Primitives

Building with Basic Primitives in Unreal

• Guardhouse Construction Method:

• Using primitive cubes - “most primitive way of making geometry/buildings”
  • Quick to change/edit/toss
  • Very playable despite roughness

• Initial Setup:

• Place base cube for guardhouse
  • Scale: x=20, y=14
• Grid Settings:
  • Translate: 100 (meter increments)
  • Rotation: 90 degrees
  • Scale: 1 (meter increments)
• Align pad to grid:
  • Round coordinates to 100s
  • Can rotate entire structure off-grid later

• Organization:

• Clean outliner structure:
  • Name pad “guardhouse_pad”
  • Create guardhouse directory
  • Group all related objects

• Building Construction Tips:

• Quick duplication: “Hold alt key and drag”
• Wall thickness:
  • Can change grid to 0.5 for thinner walls
  • Adjust snap to 50 accordingly
• “End key drops objects to next collision”

• Material Application:

• Use “prototype gray 2”
  • Shows grid aligned to world
  • Helps visualize object placement
• Can rotate structure off-grid
  • Material stays world-aligned
  • Use 10-degree rotation increments

• Final Touches:

• Add point lights for interior
• Keep refinement minimal
  • “Make it quick, make it dirty”
  • Can toss/change as needed

Primitive building technique offers quick, flexible level design through basic shapes. Focus on speed and functionality over refinement, allowing for rapid iteration and testing.