In order for games to run smoothly, the game assets need to be game ready. To do assure that this is done, several things must be done:
- Optimization
- Good Mesh Deformation
- Texture Creation
- Lightmap Creation
- Instancing
- Modularity & Flexability
Optimization
In order for games to run well, they need to have a low triangle count. To do this, you can avoid using unnecessary polygons. This helps the computer or console, as it doesn’t need to calculate as many points at any one time. One way to reduce polygon and tiangle counts, is to make sure that your models don’t have any edge loops, unles required.
A low triangle katana mesh.
Good Mesh Deformation
In order for your models to look nice in games, they need to have a good, and efficient UVW layout. for this, flaten mapping is usually a bad idea. Usually, each polygon needs to taken care to individully.
Flattened UVW template.
Well layed out UVW template.
Texture Creation
After saving off the UVW template, you can use it to create a texture. The texture should be relative to the game asset importance. i.e. A simple wooden crate should only have a texture with a maximum size of 513px x 512px, whereas a character may have a 2084px x 2048px texture.
The sword texture.
Lightmaps
Lightmaps are different textures and UVW coordinates. They determine how the light reacts with the model. Overlapping is a definite no with lightmaps. Each polygon should have its own space on a UVW template.
The lightmap for the sword.
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