Project

[rabellogp]

@;10606

Couple of things:
you can increase the resolution of the Volume Light Samples by modifying this section of the Lightmass.ini

[DevOptions.PrecomputedDynamicObjectLighting]
bVisualizeVolumeLightSamples=False
bVisualizeVolumeLightInterpolation=False
NumHemisphereSamplesScale=2
SurfaceLightSampleSpacing=100
FirstSurfaceSampleLayerHeight=25
SurfaceSampleLayerHeightSpacing=100
NumSurfaceSampleLayers=4
DetailVolumeSampleSpacing=300
VolumeLightSampleSpacing=3000
; Clamp the number of volume samples generated to ~3mb
MaxVolumeSamples=50000
bUseMaxSurfaceSampleNum=True
; Approximately clamp the number of surface samples generated to ~30mb (only for Landscape currently)
MaxSurfaceLightSamples=500000

The Detail volume basically fills the volume with samples rather than it being a few layers on the ground. You can visualize the samples by going to Show>Visualize>VolumeLightSamples and it looks liek this:

http://i.imgur.com/YIb11xc.png

Also, be sure to be using reflection capture actors in your scene. For dynamic objects, they impart lighting information as well as reflection information and can help with the look of exterior lighting leaking in. these ONLY capture static geometry however so if your walls, etc are dynamic they won’t help.

Last thing I’ve learned is to use post process volumes to good effect, especially if you’re using a Skylight (or just don’t use a skylight!)

Look forward to seeing an update!

Hello, guys. (Happy New Year! =D)

I’ve been trying to use this tweak again in the new version of my project. I’ve restored the Lightmass.ini to it’s default settings long time ago after that test because I didn’t need it for a while. Now I need to increase the Volume Light Samples resolution again, but it is not working anymore! There are a lot of Lightmass.ini files in my system, I don’t know exactly witch one affects this very project. Anyway, none of those files seems to have any influence on the project, the Volume Light Samples continues with the same resolution (witch is too low for my purposes).

Does anyone knows how could I increase the Volume Light Samples resolution again?
Thanks in advance!

edit: I got the answer here: How to increase Volume Light Samples resolution? - Rendering - Epic Developer Community Forums
This parameter is now on WorldSettings -> Lightmass

[rabellogp]

I’m not working on this project anymore, but I like to visit it once in a while to update the visuals with new techniques I’ve learned. Here are some images from the last changes (I’ve also updated the first post in this topic).

&stc=1

&stc=1

&stc=1

&stc=1

&stc=1

&stc=1

&stc=1

&stc=1

I’ve improved the speedtree grass, used a lot of decals to add dirty on everything, improved the materials and tweaked the post process.
Some foliage are from the Unreal kite assets package.

The images are taken from the viewport with Windows capture tool.

[heartlessphil]

Those 3 last pics looks great man, great job!

[rabellogp]

I’ve just made a simple video, playing with matinee cameras:

Project 1 - Unreal Engine 4 Architectural Visualization

[EoinOBroin]

@;287529

I’ve just made a simple video, playing with matinee cameras:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-nNxvNoCDE

Wow, looks even better in motion!

Did you tweak the Pine SpeedTree LOD’s? They look super nice and crisp even really far away- I often get horrible blurring and obvious LOD switches, was thinking about mabye making the distance of the first LOD to be quite large, so that it stays in max quality (not concerned about performance, just visuals).

[rabellogp]

@EoinOBroin;294212

Wow, looks even better in motion!

Did you tweak the Pine SpeedTree LOD’s? They look super nice and crisp even really far away- I often get horrible blurring and obvious LOD switches, was thinking about mabye making the distance of the first LOD to be quite large, so that it stays in max quality (not concerned about performance, just visuals).

Yes, I’ve tweaked the first LOD distance exactly like you said
But that pine is not SpeedTree, it’s the one that comes with Epic’s kite assets package.

[EoinOBroin]

@;294218

Yes, I’ve tweaked the first LOD distance exactly like you said
But that pine is not SpeedTree, it’s the one that comes with Epic’s kite assets package.

Ah awesome, thanks for confirming And oops, they look quite similar to the SpeedTree pines! Great work as always man, this scene is definitely in my top favourite projects!

[anonymous_user_d523f86b]

Fantatic work, mate! Lighting just blew my mind. And grass too, actually. How did you managed to achieve that look? Have you painted it with foliage tool, or you have used any other tricks? We tried to use skatters in MAX, but result was not very good.

[rabellogp]

@avrora-games;302749

Fantatic work, mate! Lighting just blew my mind. And grass too, actually. How did you managed to achieve that look? Have you painted it with foliage tool, or you have used any other tricks? We tried to use skatters in MAX, but result was not very good.

Thanks!

Yep, I’ve used foliage tool to create the lawn. The individual clusters are modified SpeedTree backyard grass. After scattering them over the terrain, you must apply some sort of color variation to make it look more natural. Here is a nice way to achieve that: Foliage color variation - Rendering - Epic Developer Community Forums

I’ve posted some info about that lawn in the “Lawn Grass Archviz” topic, in Architectural Visualization session: Lawn Grass Archviz - Architectural and Design Visualization - Epic Developer Community Forums

This topic should be in Architectural Visualization session. I created it here because there wasn’t a dedicated session at that time…

[anonymous_user_d523f86b]

Oh, that’s very kind of you! Thanks a lot!

[Dadou351]

Hello, i search exteriors quality map(s) for my architecurals projects (like this beautiful project).

Do you know where i can find this/these on the web ?

David

[anonymous_user_204f068d1 (anonymous_user_204f068d)]

Fantastic job with superb lightning and vegetation technique.

Please make a tutorial for your awesome knowledge and skill.

Thanks dude.

[anonymous_user_a6ee39db]

Hi, i am looking for low cut grass just like the one you have here-could you please tell me where you got it?
And did you place it in unreal engine using grass tool?
Thank you very much

[rabellogp]

@Jelena5;645871

Hi, i am looking for low cut grass just like the one you have here-could you please tell me where you got it?
And did you place it in unreal engine using grass tool?
Thank you very much

It’s a tweaked version of SpeedTree’s backyard grass for UE4 (link). I’ve placed it with foliage tool.

[J_Manoel]

Amazing!! Nice job!

[anonymous_user_49f55d06]

Tutorials

Hello,

Can anyone update me about the tutorials which were mentioned by .
Thanks in advance.

[dave_pilot]

may i use this in my project?

[cgArchitekt]

Thanks for all the support, guys!

About the suggestions/questions:

CharlestonS: I agree. I don’t like plain textures for the grass, they are always going to kill the realism except for some special situations (very far from camera, right angle, etc…). I think using geometry for grass is always the best option for realism, even for the short grass. That’s what I’m trying to use now. But thanks for the suggestion, I’ll take a look at your libraries!

viscorbel: Totally agree with you about the cartoonish look of the grass… UE4 doesn’t have special shaders for vegetation, so we need to play a little with the tools. That tall grass is an asset I was playing with to study grass creation, it doesn’t have good textures for diffuse and normal, that is the reason for the plain look. I’m working on it though. I’ll try the scale suggestion on that floor. Thanks

cadviz: That wall is around 8 inches. The strange thin sensation on that image is because of the window frame, it’s thin and it’s hiding the outside edges of the wall. It’s strange, I agree haha:p. The lighting settings are simple, just a lightsource and a skylight. For the post processing, I’m using a custom LUT I’ve made in Photoshop as instructed here: Color Grading and the Filmic Tonemapper in Unreal Engine | Unreal Engine 5.3 Documentation

I’m attaching some parameters, hope it helps

sun light:

skylight:

lightmass:

how long are your build times (rendering time) with these light and lightmass settings and what is/was your computer configuration (processor, RAM, graphics card)?

[rabellogp]

@cgArchitekt

how long are your build times (rendering time) with these light and lightmass settings and what is/was your computer configuration (processor, RAM, graphics card)?

I don’t remember the build time I was getting on that specific project (it was 4 years ago :D). But my build times are usually pretty fast for my exteriors. They don’t have a lot of lightmaps to bake since all my foliage is dynamic and I place a lightmass importance volume around the main building only. I also keep the lightmaps resolution as low as possible. I make it so only the extremely necessary surfaces get 1024 lighmaps and all the others are 512 or smaller.

Currently I’m building a scene like that in 2h with production settings on a i7 7700 + 16gb ram.

What increases build times is the amount and size of lightmaps. I’m currently working on a exterior + interior project and the build times are 20h (production settings) with the interior full of detailed furniture.