What is the best way to add detailing to my meshes?

Development Asset Creation
, , ,
1

I am wanting to add some detail to my walls in my level. I have already created my static meshes and my basic building structure is complete. I now want to add some quality environment art to my building, one thing I have learnt is the small details complete the big picture. My question is would I need to go back and re-model my walls to add details such as these:

8647-towerhotel.jpg
8647-towerhotel.jpg765×512 169 KB

As you can see in the image there are some nice ornamental skirting boards and details. My question is would it be okay to model these and then simply place them over my walls or is this bad practice? I don’t want my game to be very performance hungry that’s all. The only other option I can think of is having to go back into Blender and re-modelling my object so it has these details which I think will be very time consuming. Any tips would be great thanks :slight_smile:

2

You could create these with simple meshes and bump map+bump offset details fairly easily and then just position them where you need to. There are a few materials in the engine that use it to really great effect.

3

I am using normal maps for such details. For example I am creating a low poly and high poly wall. Then I bake normal map in 3DS MAX. In game I use the lowpoly with the baked normal map, which looks like the high poly wall.

I am a programmer. I have some difficulties with designing and modeling because I am a noob in this topics.
Maybe someone can explain the difference between normal maps and bump maps for us.