lightmap error questions

[JoSf]

@anonymous_user_ce4f8cba

Ok, yes, both replies are helpful, but check it out: I made a floor mesh for my room which is comprised of a couple dozen faces. I have a 1024x1024 texture that each face (or quad, whatever you choose to call it) uses to get a somewhat high res appearance without having to make a ginormous UV map for the floor. In order to reduce draw expense, I am trying to avoid having to use separate meshes for all of those dozens of floor faces. Is there a better way to accomplish this? I’m thinking maybe some sort of tiling mechanism?

Not sure if you already managed it to the extent you wanted to,but… the texture UV map and the lightmap UV map are entirely separate, and the way how you unwrap them “properly” is a bit different. Especially for floors I don’t think there’s much of an issue. Look at the documentation:

It’s more important that we have a clean contiguous surface without interruption for the lighting result than to worry about 1:1 scaling. A lightmap that has a 1:7 scaled ratio whereby it has twice the coverage will produce a better result even if the islands are non-uniformly scaled. Areas that are too thin but maintain a 1:1 ratio will not light correctly because it can’t capture a good result.

@anonymous_user_ce4f8cba

Thanks guys. No more error reports on the meshes I fixed using the info you provided. I still wish I could get all my lighting to work like I think it should. I am sure my frustration is due to my lack of knowledge and I will get better results as I learn, but so far even making something very simple in UE seems to take an inordinate amount of time and I cannot at all accurately predict how each change I make to the level will affect it.
Tell me it gets better, plz

Getting lighting to work is something that is recommended to be done properly early into the project. I don’t really know what issues you might have with lighting, but going through the relevant documentation should help with the process. A lot of beginners also have some issues with exposure / eye adaptation settings, I recommend getting familiar with those as well.

Most of the processes in UE4 take a while to get started with but once you are used to them, the tools allow you to be more productive and have more control over the process. I reckon it’s more done with specialists in mind but that hasn’t been an insurmountable obstacle for me so far.