On this page I have posted a example of a 3D environment that is very suitable for 3D gaming (PC,PS2 or XBOX). For example, this scene (so far) is only 7k polys and on my last PS2/XBOX GAMECUBE game we budgeted 25k polys avg. per level. This leaves me plenty of polys to add extra details. With the PS3 or XBOX 360 I could do so much more although each engine and delegation of system resources varies with each project/studio.
Q: HOW CAN I MAKE A PHOTOREALISTIC REALTIME (i.e. FLIGHTSIM SUITABLE) CITY LEVEL USING ONLY PRIMATIVES?
A: USE REALLY GREAT TEXTURES.
AND TO MAKE IT EVEN HARDER I DECIDED I COULD USE NO LIGHTS AND NO BUILDING TEXTURE COULD BE LARGER THAN 512x512.
THIS EXAMPLE LEVEL IS ALL ABOUT THE TEXTURES AND THE MAPPING...
By using the most simplified objects possible and by relying on very realistic textures I created each building, one by one and placed them in a gridlike pattern throughout the scene. Then I created a really sweet road/traffic texture and placed streets between the buildings. As a guide, I constructed it using the same methods/standards used in my last major video game project. Topped off with sky domes and multi-planar-wrap-around distant landscapes and backgrounds.
In the top image you can see the scene rendered using the 3DSMAX default scannline renderer.The detail level of this so far could be suitable for a flight sim (helicopter would be best), superman type game, etc., as long as the player view is above roof top level. Otherwise more detail and probably more textures would be needed.
In the rendering below only 1/3 of the city is visible. This view being towards the northern quadrant of the city.
The total size of the city is approximately 100 city blocks or a 1 square mile area.
Level specifications are as follows (you can confirm most of this info by referring to the lower image summary info box in the lower right corner):
Total polygons: 7156 (this leaves plenty of polys for embellishments and greater details. Not to mention optimizing 80 poly per building by removing rooftop "red lights" and doing that in the textures instead. So if optimized the scene would be only 3000+- polys with no visible difference.)
Lights used: 0 (NOTE: so far the lighting is built into the maps but more could be added via the game engine to provide static or dynamic lighting and shadows)
Texture memory used: 24 mb (no building texture map is bigger than 512x512) but this could be converted to DXTs and halved).
Time to construct: 8 hours (mostly spent acquiring/making ALL ORIGINAL textures)
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