Creating Urban Game Environments in 3DS Max

0. Introduction
1) Welcome
2) Understanding the design process
3) What you should know before watching this course
4) Software requirements
5) Using the exercise files

1. Planning a low poly model

1) Identifying key contours and shadow concept art
2) Analyzing concept art for texture
3) Choosing between modeling and texturing
4) Understanding the limitations of normal maps
5) Analyzing concept art for key shadow details
6) Identifying shadow details as generated or painted

2. Planning the modeling of cities for games

1) Planning the visible overlaid history in a city
2) Planning a wedding cake building: base, middle, and top
3) Planning a modern building : base and shaft
4) Designing the zoning: Planning the visible uses of buildings
5) Laying out city blocks
6) Planning modular textures and geometry: streets and sidewalks.
7) Texturing intersections
8) Modeling modular streets elements
9) Modeling corners with ramps
10) Unwrapping sidewalk elements

3. Modular construction of an urban environment

1) Laying out rectangles and planning how to clone geometry and texture
2) Using layers to organize construction elements and actual models
3) Extruding edges to form major shadow lines
4) Testing the module for correct floor-to-floor heights
5) Trimming down the module and cloning
6) Stretching the vertical elements to minimize geometry
7) Unwrapping the elements for correct proportion
8) Laying out a texture sheet for a facade

4. Texturing the modular construction

1) Making brick texture
2) Adding detail to the diffuse texture: Sills and arches
3) Adding stone accents
4) Layering color in window frames and doorways
5) Copying diffuse layers for normal map foundations
6) Desaturating the diffuse map copies and prepping for normal maps
7) Converting bump maps to normal maps using nDO
5. Creating cornices, parapets and roofs
1) Analyzing the necessary silhouette and geometry
2) Examining existing buildings in different lighting conditions
3) Planning cornice elements
4) Extruding cornice elements from polygon edges
5) Assigning smoothing groups for optimal shading
6) Unwrapping cornices for lighting
7) Modeling sloped roofs
8) Adding fascias and soffits
9) Adding fascias and soffits for gable ends
10) Texture sheets for roofs

6. Assembling structures
1) Arranging, aligning, and cloning modular elements
2) Setting pivot points for buildings
3) Reusing elements: Exploring possibilities in modular building design

7. Creating a texture library in Photoshop

1) Creating a texture library
2) Creating rusty corrugated metal texture
3) Creating stone texture
4) Creating wood texture
5) Creating rough brick texture
6) Creating roads
8. Planning and constructing texture sheets
1) Using the Walkthrough Assistant to assess texture needs
2) Drawing detail at the right size
3) Understanding tiling and non-tiling textures
4) Deciding when to use tiling and non-tiling textures
5) Using multiple mapping coordinates
6) Using multiple unwrap modifiers
7) Unwrapping objects a second time: Planning an unwrap for a light map
8) Unwrapping a building facade using overlapping texture elements

9. Ambient occlusion and the render to texture dialog

1) Understanding ambient occlusion
2) Assessing the quality of occlusion as a cinematic mood
3) Overview of the Ambient Occlusion shader
4) Baking maps using the Render To Texture dialog
5) Using occlusion as a foundation for dirt
6) Using occlusion from detailed models for texture
7) Baking lighting

10. Preparing to export

1) Preparing for Unity as a world builder
2) Importing into Unity and recognizing limitations
3) Importing elements with detailed materials
4) Setting optimal texture sizes and resizing in Unity
 5) Setting up a naming convention and scene management
6) Renaming tools in 3ds Max

11. Conclusion
1) Whats next