[Lynda.com] Creating Game Urban Environments in 3ds Max (2011)

Creating Urban Game Environments in 3ds Max is a practical guide to building 3D cityscapes for games. In this course, author Adam Crespi constructs a city block in 3ds Max utilizing low-polygon modeling and advanced texturing techniques.

The course shows how to model common city elements such as buildings, intersections, curbs, and roofs and explains how to expand a city quickly and easily by reusing existing geometry in a modular way. The course also sheds light on simulating real-world detail with baking, lighting, and ambient occlusion techniques and offers a series of best practices for exporting to the Unity gaming engine. Exercise files accompany the course

Introduction
1. Planning a Low Poly Model
2. Planning the Modeling of Cities for Games
3. Modular Construction of an Urban Environment
4. Texturing the Modular Construction
5. Creating Cornices, Parapets, and Roofs
6. Assembling Structures
7. Creating a Texture Library in Photoshop
8. Planning and Constructing Texture Sheets
9. Ambient Occlusion and the Render to Texture Dialog
10. Preparing to Export
Conclusion