Refining the Nest Mesh

The past two weeks have been all about refining the nest mesh, and I must say, I’ve made some great progress! Working in Blender has been an incredible learning experience—I picked up new techniques for textures, baking, and exporting meshes to Unreal Engine.

The final result looks pretty solid for now, and while I might polish it later, I’m happy with where it stands.
The chambers, tunnels, and overall structure are shaping up to provide a clear and functional layout for the ant colony. I decided to turn off global lighting so it really feels you are “underground” The little light bulbs will be supported by a mesh in the future. I am thinking of a little mine lamp or similar. And the fun part is that i now know how to make and bake it myself.

Blender & Unreal Workflow Improvements

One of the key takeaways from this sprint was optimizing the workflow between Blender and Unreal Engine. Learning how to properly bake textures and efficiently export models helped streamline the process.This will make future asset creation much smoother.

Next Sprint: Navigation System

Now that the nest structure is in place, the next big challenge is setting up navigation.
The plan is to use a combination of grid-based movement and splines for tunnel passages.
This should allow ants to seamlessly move between chambers while handling different terrain types efficiently. I am excited to dive into this next phase and see how well it works in Unreal Engine!

Looking Ahead

The Hive Mind project is starting to feel more alive, and each step forward makes it even more exciting.
There’s still a lot to build, but the foundation is getting stronger with each sprint.
Stay tuned for the next update!