So I am currently in the process of creating a set of tutorials on doing real-time ArchViz for VR. The first part is currently rendering, which is an introduction to modelling, setting up world-space units, and the concepts of box modelling and the importance of 1:1 scale. After this one is finished, I’ll be doing a “adding clutter, optimizing, and uvw mapping” part.
This part (the 2nd in the tutorial set) will include:
(I may end up splitting this up into 2 parts, depending on what the community is looking for)
What would you guys like to see in an ArchViz tutorial set?
So far, I am trying to be as general as possible in explaining the tools, since people use different modelling tools (Blender, 3dsMax, Cinema4D), so I’m trying to explain concepts - at least, in the first couple of parts. The tools that I am currently using, and will be using in the creation of the tutorials, are:
3dsMax with Greg’s Tools
Allegorithmic’s Substance Designer and Substance Painter
Unreal Engine 4
I think most people coming to UE4 from archviz already have knowledge of basic concepts like UV mapping, box modeling, etc and would probably prefer to model as much of the scene as possible in their preferred 3d application.
Shaders are also easy to figure out, I’ve already made a master material to give me the most functionality of vray material (i think it’s even better than vray mat heh).
I’d be more interested in how to add some interactivity to the scene - make a nice popup to replace a piece of furniture, change color or texture of an object (not in editor, but in play mode) as well as correctly setting up reflection captures, working with cameras/cutscenes, instancing a bunch of lights or objects so they can all be adjusted with a single parameter change, optimization for different platforsm (general poly count and texture size guidelines, tips for avoiding slowdowns) etc - stuff that is new if coming from a regular 3d package.
That’s just my 5 cents as someone who’s been doing archviz for the last 10 years or so.
I think a “beginners guide” would be nice. A complete process from importing, placing the objects, manage collision, setting up skylight and additional lights, adding materials and render a movie or image up to the integration of an oculus rift headset.
In addition I like the suggestions from viscorbel. How to add interactivity to the model, opening doors, switching on or off lights, changing models and materials from a menu, day to night sequence, optimizing and publishing scenes for pc/mac/ios/android.
I would like to see a dense vegetation setup to be played back on a DK2. Also seeing a vray3 baking with maya for ue4.5 would be great.
I currently am working on the two and would love to compare processes.
Applying PBR materials to vray baked textures, creates amazing demos. Its just tricky, adding the dynamic lights for shadows and vegetation and maintaining a min 75fps.
I guess its mostly efficiency workflows, that I am interested in most.
Just an update on the status and “feature requests”:
I am still working out how I want to show off the 2nd part and explain it… my workflow for part 1 was… way too long. I have a horrible “On-Air” voice, so I decided to go with a scripted voice and added some enhancements to it to make my voice “normal”… I should probably get a new mic one of these days. For the next part and probably beyond, I am sorry to say, that you may be stuck with horrible voice
I’ll also start up a blog somewhere so that I can list different tools and takeaways in a text format as well.
Anyways, for part 2:
Clutter workflow:
3ds Max
Re-iterate importance of scale - using Greg’s Tools
Optimizing assets
Creating LOD’s
Creating collision model
UVW Mapping for texturing and lightmapping
Setting up the asset for texturing in Substance Designer + Painter
Exporting from 3dsMax
Part 3: Texturing
Working with Substance Designer
Using the materials from Designer to texture the asset(s) in Substance Painter
Ran into a slight issue with my hardware after installing a new GFX card :\ Gotta get a couple of DVI to HDMI cables, but that shouldn’t be long. The first (and most basic) tutorial will be up at some point this weekend. Once that’s up, I can start working on part 2, and the more interesting stuff, this weekend.
I really liked the interactivity stuff posted by a user on an ArchViz project, which allows him to switch texure on a mesh, have the object highlighted with an outline ( custom depth if I’m not wrong ) and be able to switch between day time and night time…
Something like that related to the interactivity side would be great!
Theoretically I know how all this stuff works but I don’t have time ( unfortunately ) to create everything in UE4, so a tutorial to save time will be highly appreciated
I Would like to see how to export simple animations from Max to UE4
how parenting is handled
how relationships or bindings between objects are maintained during the export process.
I myself would appreciate a beginner level approach who is completely new to the ideas of UV/lightmaps. I’m trying to go from Revit>UE4 (which gives many ‘uv overlapping errors’)
I want to be able to insert a scene and create a simple clay material walkthough (so I don’t have to worry about fully texturing/material a model which can/will likely get changes through the design process). My goal for the walkthroughs VR.
Another thing: is UV/lightmaps necessary if I don’t care about dynamic lighting/shadows? Whats the easiest/quickest approach for a decent looking walkthrough?
I am thinking of the materials selection for a project, where the user will have a GUI of materials which are categorized into headers such as concrete, timber, glass, etc, and then have a color palette, and they can assign it to almost anything in the world. It is very good for customization. It is similar to the one shown in this link here, but its only scratching the surface.