I hate games that feel like you are playing inside of a confined area. The feeling of an endless world is so much nicer. I am going to have the balcony look over a mix foreground terrain with vegetation meshes and textures, with a Matte Painting layer over a skybox.
I start with a box and block it out to the shape that feels right in the engine looking over the balcony:
Then I sculpt it to look a little bit more like terrain
Decimate it down so I can use it in a game
And then texture it:
There were a few baking errors, but I will just cover them up with rocks, plants and trees. A lot of it won’t be seen so it doesn’t need to be perfect. This model should do.
From the blockout model it was already in place. I add it to the scene under the house and then put in some trees rocks and vegetation.
That is all I did and the end result is when you get to the end of the level instead of seeing a wall, you see this: