Workflow for Blender->Substance Painter->Unreal?

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Hi name there! My name is Jose and I’m pretty new to Game Art Development. I’m also new to this forum, so apologies if this is not the right place to ask my question.

I know some intermediate UE4 (both C++ and Blueprints), but my weakest point has always been the workflow to import assets from Blender and Substance. Up to this point I have always bought external 3D assets.

As far as I know, the workflow is this (but I don’t know if I’m correct):

  1. BLENDER: Create a 3D model in Blender. Create the materials I need for each part of the mesh. UV unwrap it. Export as .fbx
  2. SUBSTANCE PAINTER: Import the .fbx file into Substance Painter. Paint the 3D model. Export the .obj file AND the texture maps (albedo, roughness, metallic, normal, etc.)
  3. UNREAL ENGINE 4: Import the .obj file AND the texture maps. Create a material based on these maps. Apply the material to the model.

I have a few questions now:

  1. Is this workflow correct? Or is there something I’m misunderstanding?
  2. What model do I have to import into UE4? The .fbx from Blender? Or the .obj from Substance? Is there any difference between these two?
  3. When exporting the textures from Substance Painter, I can choose from a dropdown called config, to what game engine I’m exporting these textures to (Unity, Unreal, Lumberyard, Cryengine, etc.). What exactly does this option do? What is the fundamental difference in exporting textures to Unreal or to Unity, for example?
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If you are just exporting a static mesh then .obj is sufficient. The .fbx format is only required if you are exporting animations.

  1. The workflow is fine
  2. Substance Painter only uses the mesh as a canvas for painting and doesn’t change it so you can use the obj from Blender or Substance.
  3. Each engine has a standard material with different types of normal mapping (DirectX or OpenGL) and texture layering (RGBA channels). The drop down is simply a preset matching those materials. If you use a custom material in Unreal Engine you can make your own preset if you like.
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