Hi guys
I’ve been trying to learn how to work with UE4 because I’m an architecture student , and I saw awesome works from you guys and I have some questions that I would really appreciate if you answer.
The space of UE4 is kind of game-ish, how come you have strong realistic renders?
And another thing is that I don’t have any architectural component or even there is no option like “wall” or “window”, so how do you make your renders ?
And one last question which is stupid to ask but I have to because I don’t know, is UE4arch some kind of plugin for UE4? I mean is UE4 for making games and UE4arch for architectural visualizations?
First thing which is important for you is to learn some 3D tool like 3Ds or Maya if you are planning to go pro (there are free educational versions, thought I am not quite sure). If not, try Blender which is free.
There will you then learn the basic terminology and how to model 3D object, UV unwrapping, Texturing, Lighting, and rendering.
Most important things I think you should focus when you learn is:
3D modelling - Without knowledge on how to make and detail 3D objects you wont get very good results.
UV Unwrapping - This is important for lightmaps creation. You will have a lot visual problems in UE4 if you dont know how to unwrap correctly the 3D objects you have made.
Textures > PBR (physical based rendering) - Textures is one of the things that bring the realism in his fullest form and you will then know what is diffuse (PBR - albedo), normal maps, roughness, ao etc.
And lastly when you have enough knowledge about the things I described above, then is time for you to learn UE4 and the techniques for realism.
To clarify the question about UE4 being “kind Game-ish,” UE4 is a game engine used by major game companies and enthusiast. The fact that is is capable of such realist rendering has people using it for other things - like architectural visualization.
As and architecture student wanting to learn computer visualization there is a basic distinction you should understand as you get into it:
UE4 = “Real-time graphics”: Like video games they are interactive and the screen images are being created on the fly 30-60 times a second.
This is compared to “pre-rendered” images or videos done in software that can take hours to render an single image.
There are important differences in the way you create each, but about 80% or the skills you need are common to both.
If your are a student – good news, you can get the software that professionals use for free:
://www.autodesk/education/free-software/all
Hi there
Thank you that would be SO great ! Atually I just know revit so far and I’ve been learning Rhino a bit recently, but I have no idea about 3ds … I guess it takes a long time to learn UE4 although I’m really interested …
My brother is an architecture student but only second year so hasn’t done a lot of modelling and I tried to tell him about unreal engine 4 but he just said it is too much work even though he will be using 3DsMAX. Considering he is just a student is it really much more work? From my point of view it looks like this is incredibly useful for him so I should keep annoying him about it but not sure because I don’t know enough about URE4 I’m a noob. Help?
Start learning 3ds . I was in the same boat as you, Revit just can’t do what UE4 needs. If you can model in Revit then you already have a basic concept of 3d space and it makes the transition to 3ds a little easier. There’s thousands of tutorials all over the internet. When I started I got a subscription to Lynda and DigitalTutors and they both served me well.
