Below is a youtube tutorial showing off some of the UV tools/spline stuff in the world editor stuff they made. It's not the craziest stuff either, like auto material applied and seamless UVd spline meshes they have, but you get the idea. They haven't really said how they did it, hopefully they'll give some sort of talk on it this year.
Reminds me on a thought i had recently, about the history of game levels:
First it was all procedurally in code, e.g. Atari games.
Then instances of blocks in a regular grid, like Super Mario.
Then free form, like Doom. No more grid, no instances. Angled walls too. Full 3D with Quake.
Not detailed enough - add some static meshes for decoration. Can use instances of them.
Yay, let's build the whole level from detailed models and modules! (at least we got rid of Super Marios grid)
It's like a cycle. But the primary problems remain open:
Free form sucks because tiling textures still add grid and right angle constraints, which this video shows really nicely.
Modules suck because to make them connectable we get the same grid and angle limitations.
Hiding repetition is difficult for both.
An alternative like Dreams does not share any of those problems, but does not share efficiency either. I've seen how guys model wooden planks or rocks with tedious sculpting work. I classify this into the procedural Atari category.
So what's the solution? Supporting all of this crap in one engine? Or will we indeed figure out something better in a distant future, probably by getting rid of geometry / texture separation, but with smarter tools?
