Your Nature Could be Stylized with this Asset Pack in Unity 3D
Nature and Stylized, probably the two words most covered in my various articles in the past, there are a lot of points to be made about efficiency and aesthetic that have been covered before.
Working with stylized assets is both limiting and freeings at the same paradoxical moment. I find that it is easier to maintain consistency with realistic looking scenes but I also find stylized scenes far more visually appealing.
It has something to do with my own fascination with how the brain sort of fills in the blanks for you. Nothing in this pack looks like what it should, realistically, be. My head can easily tell you what the whole thing is at a glance though because of the tricks used without my own conscious knowledge to help assign everything its place.
So after that tangent, let’s take a look at what this nature pack has to offer!
This hierarchy is about the only really negative thing about this pack. Even saying that I am not quite sure how they could have done it differently. To say I got lost would be untrue but I could definitely see how a new user would look at this folder setup and not even know where to begin.
The materials are well done even in a relatively simple and stylized manner. Each stone has its own UV space and they look really good. Rocks can be pretty hard to get right and these ones look awesome. I would download this pack just to have all these good rock variations.
They are stacked and piled in such a way that showcases how potentially limitless their usage can be. The scene has four different smaller piles and than a large on the sloped edge of the map. Behind the sloped pile there is a tiling piled stone texture that is pretty good. I don’t know that I would put it out on its own but serving to fill the gaps and create a background for the piles, Perfect for that.
There was another interesting material aspect that I explored, though this has likely been in other packs I have covered this is the first time my curiosity was piqued enough to poke around in here.
Normally when I see bushes or foliage I just figure they are a set of stacked leaf cards arranged to look relatively natural. Unity 3D has actual Tree actors that can be pulled into a scene and then amended with your own materials and scripts to act the way you want them to.
So combining this material and the bark (which you never see) you can create this interesting looking bush. The rest of the trees and bushes are built in much the same way. Most of the trees are pre-created and then painted into the terrain. A pretty neat workflow.
This pack is worth its weight for the rocks alone. There are also a lot of valuable lessons to be learned by digging around in the way the terrain is set up, the foliage painting and the tree actors. The kit is a good mix of potentially educational and useful assets.
Its cost is right about where it should be, I think, mainly because of the rocks. Its definitely worth a purchase if your aesthetic jives with it. Though the style of the pack is such that it is a bit too unique. It veers just a bit outside the generic enough to use anywhere field. This just means you have to try to match it to this kit perfectly.
Pick it up, if you are new then it’s a good introduction to how to set up tree actors and play around with some terrain painting and if you just need some good rocks there are plenty to be had.
Mikael Gustafsson has some other assets here!
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