Hey there,

So I've been attempting to create like a 3d rpg using Unity. I have a lot more experience in programming and game design, but maybe only a couple years in drawing (storyboarding mostly) with little experience in creating levels. I've just started learning Blender in January.

I've spent maybe about half a year now programming an rpg maker type template for Unity, and I'm looking to get some feedback on a few screenshots of my first small (and very stupid) game demo test.

As far as using Unity goes, I'm really terrible at lighting right now and working with color. I created forest assets a few months back, packaged them up for use and have been working with how to put them together to make a level.

Since my characters were so low-res in the pixel-art department, I used compression on the forest as the graphics were clashing with each other. Here are a few of the screenshots:

Here I have a comparison of the tree textures that I put the compression up on in higher resolution and lower resolution side by side:

Now, here's an early demo a few months back when I was first creating the visuals. This screenshot actually came out great, much better than what it looks like right now color, lighting wise and perhaps level editing wise:

I remember using orange lighting mixed with green or something in that screenshot...I'm nots ure, but it came out really great. The pixel characters seemed to be so low res that they clashed with the trees...I'm not sure which direction to go with it at this point...

In any case, any feedback would be helpful, especially from anyone who's used Unity before to create 3d levels or artwork.

Thanks ahead of time,
Mark

What really sticks out to me is the inconsistency in the detail level. The ground looks more pixelated than the tree trunks, for example. Similarly, the smoothly filtered path also looks very wrong. (That could be solved with something like the Photoshop Dissolve blend mode, or adding some noise before thresholding.) A consistent texel density across all assets would improve things a lot. The smoothly rendered text also looks out of place, although readability is obviously a legitimate concern.

Also, your use of the term "compression" here is a bit unusual; usually that refers to how the image is stored, and would be independent of the pixel density or resolution.

Thanks for the feedback Kylotan. I see your point....I'm gonna try to stretch the grass texture less...If the grass texture is less stretched, and the trees are higher res, I think one of the things that may just have to change is the character has to be designed according to the environment, and not the other way around like it is now.

You're right about the box as well...that ends up being high compression which clashes with the rest of it yet again. It seems I have clashing problems between sharp and pixelated imagery/textures here.

When I'm talking about compression I'm talking about Unity's import compression on the textures when it's imported into the engine...umm...sorry that's not clearer. You select it from a drop down list on each texture when inspecting the texture object inside of the editor.

I think it is probably not a great idea to rely on Unity's "compression" to control the texel density of your textures. My understanding is that it's not designed for that purpose, and that blockiness or otherwise is a side-effect that can't be relied upon. If you want to enforce a certain texel density then normally you would create the initial asset with the exact specifications you want.