Hello! I have made some assets with metal rings that look great in the asset previewer and decent enough in the default starting level. But in my own level, they are super dark.
Do you have any suggestions on how to get closer to the look of the previewer? I am using a dynamic directional light as the main light source and a skylight that brightens the shadows slightly. I do have a sphere reflection capture, but the metal isn’t shiny enough for it to have an effect.
Hi. In similar case, I noticed that there was a problem with the mesh.
I removed the double vertices and then smooth the mesh again. The problem of metal was fixed for me.
Thanks for the suggestion! But it’s not an issue with the mesh in my case I’m afraid.
no reflection capture on them?
I have a reflection capture in that area of the scene working correctly for more shiny objects, but the material is rough enough for it not to be used on this asset. The preview and placed model uses the same material with the same settings.
You’re comparing a bright 360° HDRI(with auto-exposure by default in that viewer iirc) to a dim environment with near black shadows and an overall pretty dark lower hemisphere. Metals are entirely dependent on their Albedo/Specular reflectance and the surrounding lighting - in this case, indirect lighting.
What would you suggest are my best options for getting more indirect lighting in a scene with dynamic lighting in my situation?
I’ve tried ambient cubemaps, but they make some of my object super glossy regardless of settings. My lower hemisphere is black, since I have a day & night where the terrain blocks the light at times, and I don’t want it to affect my grass which uses SSS. Increasing the skylight only seems to make the shadows and lighting brighter, it doesn’t seem to affect reflections.
why dont you just put an emissive in the material… diffuse rgb to a multiply (press M) on top, single constant (press 1) on the bottom set to .1 to start with, and plug it into the emissive… then season to taste
Correction: Reflection captures are even used on materials that are completely 100% fully rough, with even the fully rough tag switched on.
Bump its specular or make sure the reflections arent black.
There are no reflection capture applied to my object as long as it has a roughness of above 0.3. It makes no difference if I make the brightness 0 or 3000 after this point.
Perhaps it has an effect with static lighting? These are dynamic objects with dynamic lighting though.
Specular affects non-metallic objects and has no effect on my metal material. Which source of reflections are you referring to, ambient lighting, ambient cubemap, reflecftion capture? I do not wish it to have below 0.3 in roughness as it is not a glossy object.
Edit:
I think I managed a decent compromise:
Essentially I increased the brightness of the diffuse, lowered the metal a bit, then replicated a patina effect, then the scratched surfaces would be reflective, showing the metal nature of the material, but overall being rough and worn.
I just wish I knew how to make the highlights be less sharp, without ruining the rest of the metal.
Found your problem
You need to use static/stationary light to see anything on reflections though, here’s what i recommend
For skylight: Baked/stationary, Its cheap and does wonders to outdoor graphics, light the indoors with dynamic. Stationary surprisingly supports day/night cycle (Not dynamic worlds though)
For directional light: Stationary with dynamic nearby shadows, as an addition to this reflection fix you get effectively infinite shadow range at a very low cost.
For spot/pointlight: Any of the 3, your choice. Note that stationary sky and directionallight will only let you overlap 2 stationary spot/pointlights, keep that in mind.
After changing light mobility you should notice after baking the reflections and specular look fantastic, not to mention the other free improvements to go along with it.
Fixes for dynamic worlds:
If your working on a dynamic world, and need a skylight, just make it dynamic and remove captures, and click recapture cene, the rest is automatic.
If your working on a dynamic world, without a skylight, make a HUUUUGE reflection capture covering EVERYTHING with a cubemap of sky plugged in.
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Oh! Thanks for those last tips. It would appear my issue was due to my skylight being stationary instead of movable.
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This happened to me also. I made my skylight movable and everything went OK for me