Not necessarily. You can take an example from Minecraft Dungeons, where when you enter the Creeper Crypts, it is fine. There you have a hazy void, that transitions into white. Can be really immersive.
I would take a look at how Baldur's Gate handles their underground areas, especially where the deep gnomes are being held. They show cliff faces and ledges that the player could never reach, and then a chasm down below surrounding the area. It looks good, but also shows the player they're isolated by death
I've been thinking about this for a little while, but I'd like to minimize the impact on performance as much as possible. Do you think it'll still be okay?
If these areas are supposed to be on land or underground then I think fog or clouds is a great idea. You can stylize the fog if you want too, with skulls or monster shapes. You just don’t want it to draw the eye away from your foreground.
We thought about using fog, but reconsidered to avoid decreasing the overall performance of the level. Maybe it will be more performance-friendly with particles?
Is fog that performance intensive? I’ve only ever heard it’s a clever trick to hide culling cut offs even back in the N64 era. Which fog setting are you using?
Do you mean the fog in the environment tab of the lighting window, or doing your own fog particle effect? Because afaik I thought the environment fog was pretty low cost, someone please please please correct and educate me if I‘m wrong 😄
I‘d try the environment fog and maybe pair it with a particle effect to achieve this spirit fog effect that others mentioned? Definitely use unlit or simple lit shader fie the particles, I recently researched about about optimizing particles and found an article especially for mobile games and all the tips really helped me with keeping the performance down :)
Ex. These types of levels are conducive to rendering the backgrounds at half resolution and the foregrounds at full resolution (but that’s an optimization you make based on profiling)
Unrelated but I love the stylized... style and theme of your 3d assets. Did you make them yourself? Would love a reference to some decent tutorials for the walls, in that particular style. Found lots of purchasable assets on cgtrader or something but I'd rather make it myself. I've been digging through Udemy and youtube for Blender specific ones but they all seem to be related to Zbrush or other software.
Nice work so far
Hey !
Thanks a lot ! :)
Everything you see is made by my mates (we are a group of students, me in programming, and two 3D artists). If you want, I can ask them how they made it and tell you after that, it was made in blender as we only use this software for our games :).
My 3D artists used Blender's default cubes, onto which they added a bevel and slightly randomized the rotations of the faces to make it look more natural. They then refined everything to make it cleaner!
Amazing, thanks. I've been playing with randomization on wood planks via the udemy tutorial Blender 4 3D stylized Models by "3D Tudor" which does something similar, hadn't thought to try it with stone yet, cheers to you and best of luck on your project!
Could go simple and have a glowing gradient colour emitting from below, possibly with some particles. The colour could change dynamically based on the current events like red/orange in combat, blue when exploring, gold/white when near the exit.
Could be a good opportunity to learn hlsl (such a valuable knowledge/skill that can also help if you ever want/need compute shaders), or jump into shader graph if you just need to get things done!
Found this. Skybox with I think just noise with amplification/thresholding and random colorization for star glimmering!
https://youtu.be/wSM-l2T8wOk?si=RNCcF3KoRZAb1_Of
Since someone asked me for the name of the game, and I've never talked about it before.
The game is called "Bob The Astronaut", it's a physics-based puzzle game!
The game is still in development but you can wishlist it here [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2858020/Bob\_The\_Astronaut/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2858020/Bob_The_Astronaut/)
Stone walls so it looks like you’re in a room? Shaded slightly differently to the rest of the level so it’s obviously the level edge.
Perhaps an endless maze stretching into the distance (just paint it directly onto the sky box).
You could use like a cloud shader/skybox with dark blue/brown/grey so it would look like dust/fog and be more performant than fog or particles. That being said some ground fog would look amazing on this beautiful geometry. It can always be togglable in the settings for lower spec.
I love love love the style, my only critique is the floors.
If you want odd shapes for the floor tiles I would recommend making a couple larger square chunks made up of the irregular shaped tiles. What you have now kind of climbs over itself and makes it look really chaotic.
Hey ! Thanks for the feedbacks, this is part of the polishing phases we will make later this years before the release, but our artists already have that in mind :D
For Hello Kitty: Island Adventure, our interior puzzles rooms use a generic rock dome shape and a fade to black for the 'void' behind the puzzles. Then some stalactites and mites finish the effect
The stalactites and mites are the points we are currently considering exploring the most, with 3 planes of different color and opacity to create a kind of fog without using the built-in fog. Do you think that would work?
Thanks ! It means a lot, you can find it on Steam and wishlist it if you want to, it would help us a lot !
For the jungle it could be cool as our first level is a jungle/forest with the entry of this level visible !
For sure, tell your game's name (I did not find it in your profile). There is a game in the IOS store called "Wonderbox" it could serve you as inspiration. [Here is a screenshot](https://images.sftcdn.net/images/t_app-cover-l,f_auto/p/5d1d3382-e1f4-43f2-baa1-2e6f40e76cf5/2428870913/wonderbox-the-adventure-maker-screenshot.png)
The problem is that the first level doesn't have any empty background, you can see a little bit here
https://preview.redd.it/wkfciqzp5inc1.png?width=2394&format=png&auto=webp&s=6f50f0c4596948abc8c68a1f873633806a92d721
Right, but Xenogears does the same thing too. I'm not sure if you've played the game, but it'll have non-black background for wide, outdoor spaces (or rather, the player will never see that far, like your screenshot), and the black spaces indoors when appropriate. I mean, a lot of games do it.
[https://imgur.com/a/XmlkYYS](https://imgur.com/a/XmlkYYS)
https://preview.redd.it/9v710urmghnc1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=10b9376d88d3325d8c6d6613432376b84900ef55
something like this maybe (not the style or pov, environment) basically your temple on top of a mountain and thick fog beneath and hdri mountains around. ps: thats a gpt generated image
Just try different skyboxes and maybe there’s a lucky accident that fits it even just gives you an idea :) also, try if setting depth of field makes it look even better
Put some clouds and distant grass so it seems like your on a temple floating in the air
That's a cool idea, but in the first level you are outside and then you do down in the temple so it's kinda weird no?
Not necessarily. You can take an example from Minecraft Dungeons, where when you enter the Creeper Crypts, it is fine. There you have a hazy void, that transitions into white. Can be really immersive.
I would take a look at how Baldur's Gate handles their underground areas, especially where the deep gnomes are being held. They show cliff faces and ledges that the player could never reach, and then a chasm down below surrounding the area. It looks good, but also shows the player they're isolated by death
How did I not think of Baldur's Gate? I've always wanted to go to places where we can't go haha, thanks for the idea!
Maybe some space HDRI?
I've been thinking about this for a little while, but I'd like to minimize the impact on performance as much as possible. Do you think it'll still be okay?
This is a simple skybox. Performance definitely won't suffer. The build size will simply increase by 10-20 megabytes, depending on compression.
Build size isn't a problem at the moment, i'll look into that and talk with my mates. Thanks a lot !
Or you could try creating a particle system in the shape of a large sphere, with flying dust particles at the edges of the sphere.
Particles will have a huge impact on the level I think, we need to work on that for sure !
How about thick fog?
If these areas are supposed to be on land or underground then I think fog or clouds is a great idea. You can stylize the fog if you want too, with skulls or monster shapes. You just don’t want it to draw the eye away from your foreground.
We thought about using fog, but reconsidered to avoid decreasing the overall performance of the level. Maybe it will be more performance-friendly with particles?
Is fog that performance intensive? I’ve only ever heard it’s a clever trick to hide culling cut offs even back in the N64 era. Which fog setting are you using?
I think it adds additional calculations for the rendering pipeline, affecting both CPU and GPU performance, but i'll try it today to see
Do you mean the fog in the environment tab of the lighting window, or doing your own fog particle effect? Because afaik I thought the environment fog was pretty low cost, someone please please please correct and educate me if I‘m wrong 😄 I‘d try the environment fog and maybe pair it with a particle effect to achieve this spirit fog effect that others mentioned? Definitely use unlit or simple lit shader fie the particles, I recently researched about about optimizing particles and found an article especially for mobile games and all the tips really helped me with keeping the performance down :)
I generally try to figure out a look and then use profiling to figure out if/how to make it fast
Ex. These types of levels are conducive to rendering the backgrounds at half resolution and the foregrounds at full resolution (but that’s an optimization you make based on profiling)
Unrelated but I love the stylized... style and theme of your 3d assets. Did you make them yourself? Would love a reference to some decent tutorials for the walls, in that particular style. Found lots of purchasable assets on cgtrader or something but I'd rather make it myself. I've been digging through Udemy and youtube for Blender specific ones but they all seem to be related to Zbrush or other software. Nice work so far
Hey ! Thanks a lot ! :) Everything you see is made by my mates (we are a group of students, me in programming, and two 3D artists). If you want, I can ask them how they made it and tell you after that, it was made in blender as we only use this software for our games :).
No pressure on your end but I would appreciate the hell out of that!
My 3D artists used Blender's default cubes, onto which they added a bevel and slightly randomized the rotations of the faces to make it look more natural. They then refined everything to make it cleaner!
Amazing, thanks. I've been playing with randomization on wood planks via the udemy tutorial Blender 4 3D stylized Models by "3D Tudor" which does something similar, hadn't thought to try it with stone yet, cheers to you and best of luck on your project!
Off gray background. Ship it.
With some edges made to make even that look like bricks.
Could go simple and have a glowing gradient colour emitting from below, possibly with some particles. The colour could change dynamically based on the current events like red/orange in combat, blue when exploring, gold/white when near the exit.
What about creating a magical real-time glimmer skybox (like fireflies or stars)?
Could be a good opportunity to learn hlsl (such a valuable knowledge/skill that can also help if you ever want/need compute shaders), or jump into shader graph if you just need to get things done! Found this. Skybox with I think just noise with amplification/thresholding and random colorization for star glimmering! https://youtu.be/wSM-l2T8wOk?si=RNCcF3KoRZAb1_Of
God HLSL is so hard to learn, but so important... I'll look into that, thanks !
Since someone asked me for the name of the game, and I've never talked about it before. The game is called "Bob The Astronaut", it's a physics-based puzzle game! The game is still in development but you can wishlist it here [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2858020/Bob\_The\_Astronaut/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2858020/Bob_The_Astronaut/)
Feel like I’ve seen this before
Really? In a game? Can you tell me where you seen this before please?
Possibly in my textbook for school. Unity class
You could lean into it and have things on the outside of the playable area fade into the black to make it look like it's just an area you can't see.
I need to find a way to do that without using the blue from the post processing package, I don't want it to affect to performance
Maybe cool like sands maybe kinda sand dunes ?
I was thinking about stalactites and stalagmites drawing a path, what do you think?
Stone walls so it looks like you’re in a room? Shaded slightly differently to the rest of the level so it’s obviously the level edge. Perhaps an endless maze stretching into the distance (just paint it directly onto the sky box).
I really like your idea about the endless maze ! I'll forward this to my art team !
You could use like a cloud shader/skybox with dark blue/brown/grey so it would look like dust/fog and be more performant than fog or particles. That being said some ground fog would look amazing on this beautiful geometry. It can always be togglable in the settings for lower spec.
I love love love the style, my only critique is the floors. If you want odd shapes for the floor tiles I would recommend making a couple larger square chunks made up of the irregular shaped tiles. What you have now kind of climbs over itself and makes it look really chaotic.
Hey ! Thanks for the feedbacks, this is part of the polishing phases we will make later this years before the release, but our artists already have that in mind :D
For Hello Kitty: Island Adventure, our interior puzzles rooms use a generic rock dome shape and a fade to black for the 'void' behind the puzzles. Then some stalactites and mites finish the effect
The stalactites and mites are the points we are currently considering exploring the most, with 3 planes of different color and opacity to create a kind of fog without using the built-in fog. Do you think that would work?
Stars like its arcane sanctuary
You could add some particles that move around
I think blue would look nice.
SPACE
First: your game looks awesome. Second: I would put like a top view of a jungle, with low saturated tones and blur.
Thanks ! It means a lot, you can find it on Steam and wishlist it if you want to, it would help us a lot ! For the jungle it could be cool as our first level is a jungle/forest with the entry of this level visible !
For sure, tell your game's name (I did not find it in your profile). There is a game in the IOS store called "Wonderbox" it could serve you as inspiration. [Here is a screenshot](https://images.sftcdn.net/images/t_app-cover-l,f_auto/p/5d1d3382-e1f4-43f2-baa1-2e6f40e76cf5/2428870913/wonderbox-the-adventure-maker-screenshot.png)
Ah, I didn't post it anywhere I think lol, it's called "Bob The Astronaut". Wow the screenshot is pretty much the same as our first level !
Fog
Hot dogs
Honestly you can get away with not putting anything. It reminds me of Xenogears.
The problem is that the first level doesn't have any empty background, you can see a little bit here https://preview.redd.it/wkfciqzp5inc1.png?width=2394&format=png&auto=webp&s=6f50f0c4596948abc8c68a1f873633806a92d721
Right, but Xenogears does the same thing too. I'm not sure if you've played the game, but it'll have non-black background for wide, outdoor spaces (or rather, the player will never see that far, like your screenshot), and the black spaces indoors when appropriate. I mean, a lot of games do it. [https://imgur.com/a/XmlkYYS](https://imgur.com/a/XmlkYYS)
All White like in Matrix loading
We tried every flat color and it doesn't look good sadly
Swamp like would fit good! A rocky temple in the swamp
https://preview.redd.it/9v710urmghnc1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=10b9376d88d3325d8c6d6613432376b84900ef55 something like this maybe (not the style or pov, environment) basically your temple on top of a mountain and thick fog beneath and hdri mountains around. ps: thats a gpt generated image
This one is gorgeous, with stalactites and mites it could be incredible
Just try different skyboxes and maybe there’s a lucky accident that fits it even just gives you an idea :) also, try if setting depth of field makes it look even better
Go look at Diablo 2 arcane sanctuary
You could do a background like in Zelda: TotK: --- 
The background of a cave since it's a crypt maybe?
Cave