I've been working on learning the basics for Unity 3D over the past month and so I decided to design a small lake to get a better feel for the terrain editor within the program. I only had access to the most basic water plane, one type of tree, and about 4 textures/ materials, so bear that in mind. If anyone has more experience in the program I would be more than happy to hear ways I could make more realistic scenes in the future when I have access to a modeling program of my own. Here are some pictures, thanks for reading.
Nice man! I have Unity as its part of my program, but I haven't played with it yet. You seem to know a lot more than me so far. It's really a great tool though, I'll likely begin using it soon.
Have you guys tried the Cry Engine 3 SDK? same thing as Unity, except better in some ways. If this exact map was in the Cry Engine the water would look very realistic and the sun would also, just say'in. Nice work though.
You should remember that this is also the most low end basic assets I've used here: Pre-shipped skybox, water, tree, and textures. It would look much better if I knew how to make/ find better assets.
Search up "_______ Texture" on DeviantART and you'll get a billion and one perfectly tiled textures that people made. Keep in mind, though, if you're actually making a game you're gonna need to either make your own texture or ask permission and credit the original creator.
you should make your own assets. using others, even free ones, is generally looked down upon anyone who has been doing this for any amount of time is able to spot common free textures easily (for example, cgtextures.com. GREAT site. very common.) its ok when you're just starting, but you'll want to learn to do it yourself too.
Quick update: Messed with Ambient Lighting and the Directional Light, as well as some fog settings to make the mountains fade into the distance more. I definitely plan to use custom textures and models in the future, but I just want to get my feet planted firmly first. Certainly I would want to try for all custom content in a portfolio piece.
This scene looks pretty good. There is actually 2 other types of trees, but one of them looks like a pile of sticks. The other one is a palm tree which would look good on the island. You can also add grass that waves in the wind by going to terrain, clicking the flower icon, selecting big tree branch, and your good to go. Looks great!
This scene took about 6 hours Mac. I know there were two trees, but I felt palm trees would look out of place on a lake in a mountainous region. I thought about grass, but ended up using it only on the islands because it disappeared from view quickly, even on the longest distance setting, and there was no mass place feature to spread it evenly. I figured if you couldn't see it why waste an extra 2 hours.