Theater and Tools - Gears of War: E-Day
The Kalona Theater corner, a spot I worked on.
The theater entrance under the sky train.
From across the street, framed by the sky train supports.
Spline tool: a spline, a grammar and rules in; spline meshes, packed level actors and instances out.
The whole sky train deck is one spline; the pillars are packed level actors placed by rule.
Barrier runs: any length, any curve.
One spline per route generates the full structure.
The sky train, built with the spline tool.
Sky train supports placed by spline rules along the avenue.
Under the elevated line: deck, supports and barriers all come from splines.
Pipe tool: a kit of straights and elbows per angle; draw a spline and it picks the best-fit pieces, combining two elbows when one won't fit.
One spline, one run: elbows chosen per angle, all from the same kit.
Long ceiling runs, drops and turns.
Vertical drops and wall runs down an alley.
Pipes following the facade down a back alley.
Ceiling runs in the public parking.
Pipe runs along the alley walls, the kind of setup the pipe tool was built for.
The Kalona Theater corner: a spot I worked on.
Tools are how you build a city this size. Alongside the building tool, I partnered on four more from the art side, shaping the vision for each tool, the UX, rules and edge cases, then testing them with the team. Every decision had to make life easier for level designers as well as environment artists:
Spline tool: spline meshes, instances and packed level actors spawned along a spline, driven by grammars and rules. One spline builds the whole sky train deck that cuts across Kalona, with pillars and supports placed by rule; the same tool lays out the overhanging highways, barriers, street medians, lampposts and anything that repeats.
Pipe tool, built with Robert, our tech artist: no deformed meshes. Each kit has straights and an elbow per angle. Draw a spline and the tool places the best-fitting piece for each turn, combining two elbows when no single piece fits.
Powerline tool: also with Robert, built to speed up cable placement across the city.
Polygon tool: unique floor planes without leaving Unreal. Instead of modelling one-off ground and floor shapes in an external DCC, artists draw the outline with a spline in the editor and the tool builds the surface, so plazas, sidewalks and odd-shaped lots can be shaped and iterated in place.
I was also starting to explore a PCG implementation with the tech art team.
Thanks to the tools developers who built them with us, and a huge shout-out to the entire Environment Tech and Level Art teams who put them to work across Kalona.
More from this series:
• Kalona City and Downtown District: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/rzXXQm
• Buildings and Building Tool: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/JwEEN0
• Downtown District: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/31bb02
• Downtown Photography Trip: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/LaZZYA