Decal is a texture/image overlaid on top of models. It’s mostly used to simulate bullet holes, cracks, spills or footprints.
It is advised that the decals are made of one or several images overlaid on top of each other, in order to be colored separately to simulate the material of the damaged object or material of the substance on top of the object. The colorable image layers must be white in order for Unity to add color procedurally.
When it comes to transport or robots or any other object that uses tracks, the trail left by those tracks is supposed to be composed of a single fragment, meant to be repeatedly placed on the floor with every track movement.
That is supposed to function similarly as a photoshop brush to “paint” continuous tracks on the floor along an object’s path.
Other uses for decals are overlays - decals applied to structures, for example, overlaid over the floor or walls.
One texture might be used for several different items, if it is convenient. Take a look at the floor tile above as an example. Note: Floor tile textures will be rendered from 3d models so we can also render normal maps.
SS3D has a number of computers and terminals equipped with screens. By general consensus, their contents should be made in the similar style: flat-colored vector graphics.
In order to be animated, a texture animation should be converted into .mp4 in a resolution enough to fit the model’s screen. For regular consoles (pictured above) it’s 640px X 640px. But do note that the console’s screen is somewhat rectangular so the very top and bottom of the texture will be cut off. AI cores also have a place for textures, allowing some creative freedom (640px X 640px for these as well).
If the image is made after (or based on) a humanoid person, it should resemble the style of the humanoid model. The same principle is used for ID cards in their menus (see UI elements above).
All the other guidelines apply to particles as well, with a few differences.
As seen above, the particles need to be even more cartoonish, simple and recognizable, since they are not only small overall, but also move and rotate in space a lot. They also must be in PNG format, 64x64 and named in PascalCase.
SS3D models mostly use a color palette in place of actual textures, as it negates the need to learn texturing and UV unwrapping, helps with cohesion and supports a unique style of SS3D.
For simpler stuff it might be best to use colored polygons, as pictured on a few examples below:
Do not worry, the render settings make those look seamless, unless the seam is needed. For more info on that, consult the 3D Modeling Guidelines document.
Though do remember that items will be seen from pretty far away, so zoom out early and often, and always look at your work from all angles.
However, textures may be used for some specific cases. For example, repeating patterns, complex shapes or where cutting up the model to add colors may cause problems.
One of such examples: HumanSeveredLimb.png (256x256) used as a texture for flesh cross section with a bone in the middle.
Another example: a cowhide texture Cow.png (256x256)
Same principle can be applied to models that have too fine details to be modeled yet not enough to create visual noise. Such as clothes.
Complex text or symbols can use a transparent texture and placed on a model like tattoos or floor decals.
Some models can use several texture variants, like cows from the example above. To make the creation of such variants easier, one might create a template to guide others, who might take interest in creating more in the future.
Yet another way the textures are utilized are skyboxes. It is a cube with textures (4000x3000) on its inner faces, used to simulate the sky or similar backdrop around a three-dimensional space. Ours mostly used just for that: space backdrop. But there’s some creativity in creating a skybox for a holodeck (Those are in PNG, 4096x3072):
Poster templates can be found on the project’s google disk. Agreed resolution for a poster is 600x900 pixels (or 900x600 pixels for horizontal ones).
In case of posters, the guideline on the amount of details is somewhat lighter, but it’s still encouraged to not create too much visual noise.
Pictured below: Standard NT posters, in pallet’s colors and with sleek vector shapes.
Pictured below: Various posters in cartoonish vector styles.
Pictured below: Various posters, utilizing actual rendered models from the game.
Pictured below: Poster art in a variety of styles.
(add some examples of horizontal posters)
