( re-post )
Hi .
purpose of this topic is to share my journey learning UE4 .
my purpose to start this project is first learning UE4 and then compare it to vray or any offline rendering engine , I saw awesome archivz project around the web but I want to know what can I do as a person never experiences with UE4 or any other GPU ( real time rendering ) based engine.
first, I thought for compare I must have a very good vray scene and the most successful company I know to create scenes and assets for vray is https://evermotion.org/ ( they are awesome ) .
I chose arch interior VOL35 scene 2 ( Scene 2 AI35 Archinteriors - max, psd Interior - Evermotion ) cause I really like the artist of this project what did with the scene .
let me show some image of this project before I share my journey and experience :
( pleas watch the video too )
in the continue, I will explain about maybe reddish gold .
LIGHTING :
after learning basics in UE4 , i start learning to lighting in UE4 . UE4 divide lighting in 3 awesome part 1 . static 2 . stationary 3 . dynamic .
interesting fact about this project is i bake light in preview mode ( lighting quality = preview ) i manipulate Baselightmass.ini file to achieve accurate and better lighting at least to my eyes .
actually i create 3 Baselightmass.ini file with different level of quality and the one i use for this project have the lowest quality between them but i thought that’s one is enough for this project cause lighting quality is ok to my eyes for this project , another thing was those another two Basslightmas.ini take a lot more time to baking light .
first , i use default preview quality cause that insanely fast to achieve desired lighting scenario then i use my own Basslightmass.ini to achieve better light ( again to my eyes ) .
MATERIALS :
after that I decide to create a few material system for different type of materials, in my opinion, UE4 PBR is awesome you can achieve awesome looking materials in just a few seconds, as you know PBR material system divided materials into two parts metallic and non metallic ( in a simple way ) from that info I decide to divide my material system into 4 elements plastic, metallic, glass and others .
I thought I must create a material system to have the flexibility to turn any kind of material in its unique division ( for example metallic material system can use for any kind of metal ) and can input some physical accurate data even changes in the result is not that much noticeable .
Here some screenshots from created materials :
(please ignore decals behind the sphere , it’s my test scene and those decals created to just learning and understanding decals )
- plastic
- Metallic
for gold material , i must add it , we have many types of gold cause that its hard to narrow down specific gold color .
the color you see in the above is more near to common gold color but my taste for gold is more reddish gold like as Arabian gold cause that i decide go with gold material you will see in the next images , if in the room ( especially chandelier ) any one thought its more reddish than usual I must say im sorry , that was just my taste cause in my eyes reddish gold is nicer and hotter .
I add this part cause had some negative opinion on this subject .
. Aluminum
1.shiny 2.damaged and mat 3.damaged and more mat
Glass
for glass i creat 3 material glass they are almost similar but depend to sistuation i did samall changes .you can find more images for glass in first uploaded images .
I didn’t use the master material in this project most objects have their unique material .
the material instance was so useful .
VRAY TO UE4 :
in offline rendering programs usually artist don’t put their energy and time on every object in the scene or any angle cause it’s not necessary only angle camera and object near camera or objects are in the center attention matter cause that it’s not necessary to work on every object equally .
I force to fix some object change some textures and add many textures , cause player can walk in the room and exam any object cause that you don’t have any specific camera direction and must give detail to all object equally.
**PROGRAMS I USED :
UE4 , 3DSMAX , UVLayout , Photoshop, Knald and some Zbrush and Substance painter**
**UVLayout : **its great application for creating UV maps and UV editing , working with UVlayout is so much fun and fast only negative thing i can say about UVlayout is its not compatible with triangle polygons and cause developers of this application is Maya user didn’t create a stable bridge between 3DS Max and UV layout . you can find some scripts people wrote for this purpose and they work fine but not perfect . in total i give to this app 10/10 it save a lot time for me . ( some times i think i couldnt finish this project with out UVLayout )
**zbrush and substance painter ** : everyone already known they are awesome programs in their field but I didn’t use them that much for this project , i use substance painter to tileable a texture and Zbrush to correct some geometry’s .
**NOTE : **I tried use pipeline usually architect 3D artist use on their projects , usually they avoid to texturing a object and always use tileable textures cause that I avoid any texturing and I just use tileable textures . im sure scenes will be more realistic to create meaning full damaged and texture I Zbrush and substance painter .
MY THOUGHTS :
Its obvious thing is offline rendering engine like as vray and corona have better quality and work more accurate but with my average CPU ( i7 - 4770k ) having animation is a dream , even to my eyes quality of UE4 is more than acceptable even its awesome .
creating a scene in UE4 cause light maps take more time but SO WHAT i can have 60 frame fps (even more) animation and character can walk in the scene and even i can have VR .
real-time material editing is an awesome thing in UE4 .
SUGGEST TO EPIC :
this suggest i want mention is just for archviz projects and i understand they are not necessary cause UE4 created to develop games .
- better translucent materials (glass)
- effect DOF on translucent ( i read in a forum they didn’t add this future cause its so expensive, its make sense )
- option to have ability bake light in just specific objects , i don’t its possible or not cause GI and shadows created with bounces from photons .
I will create a different topic for each and I will add links here .
Video links :
I lost quality for this video in 2 part , first turn the images sequence to a video second when i upload it on YouTube , YouTube really destroy the quality of video after uploading .
cause those reason pleas download it from Dropbox rather than watching it on YouTube . ( i know its big file for a video )
**Dropbox : **Dropbox - Room.00002.mp4 - Simplify your life
YouTube :
watch?v=EyGyIY-vP0E
still, I have some questions , I will thankful if anyone can replay to them :
https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/710706/shadows-getting-darker-with-camera-distance.html
https://answers.unrealengine.com/que…llvtuneap.html
there is few more but I will create a post for them in next few days .
MY THOUGHTS ABOUT UE4 :
1 . its so creative in a unique way .
2 . great lighting system with GI
3. real time rendering with highest quality
4. awesome material system
5. real time material feedback in the scene and in the editor .
6 . material instance system
7. before i use UE4 i was heard around web poly count or number and resolution textures is problem of real time engines , i push UE4 any way i could but UE4 handle every thing easily even i don’t have up today graphic card , i use a 780 TI for this project and it work smoothly thanks to Nvidia i wonder how its work on 1080 TI .
8. UE4 is so stable .
9. your control of this program is no limited to menu’s , its open source . even you don’t know any programing language , developers of UE4 create a opportunity to edit some files in a simple way .
10. very powerful Post Process
11. great community
12. very good documents to help .
13. its free !!!
…
in total I enjoy every second learning UE4 , working with UE4 is so fun, I think this engine is a master piece .
My next step :
my next step is learning C++ .
i really enjoy using UE4 cause that i decide to use it for a long time and cause that im gonna learn C++ to better use UE4 even maybe develop games .
This is my first project ever i create in UE4 and this is my first project i ever publish , if you like it pleas with your kind words warm my heart .
Thanks .
Nice work!