretty fun messing around and creating your own environments
Interesting...that the video is in 16:10 aspect ratio, also never tried Gaea, World Machine or World Creator but I am very intrigued by them and will do so soon.
Short informative content, no intro, repetitive like, comment, subscribe with annoying, high pitched bell sound and outro. Perfect for the new generation.
You should make a full dedicated vid to outer wilds, it has so many amazing areas and gameplay that has to be opened to the internet! All the little things is so cool. No examples becuase spoilers but please!
Rockstar doesn't use a modular workflow, so that RDR2 example isn't entirely correct. They just have a shit ton of artists. Working modular is usually the way to go, but it depends on the tech. Some engines don't handle drawcalls well, so then you are better off going for something semi modular or non-modular, or merging modularly built things into larger chunks at some point to reduce drawcalls.
The quality of the map and the amount of effort put into it can can alter a gameplay experience by such a large amount, sadly most devs miss this and dont give their maps too much attention
I've always wanted Twinmotion to have module kits built in and custom sounds. So many times, I just want to build an open world, but no 'game play'. Just walk thru . Learning Unreal is so much more work. Great insight video though. Thanks.
I'm really interested in procedural terrain generation but from trying Gaea out myself I've found it difficult to properly use the generated terrain for a game. It's really difficult to comprehend the scale when making terrain. A tiny denture you could barely see in Gaea might be a massive basin that takes up your entire FoV in the game. It's really hard to create an entire world on a single terrain-surface as the terrain will usually follow some uniform patterns you select making it hard to add a lot of variety (like different biomes with vastly different geological structures and shapes) but if you try merging multiple pieces of terrain together (which is already difficult to do well on it's own) you could often run into the problem of working with different scales between your terrains and then it just doesn't fit together. Lastly I always ended up with weirdly sloped or uneven/bumpy surfaces which weren't particularly fun to run around on. Sometimes having a rather flat-ish surface makes the gameplay work a lot better. I'm not particularly good and there are definitely workarounds for all of this but don't go about thinking it'll be a breeze like I did.
This is half right. Dev also make code to procedural generate towns and cities and the buildings that populate them. It takes modular parts, and orders them based on it's function(corner sides, building faces, etc). Then use a city block or town creation to build the collection of pre-made buildings. Also, theu still create the asset to make manual changes when needed.
I remember that when I created my first 3D map I made the houses from the map plane itself by extruding. Not only was this pretty inefficient because I ended up having a single object with a billion applied textures but it was also a pain to clean up because the houses would clip together on the edges. This right here explains a lot... Well... Beginners like myself do stupid things :}
You must point out that the terrains in games like BotW and Elden Ring are only parcially generated, the devs has to also manually design the layout of the world in a way that serves the gameplay and the story.
so this is how ubisoft is able to release massive open world games only a year apart. unless they were worked on at the same time I always wondered how they were able to release games like ac odessy only a year after origins which was massive
and yet somehow these triple a devs with a game supposedly costing 50 million+ come out buggy broken and with awful maps and apparently 3 years isnt enough meanwhile you have this tech that supposedly makes environments on its own in less than an hour.
Thay houdini shot building the city is exactly what I'm looking for. Can someone point me in the right direction. What course or tutorial is this from?
on the other hand your game will look like Skyrim where it's really noticable the reappearing bulílding parts but I guess it's how you do modular environments
I know that Gia or Gaea can randomly generate environments, but is that all it can do? Is there a way where you can change the art style? Or at least create an art style and have the software mimic and duplicate the style of art so that we don't have to do ALL of the work? If so, what application?
just remember that the word procedural, comes from "procedure". it's not witchcraft, the program just follow an algorithm (set of simple steps) to generate something based on rules.
Combine procedural generating with procedural meshing and we will truly get an open world. We are living in 2022 and storing over 100 GB of memory for a game with a very large map and where you can interact with every props is no problem in my eyes.
the problem is that the world will become samey. No Man's Sky does this and although it's pretty, the worlds feel quite repetitive after just a few planets.
I currently have a Razer Blade 14 2021 - 16GB RAM, 2TB fast SSD, 5900HX and 3070 Mobile 8GB VRAM specs - do you think this would be good enough to get started with Unity/Unreal?
🐣 Grab all of our courses for LESS THAN the price of one(first 100 members only): courses.stylizedstation.com/
I knew of procedural terrain generation, but I never knew it could simulate certain environments and the effects of weather which is amazing. Always thought it was just hand made.
World Machine does this really quicly with just a few nodes + it is completely free
It was, but it is being automated more now to help the process and get things done timely with same quality. May focus more on detailing or other aspects thanks to the time saved now.
It's just been improving over time, it's amazing what it can make now a days.
Where can I start using modular design and procedural generation? Is it free? If yes, please tell me how can I access it as I'm new to the field.
@@randomstuffradar6248 As Ismahili said, there is a free version of World Machine which can be used for personal projects (and if you end up wanting to sell a game that uses it you can buy a license).
I'd say just look up videos for it, there are a bunch of different ways to use procedural generation, but the main idea is you can regenerate the same stuff if you have the seed for generation like with Minecraft.
Same thing for modular design, look up videos on it, but it really comes down to getting the kit (like it said all the pieces) and how you are going to put them together, for example without any tool it might be a pain to position the pieces just right, while some tools might help you easily snap them together.
There are even ways to mix procedural generation with modular design, but that can be tricky depending on the pieces, for example if the pieces are 1x1 rooms with a set amount of doors and such it's not too hard, but otherwise it's not so simple when the pieces aren't 1x1.
Stylized Station: 2:14 "...the answer is another fundamental technique that's used in most games you play, maybe without you even realizing it"
Me: "Employee crunch?"
SS: "Modular Design"
Me: "Oh... That too I guess"
CDPR, UBISOFT, EA: "It's definitely modular design."
@@justamanofculture12 wait are you talking about how those companies use crunch or how they don't
@@ioaz4579 all the 3 companies have cases of employees crunching. Especially ubisoft and ea
I think you missed talking about painting the layer of object placement like grass tree rock. Also maybe the spline generator to build stuff that follow a line like road fence electric pole etc... These also generate stuff quick while doing exactly what the artist intended.
Alos splines help with setting up pathfinding data
Umm what game is in the thumbnail
Reticulating Splines
Spilines is so cool. Unfortunatelly they don't have those on Unity, but there's a free limited package that can do the job :)
I was gonna say, normally you'd procedurally generate the primary layout and then etch very intentional details into the space after that. So in theory, you could generate a mountain but then the artist goes in and creates man-made tunnels and canyons to really make it their own. So a hefty combination is what wins the day.
Nice video! Having worked at Ubisoft before, I can add that besides the procedural tools which are a must for creating big worlds. There is also a huge team effort, tools and conventions that people need to follow to finish a massive project like those. It is a lot of work for sure!
So any big project in any field?
i would like to know how they procedurally generate large terrain but still conform to historical map layouts, like they do in the AC series. how do they layout roads and other features?
@@SniffyPoo there is a tool/site that will generate a 3D environment from google maps
so they get the shape and then color it in and add items maybe?
@@SniffyPoo Things like roads are usually placed by hand, usually, with the help of splines which are like hidden lines you can tell the software to place assets along or bend assets to the shape of the line.
Generally, there's a bunch of people involved in that kind of project. Everyone with a specific role :)
Yo this is exactly the topic I was hoping for, I could watch an hour+ deep dive on this, but thank you for even this surface level exploration. Procedural tools that empower artists more than replace them is super exciting stuff to me :D
does there exist a procedural tool that's replaced an artist
@@meatbleed yes.... AI
YES
Quick thing if you wanted another thing. building re usable assets is also a thing, were they make structures, objects and furniture that can be re-materialed usually with some premade textures for each peice that can be used in hundreds of ways in several diffrent types of games to flesh things out faster. if you pay close attention with certain series like skyrim and fallout theres alot of reused assets and alot of other projects do it too as it speeds things up alot and its done by alot of level designers.
Also crunch is a very popular, fundamental technique some studios use to make this vast worlds
Can you elaborate?
@@bayram00 crunch means overworking your staff to get your product done in a small amount of time
This TH-cam Channel will be very helpful knowing that I want to start making videogames with Unreal Engine. This is one of the only channels I could find that has good Unreal Engine tutorials and tips. Thank you Stylized Station for making these awesome vidoes.
My maps are procedurally generated, and I also have quite a complex path finding algorithm that make it possible to place buildings and points of interest where they "make sense", certain distances from a list of other points, etc. It gives me so much functionality in terms of randomness, on-the-fly tutorial-stuff and AI play.
[2:07] The horse on the left is pooping. Now that is what I call attention to detail!
Very interesting! I always appreciate a well-made environment, especially for how much work it actually takes! I really appreciate the personal touches to make a world feel inhabited and crafted by artists and it's also really cool how much they can do with nodes. Just change a few things and it's doing massive amounts of work for you!
2:08 I'm the left horse after eating at Taco Bell xD
It's so pleasing. The setuping and mastering softs amazing.
I really had no idea how could they make such intricate worlds until now. Thanks for enlightening me.
Man I love your stuff. What I would do to have your mind play a part in the game we are creating. Seriously awesome stuff.
I love game design. Sadly, most gamers don't understand at all how much effort it takes to craft a good game. It makes me happy that good games naturally get the attention they deserve though (in most cases). MoCap, hand made animations, voice actors, programmers, environment artists, model artists, and the list goes on and on.
your passion for your content is infectious, keep it up!
Thanks, always wondered the actual procedure of making in-game world environments. Never thought about modular kits, but it makes a lot of sense now that you mention it. Great visual presentation as well -- I'm a sucker for practical demonstrations and applications, and you did a great job on that part. I'll have to check out more of your videos :)
Thanks. Really dig your videos about all the topics and questions i never really had an answer for. As a 3D Modeller myself, getting to know those little details helps me a lot in my job actually.
This is really cool and makes a lot of sense, why we're seeing smaller studios create bangers!
You've earned a new subscriber!! I was excited to hear you mention Modular Design, because there's a Minecraft mod that uses that mechanic to make the procedural generation absolutely incredible! It's called the Wildlands mod
How do companies design giant games and the performance remains stable, while we just put a few things, the game becomes heavy
the map editor in Far Crys 4 and 5 actually have a user friendly version of this stuff and it's pretty fun messing around and creating your own environments
Interesting...that the video is in 16:10 aspect ratio, also never tried Gaea, World Machine or World Creator but I am very intrigued by them and will do so soon.
Thank you. Very informative. You explained the process of making Environment art in a easy to understand way.
eventually it all snapped into place and I started learning how to add all the effects, titles, motion text. It was pretty cool to see my
You make it sound so much easier than it actually is, haha. But its a nice breakdown of how open worlds are made for non-gamedevs.
Short informative content, no intro, repetitive like, comment, subscribe with annoying, high pitched bell sound and outro. Perfect for the new generation.
Really appreciate the video .I would like further demonstration on how to use actual tutorial in soft to make soft .
this is why unreal engine dynamic meshes are so dope nowdays
You should make a full dedicated vid to outer wilds, it has so many amazing areas and gameplay that has to be opened to the internet! All the little things is so cool. No examples becuase spoilers but please!
Second this!
So yeah, Environment art is pretty cool🤘
WOW!! TYSM for this vid!!
More about modular kits please
Rockstar doesn't use a modular workflow, so that RDR2 example isn't entirely correct. They just have a shit ton of artists.
Working modular is usually the way to go, but it depends on the tech. Some engines don't handle drawcalls well, so then you are better off going for something semi modular or non-modular, or merging modularly built things into larger chunks at some point to reduce drawcalls.
i'm a 3d artist i still wonder how tf they made read dead redemption 2, it's just insane
Garrett Evans Wow thank you Garrett, you've made my day!
Everyone gansta till blender geometry nodes
Great video, easy to understand but very valuable!
This answered exactly the questions I had about this. Thank you very much!
Thanks I’m making a game and this really helped
Horse pooping at 2:08
The quality of the map and the amount of effort put into it can can alter a gameplay experience by such a large amount, sadly most devs miss this and dont give their maps too much attention
The modular kit thing is like building a world in farm simulator
I've always wanted Twinmotion to have module kits built in and custom sounds. So many times, I just want to build an open world, but no 'game play'. Just walk thru . Learning Unreal is so much more work. Great insight video though. Thanks.
love your videos, super informative and to the point! keep up the good work!!
I'm really interested in procedural terrain generation but from trying Gaea out myself I've found it difficult to properly use the generated terrain for a game. It's really difficult to comprehend the scale when making terrain. A tiny denture you could barely see in Gaea might be a massive basin that takes up your entire FoV in the game. It's really hard to create an entire world on a single terrain-surface as the terrain will usually follow some uniform patterns you select making it hard to add a lot of variety (like different biomes with vastly different geological structures and shapes) but if you try merging multiple pieces of terrain together (which is already difficult to do well on it's own) you could often run into the problem of working with different scales between your terrains and then it just doesn't fit together. Lastly I always ended up with weirdly sloped or uneven/bumpy surfaces which weren't particularly fun to run around on. Sometimes having a rather flat-ish surface makes the gameplay work a lot better. I'm not particularly good and there are definitely workarounds for all of this but don't go about thinking it'll be a breeze like I did.
This is half right.
Dev also make code to procedural generate towns and cities and the buildings that populate them.
It takes modular parts, and orders them based on it's function(corner sides, building faces, etc).
Then use a city block or town creation to build the collection of pre-made buildings.
Also, theu still create the asset to make manual changes when needed.
AMAZING tutorial! One of the most comprehensive tutorials I've seen for anytNice tutorialng. Thanks so much!
I remember that when I created my first 3D map I made the houses from the map plane itself by extruding. Not only was this pretty inefficient because I ended up having a single object with a billion applied textures but it was also a pain to clean up because the houses would clip together on the edges. This right here explains a lot... Well... Beginners like myself do stupid things :}
Any insights on open world games set in space, No Man's Sky, Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous etc. ?
Same process
Round planets are created by taking a cube with procedural gen on each side and then morphing its shape into a sphere
I am a third of the way through binging your channel
Thank you so much this helped a lot!!!! You saved my life
Talk about how wave function collapse is used to generate random stuff using modular designs.
definitely bookmarking this
Thank you so much for these amazing tips.
Now I know where to start.
You must point out that the terrains in games like BotW and Elden Ring are only parcially generated, the devs has to also manually design the layout of the world in a way that serves the gameplay and the story.
No shit
5 seconds before you said thats a bit boring I was like dude thats sick
Thanks for the info!
so this is how ubisoft is able to release massive open world games only a year apart. unless they were worked on at the same time I always wondered how they were able to release games like ac odessy only a year after origins which was massive
ubisoft has different game studios
heyyyyyy could you make a tutorial on how to do the procedural generation map thing (unless its on one of your courses, if it is can someone tell me)
I can't wait for: GTA 6, Elder Scrolls 6,and Witcher 4. Also, only cus odyssey was so good graphically, the next next gen Assassins creed game.
do you have a tutorial on how to loop drums,app, etc.
and yet somehow these triple a devs with a game supposedly costing 50 million+ come out buggy broken and with awful maps and apparently 3 years isnt enough meanwhile you have this tech that supposedly makes environments on its own in less than an hour.
welcome to the power of DEI
I love the short form factor
There's a video on In The setup's channel about free DAWs, alternatives, and even if you can't afford it you can "get" it. Not quite an
the game in the thumb is Lightyear Frontier
What text font did you use for the text at 0:32 and 2:20?
what is the game from the cover photo
dope
thx for the info
I'd like to figure out how to procedurally generate levels for 3D platformers but Houdini is difficult for beginners
I finally found what I want in my life, I'm crying with joy
I want the game in the thumbnail to be real, it looks like a steambot chronicles type game.
cool keep good work 👍🏼
Thay houdini shot building the city is exactly what I'm looking for. Can someone point me in the right direction. What course or tutorial is this from?
Really insightful
That horse took a fat poop at 02:10
on the other hand your game will look like Skyrim where it's really noticable the reappearing bulílding parts
but I guess it's how you do modular environments
Thanks. This is great help for my project. I've been trying to find an undeniable proof that this world is flat.
the notes, just keep experinting until the notes harmonise and soft good together.
I know that Gia or Gaea can randomly generate environments, but is that all it can do? Is there a way where you can change the art style? Or at least create an art style and have the software mimic and duplicate the style of art so that we don't have to do ALL of the work? If so, what application?
just remember that the word procedural, comes from "procedure". it's not witchcraft, the program just follow an algorithm (set of simple steps) to generate something based on rules.
i followed all these steps but when you are using sample that you have imported the program just bugs up.
is this video from a game? that mage running around.. what game is this ?
Wow I learned a lot
Combine procedural generating with procedural meshing and we will truly get an open world. We are living in 2022 and storing over 100 GB of memory for a game with a very large map and where you can interact with every props is no problem in my eyes.
the problem is that the world will become samey. No Man's Sky does this and although it's pretty, the worlds feel quite repetitive after just a few planets.
This is a good suggestion.
I think the best way is to leave spots for manual installation for the important parts of the game and the rest is auto generated
I currently have a Razer Blade 14 2021 - 16GB RAM, 2TB fast SSD, 5900HX and 3070 Mobile 8GB VRAM specs - do you think this would be good enough to get started with Unity/Unreal?
Yeah it's good enough
What's the game in the cover photo?
WHat's that 1st game? It looks fun
FRRRR all the layering n buttons i cant keep up
DUDE, I got so frustrated 'cause of that problem, thanks a lot!
which game is the picture of the video preview''?
That is indeed pretty cool :D
how do you get all the tutorial and samples on the left. mine doesnt have sNice tutorialt
As soon as you said procedural I knew NMS would be named
What game is on thumbnail?
Whats the game featured in the thumbnail?
This is why people need to chill when they hear procedural