Because of the new way that the walls have been created, custom collision boxes must be used to ensure the player cannot escape the game environment. These collision boxes follow the contours of the room and should stop items or the player clipping through the static meshes. Due to the shape of the room autoconvex collision wouldn't wrap around the mesh properly, this would stop the player from being able to access areas that I wish for them to explore.
After reworking the shape of the room from the previous prototype, I decided it was about time to add some windows for a more 'natural' and less 'jail cell' look. To begin, I cut a large hole in the wall, then built a placeholder mantel and frame to gauge how the final window might look.
Once the placeholders are created, I rebuild each piece in greater detail. Once all of the pieces are reworked, I will UV all of the pieces, then create all of the textures. In the case of the windowsill to keep consistency in textures I prefer to batch texture as it keeps the techniques I use fresh in my mind. I decided that the next stage in modelling my window would be to create the curtains. The curtains were built from a poly-plane which I positioned to create rough material folds then extruded the plane back to give the curtain some depth.
To shape the curtain in a more natural position I used the Lattice Deformer tool to retain the previous fold detail whilst also giving it the appearance of being drawn back.
The plastic frame for the window glass was a relatively low poly model. I found that the level of detail of the placeholder model was sufficiently realistic thus didn't require editing further. To create the net-curtain I used a basic plane, created similar folds to the original curtain and applied a semi-opaque texture to it.
Below is the final image taken from the UDK engine.
As each asset is created, I tend to import them straight into UDK to apply the textures and get a rough indication of how much space I have left for further assets. Although this is a very simple approach, it is effective at keeping the interactive aspect of the project progressing. When modelling objects for environments it's easy to find yourself engrossed in the modelling process and completely forget about the game aspect of the Honours project. By constantly going between Maya and UDK it allows me to judge my rate of progression as well as check for alterations required in textures, models or their positioning in UDK to create a believable environment.