Uniblocks is a set of modular static meshes & blueprints, designed to seamlessly stack on 50 units grid, so it’s possible to construct buildings with arbitrary designs - block by block, like in Minecraft.
Uniblocks are available on FAB in both FREE and PRO versions. FREE version is fully capable (all you can build with PRO you can do with FREE, just less design options in blueprints & less materials in library & less template buildings).
Facts, features and nuances:
Unique modular building framework (here is an introduction tutorial) - nothing directly comparable on FAB so far
Designed for Nanite + Lumen projects (won’t work without both of them enabled!)
Lightweight geometry (~50MB in total) because there are no lightmaps and LODs on meshes; textures will be the 99% of the memory cost for constructions, made with Uniblocks
Highly detailed geometry - no low-poly “look and feel”
[Screenshots with your builds are welcome in this topic, they helps a lot!]
First Uniblocks update v2.1 is now live, and with it Uniblocks are out of beta state, for the full price (76$). Here is the list with all those improvements and fixes:
Reworked pillars blueprint: better top and bottom designs (+2 new: fused and simple), circular placement option, performance optimization (scaling pillar instead of filling pillar’s length with instanced 0.5m sections). Now it is possible to create some kind of art installation of a kind with those pillars:
Reworked flora assets (now full Nanite geometry for every leaf, branch and grass blade), but still not perfect due to Nanite removing leafs with short distance. Removed two largest bush variants (of 4 and 5m length) due to tremendous weight in Nanite variant.
Reworked subsurface shader (previously named “M_UB_Nature”) into four new versions (“M_UB_subsurface_xxx”). Still WIP, no animation for leaves and branches, but better than before.
Reworked ceiling lamp blueprint (“BP_UB_Feature_light_ceiling”), now it supports more lamp shapes, circular placement and hanging mounting. Also there is an option to have lamp sound.
Fixed curvature R50 mismatch for turns in BP_UB_Railing.
Some minor fixes (for example, distance fading was not enabled on default grid material and on rims too, so they didn’t fade to white clay with 18m distance.
Next update v3 will be live very soon™, but it packs few core changes so it’s impossible to install it on top of v2.1 or below without severe damage to constructions you made and messing up content inside “Uniblocks” folder. Please, backup your project before update and remove Uniblocks from the project before installing v3 - fresh installation is the way to go in this case.
Feel free to contact me in case there are substantial amount of custom made buildings from v2.1 that needs transition to v3.
IMPORTANT! Don’t install this version on top of previous one - too many things will break.
What's new in v3
Fresh installation is needed (if there are many custom buildings were made with previous version of Uniblocks - please, contact me directly via personal message or support e-mail, I will solve this by hand).
Core changes - blocks, joints and rims can be scaled up/down and stay perfectly compatible with 0.5m grid, so there is no need to have endless size variations of the same block/joint/rim type. Variations were removed with this update:
Hi. Out of the box Uniblocks can’t offer much in that aspect (right now primary focus is on building new stuff). Classic methods of aging should work, though - using distinct damaged/aged concrete or pealing paint materials plus disabling glass in windows (there is an option for that) and replacing it with some kind of external broken glass piles at the bottom, adding piles of trash and dusty glass materials on remaining ones, decals with potholes in concrete… all that wear and tear should do the job.
With next update (v4 for full and v2 for Lite) new blueprint comes - to add panels/slabs on top of walls. Those are also new by default, but of course it’s possible to manually remove those panels here and there, make some of them barely hanging at odd angles…
Hope this will work, I’m not a seasoned environment artist but Youtube has some tutorials on this subject, if there is a need for advice from real PROs.
Yesterday I’ve received a bugreport (thanks for it! ): on FAB there is a previous version of Uniblocks (v2), with old building workflow (no scaling), bulky BuildKit_v2, old Documentaton_v2 map with completely different layout and there are no new prefab buildings that are on product page. FAB is a new marketplace, so mistakes of that scale can happen it seems…
Now it’s fixed and FAB will provide you with correct V3 version. Just note that V3 cannot be installed on top of V2 (result will be a total mess), so if you already have V2 in your project - please please please follow this harsh procedure:
Backup you project.
Remove “Uniblocks” folder from the project, completely. All buildings that was made with V2 will broke in V3, so it’s a total wipeout.
Install Uniblocks v3 from FAB, restart project after that (for some reason it’s not showing all content inside “Uniblocks” folder right away, restart is needed; FAB is FAB).
If you have build A LOT with V2 in those few days - please contact me here, if anything I can update those V2 buildings to V3 by hand.
This mishap did quite a number on first impression from Uniblocks, but now it’s fixed. Well, at least you have an unintended dive into historically first version of Uniblocks for Unreal and have a sacred know how about how it was at the dawn of this project
Next update is almost ready (hope to release it next week) - some nice new blocks to play with and “Monolith 15cm” was added to the list of railings designs:
Uniblocks Lite was renamed to “Uniblocks free” and updated to v2.
From now on both free and paid versions will have identical set of building blocks and blueprints. Paid version offers extra design options in blueprints (currently only in railings, pillars, gate and gates_D blueprints) plus extended material library and more building prefabs. This update turns balance in favor of free version, but with upcoming months balance will be restored with more design choices, coming to blueprints in paid version of Uniblocks.
BuildKit was upgraded and now much larger, looks identical in both versions. Everything you have seen in paid version now can be build with free one.
BuildKit was expanded with new series of chamfered building blocks.
BuildKit was expanded with few extra blocks for large radius (r100) block family.
[paid only] Added new prefab building (“Office futuristic v1”) to show many of those new blocks in action. New building for free version still work in progress (I delayed this update long enough already).
“External Actors” feature was removed from all Uniblocks maps and Level Instances. Behind this default feature is One File Per Actor (OFPA) system and it was creating “ExternalActors” folder inside project with dozens of thousands sub-folders inside. This was causing huge issue - FAB has a hidden limit (no more than 15K folders), this was severe limitation on amount of objects I can have in Uniblocks. With “External Actors” limits removed now it is possible to bring back textured versions for each prefab building plus have all prefab buildings exposed on Documentation map and, in future, it is possible to create sophisticated background constructions for demo & documentation maps mwehehehe.
Improved railings blueprint, now it supports new design - monolith, 15cm thick. List of Mods for railing turns was expanded - previously it was only about rectangular and rounded 50 cm turns, now added rounded 100cm and chamfered 50cm and 100cm turns. Cleanup inside railings blueprint performed to get rid of all hard links to meshes.
Improved stair blueprint, now it has two additional options to fit nicely with monolith railings (“Left offset” & “Right offset”) plus there is a new design option added - just a slope without steps, useful as a side block for normal steps and so on. Width of the stair steps/slope now can be set off grid. Simplification of “Planks” steps design - now it won’t look that good with materials using non-triplanar UVs, but guess this is okay and triplanar UVs doing well here (let me know if not).
Improved plinth blueprint, now it supports stairs/U-turns/doorway turns/mini corner/endings.
*Some more tiny improvements here and there (removed hard links in few blueprints).
Those updates can be installed on top of previous version of Uniblocks (v3 for paid, v1 for Lite), some damage will appear on your builds if you’re used perrons and large rounded corner joints (r100) - damage easy to spot and fix, just rotate and move those misbehaving pieces back to correct position (in blueprints check/uncheck “Flip”).
However, if possible, fresh installation will be MUCH better choice - just because there are quite some garbage will be left from v3 after update due to many blocks and blueprint mesh pieces in v4 were renamed to have more unified sorting and logic, so there will be tons of duplicates. Hope this update is the last one, that makes update process messy.
And now, thanks to unified feature set between paid and free versions, I don’t need to write separate video tutorials for each version - all future video tutorials will be simply made with free version I guess, phew.
Sadly to note that main feature for v4 update was meant to be cladding, but there was simply way too much stuff to update/improve/rework, took me extra month. Anyway, next v5 update (v3 for free version) will be dedicated to cladding only, so I hope to make it available in 2-3 weeks (radio silence for 2.5 months between updates is just too long and boring). Here are some dev screenshots to get the idea about upcoming cladding blueprint:
Challenge here is in amount of bends and turns and special cases - I think about some compromises needed to be done, attempt to make cladding piece for each joint and rim and case … smells like another 2-3 months of work plus very cumbersome interface for cladding blueprint. And on top of all that I need to add more design options for blueprints in paid version. Will see how it turns out…
Ugh, free version is broken now - somehow files from v1 were not deleted on the FAB side and v2 files were dumped on top of them, and re-write existing old files was not performed by newer ones from v2 and this mess is that this update brings, when downloaded… please wait till I re-submit Uniblocks free and report back here about results. FAB being FAB… again.
At least paid version of Uniblocks was updated fine to v4.
Upd: problem fixed, it’s safe to load free version from FAB
But there is A LOT of work to do (covering all those bends and turns, in different sizes and mods, with option for seamless transition between different types of cladding tiles… phew) - maybe in another 3 weeks I finish first version, with only one cladding tiles design.
This is true if you have good materials at hand - and materials are currently is not the strongest part of Uniblocks, but FAB has a lot of triplanar UV material packs for modern architecture…
Hope to release this update in a week or so, some other mini fixes are to apply + write tutorial video, a lot has changed since original tuts.
In this post I will keep updating a list of what’s being made for next version of UNIBLOCKS (for the next update main focus will be on improving materials and expanding material library for PRO version plus adding new template building or two). Here it is, with most recent stuff on top:
Feb 5th: All old materials were reworked - most of them will look better. Next is to add few new materials - pavement & wall tiles, some modern surfaces for the cladding blueprint, gravel, etc. Also, reworked previously removed MI_UBT_concrete_aged_1 & 2 materials (and added two more on top of that), sometimes those are fitting for flowerbeds or for style.
Feb 4th: Wallpapers rework is done. Simple “pure”, “pastel” and “soft” colorful materials now looks like colorful plaster surfaces.
Feb 1st: Started reworking wallpapers by simply removing all 30 of them (too simple), instead I will create 5-10 new ones, with more art and style.
Feb 1st: Reworked carpets - all 30 materials now have cozy appearance thanks to proper normal + AO maps from real carpet (previously there was a simple noise texture).
Jan 31: Still doing material convertion - seems that quite a bit of improvements and rework is needed for all of 194+ materials plus some new. Heh, this update will be beefy when it’s done.
Jan 27: Reworked few concrete materials for new cell bombing UVs feature - on average it gives 25% less shader instructions and 25% less VRAM usage due to simpler material setup (mostly just one layer + overlay, using same diffuse texture). For tiles/brickwork/carpets/wallpapers cell bombing UVs didn’t fit, but concrete, metal and plaster materials will benefit from this (need to rework like 40+ materials, a couple of days).
Jan 25: At first glance it works - triplanar UVs (with dithering for seams) plus cell-bombing UVs (also with dithering over seams) for layers 1-2-3 (can be turned ON/OFF per layer). Main issue was with normals - correcting those after triplanar is tricky, but on top of that there is a need for another correction for cell-bombing random rotation… solution was found, hope it will hold.
Jan 24: Trying to add new feature to M_UB_Main shader - anti-tiling UVs distortion (“Cell-bombing”) and hide all extra options for each texture map under checkbox, so up to 25% performance boost for material, made from ideally fitting set of texture maps that don’t need any adjustments. Parallax Occlusion Mapping feature removed from this shader (if you need POM its available in previously mentioned M_UB_Main_triplanar_with_POM shader).
Jan 23: Added new materials MI_UBT_concrete_common 2 & 3
Jan 22: Reworked materials MI_UBT_concrete_painted_1 & 2, materials "MI_UBT_concrete_aged_1 & 2 were removed (both looks bad), added new materials “MI_UBT_concrete_planks” plus MI_UBT_concrete_smooth 2 & 3 and MI_UBT_concrete_rough 2 and MI_UBT_concrete_painted_3.
Jan 21: Reworked material MI_UBT_concrete_dark
Jan 20: Reworked materials MI_UBT_concrete_smooth and MI_UBT_concrete_rough
Jan 19: Reworked weakest materials in library - MI_UBT_concrete_common and MI_UBT_concrete_bright, now those are looking decent.
Jan 19: M_UB_Main shader - changed order of “Desaturation” and “Diffuse tweak” parameters so color tweaking can be done after desaturation of native diffuse texture colors, purely for convenience. Plus hue & saturation parameters now hidden under checkboxes to save performance when they’re not used.
Jan 18: BP_UB_Pillar mesh colliders now have 3x lower polycount.
Jan 17: BP_UB_Flowerbed blueprint now uses new M_UB_Main_triplanar_with_POM shader with POM for its default ground material (it’s brown ground now instead of grass), so relief of ground level is set to be much more prominent.
Jan 17: BP_UB_Flowerbed blueprint optimized, now it uses many times less instances inside for large size flowerbeds (same as window beam blueprint - using stretching instead of filling space with 0.5m instances). Also reduced polycount for collider meshes, up to 3 times.
Jan 16: BP_UB_WIndow_beam blueprint was optimized, previously it instancing 0.5m beam piece to form beam, now it’s about stretching just one middle part of the beam to fit any length, plus start and end beam pieces.
Jan 14: BP_UB_Pillar blueprint minimal height is 0.5m now to fix disconnection issues between pieces at small thickness. Also fixed pillars Nanite damage/disappearing geometry at distance on small pillars.
Jan 12: Added shader M_UB_Main_triplanar_with_POM - this is a backport of a new triplanar material nodes from UE 5.7, with triplanar UVs capable to work with Parallax Occlusion Mapping, with fixed typical triplanar mirroring for text on textures, with dithering on triplanar UV seams. Unfortunately, this triplanar node does poor blending on rounded building pieces so I didn’t use it in M_UB_Main shader to replace previous triplanar UV solution, creating this dedicated new shader instead.
Jan 10: Considered to get rid of “Load asset blocking” node in all blueprints to reduce hitches when loading an UNIBLOCKS house at runtme. But dropped this idea - there will be mother of all hitches anyway because hundreds to thousands of static mesh pieces to load and update Lumen lighting, on top of assembling hundreds of complicated blueprints in Events Graph with Load asset async. Let me know if you have different expertise on this topic.
Jan 10: Fix for BP_UB_Door_sliding blueprint - opening trigger now even on both sides in mirrored mode.
FREE version will also receive all those small bugfixes and improvements. Few reworked materials will made it there too.
): on FAB there is a previous version of Uniblocks (v2), with old building workflow (no scaling), bulky BuildKit_v2, old Documentaton_v2 map with completely different layout and there are no new prefab buildings that are on product page. FAB is a new marketplace, so mistakes of that scale can happen it seems…
