Creating Buildings Question

[Tim_Hobson]

I’m trying to make a small city. I’m wondering what’s the best way to go about making buildings with interiors. Is it better to make them as a static mesh (I use blender atm), use the geometry brush in engine, or make architecture meshes and build the buildings out of those?

Static meshes are definitely the most recommended route to take. Even if you use the geometry brushes, converting them to static meshes is high recommended. You can get much more flexibility out of your static mesh than you can geometry brushes.

Some problems I’ve had with trying to make static meshes is the UV unwrap phase. I made a simple building in blender but when i tried to texture it in Substance painter the texture was all distorted and it didn’t have enough resolution and that was just a very simple and small building. How do people go about texturing large objects such as buildings? Is it a tiling issue because when i made an architectural mesh that was the same size as one that comes with the engine the texture applied to it is huge. What i was thinking that my work flow would be is create a static mesh building in blender, import to Substance painter and texture it, and then import that into UE4. If some one could help me with the texturing issue that arises that would be amazing.

As ReddWine suggested Modular workflow is the best option.

Here a few links regarding Modular Design and workflow (Two of these are paid tutorials, I am not suggesting you buy these unless you want but they are good for reference from the vid and images):

http://kevinjohnstone.com/Help.html: get the Modular Environment Design. It’s a power point from a talk he has done several times. There may not be context for some of the things, but it is great information to use for setting up the grid and building objects so that they snap like lego pieces.

http://raphaelfortin.blogspot.com/2011/02/game-modular-workflow.html

http://www.digitaltutors.com/lesson/21294-Building-a-window-texture

The Modular Building Workflow in UDK and 3ds Max (3dm Promo)

In regards to setting up the UVs this comes down to personal preference to some degree, what target platform you are designing for, and just ultimately what gives you the best results. There are multiple ways to UV and object for textures that it can be hard to say “This is the way you need to do it.” I prefer using overlapping UVs and multiple materials for some of my stuff because I can get a higher resolution and my objects don’t need Unique UVs necessarily because they are modular pieces.

With Substance Painter what you’re seeing is that you need unique UVs that are only good for that one mesh. This is the way Substance Painter works. You’re painting your texture there for that particular mesh. For things like walsl, it may be better to use tiling materials that you can then just add decals to have cracks, graffiti, and dirt applied to.

I have followed the level creation tutorial from epic and made that small interior and that was fun and cool. However it doesn’t seem like the most efficient way to make a city. I could be wrong of course and that’s fine i’d just like to know. Ive tried to do some research on it like everything else i do before asking but its hard to find anything because it seems every post has the word building in it even if its not about building buildings . If some one could point me in the right direction that would be great.

I know there are alot of questions in here that might be very simple but i have only been using UE4 and blender for a month now and i’m a total noob.

It can be difficult to find things when you’re just starting out. This is just the way it is when you’re learning. Once you get more familiar and start asking the right questions or searching the right terms it becomes much easier to locate the information you’re looking for.

The video you’re referencing is a good start for those who have not using modeling software before and want to make simple objects using the BSP/Geometry brushes. However, these are good for simple structures and even though the video doesn’t mention it these are great for mostly prototyping your level and making sure it is playable. I’d recommended taking a look at the Content Examples Project > Open Map > LevelDesign_Workflow.umap to see Epics process for development.

We start out with blocking out using BSP then move on the meshing the level with assets created in 3Ds Max/Maya.

I know this is a lot of information and if you have any questions or anything seems confusing feel free to ask!

Tim