Forerunner Environment Trim Sheet

Goal: create a reusable Forerunner-inspired environment trim sheet for SystemLink arena pieces using Substance Designer as the source of truth.

This sheet should support clean alien architecture: walls, floors, ramps, door frames, columns, platform lips, lift edges, and hero architectural inserts. Keep it precise, monumental, and restrained. The style target is ancient sci-fi stone-metal, not noisy industrial kitbash.

Reference concept:

Generated texture pack:

• Base Color

• Normal

• ORM - R = AO, G = Roughness, B = Metallic

• Emissive - white intensity mask for material-side color control

• Height - optional helper map

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#Texture Target

• Working size: 2048 x 2048

• Final option: 4096 x 4096 if close-view arena pieces need it

• Layout: horizontal trim bands

• Authoring priority: Height first, then Normal/AO/Curvature, then material response

• Outputs:
• Base Color
• Normal
• ORM, packed as AO/Roughness/Metallic
• Emissive
• Height, optional for parallax or future baking

Recommended Unreal names:

• T_ForerunnerTrim_01_BaseColor

• T_ForerunnerTrim_01_Normal

• T_ForerunnerTrim_01_ORM

• T_ForerunnerTrim_01_Emissive

• T_ForerunnerTrim_01_Height

The first generated pack was derived from the concept image with Tools/generate_forerunner_trim_textures.py. Treat it as a practical placeholder and Unreal material test set. A final production version should come directly from the Substance Designer graph outputs.

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#Sheet Layout

Use these pixel bands as the first pass. Keep every band horizontally tileable unless it is intentionally a unique hero strip.

Y range	Purpose	Notes
0-256	Large panel trim	Broad wall/floor panels, wide bevels, nested inset borders
256-448	Energy channel trim	Thin cyan emissive grooves, recessed below surrounding alloy
448-704	Stepped edge trim	Ziggurat-like lips for ramps, platforms, doors, and columns
704-960	Diagonal motif trim	Trapezoids, angled cuts, nested triangular insets
960-1152	Micro seam trims	Fine seams, narrow bevel lines, dark gasket-like recesses
1152-1408	Glyph-like tech strip	Abstract geometric forms, no readable symbols or logos
1408-1664	Floor/ramp tread	Shallow grooves, broad readable rhythm, subtle roughness variation
1664-2048	Blank material bands	Smooth alloy/stone-metal for UV islands and large calm surfaces

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#Substance Designer Graph Plan

Build the graph in this order.

1. Band masks
• Create a grayscale mask for each horizontal region.
• Use Shape, Transform 2D, and Blend nodes.
• Keep a master band debug view so the layout stays readable.

1. Primary height forms
• Start with large rectangles and trapezoids.
• Use Bevel or Distance-style beveling to keep edges broad and clean.
• Use Levels to snap each layer into clear height terraces.

1. Inset panel cuts
• Subtract thinner rectangles and angled shapes from the main panels.
• Recess cuts should be visibly lower but not too deep.
• Most insets should have bevel lips.

1. Diagonal Forerunner language
• Rotate rectangle shapes by 30, 45, or 60 degrees.
• Favor symmetry and nested forms.
• Avoid random small details; every cut should feel intentionally architectural.

1. Energy channel height
• Make emissive channels recessed in height.
• Surround them with raised bevel lips.
• Keep glow strips thin enough to accent the surface, not dominate it.

1. Surface breakup
• Add very low-opacity broad noise to roughness and base color.
• Keep height noise extremely subtle.
• Do not add rust, heavy scratches, mud, bolts, caution labels, or Earth-industrial vents.

1. Derived maps
• Generate Normal from height.
• Generate AO from height.
• Generate Curvature from Normal for subtle edge highlighting.
• Use emissive masks only from the energy-channel bands and a few small accent cuts.

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#Material Recipe

Use three material families.

#Light Stone-Metal

• Base color: cool off-white / pale gray-green

• Metallic: 0.0 to 0.25

• Roughness: 0.42 to 0.62

• Use on large panels and blank bands.

#Dark Alloy Recesses

• Base color: charcoal blue-gray

• Metallic: 0.6 to 1.0

• Roughness: 0.35 to 0.55

• Use in grooves, seams, undercuts, and deep channel interiors.

#Cyan Energy

• Texture color: white mask only

• Material color: cyan to blue-white by parameter

• Emissive strength in Unreal: start around 2 to 8, tune under gameplay lighting

• Roughness/metallic are irrelevant if using unlit emissive blend in material logic.

Palette anchors:

Light panel:   #C8D0C8

Primary alloy: #8E9898

Dark recess:   #252C30

Edge shadow:   #151A1E

Emissive:      #76E8FF

Hot emissive:  #B9F7FF

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#Unreal Material Setup

Create M_ForerunnerTrim_Master.

Texture import settings:

Texture	Unreal compression	sRGB	Material usage
T_ForerunnerTrim_01_BaseColor	Default	On	Base Color
T_ForerunnerTrim_01_Normal	Normalmap	Off	Normal
T_ForerunnerTrim_01_ORM	Masks	Off	R to AO, G to Roughness, B to Metallic
T_ForerunnerTrim_01_Emissive	Masks	Off	White mask multiplied by EmissiveTint and EmissiveIntensity
T_ForerunnerTrim_01_Height	Grayscale or Masks	Off	Optional parallax/helper map

Parameters:

• BaseColorTint

• LightPanelTint

• RoughnessScale

• MetallicScale

• EmissiveTint

• EmissiveIntensity

• NormalStrength

Useful switches:

• UseEmissive

• UseHeightParallax

• UseWorldAlignedMacroVariation

Keep macro variation very subtle. The trim sheet should stay clean and readable across arena sightlines.

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#UV Usage Guide

Model modular environment pieces with simple, deliberate UVs.

• Door frames: map long bevel lips to the stepped edge bands.

• Wall panels: map broad faces to the large panel and blank bands.

• Ramps: map side edges to stepped trims and walking surfaces to the tread band.

• Columns: stack vertical edges on stepped trims, use blank bands for calm faces.

• Platforms: use energy channels on lips or seams where gameplay lighting benefits from readability.

Do not force every mesh to show every band. The sheet works best when most pieces are calm and only focal edges use the ornate trims.

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#Art Direction Rules

Do:

• Build large readable silhouettes first.

• Use wide bevels and clear height terraces.

• Keep forms symmetric or rhythmically repeated.

• Let cyan emissive be a controlled accent.

• Preserve blank bands for flexible UV mapping.

Avoid:

• Rust, dirt, and heavy grime.

• Random bolts or modern panel fasteners.

• Dense micro-greeble.

• Readable alien text or franchise symbols.

• One-band-overdesigned surfaces on every mesh.

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#First Substance Milestone

Build a V1 graph with only:

1. Band masks

1. Height layout

1. Normal/AO generation

1. Base Color, ORM, Emissive

1. One Unreal test material

1. One modular test kit: wall panel, ramp, platform edge, and door frame

Review the result in Unreal before adding more ornament. If the broad forms read well in motion, then add subtle glyph strips and floor tread variation.