3d environment evaluation

The first step was to undertake some research into 3d environments. This was surprisingly tricky seeing as the term is so vague... 3d environments? Doesn't that apply to every 3d game, I thought. Upon closer inspection this turned out to encompass 3d environments in games, cinema and tv, and architectural planning. Well, wonderful, that just extended the area of research even further. I found a few good articles on 3d environments in cinema/tv and architectural planning, but finidng material on 3d environments in games was ridiculous since 3d environments are in any 3d game, so I had to work from my own 3d games for the most part.
With research underway, it was time to get to work on a 3d environment of my own. I decided I didn't like the sound of making a photorealistic environment; I wanted to make something that could go in a game, but something wacky as well. My first attempt was a crazy forest, recalling the twisted lost woods in Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Unfortunately this didn't turn out as successful as hoped. I attempted it with mesh editing, with an acidic water, a material on the environment to make it forestey, and some simple platforms. But no, it looked like an absolute mess, almost as bad as the terrain in Soul Reaver 2 on ps2. This would not do, and there was little potential in the project so I decided to abandon this idea.
Looking through some old models, I found my old trains, which gave me an idea. Most racing games use cars; why not make a racetrack for racing trains? Bizarre, I know, but my mind works in strange ways sometimes. So I set to work on a train graveyard, full of hazards and crashed trains, and adapted this idea further and expanded the environment to create the train Metropolis: a bizarre city suspended in mid air, wth hazardous gaps in the floor, spikes, and several crashed trains. It started off having some lighting, but I didn't like how it obscured much of the city, and I found removing the lights that it looked fine without them, so rather than adding more I took them out altogether; this was also useful; for reducing rendering times drastically.
It started off created using basic shapes and some materials, but I added more zany features as I progressed with it. Teapots were added onto buildings, using the same material as the buildings themselves, the roads were built using planes, spikes were added in, along with a few pyramids for extra wackyness, and finally I added in a flying saucer/teapot hybrid, distinguishable in pink and yellow. I also constrained a camera to follow a line around the city for an avi fly by of it, although it looks alot worse close up in the fly by; it'd need more detail to be presentable, or would need to be all in ink and paint material. Indeed, when I rendered it as a single frame in ink and paint, it looked much better, really stylish and cartoony; however, this was an unfeasible option for rendering the whole 300-odd frame fly by. One frame alone was taking an age, so I gave up on it; superior computers or rendering software would be necessary for that.
Having finished this, I felt unsatisfied; it was zany, it was pretty cool, but it wasn't remotely realistic and it lagged the computers far too much to be edited further. I therefore set to work on my final environment: a cabin room overlooking a tropical setting. The tropical setting could simply be selected as a map for the environment, leaving me to create the cabin itself. The cabin itself is made of two walls, with hinges at the bottom, open windows with windowsills, a floor, a carpet, a table, tablecloths, and plates. A simple, cosy cabin for a crude holiday. Personally, I really like it for its simplicity. It isn't the most detailed environment in the world, the models are far from incredible, but it's neat and tidy. The windows were made using booleans, and the rest was made up of standard primitives such as boxes and cylinders, with wood and concrete materials added on to add a sense of a primitive cabin, as well as cloth materials for the carpet and tablecloths.
Looking back at it, I can see several areas where detail could be added, but I feel it'd also lose some charm. Perhaps it should have chairs added in. One thing I'm not satisfied with is the plates; I experimented with reflection materials, but could not find an adequate one so I ended up with some slightly shiny black plates. All in all, I think it does the job though.