Hey guys!
I’m wondering if there is a way to make an effect similar to this in Ue4 (vray dirt map). Here’s an example image
This is not just a blend material, it’s applying the dirt in a predefined radius from each edge. In vray it’s a simple task to do. Is it achievable in ue4 without huge blueprints or mad-skills? This kind of effect is important in arch viz to increase realism. Thanks!
I’ve never used Vray, so I don’t really understand how it does that edge rust, but it wouldn’t be so simple in UE4. I’m not familiar with any edge-detection material functions that could give you anything near what is in your example, but using a simple texture map provided by Quixel’s dDo would be fairly straightforward. The problem with that is the need to have a specific texture map for each object. If you want your textures to be universal and not need to customize them to each object, then I don’t know of a way to get detailed edge-wear like that picture. If an advanced user knows how to do it, feel free to correct me. I would love to know this too.
I think the “easier” way is to generate your dirty maps with “render to texture” in 3DS… You can apply a black and white vray dirty map in diffuse and render it to texture using the unwrap channel you’ve generated for lightmaps. Inside UE4 you’ll can create a base material with a “Param2D” node for those dirty maps. Then you create instances for every different mesh and apply the proper dirty map for each one. It’s not a lot of work if you won’t apply dirty materials all over the place…
I think maybe a real time version of dirty generation could be implemented with a variation of ambient occlusion algorithms… 
Ok thanks guys. Another option could maybe use substance painter for UE4? I’ve seen their demo on stream and it’s quite . You can paint leaks, dirt directly on the textured mesh, etc. I’m just not too sure about the workflow at all!
There is a substance tutorial on youtube and his website that shows the entire workflow. That is also the route I would go to, substance painter.
question is…how much work is required hehe! it’s probably not a very fast workflow.
It doesn’t seem too bad, and of course, the more you use it, the faster and easier it becomes.
The amount of work it will take depends on how many objects you would be working on. Once you get the hang of the program, it would be pretty painless to paint some quick dirt onto an object. But if you have to apply that to 100 unique pieces of furniture, then it stacks up. And then you would have 100 unique material instances, which is only an organizational problem. But it would look good!
