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Unreal Engine 4 - what is missing/different from UDK

I noticed Speedtree is missing with this release of Unreal Engine 4. I wonder if there is anything planned, in terms of vegetation. Speedtree was kinda handy, as it was easy to learn.

Did anyone notice anything else missing/different with Unreal 4? Are there still scene capture actors for cubemaps, I wonder? It seems with the new reflection actors, cubemaps have become outdated, but they are probably still there (somewhere).

U4 is big. I'm still not through with Zak Parish's tutorials and all the blueprint stuff. If you notice anything new and different, please drop a reply!

Replies

  • Abdullah
    just start messing around with the engine. its amazing.
    scaleform isnt there as well. but its with the source, u will see it expanding with plugins and great tools on the way.
  • Sinking
    I don't believe it! I post WIP in the technical talk and manage to put my technical question in the pimping and previews section...

    No idea how that happens, I am just always in the wrong forum section for what I'm posting. Sorry! Maybe some admin can move this thread to technical talk/Unreal?

    Good call about Scaleform, I didn't check that yet.
  • JedTheKrampus
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    JedTheKrampus polycounter lvl 8
    I'm pretty sure the scene capture actors use cubemaps or spherical maps internally...I'm too lazy to check the source though.
  • LMP
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    LMP polycounter lvl 13
    I'm pretty sure the scene capture actors use cubemaps or spherical maps internally...I'm too lazy to check the source though.

    Both options are possible, and should be used in different situations, there is info on it in the ue4 documentation.
  • Sinking
    Some keybinds are new, it seems. Where you used to press "home" in UDK to zoom in on an asset, you now press the more common "f" to frame an object. Or just double click on it in the asset list (right top corner).
  • Money
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    Money polycounter lvl 8
    Lens flare editor. :(
    Hopefully they'll return it back.
  • Shadownami92
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    Shadownami92 polycounter lvl 7
    .bink video support is missing and hasn't been replaced, so no video textures are possible currently, but that might change with a plugin later.
  • Sinking
    Good collection here, people. Keep 'em coming :)

    One thing I just wondered about U4 - would it now be possible to bake level lightmaps in e.g. Maya and use the lightmap from Maya, instead of the ones Unreal generates? It would be cool to have more control over lightmap baking (for the maps, not for the assets). In UDK this was either impossible or very difficult, as I couldn't figure out how to import custom level lightmaps.
  • Jacky
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    Jacky polycounter lvl 6
    Here are some things we had gathered during Beta:

    https://wiki.unrealengine.com/UE3_to_UE4_Transition_Guide

    Feel free to edit and add things you find that are achieved differently in UE4.
  • Sinking
    @Jacky - Thanks a lot, I bookmarked that wiki page. Very useful information!

    Another thing that changed is that U4 now has a road tool, as opposed to mere spline actor tools. I haven't tried it yet and don't know if it reacts/flattens the terrain below it, or if it just adopts the angle. I guess this would also work to place rivers, depending on the material you assign.
  • Sinking
    Just a quick update:

    Speedtree for U4 has been announced and will be integrated, which is great new to all of us who just need some trees ;)

    WTG EPIC!
  • Hourences
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    Hourences polycounter lvl 18
    You can do the lightmaps in Max/Maya just as well as you could do them in UE3, or in UE2. That workflow is advanced however and far from advised.

    There are lots of differences between the engine versions, and a lot of features are not yet in. Lensflares indeed, but also things like fog volumes.
    Also because the lighting model changed so much, a lot of things that were possible in UE3 are no longer possible in UE4. Lightfunctions and excluding objects from certain lights, emissive lights, etc.

    Cubemap captures are in and 100% identical to UE3.
  • Sinking
    Here's something people have been waiting for EPIC to do and apparently it is already "there" buy you have to activate it yourself: Global Illumination!

    https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?530-How-to-enable-Light-Propagation-Volumes-GI-WIP-AND-BETA

    This is basically the Crytek style lighting, perfect for outdoor maps and larger areas. It means we are free from the dreaded lightmap UV and from baking lighting. What you see is what you get in realtime!

    I trust EPIC to make some major update about GI in the next couple of months. This is too big a feature to be just left dormant in some *.ini file. Rejoice, fellowship of the Unreal Engine!
  • Obscura
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    Obscura grand marshal polycounter
    Yeah but this works only with directional light, so this means that it works only with exterior scenes. In totally closed, interior scenes, where you don't have a directional light, because you don't want sun, you will still need to bake lightmaps.
  • Sinking
    Obscura wrote: »
    Yeah but this works only with directional light, so this means that it works only with exterior scenes. In totally closed, interior scenes, where you don't have a directional light, because you don't want sun, you will still need to bake lightmaps.

    As far as I know that is exactly how it works in Cryengine. Everything reacts only to the dominant directional light there, too. You could chose to make the rest of your meshes dynamically lit, instead of precomputed by lightmaps. If you work efficiently with your shaders and have very high modularity, there is no real need to bake anything anymore, in my view.

    Also, this is just the start. EPIC just makes sure stuff works, before they release it. They are not Crytek, after all.

    *What I would like to know - does anyone know if there will be Perforce Integration again, like with UDK?*
  • Bychop
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    Bychop polycounter lvl 7
    Sinking wrote: »
    As far as I know that is exactly how it works in Cryengine. Everything reacts only to the dominant directional light there, too. You could chose to make the rest of your meshes dynamically lit, instead of precomputed by lightmaps. If you work efficiently with your shaders and have very high modularity, there is no real need to bake anything anymore, in my view.

    Also, this is just the start. EPIC just makes sure stuff works, before they release it. They are not Crytek, after all.

    *What I would like to know - does anyone know if there will be Perforce Integration again, like with UDK?*

    Perforce is there as well. I find it more easy to use than in UDK.
  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    Find a good ui and HUD soultion is missing, there is nothing out of the box for ue4 that dosnt suck for that.
  • Sinking
    Bychop wrote: »
    Perforce is there as well. I find it more easy to use than in UDK.

    I just saw that when I rightclicked on my project in the Editor. It's actually Perforce and SVN to chose from this time. I still have to try Perforce to see if it is good. I wish there was some kind of walkthrough how to use it with Unreal 4!


    And yeah, the UI is not really there yet. There is SLATE, but it's nothing more than a start at this point. Weird really that there is no better solution.
  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    Sinking wrote: »
    I just saw that when I rightclicked on my project in the Editor. It's actually Perforce and SVN to chose from this time. I still have to try Perforce to see if it is good. I wish there was some kind of walkthrough how to use it with Unreal 4!


    And yeah, the UI is not really there yet. There is SLATE, but it's nothing more than a start at this point. Weird really that there is no better solution.

    there is this, but that is a other monthly cost to get.

    http://coherent-labs.com/ue4/
  • alfalfasprossen
    The hard part about using Perforce with UE4 is not about UE4 but about using Perforce itself. The UE4 integration is solid, simple and works like it should. The really hard part about getting Perforce working is to set up the P4 server and understanding how P4 is supposed to work.

    The Slate-UI is, as far as I have read about it (didn't actually work with it yet) a wonderfully designed UI-framework and there will be a graphical Editor some day, until then you will have to write UI in C++, like in the old days :D
  • Sinking
    The hard part about using Perforce with UE4 is not about UE4 but about using Perforce itself.

    That's why I'd love to get some more info on it. I wonder if anyone made a video yet or has a link to share for setting up a perforce server and Unreal 4? I tried setting up the server a couple of weeks ago, but was not getting there and gave up; annoying was that it halfway worked.


    I thought the problem was maybe port forwarding, but Perforce left me pretty clueless about what I had to do. I saw they got some new tutorials, though; I might check them out and try to make a comprehensible tutorial for U4 users myself, then.

    I just need time, throw me some time now!
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