Materials for a vehicle

[The_Cycle]

Hi guys,

Can someone tell which is the recommended amount of polys and materials for a vehicle in ue4?

I’ve thought the following: about 50000 tris, one material for the chassis, one material for the whell rims, another for the glasses (lights and windows) and a final one including a macro texture 4096x4096 (atlas, several textures togheter) for the tyres and the interior of the car.

What do you guys think?

Many thanks

[anonymous_user_923c79df]

It always depends on the game.

-for the tris count -> I personally would always stay as low as possible
-materials -> also try to not use too many materials. For the glass you need a separate material, because of the transparent part. The macro texture can be included in the main material (take a look at the materials from the starter content).
-textures -> use textures with a lower resolution (for a car you wont need 4k textures)

[anonymous_user_0df12f74]

@The Cycle;245128

Hi guys,

Can someone tell which is the recommended amount of polys and materials for a vehicle in ue4?

I’ve thought the following: about 50000 tris, one material for the chassis, one material for the whell rims, another for the glasses (lights and windows) and a final one including a macro texture 4096x4096 (atlas, several textures togheter) for the tyres and the interior of the car.

What do you guys think?

Many thanks

That is pretty much exactly the way I have done this in the past.

Only difference might be using a separate material channel for all of the most visible parts (or every part if you are creating a showroom quality render), and then use a combined texture for the smaller pieces that won’t be seen as much in game. The vehicle paint especially can benefit from being created as a material in editor, you can get a much more realistic look.

A good example of this is Stimpanzee’s car paint materials here (click on the image to see more screenshots):
https://www.unrealengine/content/e709613bc3a941b0bb4d8d985a69ec1a

[The_Cycle]

@;245136

-materials -> also try to not use too many materials. For the glass you need a separate material, because of the transparent part. The macro texture can be included in the main material (take a look at the materials from the starter content).
-textures -> use textures with a lower resolution (for a car you wont need 4k textures)

Yes, because of drawing calls it it better to use the lowest amount… but what is it more or less? the game is kinda an open world, with lots of cars at same time. But I want the best quality at near distances. I’ve thought on using scripts and LOD for assigning 0 quality to furtherst ones. I mean reducing them to cubes and put just a basic material.

[The_Cycle]

@;245274

That is pretty much exactly the way I have done this in the past.

Only difference might be using a separate material channel for all of the most visible parts (or every part if you are creating a showroom quality render), and then use a combined texture for the smaller pieces that won’t be seen as much in game. The vehicle paint especially can benefit from being created as a material in editor, you can get a much more realistic look.

A good example of this is Stimpanzee’s car paint materials here (click on the image to see more screenshots):
https://www.unrealengine/content/e709613bc3a941b0bb4d8d985a69ec1a

Yeah, I have taken a look to the work of this guy, but I didn’t get clear how many he uses My question basically is: in a scenario with lot of people and cars at same time is it much using 4 or 5 (not very complex) materials per model?