Efficient texturing techniques for game environment art

Abstract

An environment artist’s role in the game industry requires them to combine their artistic skills with technical knowledge about the best performance practices and to do this under quick turnaround times and deadlines. This thesis covers six techniques that are used by industry professionals to both make their games perform better and to make the development process itself more efficient. The theoretical part of the thesis covers each of the techniques one by one, examining their advantages and disadvantages. While the techniques are common and effective, not every game or development team needs to use all of them which is why the thesis also covers in which cases they might be the most useful.

A 3D environment scene was created to accompany the theoretical part of the thesis. It shows the various techniques discussed in the thesis in practice. The project section covers the 3D environment art creation process phase by phase, starting with the planning and ending with a finished scene in a game engine.

The project provided a thorough understanding of the skills and technical requirements needed to work with the efficient techniques as well as a clear view into the benefits of using them. Most of the techniques were easy to implement but a few required slightly more technical knowledge from the artist. The visual quality achieved with the techniques and combined with the gains in performance proved that the techniques are very profitable tools to use in game development.