[LVL ED] Make It Realistic!

[Adny]

For the very basics, make "oddly" shaped rooms, not the traditional/square rectangle shapes. Same goes for ceilings; instead of a flat ceiling, use pieces that give it depth and height. If a hallway/room is tall enough (i.e. large than 1 wall), you should have some sort of support structure in the ceiling, such as support beams.

As for detailing, its not difficult at all, just time consuming (if done properly). Each individual building set has different furniture/ornaments/decorations that look well with one another (i.e. you won't see a grandfather clock in a dungeon set), here's a quick list of sets to detail with (if you see one you don't normally use, take a look at it in the editor):

Static Objects:
debris
decals
machine

Entities:
bottle
cloth
container
critter
debris
desktop
equipment
furniture
images
lab
lamp
statues
storage
tool

Proper lighting is something that is very difficult to do and isn't done well in many mods. Finding the perfect color match (or gobo) for the window/light source, or proper placement/color of billboards is almost non-existent in the majority of mods I've seen. Those are the little things that can add up to either greatly improve or diminish the immersion in-game.

For decals, a little goes a long way. Although decals can be spammed around the map without having an effect on performance, its not really good (or logical) to do that. Only use decals where they make sense; for example, dirt/dust can build up under furniture (or anything movable that touches the ground for that matter), so a dirt floor decal under it will (usually) look fine. If an area is flooded, use the moist wall decal. I've also noticed many modders don't know how to properly use decals to their full potential simply because they haven't familiarized themselves with the various settings and options. Decals are similar to planes; if you aren't familiar with the settings, the texture will end up looking scrunched up and strange.

Finally, cobwebs. I generally don't use them because they have a weird glowing effect; seeing a bright cobweb on the other side of a dark room just looks strange to me.