Iron Age Town!

With the Forest Ruins in the publishing phase it is time for me to move on. 

So next on the agenda is a medieval town model pack. The idea is to include a few small buildings, some palisades, towers, and some detail props to help fill out the town. 

I've already done a good amount of work. Below you can see the buildings created thus far. Brickwork and logs are modeled out, which after some testing looks quite a bit better and is actually better for performance than a material that tessellates geometry.  

The real challenge, as I'm sure those who have modeled medieval building in the past know, is creating a believable thatch for roofs. I decided to use the Hair and Fur modifier in 3ds Max, adjust properties, convert to mesh, and then bake to a lower poly shape that conforms to the roof. The tricky part is coloring each individual piece of thatch. Results are seen below. This is the best I've been able to make thatch look without using an absurd amount of polygons. 

Log Cabin

Longhouse

Roundhouse

Thatch

I've also modeled some palisades and a guard tower. The palisade sections can be snapped together to make a variety of walls. Seen below. Everything is rendered real time in the Unreal Engine. ​

Guard Tower and Palisades