I’m not much of a designer but I feel like I’m making no progress with Unity when it comes to level design. In particular the level design/prototyping.
I just can’t seem to knock out quick prototype levels with it and it’s hard to explain/describe.
For example. In the source engine all I had to do to make a door was create a cube then create another cube the size of a door and use that cube to cut a hole out of the wall. I don’t think you can do this in unity. Which means I have to use 4 separate cubes just to make a door hole.
Also in the source engine I could select the face of one of the cubes and increase the length of the cube in one direction only. Don’t think you can do that in Unity.
My main question is should I just do my prototyping in Blender? This is ideally not something I want to do as I want to focus my learning in the Unity environment and blender and 3d modelling is a big beast to tackle.
Would it take long to get up to speed with blender to create simple levels? ATM I am only interested in creating prototype levels with mainly cubes.
Also if I got pro-builder would that solve the issue?
Blender is alright, but I suggest getting the free “student” version of Maya (same as regular Maya, only has a “student” version nag everytime you save a scene… still worth it)
Maya will export directly to Unity, though I’ve not set that up yet pewrsonaly, and cant tell you if it’s a pain or not
from what I’ve been told, and seen… it’s better to bring 3D geometry into Unity, rather than use Unitys primitives to build your level. so yes do your prototyping in Maya\Blender\etc
Blender is ok if you limit your usage. It is best not to use too many functions as they do not work entirely in unity in my experience so far. Such as textures,mainly because I manually imported and applied them in unity, after design in blender etc. Would have liked direct import, but it won’t package them together.
But all .obj files seem fine so far, just add textures/bake maps/ and extra’s when in unity etc. Like making a cave in blender is a hobby i’m thinking of doing at some point. That can be a whole level etc. Use the blender forum for tutorials, or youtube. But be careful, it is a beast. Add-ons are everywhere, don’t bother with any except maybe free texture brushes, maybe not even that. It does seem better than pro-builder as it’s free. But the mouse controls are different to unity and spin ur noggin, but I prefer them to unity controls. The user preferences menu has all the hidden options, look into that first if you use blender. The simple functions are fast and quite easy for what you seem to be asking for. Maybe one add-on is bool tool, i think its in the preferences etc. Just look it up on youtube. It’s free forever unlike maya, and not limited in function. Just limit your use.
Simply extrude, add-modifier, sub-divide, uv map and bake and most things are done.
Except characters are mind numbingly difficult to create faces for, but make human and cookie rig give great help with that. Also vids form vscorpionc , but stay away from Gimp add-ons, they deleted files on my computer after removing it (.dll) (full reset for days). Hope this is useful
Just thought I’d chime in and mention that Unity has hired up the development team behind ProBuilder. They’re currently in the process of integrating the tools into Unity 2018.
For anyone who purchased ProBuilder on or after January 1st, 2018, you can request a refund from here. Just keep in mind the asset store is a relatively small team so they will need some time to process the refund.
