How to make PS1-Esque graphics with Blender 2.9 (Trimsheets and Enviroment Modeling)

While seamless textures are good for covering large swaths of mesh, not everything consists of one uniform material or texture. There are better ways to texture our meshes, and here's a video showing you how to do it.
Thanks to PixelDough for the thumbnails and assistance with Unity
Link to the Silent Hill Level Viewer mentioned in the video: • Silent Hill 1 Level V...
I hope you liked the video,
Like and subscribe for more content :)
Follow me on Twitter - / sicklywiz
Watch me Livestream Monday and Friday - / thesicklywizard
Check out the PS1 Subreddit - / ps1graphics
Come hang out in our PS1 Graphics Discord :) - / discord
Support or buy me a Coffee if you liked my content :) - ko-fi.com/thesicklywizard

[@georgeapelgren3632]

For those who are wondering, the Vertex Color node has been renamed to Color Attribute in Blender 3.0

[@lucasbastosrodrigues140]

oh thank you

[@retroinspect]

As an aside Silent Hill had to devote vertex coloring exclusively to the flashlight so shadows are painted into the tile sheet. It’s the only ps1 game I’ve seen do this which adds to how eerily realistic it is.

[@1gnore_me.]

I can't imagine how much effort that must have taken. I was messing around with the silent hill level viewer & there's a surprising amount of detail in the game, for example every building in central silent hill has a unique billboard & name. there's even different posters plastered everywhere, one in particular referencing portishead ... then all the different eerie posters and art in the school ... to manually draw the shadows into everything as well must have been insane.

[@LarryHazard]

is there a video that explains this? I still dont understand how it worked

[@---Nikita--]

@@LarryHazard +

[@Uradamus]

The Mega Man Legends game also used vertex colors for dynamic lighting effects. In that case they used it both to give the environment the sense of directional light, where the top and west facing side of buildings/terrain walls/etc were made to appear as if they were receiving light and the bottom and east facing sides looked like they were in shadow. Then on top of that they faked distance fog by fading the vertex colors to white in the overworld, and black in the underground, the further a vertex is from the camera.

[@lukabrasi001]

Metal Gear Solid 1 actually has the lighting baked into the textures

My man. Your tutorials are perfect. You don't waste time, you talk about a subject I can't find anywhere else, and on top of that, you offer enlightening and well-made visualizations to explain 3D concepts that I'd never quite understood. Your content has been extremely helpful to me in my 3D gamedev journey, and if I ever manage to ship a 3D game, no doubt I'm gonna credit you. Were it not for my poor brazilian third world ass, I'd be showering you with money. You certainly deserve it. For now though, i can offer just a big heartfelt thanks. This video made my day.

[@thesolitaryowl]

This is honestly applicable to modern games too, thanks for explaining trim sheets!

[@zombizzle_]

Can't put into words how much I appreciate your videos.

[@TheSicklyWizard]

I appreciate that!

[@PostcardFromADream]

This video is so much more useful than I initially thought. One of the best. I took what I needed to get started, and every time I come back I learn something new that I can implement to take things to the next level.

[@augustjschroeder]

You have one of the most underrated channels on KZbin!

[@alienpolygon6926]

Another great video, you are seriously doing a huge service in making these.

[@igormaxisims7116]

I had no idea how to make the shadows of the scene until now. You are very much needed in the blender community.

[@scruffyscruff]

Godot users (as I'm pretty much exclusively using Godot now): the glb/gltf file has the vertex painting saved inside the file, so you just need to hit the "albedo vertex" options to show the vertex painting. You can use all sorts of colours and paint your scenes, so you could potentially skip creating additional textures.

[@TheSicklyWizard]

Ooh, nice!

[@Xeranxies]

This is so fkn cool! How is it that I'm only now finding your channel? Great stuff!

[@morganlak4337]

Ok just want to say this technique for modeling is GODLIKE and solves so many problems I've run into while trying to achieve this style personally, but my small complaint is that this is a texture atlas, not a trimsheet. A trim sheet stacks multiple textures vertically, while allowing them to tile horizontally, it also usually packs normals, AO, roughness, etc in another texture that goes with it. Atlases don't provide any enhanced performance on modern hardware, and actual trimsheets, while not PS1 accurate, are still really useful to the style. For the game I'm working on I use both as needed, sometimes an atlas just makes things get that old school look that you need, but sometimes it's just way more convenient to have a tiling trim. This is really some of if not THE best PS1 content on KZbin though so I'm subscribing for sure, thanks for the video!

[@TheSicklyWizard]

Ive heard that twice now about trim sheets, shame since i couldnt readily tell the difference

[@xodiach]

I literally screamed and woke my friend up while watching this video, because this dude just casually pulls out "and next we're going to do this specific thing that you've literally been trying to google how to do for like forever and haven't gotten any results for". Not once, not twice, not even three times. I'm not shitting you, this happened like SIX times in this single 14 minute video. I don't know what deity or algorithm decided to bless me with this golden nugget of a video, but holy shit thank you so much for making it, you are an actual genie.

[@hydrocosmo]

Such a helpful series, I really love the coziness that comes with this style.

[@mulanmiller5000]

I love these kind of videos, makes me so nostalgic. Good to see someone bringing back them oldschool vibes :)

[@PhotoPunk79]

Dude... I'm speechless. Loved it, great tutorial.

[@supercolom64]

Man, your channel is some of the greatest and most helpful content I've come across for game dev and modeling Seriously thank you so much

[@dantescanline]

Excellent video!! this is really in-depth for a low poly workflow, that UV reset + constrain combo just saved me so much headache.

[@saultoons]

Very useful, I might give this a shot in the future, it could be very fun :D

[@awhiskin]

Absolutely amazing!! Definitely going to give this a go when I get the chance, the vertex colouring at the end do so much to sell the look.

[@shimi_ek]

This channel is a godsend. I have no clue why you don't have more subscribers, the quality of these tutorials is enough to sell as a course. Thank you!

[@uwaiswaiswais]

Awesome! Was looking for a simplest way to model and texture environments. Always a good idea to go back in time.

[@Goalatio]

I’m so glad I found this because it solves a problem I’ve been having with the Bevy engine! Thanks!

[@tonyromero2013]

Wow, you are quite good at this. I love this series, really hoping you keep making PS1 style tutorials.

[@jasmyn1258]

Thank you so much for uploading! :) Will try this out tomorrow

[@TheSicklyWizard]

Hope you enjoy!

[@Folkeir]

Reset UVs, what MVP function. Awesome tutorial 👌 thanks!

[@Neutronized]

this looks pretty cool! thanks for sharing the creation process

[@falkreon]

What you're describing isn't really a trim sheet, it's a texture atlas. Trim sheet is like an atlas for normalmaps or decals, so that you don't have to rebake normalmaps for five models with the same geometry detail in their highpoly.

[@user-og6hl6lv7p]

It's also worth noting that baking anything using the method in the video is ill advised since the UV polys overlap one another

[@TheSicklyWizard]

Indeed, baking is not possible using a texture atlas like this, if you intend to bake anything into the texture, like lighting, its not going to work. But out of curiosity, do you have an alternative method that would solve that problem?

[@falkreon]

@@TheSicklyWizard yeah, any time you wind up trying to combine a texture atlas with a mip or normal scenario, you get problems. if you leave a 1-pixel moat around each tile, times two for each additional mip level, that'll give you the room you need to interpolate properly while still saving you the cost of texture binds.

[@Supervocetubeia64]

I'm making N64-inspired graphics. I've been experimenting with strip-shaped texture atlas, like 32x1024 resolution. By doing that, I keep lots of textures on the same material but I'm also able to use texture tiling on the X axis of the texture, repeating specific texture patterns over large areas without having to model individual squares. The game will not use advanced lighting and visual effects. It's been working so far but my question is: will this kind of atlas cause development problems later on? Am I safe using a strip-shaped atlas?

[@falkreon]

@@Supervocetubeia64 The main issue boils down to whether you're using mip mapping. If yes, you'll need a textured moat separating elements on the Y axis to handle color bleed from pixels "outside" your texcoords. If not, you should have no problems packing your texture like this. Most N64 games did not mip due to the very small texture cache.

[@Zeeye]

This art style is so unique and cool

[@FrogFraction]

This is so cool man. Thank you for showing

[@adrianodarlo2172]

I think this one’s the best KZbin video I’ve ever watched. Really.

[@smc3453]

just grabbing the games files and processing them and then dragging and dropping them in and exploring the levels made me lean forward in my chair a little bit, that was cool

[@stardusty]

So many of my questions answered in one video!

[@aahilalwani5019]

Straight to the fucking point and also manages to be concise? Only this guy is allowed to make Blender Tutorials from now on.

[@user-gk9ut9qc1o]

Dude, you are AMAZING!

[@silentslayergaming8469]

Thank you so much, i'm trying to make a "Ps1" game in unity but I really have no idea how to start or where to begin. This video is handy and a good start to learning

[@UliTroyo]

This is so cool! Thanks so much, this is great insight.

[@lukas6600]

Great video as usual!

[@1cedragon]

Amazing video! You explain everything really well.

[@lukabrasi001]

the Medal of Honor games taught me the texture atlas approach and i can see why it bogged down the performance so much when you had to work with a grid instead of modern vertex tools

[@blenderEvd]

Thank you!! The best lesson about this topic I've seen

[@Cyclone94]

this is so sick. thank you

[@btttrn6]

Полезное видео. Все по делу и без лишней воды. 🙂 Useful video. All on the case and without unnecessary "water".

[@TobeasJ]

Very informative and detailed video. Nice.

[@maximsharipov982]

Thank you, awesome atmosphere

[@fantasydevelopment759]

this is just what i was looking for to texture my terrains and not make a giant size texture! thank you very much!

[@westingtyler2]

also a thing I figured out a few days ago in Blender, where I figured out how to take 3-6 32x32 square textures and make a tilesheet in Blender that shows all possible 64x64 combos and transitions, so it's all in one texture. these vids are awesome.

[@MrLukimen]

Thank's for this awesome video 🔥🔥

[@TheWeakenedWarrior]

That was great! Thanks for sharing this technique.

[@MastermindAtWork]

Idk if you read my mind but I was trying figure out how to this for my project. Thank you so much.

[@iamblinkin]

Thank you so much for these videos!

[@3DWithLairdWT]

Loved this video! It's a great resource about a techniques that is *still* used today in modern high fidelity games. I think this would be more of an "Atlas" than a trim sheet. Trim sheets are generally made of strips that tile with themselves horizontally, but can also include some "floaters" like an atlas does as well. Either way, this is a really, really useful technique that can take performance cost down a ton in both low-res and high-res settings

[@arthurdarocharuzinsky8182]

Love it man, maybe now I can create a game with this Style

[@supremebeme]

love this... subscribed from new zealand

[@lightthelanterns140]

Love the content!

[@makoto-samaru8004]

Man! This is great!

[@Eraserhead2416]

You are fantastic, and your videos are fantastic

[@JustAhmd]

This is amazing!

[@donkeyfacekilla1]

Rad. Wicked video! New sub

[@emeraldeelentertainment8988]

Excellent video wizard! For a future video, I'd like to know how to create PS1 water textures. I've tried creating them but it's been troubling to create the water surface caustics and the like.

[@Estebanmdp100]

This is beautiful

[@sealsharp]

Nice work!

[@ForlornCreature]

Awesome!

[@Pengoony]

Commenting to influence the algorithm lol

[@TheSicklyWizard]

doing the lords work

[@suzukito]

i love your vids :)

[@thusky4399]

Another day in the golden mind (golden mine?) of TheSicklyWizard

[@not_herobrine3752]

ngl i learnt something new from this :)

[@kairon156]

This may be useful in the next year or two. I want to start a hobby project that mimics 90's style FPS puzzle action games.

[@eelmerchant528]

Please don't stop making these :')

[@PiononoMatic]

excelente video, muchisimas gracias!

[@shadowfang1034]

I dont know if I even want to 3d model but damn I love the ps1 look of this

[@longjohn7992]

GOD DARN MASTERPIECE MADE BY A MASTERPIECE

[@charliehc9100]

If the topic wasn't so niche you'd have a tons more subscribers. This is really well done

[@TheSicklyWizard]

yeah, probably :)

[@Definitely_a_Fox]

Clever, this method also helps mitigate the PS1's affine texture mapping distortions by breaking meshes up into parts. The best solutions are the ones that solve multiple problems!

[@cothromgrimr161]

thank you so much!

[@LarsHost]

I’ve been waiting for such a tutorial for years! Thanks a lot, dude! Did you think about making a tutorial on detailed architecture? May be some castles, churches or ancient ruins like in Ico or Shadow of the colossus (I know they’re on ps2, but they have good examples of low poly architecture, can’t remember any on ps1 right now).

[@TheSicklyWizard]

Im doing the basics, rn. Ill probably do a "lesson" on gumroad or Udemy for something that deep in detailed

[@PopStrikers]

Seriously awesome UV tricks. Never tried the Reset option before! Have you tried using the "Dirty Vertex Colors" in the Paint menu when Vertex painting? I find it gives a pretty nice jumping off point for quickly filling in crevices with shadow, similar to ambient occlusion. Huge timesaver for large areas.

[@TheSicklyWizard]

i have seen "dirty vertex colors", its a good trick, but i like to have more control over things than letting it automatically do it. I tested it with this scene, but the effect was too strong.

[@dimitrispontikakisbatana2062]

I stopped making these and just watched the video. Idk y but i find ur videos oddly entertaining lol

[@RosieSapphire]

That's a mighty weird looking Minecraft world. lmfao Love the video btw!

[@antondingir884]

im making game with random world tiles gens and this is very usfull! ty!

[@Rhino1004]

I'm in love with this tutorial! The only issue is that your voice's audio balance keeps wavering towards the right ear, like you keep going 'off-center' at random. It's subtle, but with headphones, it can be jarring. Besides that hiccup - keep it up!

[@kortkunig2291]

0/10 the spinning Silent Hill CD didn't have a black backside. No eriously, you do an amazing job on here. Thank you so much for that.

[@nausic]

Chipped PS1 lol

[@filipemecenas]

Thanks

[@aaronbrown300]

you are a godsend

[@glowiever]

what makes this a legendary video is because he used GIMP :O Edit: Holy shit, that reset uv trick is a livesaver. EXACTLY what I neeed!!!! dude thanks a lot!!

[@jasonwhitworth117]

I would like this 100 times if I could.

[@tobymdev]

awesome vid

[@bananastudiolife]

Actually, this tuto is the best for beginners.

[@vacantly]

awesome and shockingly rare information to find, thank you! curious how they handle this in gamecube era in games like okami, where the environments feel a bit less gridlike. i imagine it's similar though.

[@caretakergamer6093]

Great video!! Would love a video about texturing terrain for N64 as well!

[@TheSicklyWizard]

It's very much the same but lower res textures

[@caretakergamer6093]

@@TheSicklyWizard I've been trying to get the more blurry look instead of the tiled more clean look? The biggest issue I've been having is getting the top of the cliff to match well with the rest of the cliff wall.

[@TheSicklyWizard]

You would need to use a texture filter, but if you use a filter you need to give the texture tile a padding so it doesn't blend together other textures and exasperate the problem

[@JohnDoe-pk8lc]

I'd really be interested in how to import vertex colors with texture into unity, could you do a tutorial on it?

[@GrandeGio95]

Can you teach us your water texture ? It looks so simple but effective !

[@onlyaspoonful9171]

8:27 dude turns into saul goodman

[@blinkachu5275]

Great video! But I do have a question. How do you now import these vertex colors into Unity?

[@RosieSapphire]

Hey, I am curious. Do you know of anyways to do that vertex jitter thing in Blender? I know you can do it in Unity with a plug in, but I've been wondering if it's at all possible to do it inside Blender.

[@TheSicklyWizard]

Yes it is entirely possible, in fact i think its quite easy.

[@RosieSapphire]

@@TheSicklyWizard what do ya do? :o

[@TheSicklyWizard]

@@RosieSapphire ill make a video on it very shortly, but basically it's using a displacement modifier on the global coordinates, with like a stucco texture set to a small scale.

[@RosieSapphire]

@@TheSicklyWizard hm, alright! So this is kinda like vector displacement?

[@TheSicklyWizard]

@@RosieSapphire im not actually all that familiar with vector displacement

[@bachaun]

nice new mic!

[@TheSicklyWizard]

but... its the same mic >_>

[@robertnewman4854]

This is superb! I am absolutely going to use this in the near future! I do have one question though... in terms of scaling, how does the lack of units effect exporting to UE4? is there any way to use a common scale between the two to your knowledge? thanks!

[@TheSicklyWizard]

I have absolutely no clue for unreal. Ive only ever worked with unity. I know unreal uses centimeters as their unit so maybe you could swap the units system back after your done modeling.

[@fabianvelander]

I absolutely love the trees you used in this video, and I'm currently trying my hardest to make a similar leaf texture. But I just can't seem to get the same feel at all. What texture did you use, and if you made it: How?

[@TheSicklyWizard]

I made a tutorial on the trees a while ago. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pnLNiHZnbL-GaNE

[@jaymadethat1362]

how did you make that 4x4 tile in the gimp when making the dirt texture with grass texture

[@dsfsdfsdfsdf43]

love u