It’s been quite awhile since I’ve updated you folks of what I’ve been doing in my world, in VRChat.. which is the only reason why I’m still playing that game. Yet, I’d like to think of it as being ‘similar’ to Wurm (with my deed).
When I last talked to you guys, I had two “decisions” to make (after learning Ferret Lake was mainly built using Blender, and not Unity. And I ‘chose’ the first, which is to keep working on it. Yet what I did, I’m actually having my doubts if I should work on it anymore (which is causing me to get bored with working on it).
To further explain what’s going on, I added a sizable river with a covered bridge. On one end, it has two prebuilt houses placed (from the Mega Fantasy Props Pack), and on the other, is a long winding path that connects back to the original area.
The original shack has been propped up, and a custom built (by myself) porch that was made infront of it.
Now I’ve been thinking of making a fork in the road (from the bridge), which would go to a new public picnic site (that’ll be along the river). Yet one model eludes me (aka, I cannot find anything that resembles it, even of the paid assets); one of those compact, open air outdoor burger/hotdog grills that you typically see at public parks (that you put your own charcoal in).
Yet something stopped me with just doing the campsite (with what free assets I had found from the store): “Why am I doing this, when it’s just going to be me here?”… and I don’t really have an answer to that question. Except, the whole reason I did the river, was because of the single covered bridge model (that I was able to stack horizontally to make the actual bridge). Then I just started fiddling with the world afterwards, adding mountains and trees (to hide the edges of the world, as most world builders do).
And after that, is when I started feeling “I’m putting in too much, who the hell is going to see it but myself?”
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So let’s talk about.. what the hell happened to my original plan. It’s still there, but I have yet to build the house. However, it not just how I feel it’s going to lag like a bitch (with every wall composed of a cube, just shaped to fit), it’s the interior of the house that’s the problem. For what I’m planning to do, I’ve built in The Sims (and in Minecraft) so many times. And those times, I wasn’t a fan of just how bare the bathroom was.
Yet even when I made it smaller (and added a dining room on the back), that dining room felt way too big for my needs. I hate having empty areas in the house (just because I don’t know what to do with them).
And there’s more than just that, but the way Unity (poorly) handles scaling of textures (IE, my attempt of a river when my world was small), it won’t look right once it’s all said and done. Perhaps, this is the reason people build their world with Blender (or Maya) — to bypass these ‘basic’ limits?
I dunno what to think of it. Perhaps I need to ask my friend, if there’s any slimmer of hope to circumvent these limits (and get my desired results).
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Moving on, it’s time (once again) to talk about that ole bucket of ‘surprises’ (everytime it’s opened). Of course I’m talking about the Unity Asset Store. But this isn’t a rant about paying for assets, it’s more about getting more than you’re paying.
For example, I wanted to find a picnic table and a lawn chair. And the first one alone, is “only $2”. Two bucks. Cheap? Yes. Reasonably priced (based on the quality of the model)? Hell yeah. Yet… I greatly debated on it. “Dude.. it’s $2! You can’t afford that?! Come ON!” went through my mind. I felt I was being a total cheapskate.
Asked some of my friends, and most of their responses were “no, don’t get it, even if it’s cheap”, explaining that these people love to take advantage of people like myself (with very little to no experience with Blender). Then one of them actually offered to do a version of it for me, for free! Of course I can never turn down that kind of offer.
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And here’s the result. Compare it to the original, and it looks pretty good. Though if I could find a much lighter wood color (such as Pine), I’d go with it instead (as it’ll look more true to real life). And I can also add some detail (such as ‘nails’ in the wood where the joints are connected). I could simply make a capsule mesh, shrink it down, slap on a stainless steel-like material (as it’s more common for nails), and use it. Or I could even go with an iron-like material (for a more rustic look).
Next was the lounge chair. This $10 one is all I could find (at the time.. I am aware there are cheaper options now). This one has two reclining settings (based on the notches on the back leg), and a choice of five different colors of the same material. Again, the quality looks superb! But I was told “$10, for one model?! What a ripoff!” by another friend of mine.
The person that made the table, did their best to make the chair (like the paid version). But he told me when he finished, that he “couldn’t figure out the cloth part”. I got the highly-untextured .fbx (with all of its parts). It looks literally like a mirrored image of the $10 one (even has the notches), but I have to texture it (like the picnic table, by simply dragging and dropping textures onto the model), and then turning it into a prefab.
Though as he was working on that model, I downloaded that crappy one from models-resource, and ‘taught’ myself how to retexture it (aka, I asked Oliver how to do it (as he used this model for his world) and he couldn’t show me as he was busy). And it’s as simple as looking for what you want to replace it with, throw it in GIMP, resize it to 32×64 (to make it fit), then paste it over what you find ugly.
This is the result. It looks so much better than the original. I also retextured the trim with white plastic (ripped from a chair model(also from models-resource)), which was done after I took that pic. So now I have two lawn chairs. 🙂
So that’s about it (for now). Oh wait.. before I wrap this up, I now know how to make a teleport door! Kattejuice showed me how he did it for his log cabin door. It takes a bit of effort, but I’ve made a prefab of it. Now all I have to do is simply fit it in the doorway.
I’m also kind of debating about adding a teleport to bypass the long walk to and from the covered bridge, which was a suggestion from Creepery (after showing him the expanded world). I personally enjoy the scenic walk (though I still need to smooth out the path in places).
I could just add some more detail, such as a small creek (coming off of the river), with a small picnic area on the side. But there I go again.. thinking I’m going to build this for other people. I NEED to focus on the house first!
Who knows.. I might make this thing public (but after I do my house idea). I don’t have an idea for a name of the world, but I’m sure my friends could help me with that (when the time comes).