External Archviz - Landscape and foliage studies

[Frepp73]

Very nice! Looking better and better for each iteration. Quite inspiring to see such a big and good looking outdoor scene =)

[rabellogp]

http://i.imgur.com/IiIX7DA.jpg



http://i.imgur.com/o25BnmM.jpg



http://i.imgur.com/Eh2fSXo.jpg



http://i.imgur.com/5xDOzbM.jpg

[rabellogp]

[EoinOBroin]

Wow! That video looks stunning!

I'm curious about those reflections at 0:40- are they just standard SSR or did you bake a cubemap? They look really nice and very real! I've found glass is very hard to get right in UE4 but you nailed it!

[rabellogp]

Wow! That video looks stunning!

I'm curious about those reflections at 0:40- are they just standard SSR or did you bake a cubemap? They look really nice and very real! I've found glass is very hard to get right in UE4 but you nailed it!

Thanks, man!

Yeah, they are baked. I've used a scene capture cube. They are sharper than the ordinary reflection capture, but still too artificial... UE4 still lacks nice and precise reflections for mirror like surfaces... Hope they come up with a solution for that soon, it's essential for archviz...

[Robbie222]

Your work is inspiring. Really nice job!

Is there any tutorial that would help me understand how to use cubemaps for a mirror?

[Tom_LeFx]

That looks really good! Great work.
We worked on an outdoor project our self lately and had some issues with foliage performance and so on...
How did you create the really dense, small grass around the pool/house?
Could you show some single asset-shots of the foliage actors you used there?
Is that part of the grass statically lit or dynamically as the rest of your scene?

Do you use any kind of LOD/Distance-Cull?

[cadviz]

As in the previous project Archviz Project ... Very nice decent rendering... which I couldn't reach even for a small house
although I did as you had mentioned in that project (talking about the light settings) in post #46 where you said (The lighting settings are simple, just a lightsource and a skylight. For the post processing, I'm using a custom LUT...)
may be the key was the (LUT) you had used; which I wish if you can share it with us to try ...
My best wishes...
and waiting for more success.

[cadviz]

...Is there any tutorial that would help me understand how to use cubemaps for a mirror?

Same here... a nice guy promising to make a tutorial as soon as he can https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHcGKs0uqLo

[rabellogp]

Your work is inspiring. Really nice job!

Is there any tutorial that would help me understand how to use cubemaps for a mirror?

It's simple.

1) Add a "Scene Capture Cube" in your scene (it will look like a camera in the viewport).
2) Create a new "Cube Render Target" in your content browser (it's under "Materials & Textures).
3) Add the Cube Render Target you've just created in the "Texture Target" on Scene Capture Cube details:



4) Now you can add the "Cube Render Target" as a node in your material. Combine it with a color and plug it in the Base Color channel of the material to fake the reflection. Don't forget the "Reflection Vector" node to adjust the coordinates properly. Example:



Note that the location of your Scene Capture Cube is very important as it will determine the center of your cubemap. You can think of it as a replacement for the default Reflection Capture, but with the possibility of increasing the resolution (under Cube Render Target details) and with real time capture (it will be much more expensive because of that). You can disable the real time capture under the Scene Capture Cube details panel (disabling "Capture Every Frame").

That looks really good! Great work.
We worked on an outdoor project our self lately and had some issues with foliage performance and so on...
How did you create the really dense, small grass around the pool/house?
Could you show some single asset-shots of the foliage actors you used there?
Is that part of the grass statically lit or dynamically as the rest of your scene?

Do you use any kind of LOD/Distance-Cull?

The short grass is dynamically lit. It consumes too much RAM to use lightmaps on them, but that would definitely improve the framerate...
I use a SpeedTree asset and it has 3 levels of LOD. You can find the details here: https://forums.unrealengine.com/show...t=archviz+lawn and here: https://forums.unrealengine.com/show...ight=rabellogp

As in the previous project Archviz Project ... Very nice decent rendering... which I couldn't reach even for a small house
although I did as you had mentioned in that project (talking about the light settings) in post #46 where you said (The lighting settings are simple, just a lightsource and a skylight. For the post processing, I'm using a custom LUT...)
may be the key was the (LUT) you had used; which I wish if you can share it with us to try ...
My best wishes...
and waiting for more success.

I create my LUTs in Photoshop and they are different for each project. After building my scene, I set all the properties in the Post Process Volume to zero to get the cleanest possible image sample. Than I take a screenshot and work on it with Photoshop to get the results I want and generate the LUT as described here. https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest...ing/index.html

I would share those specific LUT if I still had it . After importing it in UE4, I just delete the png asset (it is useless for me since I never reuse them). Is there a way to extract it from UE4? If there is a way to do that, just let me know and I upload it somewhere.

Same here... a nice guy promising to make a tutorial as soon as he can https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHcGKs0uqLo

This method consists of a blueprint algorithm to place and move a camera at your reflection's point of view (since this is how true reflection works). I demands work to update that point of view every time you move and replace it every time you change cameras (when making a matinee video, for example). And it also has troubles with stuff behind that wall where you want your reflections. Since the reflection's camera is going to be "inside" the wall, all the stuff between the reflection's eye and the wall must be hidden somehow.

I don't know why UE4 doesn't have a realtime reflection technique built in like UE3 has. It's an important feature...

[cadviz]

Thanks for all deep clarification and sharing

....
I would share those specific LUT if I still had it . After importing it in UE4, I just delete the png asset (it is useless for me since I never reuse them). Is there a way to extract it from UE4? If there is a way to do that, just let me know and I upload it somewhere.
...

I think it is possible... just a right click on the LUT asset and export...
But I don't know which format would be the best (TGA OR BMP)...!!

[rabellogp]

Thanks for all deep clarification and sharing

I think it is possible... just a right click on the LUT asset and export...
But I don't know which format would be the best (TGA OR BMP)...!!

Here it goes:

first project: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jkt78w1jv6...ject1.TGA?dl=0
second one (from this topic): https://www.dropbox.com/s/w57i3im2j1...ject2.TGA?dl=0

They are just level correction (more contrast) and a bit of bluish shadows.
Let me know if it works for you

[duke22]

Did you rely on UE4's automatic lightmap UV's or did you make them manually? If you made them, did you use anything in particular to make the process easier?

[rabellogp]

Did you rely on UE4's automatic lightmap UV's or did you make them manually? If you made them, did you use anything in particular to make the process easier?

I make them manually.

There is a 3DS script that speeds up the process (link), but after place the scene in UE4 and made some tests, I always update the main meshes with a carefully hand made unwrap mapping to get the best results with the smallest lightmap possible.

[cadviz]

Here it goes:

first project: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jkt78w1jv6...ject1.TGA?dl=0
second one (from this topic): https://www.dropbox.com/s/w57i3im2j1...ject2.TGA?dl=0

They are just level correction (more contrast) and a bit of bluish shadows.
Let me know if it works for you

Thanks for your time & uploading...
Unfortunately; they gave me strange results... as you said (they are different for each project.); Anyway; seems I have to create my LUT's for my own projects by myself...
Thanks again &
Best Regards