Importing from Megascans to Unreal Engine v5 via Bridge

Development World Creation
1

I posted this over at Quixel Forums:
…
I’m having some issues trying to download textures via Bridge while following along with a Unreal Engine v4 tutorial. Could one of the local Bridge experts clarify some thing for me?

The author uses Bridge to download six textures:

• Albedo
• Displacement
• Normal
• AO
• Cavity
• Roughness

This tutorial was written before the days of UE5 and I’m using Unreal Engine v5.1.

Issue 1: When pulling up Bridge in UE5, there is no download settings Tab where you used to be able to select what kind of texture maps you want to download. If I use the version of Bridge built into UE, I get 3 textures, one of those is channel packed with 3 textures in the ORDp texture:

  • N- Normal
  • D- Diffuse (same as Albedo, yes?)
  • Roughness (ORDp)
  • Ambient Occlusion (ORDp)
  • Displacement (ORDp)

In the built in version of Bridge, these are downloaded as UAssets. It is easy to download theses and export them into my open project. But there is no way to tell Bridge to download a Cavity texture. How do I do this?

Issue 2: Now if I use the Stand Alone version of Bridge, I can select the type of texture maps I want to download, but here there is no option to select UAsset as a download type, and there is no place to select Unreal Engine 5 as the export format. So I have to select a “custom disk location” and it downloads a JPG map. My understanding is that UAsset format is a better format than jpg. Yes?*

So I think (please correct me if necessary) is that the built in version of Bridge in UE5, I can’t pick texture maps such as Cavity which I need to do. And if I’m using UAsset files, in one version of Bridge, why can’t I select UAssets in the stand alone version of Bridge? I’d rather not mix, using UAsset for some texture maps and jpg for other maps.

Is there a good solution?

Thanks!
…

The answer I got there is that this is true. In the version of Bridge tied to UE there is no way to alter what kind of maps are downloaded. That anything other than the default maps must be downloaded using the stand alone version of Bridge and manually imported into UE.

My question here is I see no selection to import a UAsset from the stand alone version of Bridge so…

  • Is thee a quality difference between UAsset and JPG files?
  • Can they be interchanged as desired or are there rules about when to use a specific file format, is one format preferred over another? If so why?
    There are cases where I don’t mind using the built in version of Bridge and it’s default Diffuse, Normal, and ORDp textures, but those arrive as UAssets. But if a situation requires the stand alone version of Bridge, you’ll end up with JPG, not UAsset files. Thought? Thanks!
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2

Uasset isn’t a type of image file, it’s the engine format.

Ideally, if the image is going to start outside the engine, and be imported, it should be a lossless format like PNG.

I think you’ve found the correct answer: Use the engine version of Bridge, and step outside if you need to get a cavity map, and import it.

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Thanks for the tip on Lossless images. I’ll be sure to use one of the lossless file formats.

I tried to open a UAsset with a photo program and it was not recognized.
So UAsset is an image that has been covered to a UE file format?
Does it have any advantage over using a photo image?
What are, or were those before they got turned into UAssets?

The thing is the Unreal Engine version of bridge until I go look at it again, only imports UAsset, yes?
I did not see a setting to change a UAsset into a PNG or a JPG.

I find it interesting and surprising that stand along Bridge offers JPGs as a file format, and EXR which I’m not familiar with. It did not offer UAsset, only JPG and EXR.
Does EXR work in Unreal Engine? I did not see it listed as a format in this article:

If it does not,then it mean that Bridge basically forces you to use JPGs a lossy format. Is there any advantage of converting a JPG into a PNG, or does the process remove the advantage of lossless?
Just how important is lossless?

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4

You need to actually export it :slight_smile:

5

Would appreciate your advice,
Could you answer the question about downloading a JPG from Stand Alone Bridge that only offers JPG or EXR, is it worth it to download JPG from there and convert it into a Lossless format or just use JPG? From what I see it looks like the only options for downloading from Megascans via Bridge is either JPG (stand alone Bridge) or UAsset (built in Bridge).

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Not really. Once it’s JPG, it’s lossy. You can’t convert.

Like I say, built in gives you uasset, but you can EXPORT THAT :slight_smile:

I don’t know why you want to, I’m getting lost here.

I thought you just wanted a cavity texture. Just get that from standalone and you’re done. Cavity texture as JPG will be fine.

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Thanks for your patience.
You said that ideally lossless was the best way to go.What I’d like to have typically would be consistent texture assets as the same format, but that desire is not set in stone, it is just an impression which maybe in error that using all UAssets, or all PNG, or all JPG would be more desirable. Well not JPG, you and others have said that lossy was not the best way to go. Then I look towards stand alone Bridge that offers only JPGs and scratch my head. :wink:

Bridge is currently not consistent from the built in version to the stand alone version. For the built in bridge I get UAssets, but then I need a texture that built in Bridge does not offer, go to stand alone Bridge and there the only texture is JPG, which is lossy.

So at this point I’m just trying to get this straight in my head. I have the distinct impression based on yours and others comments that using a lossy file format for textures is not ideal. And for any texture quality outside of the default, say cavity, for that I have to go to stand alone Bridge, where all that is offered is JPG.

If it’s not a big deal either way, I’ll just use UAssets for Megascan’s default textures, and for the the times I need something else, I’ll settle for the JPG version which is all Stand Alone Bridge offers. But I’ll be honest and say that Bridge should offer some consistency in what they offer from built in to stand alone version but it is distinctly possible I’m worrying over nothing… :slight_smile:

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Just to confuse things more, I’d like to point out that uasset is just a sort of engine wrapper around what you imported. If you import a JPG or PNG they both end up as uasset.

Uasset is not an image format, it’s the format that everything in the engine is represented with.

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lol, so I have no ideas what I’m getting from Megascans? Since the stand alone Bridge gives you JPGs, can I assume the built in Bridge does too? You earlier mentioned lossless as best. Do you get a lot of your textures from Megascans? :slight_smile:

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I don’t get a huge amount from MS, but I’m pretty sure the built-in uses lossless.

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