Hi! I was lurking around in the forums for a while; building my blueprint-based car game in my free time, and stumbled on something I can’t decide how to do, wondering if you guys which all seem like skilled fellas might give me an advice.
So basically I have an interior view of a quite modern sportscar. In my case the Lamborghini Aventador, which has quite a complex 2D cluster system on the screen. By trying to copy it, I stumbled on two options which could make it work. Of both I am not sure if they work as I want though, how performance-hungry each is compared to the other one, and if it will turn out as I want to in general.
For those who don’t know the cluster I mean, here’s an example:Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 Top Speed Run -GT6- - YouTube
I have masked base textures for my gauges already. My approaches for this have both pros and cons I will also point out.
First option:
having everything surface-material based. Like, having a mesh of the screen, UV map it properly and make a standard surface material with parameters, masks and functions, plugging the gauges to the emissive color then.
Pro:
-would work on the mesh I have, no need to tweak positioning in the blueprint.
-supporting reflections and specular, which is always nice, although not necessary.
Cons:
-complex work with masks, functions, calculating pivots etc, which I am not quite sure if I can do that in blueprint (or… at all)
-materials don’t support fonts and text afaik. At least it’s not easy and I think very performance expensive. Would need that for speed display, mileage etc.
Second option:
creating a 3D widget component.
Pro:
-far easier to layout and work with function-wise.
-would properly display text and pivot points would be easier to find.
Cons:
-clumsy to work with in the car blueprint - placing it, having the right scale is a guess-act.
-doesn’t support specular, as mentioned no necessary, though.
-I belive eats more performance than a material. Although not sure.
All in all, have you guys a suggestion for me? probably my options are all bad and you know a better approach? Let me know, would help me a lot
PS: I am not a super-pro in Unreal, so please have mercy if I listed some pros/cons wrong.
Thanks a bunch