Best procedure to prepare models for realtime engines

[aristocratic3d]

HI,

First of all thanks for reading the post.

We have been producing furniture for real-time engines and for websites (product visualization) etc.

 

What we do is (for this style of projects)-

-create high poly models inside 3ds max

-and then create a lowpoly version out of that highpoly model.

-and then bake the highpoly geometry into the lowpoly model by creating a normal map out of that highpoly model.

 

we feel that the process is quite time consuming. We have recently quoted a project.

But we really need something faster to save our face.

 

We need shadow baked diffuse, specular map, AO, normal map.

 

And the last question is- is there any way to fake the fall off effect? As "fall off" works based on viewing direction. I assume that is something need to be built in into the engine the lowpoly models will be viewed in? Is there a way to bake "fall off" info/parameter for a particular engine?

 

Need help from experts.

 

Thanks again in advance!

Abdullah

[innerdream]

I have done several Unreal animations, you just need a good model and lightmap. All the texturing happens in Unreal, you'll only get a diffuse material importing your models.

[aristocratic3d]

I have done several Unreal animations, you just need a good model and lightmap. All the texturing happens in Unreal, you'll only get a diffuse material importing your models.

Thanks for the reply. I was wondering how a very high poly model is handled inside the engine.

 

Anyway, our models are also for browsers. So that the model can be viewed by spinning around.

 

So those maps must be baked.

[innerdream]

Thanks for the reply. I was wondering how a very high poly model is handled inside the engine.

 

Anyway, our models are also for browsers. So that the model can be viewed by spinning around.

 

So those maps must be baked.

 

If you bake shadows on your models they are unusable for VR in Unreal I would think? I don't know what you're doing though.

[aristocratic3d]

First three are lowpoly and the last ones are highpoly.

People doing in our studio are experts on what they do. But I was wondering if there is a shorter path to walk towards completion of such thing?

[innerdream]

Beautiful models. My point is I can't use models with shadows baked in for my Unreal projects.

[aristocratic3d]

Completely understood your point. unreal have its own shadow built in.

This is a simple step actually. its matter of a decision whether you want to bake shadow or not. that is.

Thanks for your participation in the thread.

 

I was really expecting more reply. There are many experts in the forum.

 

Anyway, lets wait.

 

 

Beautiful models. My point is I can't use models with shadows baked in for my Unreal projects.

[philippelamoureux]

There is no problem baking a very high poly model directly in unreal, as long as everything is well unwrapped/uvmapped (even tho I just use scripts that does it automatically on all my models). Poly count isn't an issue in unreal unless you have a shit load of objects and a mega huge scene.

 

If you feel your model is too complex to unwrap on 1 lightmap, don't be afraid to break it into multiple parts and make a lightmap for each part. It's the best solution imo. it's easier for the script (steamroller) to unwrap 4 chair legs + 1 seat individually than unwrapping the whole chair at once. It's also easier to reach high quality with 5 smaller but better lightmaps for the chair than with 1 huge lightmap that will require a huge resolution. It's faster to bake many small lightmaps than 1 high res lightmap too. Breaking objects is often faster than manually unwrapping too! imho.

 

By fall off, do you mean the fresnel effect? Because that is definitely possible in unreal. For example on plastic or certain fabric I use it.

 

Edited September 25, 2016 by philippelamoureux

[beestee]

How far can one get without lightmass?

[Francisco Penaloza]

The workflow that you have is the typical for game engines, there is no way around, because software and hardware limitations.

Everything needs to be as optimized as possible to ensure a decent performance in many devices and platforms.

Unless you know the hardware you will be using your Real time presentation, you need to go with the basic that will run in almost everything.

 

Too large map or too many maps, they all affect the loading time of scenes, LOD and others. You need to find the sweet spot between quality and size. (this goes again to the loading and playing time) as rule of thumb you want the video card to do minimum of call backs.

 

You can control the falloff with the normal map. depending if you want to use for reflections, bump or any other effect. A normal map is divided in three coordinates R,G,B that will help the engine to manage your values.

 

Benjamin, from what I know, no baking light map may be a possibility but is not recommended. So far Unreal does not have a fully developed real time GI, so if you don't bake, you need to put more lights in your scene to 'Fake' the GI bouncing light. but again when more lights, your performance decrease.

I find that Stingray does a better work with this. But of course YMWL depending how savvy you are with Unreal or other game engine.

[Angel Villacis Cusme]

I agree with everyone, there is no shortcut for this process, and with a good reason, in order to bring a lot of models into an environment you will lower meshes, in a game pipeline you will have 2,3 or 4 LOD's that will make the environment run smoother as you get away. the best think i can recommend will be budgeting the time you spend baking your assets into your workflow, otherwise you will be in the negatives given that baking models down isn't an easy task either. also depending on how you are showcasing your model, you can get away with having one high poly object in one scene, but if the scene is bigger you will need to bake it down and bake all your maps. and currently Real time lighting can't really be consider a priority since not every computer or device will run it, unless you can showcase it in a well rig machine.

 

Angel.