I feel as though I should be able to reuse the assets I make… I know unreal probably supports it, but I am not sure how to go about achieving this.
Basic example : Say I create a building, or a row of buildings that I would like to reuse as templates for other buildings in my game, then I would texture them or augment them with other things to make them appear different, how would I do that?
Is there a way to create it in unreal and then save it as a mesh for reuse or something? Also, if I create it as one mesh, and then apply a material to a wall, wont that then add that material to the whole building, which is undesirable?
I know some games reuse entire buildings as I have seen it done, and I doubt each one is modeled separately.
Any help or pointers in the right direction on this would be greatly appreciated.
What you should be doing is modeling things in a separate 3D program like 3ds Max, Maya, or Blender, and then export to UE4. You would then have assets in the content browser that you could reuse and reposition however you want. If you built something in UE4 you can convert it to a static mesh and reuse it, but that’s not going to give as good of results as modeling in another program.
Okay cool, thanks for this answer, but I do have more questions on this topic…
Say for example I choose to make my modular building assets in blender for reuse in UE4…
I might have 20 different room shape templates, corridor templates etc, all the sort of stuff that should normally be done in BSP before I begin adding decorative stuff. I guess I asked this question wrong… What if I want to create BSP rooms etc, then save them for reuse later on other building interiors? Or should I still be doing this in another application?
It’s still ideal to model in Blender. What you have to do is look at what you need to make and see how many thing you might be able to reuse. Some people make wall pieces and just use like 4 to make a wall, that’s not a good idea since you get visible seams in the lighting. But it all depends on what you’re making. Most likely, the walls/floors/ceilings will need to be unique (not a big deal since they’ll be pretty low poly) but things like a window might be the same shape no matter what, or a door, and things like that that would be more detailed and can be reused.