Patryk Kleczkowski details his process for creating a 3D forest and village scene in Unity. He began by outlining his vision for the level and sources for models. Not finding suitable pre-made assets, he experimented with custom trees, buildings, and terrain textures. Key challenges included properly sizing and texturing imported models to fit the environment. He overcame these through iterative testing and replacement of assets as needed. In the end, Patryk was satisfied with his forest, village, and mountain castle scenes, gaining valuable experience in Unity level design.

1. PatrykKleczkowski
3D Engine,Unity– Patryk Kleczkowski Workflow:
Introduction:
To create my 3D game I have pickedthe Unityengine. Iwantto create a big andlivelyforestscene
alongwitha small village andsome landmarksscatteredaround. The playareawill be relatively
small butusedeffectivelynonetheless.Iwill alsohave some mountainrangesforbettervisualeffect
of the level aswell assome goodvariationinit.Formy modelsinthe level,Iwill mainlyuse the
UnityStore as well assome outside sourcesformodelssuchasTurbo Squid.
Inspiration:
While Ihaven’tdirectlyinspire myself throughothergames,Ihave lookedatexamplesthatmight
helpme imagine howIwantmy level tolooklike orwhatI wantto include init.
http://www.curse.com/worlds/minecraft/223117-mountain-basin-custom-terrain
Some of the inspirationcame fromcustommapsthatwere createdinMinecraft,I specificallylooked
at the layoutof howit combinesforest,mountainsandlakestogetherinanice set.Aswell aslookat
howspecificmountainslookandwhatIcan replicate.
http://www.planetminecraft.com/project/dragons-lair-custom-terrain---reposted-with-download/

2. PatrykKleczkowski
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1543494-Forests-in-video-games-suck
Othergamesthat I have takeninspirationfromincludesgameslike the FarCryserieswithitslush
jungles,forestsandmountainranges. Ilookedatthose formationsandtriedtolearnsome
interestingwaysof usingterrainto make the scene appearlivelier.
I have startedoff my level bycreatingaborderaroundit witha mountainrange,andthenputtingan
evenbiggermountainacross the level,essentiallycuttingitinhalf. Myoriginal planwasto have this
bigmountaininthe centre witha castle on topof it,and thenhave 2 archeson eitherside,thus
makinga veryeffectivelookinglevelthatisalsofunctional.Inthe endhoweverIhave foundmaking
the archways toohard and had to abandonthe idea,itwouldtake toomuch time andtoo much
resourcesjusttoconcentrate on that.

3. PatrykKleczkowski
I have thusabandonedthe ideaof havingthe twoarches oneitherside of the bigmountainandjust
leftthe bigmountaininthe middle alone,the intentionof havingacastle ontop of it remained.I
have addeda spiral climbaroundthe mountaintomake it accessible forthe player.Ihave alsomade
the level smallersince IdecidedthatIdonot needthatmuch space in the end.Also,Ihave made the
mountainsaroundthe level tallertomake sure thatthe playercannotescape outside the
boundaries.
Afterthat,I have done so minormodificationstothe mountainaswell ascoveredthe entire levelin
a basic groundtexture whichwouldremainonthe boundariesaswell asthe sidesof the main
mountaininthe middle butwouldbe changedeverywhere else.

4. PatrykKleczkowski
Afteraddingthe basictexturingIhave decidedtoadda simplyskybox tomylevel forstarters.I
pickedthisskybox since itismostlycoveredbyclouds,andsince mylevelwillbe coveredinmostly
dark textures,itwill fit.
Here I have begunto experimentwithdifferenttexturesandwhatwill fit,fornow,itwasthe grass
texturessince the veryfirstthingthatIdecidedtodo wasa forest.Itriedlightanddark textures,but
consideredthatwhile itmightnotlookokfrommyview as a developerof this,itmightlookokfrom
a perspective of aplayeronthe ground level.

5. PatrykKleczkowski
In the endI have wentwitha quite lighttexture of grassmixedwithforestleaves.Fornow Ifeltit
was sufficientandif itneededchangingthenIcoulddosoeasily.

6. PatrykKleczkowski
AfterI coveredthe areaneededwithmychosentexture,itwastime toplace the treesthemselves,I
have usedthe tree placertool that comesstandardwithUnity,and placedquite alotof themon the
area coveredupby mypreviouslychosentexture.
Thisis howit lookedfromthe perspective of aplayer.AtthispointIhave realisedthatthe standard
treesdon’treallyfit,andthe groundtexture will needalittle fixingaswell.

7. PatrykKleczkowski
I startedbrowsingthe internetforsome royaltyfree modelsof treesthatIcan use in myprojectand
inthe endfoundsome goodresults.Thiswasthe firstone.While withmore detail(andthusthere
was a riskof hinderingperformance of the level inthe end) itwasalsobigger,andtherefore Ididn’t
reallyneedthatmanyof themin the endto fill upmyforest.

8. PatrykKleczkowski
I have thenusedtexturesfromunitystore totexture the model properlyandthenalsosizedit
correctlyfor myuse since a little adjustmentwasneeded. Ialsohadto add a collisionbox tomake
the tree solid,since itwasn’tafterIgot it fromthe web.

9. PatrykKleczkowski
Afterthe firsttree,Ihave founda couple othersthatI also textured,sizedandaddedcollisionboxes
to accordingly.Iwoulduse themlateronin otherpartsof the level tomake itseemmore variedand
not justhave the usersee the same tree everywhere.

10. PatrykKleczkowski
I have thencopiedthe firsttree thatI repurposedandpastedit,andrepeatedthatprocessuntil I
filledupthe entire space of the forestwiththem.Inthe end,Ifoundthemmuch, muchbetterthan
the standard unitytrees,theywere more detailed,larger,andalsojusttookmore space,justlike a
real tree would,insteadof beingtightlypackedtogetherlikeUnity’strees.
Thisscreenshotwastakenfromthe playersperspective uponenteringthe forest,Ihave made the
treesquite large tohave a good effect,now all thatwasleftto workon wasthe texture of the forest.

11. PatrykKleczkowski
As said,the nextthingtoworkon was the texture thatwasfoundwithinthe forest,Ihave applied
anothergrass texture overthe original one,amuchdarkerone at that, butI didn’terase the
previouslayer,insteadIhave joinedthe twotogetherbygivingthe new texture someopacitysothe
oldone wouldstill showthrough,thisendeduplookingverygood. Ihave thenaddedapath through
the forest,thatlateron wouldbe continuedthroughthe level.
I thenstartedaddingotheradditionstothe forestthatI had inmind,to improve the detail of the
general area.Firstoff wasthislittle ancientfountainwithsome columnsoneachcorner.Ithought
that itlookedquite wellanddecidedtouse it.

12. PatrykKleczkowski
I thentexturedthe fountain,gave ita collisionbox (since itdidn’thave one tobeginwith) andalso
addedsome bigrocks to eitherside infrontof the fountaintoaddevenmore detail tothe area.In
the endthe resultswere quite effective.
Last bitof detail thatI wantedtoadd to the forestbefore movingonwaslittle columnsalongthe
path that ledthroughitso that theywouldhave aconnectionwiththe fountainthatwastuckedto
the side of the said forest.

13. PatrykKleczkowski
I had decidedonaddingtwocolumnsinthe end,lefteachone nexttowhere the pathwouldsplit
somewhere else,one nearthe pathto the fountain,anotherone nearthe pathupwardsthat ledto
the top of the central mountain.Ialsotexturedthemandaddedacollisionbox accordingly.
Afterthe forest,the time came to create a small village rightnexttoit. Iwentonto the webto look
for some goodlookingbuildingsandafterfindingthemaddedthemtomylevel andalignedthemup
properly.

14. PatrykKleczkowski
Thisis a screenshotshowingthe playersperspective whenhe entersthe town.

15. PatrykKleczkowski
So beinghappywiththe layoutof the town,I decidedtostarttexturingindividual buildingsandthis
iswhere I run intoa massive problem,the buildingsthatIwere usingwere all modelledonthe same
layer,thismeantthatI couldn’tapplymore thanone texture toa building,whichmeantthatthe
buildingslookedextremelybad,Itriedtofindtexturesthatwouldworkbothonthe roofs andwalls
of the buildingsbutinthe endcouldn’tdoit.Ihad to scrap the entire townandstart searchingfor
bettermodelstore-doit.
While Isearchedfornewbuildingsformytown,Istartedexperimentingwithsome lightingonmy
level anddecidedtodoa little bitof alensflare forgood effect.

16. PatrykKleczkowski
Aftersome searchingIhave foundgoodmodelsonthe Unitywebstore and startedbuildinganew
townout of them,at thispointI alsodecidedtomake the townmuch biggerthanpreviously,since
withthisthere were more buildingsthatIcoulduse,so I couldcreate a much biggertownwithout
havingthe playerrealise thatsome partsof the townmightbe duplicates. Ilaidout eachbuilding,as
well asbuild2 wallsoneitherendsof the townwiththemusinga gatehouse likebuildingsfor
entrances.

17. PatrykKleczkowski
Afterlayingoutthe townI startedaddingcolliderstoitto make the buildingssolid,addedtextures
of bothgrass and cobble paths,andthenat the endaddedsmallerdetail like wells,some stones,
trees,andadjustedsome buildingssizes/locationsforbetter effect.Inthe end,Iwas veryhappywith
thistownand was kindof gladthat the otherone didn’tworkout since itallowedme toexplore this
option.

18. PatrykKleczkowski
Afterthe townwas done Ihad decidedtostart workingontop of the central mountainandadd
whatI plannedtoadd at the start,a bigcastle.Nothavingluckinfindingsome goodmodelsonthe
unitywebstore,Iwentto searchfor a good model onthe internetandeventuallyfoundasufficient
one.

19. PatrykKleczkowski

20. PatrykKleczkowski
The castle was modelledona huge grassarea whichI had to remove,withit,wentthe mote that
was surroundingthe castle originally.The problemwiththe topof my mountainwasthatit wasvery
tightand thusI had to remove bitsof the castle as well asshrinkitdowninsize considerablyforitto
fiton top of the mountain.Inthe endhoweverImanaged,andkeptmostof the castle withme.

21. PatrykKleczkowski
I had thenmade the castle solid,andtextureditwithsome basictextures.Itwasquite hardto do
since there wasa lot of smallerelementsthathadtobe workedonindividually,the removal of the
basisof the model alsoseemedtohave hadan effectonsome of the modelsthatwere left,which
causedproblemswhiletexturingandediting.Sooverall ittookmore time thanexpected.Inthe end
howeveritwaseffective andgoodlooking.

22. PatrykKleczkowski
Aftertexturingthe castle itself,Itexturedthe groundaroundandinside itandmade sure itlooks
okaybefore movingon.

23. PatrykKleczkowski
Afterthat wasdone,I hadstartedto work onthe space infront of the castle,addeda small village to
it,some tree’s,made sure thateverythinghasacollisionbox andissizedwell andthencreateda
cobble pathleadingaroundanddownfromthe mountain.The problemwiththisvillage wasthatit
was,similarlytothe castle,hardto fiton the small mountaintopandtherefore Ihadto experiment
quite a bitwithsome sizingsothatit wouldlookrightbutit wouldstill fitonthatmountaintop,in
the endI feel like Ididwell.
Afterthe mountaintopwasdone,I made sure that the spiral path leadingdownfromitwas
decoratedwithsome tree’sandstonessothatit wouldn’tbe completelyemptywhile the player
traversesit.I have alsomade sure that the textureswere balancedwell andweren’ttoolightor
dark.

24. PatrykKleczkowski
ThenI movedontothe side of the map that I hadn’tworkedonbefore,inthispart,nextto the town
at the footof the mountain,Ihad addedsome treesthatvariedfromthe previousones,andadded
some bigrocks, I made sure that everythingisthentexturedcorrectlyandeverything looksgood.
Finally,Ihave done anothersmall village withtwohousesandsome bigrocksnexttothe forestand
the entrance to the spiral wayto the top of the mountainwhere the castle waslocated. Imade sure
that everythingwastexturedcorrectly, andalsoaddedsome smallerdetail likewellsandsome
overlappingtextureswithlowopacity.

25. PatrykKleczkowski
To conclude,Ifeel quite alotof satisfactionfrommylevel,inmanyareasittooka lotof trial and
error to fix all the issuesIhadwithit butin the endI am veryhappywithit. I feel like Igainedalotof
valuable experiencethatIwill definitelyuse inthe nearfuture inbuildingmore levels,whetherit
wouldbe withUnityor anotherengine.The mainareasthatcausedme trouble were the texturing
and sizingof models,aswell asproperlighting.
If I were todo itagain I woulddefinitelyuse myownmodels,since thenIknow whatIneedexactly
and I can create themto workwithmy level perfectly,ratherthanhave toadjustto modelsthatI
foundonthe internetinsteadwhichthreatenedtomake mylevel lookbadinsome cases.Iwould
alsotry to workon my lightingtomake itmore effective andbetterlooking,Iwouldalsotryto work
on myterrain,use it bettertocreate more appealingandperformance friendlylevels.Andfinally,I
wouldworkonmy texturing,trytomake betterand more effectivecombinations.