I’ve just recently started developing with with UE4 and still have a lot to learn, but I have a question about workflow and the general methodology of using assets in Unreal (or any engine really).
I have always been intrigued with how optimization techniques have changed over time - using textures and materials especially. I started learning UE by doing what a lot of others have done before me - recreate a portion of Minecraft. When I looked into how assets were used in the game I noticed that they used Texture Atlas and UV coords to limit the number of draw calls. Since MC textures are very easy to find online, I started down the same path, but I just found out that in later version of MC, the devs moved away from using “texture packs” and started using “resource packs” where all the textures were now individual PNG files. What about the draw calls?
Now that I am starting to want to blend textures (cracking a block for example) things are getting more complicated and I’m wondering if I should be doing this all within a material instead of doing it all in code like I am now. For instance, in my procedural mesh, I’m currently using 2 UV channels - one for the block texture, and for the crack overlay that happens when a block is damaged.
My current technique, while cumbersome, is working, but since I’m only recreating MC to learn from, I’m reaching out to the community to find out if this is a realistic approach on more complicated games and geometry.
Am I missing the boat by not learning/using more complex materials that are more powerful and flexible?
Any help or guidance is appreciated.
