Found out point lights with source radius and length work decently well for area light substitutes.
Anyone figure out if there's a way to reduce lightmass seams between flat modular pieces? I'm just using the default architecture assets with snapping.
I also have trouble with this tbh. Got things working perfectly in UE3 with lightmaps with modular pieces that snap perfectly but in UE4 you end up with weird seams all over. Very annoying.
My solution has always been to never have flat modular pieces that join. Flat walls like that can happily be a single piece.
so do you create a library of walls? 1x1 wall, 2x1 wall, 4x1 wall etc? otherwise you have the same problem everytime you want to reuse the assets. I never found a way around shading seams on flat modular walls in ue3 either
For a flat wall like that I wouldn't even bother wish a mesh, I'd probably use a brush. If I had to use a mesh, I'd fiddle the UVs in the material instances dependent on scaling rather than duplicate geometry unnecessarily (even if the geometry is pretty simple).
so do you create a library of walls? 1x1 wall, 2x1 wall, 4x1 wall etc? otherwise you have the same problem everytime you want to reuse the assets. I never found a way around shading seams on flat modular walls in ue3 either
That's because you're not doing your lightmapping right.
You need to make sure you're UVs are not in-between a pixel or the such for the lightmap resolution you're using.
ambershee is right here. Unless you doing some fiddle personal project, you should avoid having to many unnecessary modular pieces. Flat walls is one of them. You only add draw calls to scene, without any benefit.
Would be nice if UE4 had proper static mesh mergde tool, that could merge meshes with the same material setup.
I've seen some work on mesh reduction tool on code, but it seem quite far off yet.
Echo'ing what everyone is saying about flat pieces should be just one large piece, they're going to exaggerate any lightmass error that's present. Having said that, you can try this to reduce lightmap differences/seams:
1.build on production quality not preview
2. in World Settings>Lightmass Settings> Try setting indirect lighting quality to something like 2 or 4
3. In World settings> Lightmass Settings> Try setting Indirect lighting smoothness to something less than 1, like 0.5 or 0.75
For a flat wall like that I wouldn't even bother wish a mesh, I'd probably use a brush. If I had to use a mesh, I'd fiddle the UVs in the material instances dependent on scaling rather than duplicate geometry unnecessarily (even if the geometry is pretty simple).
good points, sometimes I have a mesh that is a flat wall with a window or other shape built into the centre so I cant use a brush and I get shading errors. Good tips to fix this kind of stuff, thanks guys!
Has anyone tried to create a foliage shader in UE4? I was trying to re-create one from UDK to UE4 and they do not have custom lighting in the material editor. Any idea on how I could create a realistic foliage shader without it?
Shoot I'm sorry, didn't know! Use the HighResShot shot like others have mentioned for now.
EDIT:
Brought this up today, we're escalating this bug and making sure that it gets fixed. For the time being, the console command is the recommended workflow, but for capturing gbuffer images may need to wait until that fix goes live.
Has anyone tried to create a foliage shader in UE4? I was trying to re-create one from UDK to UE4 and they do not have custom lighting in the material editor. Any idea on how I could create a realistic foliage shader without it?
Has anyone tried to create a foliage shader in UE4? I was trying to re-create one from UDK to UE4 and they do not have custom lighting in the material editor. Any idea on how I could create a realistic foliage shader without it?
I tried. I say you this much. Don't even bother.
As one of renderer coders told me they realize that foliage need special lighting mode, and they planing to add it.
Before that, no matter what you will try, your foliage will:
1. Look good, untill you change lighting in level.
2. Look bad regardless of lighting in level.
3. Look good until you move camera..
I hope they come out with it soon. I tried using subsurface and even created a custom map for the subsurface. It looks okay, but when you look on the opposite side of the leaf, there is no normal detail. It is just flat lighting. The shadows are also really dark. If I gave the leaves some thickness then it may work, but in the case of grass or trees the poly count will go through the roof.
Noobish question (but I feel I really need to get it off my chest), how do you create those materials within a material?
I have a modeled pencil that requires different properties (i.e the metal fastener, the graphite tip, the eraser). I saw one video that used different RGB channels and linked them to a ton of other nodes but I'm lost as to how to get started.
Is the refraction not working too well right now? It looks pretty good in the example content, but when I use it on anything (cylinder, plane), it seems to shift incorrectly.
Note how on this temp example, the area of the glass pane vs the refractive area.
Noobish question (but I feel I really need to get it off my chest), how do you create those materials within a material?
I have a modeled pencil that requires different properties (i.e the metal fastener, the graphite tip, the eraser). I saw one video that used different RGB channels and linked them to a ton of other nodes but I'm lost as to how to get started.
Masks (the rgb channels in the video each contain a mask, you could in theory fit 4 masks into one file) and LERPs. Each seperate material needs its own mask, you can chain the lerps together to get the final results.
Masks (the rgb channels in the video each contain a mask, you could in theory fit 4 masks into one file) and LERPs. Each seperate material needs its own mask, you can chain the lerps together to get the final results.
This, however its not 4 masks, but up to 5. Since area you aren't masking can be used as a mask too.
I'd say just use two channels of your texture(metallic and roughness). You will have enough resolution on your texture to do the details, so unless we're talking about a 20m tall pencil that'd do good use of tiling base materials, just do it in the texture...
So basically end up with 3 textures > Albedo, Roughness/Metallic, Normal. That will be more than enough to get all the details.
The cost of using lerps instead of raw values is negligible and will also help avoid compression artifacts. Consider a material that's roughness blends between 0.2 and 0.3. If you paint these values in the map they will get crunched up by Dxt compression. You're better off painting the mask between 0 and 1 then lerping between 0.2 and 0.3.
The cost of using lerps instead of raw values is negligible and will also help avoid compression artifacts. Consider a material that's roughness blends between 0.2 and 0.3. If you paint these values in the map they will get crunched up by Dxt compression. You're better off painting the mask between 0 and 1 then lerping between 0.2 and 0.3.
Man, it could be cool if UE4 could figure this out automatically on import. As long as you author everything 16bit it could just find out the value range on import and save its own copy with the proper range to suit the compression. Or it could keep the range info as metadata in order to auto-lerp it in the shader at some later point.
I've been looking into how to do this, and I've figured that you need Emscripten in order to make it work. However, I'm an environment artist with no programming skills whatsoever, so the tutorial on their site might as well have been written in Ancient Greek.....
Does anyone have any useful tips to give me? For instance where I should start, what programs to use? If it's even possible yet with the new engine, or if I have to stick with UE3...?
i use qsave, a script for photoshop, and save as TGA. You can import PNGs as well. PSDs are kept layered as master files. but if saving as a flat psd is your jam, you can do that too, but prefer to keep a layered PSD to save files off of, and do not do any work in the TGA/imported texture.
awesome Reverendk! Should try material functions as Jordan mentioned, will remove dependency on that shader network, and compartmentalize your layers into their own assets. You'll need to check the "Use Material Attributes" checkbox in the shader where you use the functions to collapse the inputs, but should make it a little easier to work with. You can parameterize the 3vectors going into the function inputs as well, instance that master shader, and be able to tweak colors without recompiling.
I have a single mesh (a wall) and i want to make it half and half same material but different color, what is the best or faster method to do something like this?
This morning (here where I live) I tried to boot the engine and an update started. Now the thing is stuck at 81%... even if I close the window and boot up the engine again, it 's still stuck there. Is this happening to someone else?
This morning (here where I live) I tried to boot the engine and an update started. Now the thing is stuck at 81%... even if I close the window and boot up the engine again, it 's still stuck there. Is this happening to someone else?
This morning (here where I live) I tried to boot the engine and an update started. Now the thing is stuck at 81%... even if I close the window and boot up the engine again, it 's still stuck there. Is this happening to someone else?
Mine stuck only for like a half minute on 81% and update everything after that.
Anybody know an alternative to TC_NormalMapAlpha in UE4? It's missing, and I want to utilize my alpha channel for a mask. I tried tricking UE by setting compression to TC_Default and making sure sRGB was off, but the material editor doesn't treat the normal map correctly.
Also, maybe we should start a thread in Tech Talk alongside the running UDK thread?
Ahhh ok, thanks! So it's like setting the Unpack Min in UE3 in the texture settings? If so, it looks like UE4 only has that control for the alpha channel. I'll give it a shot today.
Replies
I also have trouble with this tbh. Got things working perfectly in UE3 with lightmaps with modular pieces that snap perfectly but in UE4 you end up with weird seams all over. Very annoying.
so do you create a library of walls? 1x1 wall, 2x1 wall, 4x1 wall etc? otherwise you have the same problem everytime you want to reuse the assets. I never found a way around shading seams on flat modular walls in ue3 either
That's because you're not doing your lightmapping right.
You need to make sure you're UVs are not in-between a pixel or the such for the lightmap resolution you're using.
More info here:
http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/udk/udk-lightmaps-02-uv-techniques-and-how-to-create-second-uv-channel-in-maya.php
I've tried this and it works. UE4 seems to have problems with it though, but I need to try more things.
Would be nice if UE4 had proper static mesh mergde tool, that could merge meshes with the same material setup.
I've seen some work on mesh reduction tool on code, but it seem quite far off yet.
1.build on production quality not preview
2. in World Settings>Lightmass Settings> Try setting indirect lighting quality to something like 2 or 4
3. In World settings> Lightmass Settings> Try setting Indirect lighting smoothness to something less than 1, like 0.5 or 0.75
I had this same issue but if you import a new mesh with lightmap uv's, then it changes the uv channel for lightmaps to 1.
good points, sometimes I have a mesh that is a flat wall with a window or other shape built into the centre so I cant use a brush and I get shading errors. Good tips to fix this kind of stuff, thanks guys!
Shoot I'm sorry, didn't know! Use the HighResShot shot like others have mentioned for now.
EDIT:
Brought this up today, we're escalating this bug and making sure that it gets fixed. For the time being, the console command is the recommended workflow, but for capturing gbuffer images may need to wait until that fix goes live.
This image has the PBR values you'll want for leaves http://www.marmoset.co/wp-content/uploads/materialref01.png
And you'll want to use subsurface for the translucency https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Resources/ContentExamples/MaterialNodes/1_7/index.html
I tried. I say you this much. Don't even bother.
As one of renderer coders told me they realize that foliage need special lighting mode, and they planing to add it.
Before that, no matter what you will try, your foliage will:
1. Look good, untill you change lighting in level.
2. Look bad regardless of lighting in level.
3. Look good until you move camera..
I have a modeled pencil that requires different properties (i.e the metal fastener, the graphite tip, the eraser). I saw one video that used different RGB channels and linked them to a ton of other nodes but I'm lost as to how to get started.
Note how on this temp example, the area of the glass pane vs the refractive area.
Masks (the rgb channels in the video each contain a mask, you could in theory fit 4 masks into one file) and LERPs. Each seperate material needs its own mask, you can chain the lerps together to get the final results.
This, however its not 4 masks, but up to 5. Since area you aren't masking can be used as a mask too.
So basically end up with 3 textures > Albedo, Roughness/Metallic, Normal. That will be more than enough to get all the details.
Man, it could be cool if UE4 could figure this out automatically on import. As long as you author everything 16bit it could just find out the value range on import and save its own copy with the proper range to suit the compression. Or it could keep the range info as metadata in order to auto-lerp it in the shader at some later point.
I've found this article where Mozilla runs UE4 in web browser: https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/03/12/mozilla-and-epic-preview-unreal-engine-4-running-in-firefox/
I've been looking into how to do this, and I've figured that you need Emscripten in order to make it work. However, I'm an environment artist with no programming skills whatsoever, so the tutorial on their site might as well have been written in Ancient Greek.....
Does anyone have any useful tips to give me? For instance where I should start, what programs to use? If it's even possible yet with the new engine, or if I have to stick with UE3...?
I'd be most grateful for any response!
Adrian
the hint box give me problem
awesome Reverendk! Should try material functions as Jordan mentioned, will remove dependency on that shader network, and compartmentalize your layers into their own assets. You'll need to check the "Use Material Attributes" checkbox in the shader where you use the functions to collapse the inputs, but should make it a little easier to work with. You can parameterize the 3vectors going into the function inputs as well, instance that master shader, and be able to tweak colors without recompiling.
Having 2 materials on one object isn't good for performance normally, so best might be using a mask to separate the 2 colors in the material.
Well I got a old asset in and have been messing around with the material editor, the emissive is and metal is pure awesome
EDIT: Never mind, after a few minutes it completed. Woops.
Also, maybe we should start a thread in Tech Talk alongside the running UDK thread?
http://abload.de/img/dxt1normal029fju1.png
In UE3 it was simply a case of setting it up in a matinee sequence but I'm currently having no luck.
You can increase it's size in Project Settings.
Director Track in Matinee should let you view the cam in full screen as long as you click the camera icon next to director track to enable it.