Part of our workflow in bringing RATS to life is texturing our models. An amazing amount of thought and detail goes into each of the objects put into the game. In working with UDK, we have the ability to create stunning materials that truly bring our objects to life.

In order to take advantage of this system, we have to make sure that we generate textures covering at least 3 basic categories. Those are the diffuse, specular and normal map channels of a material. The diffuse texture controls the general color of a surface. The specular texture controls the color and amount of light that is bounced off of the surface. The normal map is a bump map texture that gives fine control over small details such as dents, scratches and elements on the object such as bolts, screws and rivets aswell as any engravings.

Using mudbox, we are able to generate extremely detailed textures by working in multiple layers and previewing our textures in each of the 3 channels for diffuse, specular and bump. This gives us instant feedback on what we’re going to be seeing in the game because we are actually painting the bumps and the light while we work.

Below is an example of this in action. Here, Hitpawz takes our latest enemy weapon, the MP40 and creates the entire set of textures from scratch. It took roughly 4 hours to do this work and it is entirely painted by hand. The video is sped up 12x to give a more general overview of the process, rather than a detailed look which would just take way too long. Enjoy.