Best workflow/practices for Interiors -texturing and objects?

I've searched around the forums and found tidbits of information here and there, but nothing specific to a couple of questions I have.

First off, I'm creating my first interior with blender 3d v2.59. (I'm just going to ignore the issues with exporting for the purposes of this thread... I'll ask about that elsewhere, but understand it's a known issue.)


Anyway... So far I've got a small hallway and have started to feel pretty confident with things. However, I just tried going through some texturing tutorials and that confidence is quickly fading. :P

I have a few people helping with a project that I started, including a texture artist. The idea was originally to have him create a ton of "square" textures for use in levels, then just "painting" the walls and ceilings with those textures as needed. However, now I'm realizing that if each object has to be unwrapped, this workflow may not be a good one to follow. Is it better to model all of the interiors, then hand over all of the unwraps to the texture artist? How does this impact performance of the game? It seems like loading a texture into memory once and then using it for multiple surfaces is better, but my current understanding suggests that isn't possible, because you need to unwrap each object and then texture it according to it's "shape" in the UVMapping window. -That is, since every object is going to unwrap looking different.


To clear a few things up before we go any further here, I thought I'd try to get some best practices and/or workflows that most experienced artists follow since I think I've confused myself pretty good. ;p

When creating a large interior, do most people create one large object? Or is it better to break it up into smaller objects? Any suggestions on "break-points" for the area? Would it be possible to create a lot of interior "sections," and then line those up in T3D to create a larger interior kind of "lego" style? Fallout 3's editor "G.E.C.K." did this and it made creating a lot of content easy, while reusing 3d models and textures. If planning on a large number of explorable interiors, this may prove to save time in the long run... but I'm not sure if it would work here. Any thoughts or suggestions? Mounting, perhaps? Or maybe I'm overthinking it... I hope it's as easy as just lining up two models in the world editor.

My confusion may come from my days of game modding half-life, half-life 2, Fallout 3/NV, and others starting as far back as Quake. I've done a lot of level design using the Hammer editor and in that program you can't have "leaks" for a level. So all your brushes have to line up and connect to enclose everything. People could get sloppy there and just enclose the entire level in a large box; though it would cause your level to take a large performance hit in some cases. I hated that and always tried to use best practices even there. Do I want to avoid "leaks" when breaking up an interior area into multiple objects? (I assume this isn't a big deal, because of the need for windows and such... but cracks in a hallway ceiling may screw up lighting, where a window would look more accurate/natural? )

Point is, if I'm splitting up the level in Blender, do I need to worry about leaks? Does lining up two "prefab" hall-ways against eachother work, or will this cause possible issues with lighting seams and other things when finally pulling these models into T3D? (Or maybe I can line those "prefab" models up in T3D just fine, without even having to do it in blender?)

Maybe I'm covering several topics at once here, but it all ties together and creates a lot of confusion for a beginner like myself. ;)

So, to sum it up a little better... I'm stuck at texturing my interior and it has brought up a lot of questions about how things are usually done vs what's possible and what is best for my project. What are the normal workflows for texturing an interior, and are there any specific ways things should be "broken up" into multiple objects inside Blender to avoid problems?

I could go on and ask a lot of other questions, but I guess I'll wait and see where this gets me. My apologies if I've over-complicated things; but hopefully I can get some of these concerns cleared up.

Thank you to any and all who help.