My UE4 Learning Thread.

melviso · Jul 2014

Exploring UE4, I will be asking questions here if I run into any problems while learning it.I need to familarise myself with everything (hopefully) within the next three days.
So far everything is going well.Does anyone know how to change the game mode to first person camera walking when u select play from here?Right now the playthrough is in fly mode.I checked world properties,couldn't find it.

peanut · Jul 2014

Yes good call mate, i too need to sharpen my wang in the UE department.

There's some questions i would like to ask but im too shy

Froyok · Jul 2014

melviso wrote: »

Does anyone know how to change the game mode to first person camera walking when u select play from here?Right now the playthrough is in fly mode.I checked world properties,couldn't find it.

Your game mode need to handle what you want, it's dependent of the template you used. You can copy the blueprints from one template to another project if you need to.

peanut · Jul 2014

Ok NM i got it

melviso · Jul 2014

Okay,thanks Froyok.I am going to research importing templates.

peanut, pls feel free to ask any questions here if u want.We are all here to learn.

melviso · Jul 2014

Does anyone know how u move object pivot to centre of world origin in 3dsmax?I tried using reset xform.Nothing is happening.
Also,I understand ue4 scale is I unit to 1cm,I work in mm.So setting my system unit setup in 3dsmax to 1 unit= 10 mm is correct?

Axi5 · Jul 2014

In 3ds max, go to the Hierarchy tab (the 3rd one) in the command panel. Click affect pivot only, select move tool (w) and then right click the X, Y, Z spinners at the bottom of the viewport to bring the pivot point to origin (make sure the reference system is set to world in the drop down menu at the top). If you wanted to bring the whole object with it you would skip the first step and jump right to X,Y,Z with the move tool.

Also yes mm is fine but you can change UE4 units as well, UE sets whatever number specified to 1 meter and by default it's 100. So 1 meter = 100 units, those 100 units are basically centimeters now. So yes in Max if you set up your scene in mm you should be fine. You can test it out by making a box as large as you want it to be, e.g. 6 foot (or around 180cm) then import it into the engine and test it out in a FPS template. It should be roughly the same height as the character.

melviso · Jul 2014

Thanks Axi5.

Does anyone know how u can scale a camera in 3dsmax? Lets say u are using a 50mm lens camera.Is there a way to scale the camera to make in smaller for ur scene still keeping the lens?

Axi5 · Jul 2014

melviso wrote: »

Thanks Axi5.

Does anyone know how u can scale a camera in 3dsmax? Lets say u are using a 50mm lens camera.Is there a way to scale the camera to make in smaller for ur scene still keeping the lens?

I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean the draw size of the camera widget in the viewport? Or do you mean the scene as it appears through the camera?

If it's the latter there's no other way to control it besides lens fov mm (or render settings but they're directly proportional to the lens anyway).

It won't affect the scale of the scene if that's what you mean.

melviso · Jul 2014

Okay,thanks Axi5.

For UE4, Is it better to use the bsp brush or static mesh for walls?I am designing a building.I am wondering which will give better results in terms of performance and realism.Or it doesn't matter?

melviso · Jul 2014

Testing out UE4 lighting and GI using UE premade materials.

Guys,does anyone know how to fix the light leaks on the right side of the image.The floor and the roof are static meshes while the walls are bsp brushes.I tried increasing the lightmass resolution of both but the light leaks are still there.
EDIT:

Just tried using only static meshes.No light leaks.Does this mean bsp brushes aren't the best to use for ue4?

Khaja · Jul 2014

I find that the best pipeline for building environments in UE is to block out the level in BSP and then only replaces those with static meshes as you go along detailing and when you need. I mean if you have a flat wall then it's just as easy to use bsp than a static mesh. Fixing the light leaks would be a case of using static mesh props for detailing and hiding them. Hope it helps....

in fact reading through this i make it sound as though there is no best way... which is probably true

DireWolf · Jul 2014

Are you using the subscription one or the UDK?

Limewax · Jul 2014

Just as a heads up for the BSP lightmap res.... its actually inverse of how you're probably thinking. So Lightmap resolution of FBX's in UDK/UE4 are determined by the pixel resolution of how you set it (ie: 32 lightmap res on an FBX = 32x32 texture resolution), however the Lightmap res on BSP defaults to 32 and gets "larger" as you lower that number. You can also use non-power-of-two numbers. So for instance, a BSP lightmap resolution of 19.0 is higher resolution than a lightmap res of 32.0

melviso · Jul 2014

@Khaja I have been doing a lot of read up online.Turns out bsp isn't the best especially when it comes to performance and fps.Static Mesh is the preferred way to go.I find that a little wierd.Usually when u use something that comes with a software performance and workflow should be way better than when u import something from an external package.In the UE4 beginners tutorial,most of the level was built with bsp.I would be thining bsp in ue4 has been optimised to work way better than static meshes and u should use it in ur level as much as possible only using static meshes when u need custom assets.I won't lie- using bsp brushes especially for building and texturing is way faster and easier imho.

@DireWolf There is no udk version for ue4.UDK is the older version. UE4 comes with a subscription.

@Limewax Just figured that one out after browsing endlessly through the ue official forums.I have already started using static meshes though so I will have to continue with that. I might use bsp for any other assets I want to build.Just wonder why everyone is saying its really bad and can slow down performance and fps.

Does anyone know how to increase or reduce the intensity of normal mapsusing the material editor in UE4 without using photoshop.

Limewax · Jul 2014

BSP is intended to be used for simple surfaces during certain parts of your production pipeline when you are blocking in a space with general shapes to get a quick feel for things. They are not intended to be the final solution. As far as for performance reasons, I'm not a graphics engineer, but I think it has something to do with instancing meshes via FBX -- I think that when you duplicate a mesh in UDK/UE4, the draw call only happens one time and gets stored in local memory data, so recalling it again 3 times, 7 times, or 60 times, the draw call has already happened and therefore less taxing on the front end for performance. BSP on the other hand is all one-off and not instanced, so if you create a piece of geometry in BSP, then duplicate that geometry again (by alt dragging it), it creates an additional draw call.

As far as tuning the normal map... The easiest way to do this is to go back to your source file for normal map generation (ie: if you're using crazybump, turn down the intensity). Inside of UDK/UE4, Normalmap depth can also be decreased by simply leaving the B at 1.0 and lowering the R and G below 1.0. For example an R and G of 0.5 will reduce the Normalmap depth considerably.

(citation: http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MaterialBasics.html#Enhanced%20Normal%20Map )

melviso · Jul 2014

Thanks for the reply, Limewax. That explains a lot. I am also looking into using instance materials as much as possible.I haven't started familarising myself with blueprints yet. Currently still building my level.

Just tried what u said about normal maps,it worked.Thanks.

Does use of material instances help reduce lightmass calculations?

melviso · Jul 2014

Guys, I am working on my terrain using landscape material.I am trying to use the bump offset but its reading as error. Is there something I am doing wrong or the node doesn't work with Landscape materials.

Also,I have been reading about POR shader.I am not a shader programmer so I don't know how to go about it. I understand it's superior to using the bump offset but not as good as tessellation.Does UE4 come with a POR shader?

Any help will be deeply appreciated.

DeepSpaceBanana · Jul 2014

melviso wrote: »

Guys, I am working on my terrain using landscape material.I am trying to use the bump offset but its reading as error. Is there something I am doing wrong or the node doesn't work with Landscape materials.

Also,I have been reading about POR shader.I am not a shader programmer so I don't know how to go about it. I understand it's superior to using the bump offset but not as good as tessellation.Does UE4 come with a POR shader?

Any help will be deeply appreciated.

Whats a POR shader? could u post some links, my google search turned up empty

My UE4 Learning Thread.

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