Help for architectural visualisation rendering/Light setup

[jelefaz]

Hi guys,

i am new to unreal4 enginge. I am reading a lot the few days but i just can not figure out how to proceed. I try to make the light appear like in this example image:



i got that far, but i am totally unsure if the approach is the best to achieve the wanted result...



Do you have any suggestions? I worked on that the last days and i just don´t know how to get the bright light from the left without loosing the shadows under the cupboard on the left. I also don´t know how to get the reflection in the floor, showing parts of the objects mirrored in it. I tried a lot of things like using different roughnes-values in the floor material and so on.
I would really love to get some help and what would be the best and easiest way to get the result i want! Which lights would make sense?

Thanks a lot!

Uwe

[darthviper107]

Looks like you only need to change the direction of the directional light, a little more clockwise and then increase the intensity.

As for reflections, make sure scalability is set to Epic (that's a quality setting) and that if you have a post process volume that you have Screen Space Reflections enabled/intensity not set to 0

[heartlessphil]

At this point play with your post process volume settings, you can adjust exposure, and tweak the final look. You should be able to get almost the same visuals as the ref picture only with post prod.

Do you have a roughness map for your floor or just a value? A roughness map would really improve the look. Good luck.

[jelefaz]

Thanks for your really helpful answers! What kind of roughness map would you recommend? Are there any best practices or resources somewhere for a floor like that?

How can i get the table leg (? Sorry i am german ) reflecting like in the reference?

I think the outside is reflecting as well?

The right area appears to be darker...how can that be achieved?

How do i get the reflections on the right chair only? When i use reflectioncapture boxes i get light areas on the floor as well.

Thank you so much for the help!

Best Uwe

[heartlessphil]

You can try a reflection sphere capture with a small radius next to your chair. A roughness map is a greyscale texture of your floor. The darker parts are less reflective and the brighter parts are more reflection (or vice versa lol). You can clamp the values to tweak it further. For example, you could decide that the roughest parts will have a value of .75 and the most reflective part will have a value of .25. It will add alot of realism to your floor and look less flat. You can add a subtle normal map too but generally I find the roughness map to be enough.

Just take your diffuse texture and change it to greyscale in photoshop and tweak it and experiment within your ue4 material.

This is an example, a roughness map is the opposite of a specular map. If you already have specular map, plug a one-minus node in front of it and it will invert the colors and become your roughness map.



This is the result of a roughness map, you can see the dust/worn parts on a perfect gold material.

[jelefaz]

Ok...thanks a lot! Until now i only use a slight normalmap. I will play around with the roughness a bit.
What i still don't understanf is how to get the left side so bright and the right dark on the floor without loosing the shadow under the left cupboard...

I use a directional light but some other lights as well to get the reflections on the floor. Is that the right way or too conplicated?

[jelefaz]

I actually worked a bit on it and i think the floor now looks better already. The only thing i can not figure out is how to get these blurry reflections on the floor and the dark area under the cupboard on the left... i add two screenshots to show you the light and reflection-spheres distribution, so you can tell me what you think ybout the placement...maybe you see something obviously wrong. I now took two directional lights because the light of the first directional light wasn´t bright enough and the shydows too soft...

thank you!

[jpedleham]

you could set your floor material to be clearcoat and increase the roughness of it to blur out the reflections maybe?

[meijervis]

To get blurry reflections make sure that your Screen Space Reflection quality is set to 100 (in your post process volume and or world settings), because if I understand correctly it only implements a few levels of quality (1,50 and 100) and any value below 100 will just give you sharp reflections which is not what you want.

[jelefaz]

It is set to 100%...intensity and quality! i have the feeling playing around with the floor material makes the biggest difference... but now the specularity becomes noisy after changing the roughness...

[RI3DVIZ]

I'm not sure why you have two spots coming in the window at what looks like two different angles? We only have one sun on this planet. When you light a scene like this the sky is your fill light, or like some do use bounce cards and spots, and the sun is your directional light.

[jelefaz]

I did that to fake the reflections on the floor i don´t get like in the example... i just don´t get this light reflection on the left floor area and the dark area on the right! This is my big problem... i would be really thankful for any ideas how to achieve that!

[RI3DVIZ]

I did that to fake the reflections on the floor i don´t get like in the example... i just don´t get this light reflection on the left floor area and the dark area on the right! This is my big problem... i would be really thankful for any ideas how to achieve that!

You either need to add a plane with a white material out the window and several spot lights pointing at the plane, not in the window, to bounce light into the room or you need to have the sky intensity bright enough to give you the desired look. I don't advise pointing the spot lights directly into the room. The only light pointing into the room should be the sun.

[heartlessphil]

Maybe clamp the values for the roughness map you use. Maybe the most reflective parts are too reflective...?

I'd try something in the range of .3 to .75