I looked around the application to find what to do next.
I saw in the bottom right corner "create new project". That's probably the right button to click.
Lets see, first person, third person, top down, this is an obvious choice. Since I want to implement it into VR it has to be first person.
Ok it has started up, it loaded a platform with a center stage and walls surrounding the perimeter.
Ok, first things first, how do I delete the parts I don't want? Let's get this to a flat platform first.
I got it. The delete key, that's how you delete stuff. Who would have guessed?
Now I have my square platform floating in the empty sky.
How do I make this look different? Like add a texture?
Ok, I selected the floor. That didn't help me… materials. Yeah, that should be it.
Oh, I don't have any.
So, this doesn't come with any default textures? It is just a blank and grid pattern? What can I do with that?
Well, how do I get more textures?
Ok, I found it. It has a shop.
What! Everything is so expensive! Texture sets are like $200 or more! How do you expect a normal person to be able to afford those prices? Most people are barely getting by, and you want to charge them that much for a texture they might not even use?
It's not like it even gives you a good look at what textures or assets are included. It's just a few pictures of maps they made with them.
Honestly for something I might not use, on something I'm not sure I can finish, let alone market. It is just a bad investment.
One not many would make.
Lucky for me I have money to burn.
But before I take the easy way out. Let's try to figure out how to make my own textures.
I'm going to have to Foolgle this.
Ok, yep, I got it.
First I need to open a drawing application then create a canvas that is a proper size.
The size I chose was 1,200 X 1,200 pixels.
Now, I don't mean to brag but I am a decent drawer.
I have a few artists in my family, and I myself have won a few awards for drawing.
To start, let's try grass. Just make a few tufts and lasso, then copy paste around to look fuller.
Nice that looks good.
Now let's drag and drop into the game engines material library folder.
Cool, now apply to the floor block.
Done.
Wow, that looks way worse than I thought it would.
I forgot that the grass I drew wouldn't have actual dimensions. It is just a 2D image tile placed around the floor.
So I have 2D grass tufts facing only one direction.
Let's try something a little easier, dirt.
There has to be a few pebbles and a few green sprouts. I have to make sure that everything is from a top down perspective.
That looks pretty good. Still flat and bland, but better than the grass.
Next, I will do the ambient occlusion image for the material. Which is basically just a black and white version that has made the whites brighter and blacks darker.
That was pretty easy.
Add that to the material. Save.
Hey, now. That looks a whole lot better. It added some depth to the flat image.
Now I need to add the roughness, which basically controls how shiny the texture is.
Again, once you have the base color image the others come quickly.
Then the "Normal" image.
And that finishes the texture for the material image.
I have to say. I did a pretty good job on making dirt.
Alright, now that I have done it. I can say, that was rough. It took me a few hours to do all of that. I honestly can think of a more demoralizing thing to do as a new game developer.
Because I know they aren't buying textures. They have to be making their own. To spend hours on just textures, not to mention sound effects or AI for the mobs. There is just too much to do for a lone person.
If I had my own version of this I would make sure to have some free default textures and sounds to use. Even if they aren't high quality.
But anyway, let's look through the shop and see if I can find anything that I like.
…
Nope. Not a thing.
There are around 9,500 different textures in the shop. But, most are textures for singular things like trees or apples.
I found some assets that I could get for free. Those being realistic trees.
The difference between textures and assets is textures are just cosmetic while assets are real. Like the tree can be placed as a 3D tree. While the texture requires you to make a tree to put the texture on.
I looked through the assets too. They are equally as crap. I don't think I have ever seen a game that uses any of these, textures or assets.
I really don't know where people are getting them. I guess online, from independent websites. But that feels really sketchy.
I don't want to get a virus.
I guess I will have to use AI, or try to find a person to custom make all of my textures. But, that sounds pretty hard and time consuming.
I know the internet has a lot of people demonizing AI right now and I don't want to make a game using AI only for it to be dead on release because of that.
I guess I don't need the textures right away. I can put a post out online and see what that gets first.
The thing I need to work on first is the user interface for the game making app. It is after all only for monitors. Despite using the AR glasses they are still displaying only a screen for me to use.
I want to have a 3D rendered version that I can use. So, that's what I'm going to do, make one.