Unreal Engine 4 Thread

This is going to be a stupid question....but what can I actually DO with this engine? Like, do you use it to just make models and textures and stuff or is it like designing games with C++ or something?

Sorry if this is confusing, don't really know how to phrase what I mean well.

Thank you.

Short Version:
You create art assets with external packages. You make your game with UE4.

Long Version:
If you're making a 2D game you're going to want to get Photoshop or GIMP to make sprites.

If you're making a 3D game you're going to need 3D modeling software. If you want simple low poly stuff you want to go with Maya or Blender. If you want to make a modern style game with really detailed organic models you want to get Zbrush so you can sculpt insanely detailed models.

My workflow right now is the following for art assets:
1. Design in photoshop(2d sketching)
2. Sculpt and poly paint master version in Zbrush(several millions of polygons are required to get poly paint good enough to use in a texture)
3. Retopologize with Topogun(create a low poly version by drawing polygons on to the model)
4. UV unwrap in 3DCoat(you need to unrwap your model to apply textures to it)
5. Project texture from polypaint with Zbrush and create normal maps in either Zbrush or Maya(depending on the model one may give a better result than the other)
6. Retouch the textures in Photoshop

For characters only:
7. Bring into Maya for Rigging and weight painting(adding a skeleton and animation rig so that the model can be animated)
8. Animate animations as needed

UE4 itself is where you import all of your art assets, and develop your game. Programming all the systems that make use of the models, music, animation, etc. that you created.
 
This is going to be a stupid question....but what can I actually DO with this engine? Like, do you use it to just make models and textures and stuff or is it like designing games with C++ or something?

Sorry if this is confusing, don't really know how to phrase what I mean well.

Thank you.

You can build full games. You can take models, textures, sounds and assets made in *other* programs, then using the UE4 editor use all that content as well as creating certain content inside the editor itself (brushes, shaders, etc). The coding and logic of the game can either be done in C++ (creating DLLs for your game/classes) or you can do many things using a system called "blueprints" that is a visual scripting language.

The full source code is available as well for subscribers. This means you can add/modify the engine, editor and tools themselves to change/create new features.

You will still need a suite of tools (3D modeller, audio creation, photoshop like program) to create many assets, but there are many programs that are free that should get you started. Essentially, time, knowledge, and skill are the only things stopping a full production ready game. You can target PC, mac, linux and mobile (IOS/Android) and if you have a developer license PS4 and Xbone.
 
Short Version:
You create art assets with external packages. You make your game with UE4.

Long Version:
If you're making a 2D game you're going to want to get Photoshop or GIMP to make sprites.

If you're making a 3D game you're going to need 3D modeling software. If you want simple low poly stuff you want to go with Maya or Blender. If you want to make a modern style game with really detailed organic models you want to get Zbrush so you can sculpt insanely detailed models.

My workflow right now is the following for art assets:
1. Design in photoshop(2d sketching)
2. Sculpt and poly paint master version in Zbrush(several millions of polygons are required to get poly paint good enough to use in a texture)
3. Retopologize with Topogun(create a low poly version by drawing polygons on to the model)
4. UV unwrap in 3DCoat(you need to unrwap your model to apply textures to it)
5. Project texture from polypaint with Zbrush and create normal maps in either Zbrush or Maya(depending on the model one may give a better result than the other)
6. Retouch the textures in Photoshop

For characters only:
7. Bring into Maya for Rigging and weight painting(adding a skeleton and animation rig so that the model can be animated)
8. Animate animations as needed

UE4 itself is where you import all of your art assets, and develop your game. Programming all the systems that make use of the models, music, animation, etc. that you created.

You do not necessarily need zbrush for more detailed modelling. Blender has all those features too. You can definitely do everything with it that you described here.
 
Finally, we got Geomerics Enlighten support for UE4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHbHOQ1NRuw&feature=youtu.be
Expect to pay 100-200k bucks for that lol
I've heard about Enlighten. One downside I've heard is you have to unwrap each mesh or create "capsules" for them.

The results are still good but I'm waiting for the other guy working on the voxel tracing plug-in. That video also looked like it was running at a low fps, although that could just be the person's computer.
 
I've heard about Geometrics. One downside I've heard is you have to unwrap each mesh.

The results are still good but I'm waiting for the other guy working on the voxel tracing plug-in.

The more lighting techs we get in UE4 the better. UE4 ligthing so far doesn't look organic at all, with this enlighten it looks more and more realistic. The other guy voxel tracing will be free unlike enlighten !
 
That isn't the Lionhead global illumination is it? I'm still hoping that gets fully added eventually and doesn't cost 100k. :P

Lionhead's in-housedynamic GI is based on the very limited LPV (which you can get similar results by some hacks in UE4). This one is as accurate and crisp as the static Lightmass but in real time and dynamic. Geomerics is speciliazed comapny in doing lighting techs and supports all engines and Gaming Companies.
 
That isn't the Lionhead global illumination is it? I'm still hoping that gets fully added eventually and doesn't cost 100k. :P

Nah it isnt Lionheads one.
Enlighten has been around for years, its the one that was used in Mirrors Edge as well.

Lionheads GI is already in the engine i believe.
 
Ahh yes true.
I was thinking of that other DICE game, my mistake.

But yeah Enlighten has been around for a long time, i guess they just finally got it into the engine.

Yes Enlighten was used in BF3 and BF4 and Plants Vs Zombies Garden Warfare (any Frostbite game starting from BF3).
 
Yes Enlighten was used in BF3 and BF4 and Plants Vs Zombies Garden Warfare (any Frostbite game starting from BF3).
Yup, sadly it seems that the games haven't really used in dynamic way as seen in that demo.

The quality seems to be very nice as there is shadows for indirect lighting, certainly wouldn't mind to see more games use similar methods.
 
Why would enlighten be 100-200k for UE4? Isn't it built in to Unity 5? Or is that a different version?
It's because Unity has a partnership with them and Unreal is focusing on their own Lightmass system. Just FYI though, from what I've heard while the results can be great, Enlighten is not exactly the easiest thing to work with/implement and I reckon the Unity version is something that's a bit more user and mobile versions than the other versions.
 

That's some cool stuff.

While we are on cool projects, I thought the Lighthouse scene is pretty neat as well:
10_22_174szu.jpg

https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?50142-Lighthouse-Shore-Environment-Art
 
Yup, sadly it seems that the games haven't really used in dynamic way as seen in that demo.

The quality seems to be very nice as there is shadows for indirect lighting, certainly wouldn't mind to see more games use similar methods.

We don't have the processing power to do dynamic lighting seen in those demos in real time.
 
Yes I posted that in my previous post and look at his portfolio, he did such amazing stuff in 10 days with all 3D softwares.
Can you explain the "all 3D softwares" because I see nothing there that really differs from the toolset of AAA developers other than most user 3DS Max / Maya for modelling rather than Blender which he seems to use mainly. Quixel Suite is definitely something that's not a standard yet even though it can be an extremely powerful tool, but it's also something that simply doesn't fit all pipelines, can be a bit buggy at times and not all developers have switched to PBR.
 
Can you explain the "all 3D softwares" because I see nothing there that really differs from the toolset of AAA developers other than most user 3DS Max / Maya for modelling rather than Blender which he seems to use mainly. Quixel Suite is definitely something that's not a standard yet even though it can be an extremely powerful tool, but it's also something that simply doesn't fit all pipelines, can be a bit buggy at times and not all developers have switched to PBR.

Yes I was referring to Quixel and Substance. Not everyone uses them!
 
Yes I was referring to Quixel and Substance. Not everyone uses them!
No, but there are very good reasons for everyone not using Quixel Suite yet as I mentioned and on top of that a lot of developers are using custom tools in their pipelines which either replace it or simply make it harder to integrate into the pipeline. I really can't go into the detail for those cases I'm aware of, but while it's a fantastic toolset it simply isn't ready for all kinds of game production. It will rise in popularity off course and I definitely welcome it as a tool for better pipelines, but it's always a case per case thing. As a personal experience, it also became a pain in the ass sometimes with bugs and simply being slow for certain assets that had extreme deadlines.

Substance on the other hand is a quite common tool in the industry and when it's not it's usually because it doesn't really add value to the pipeline. Once again, it goes on a case basis.
 
No, but there are very good reasons for everyone not using Quixel Suite yet as I mentioned and on top of that a lot of developers are using custom tools in their pipelines which either replace it or simply make it harder to integrate into the pipeline. I really can't go into the detail for those cases I'm aware of, but while it's a fantastic toolset it simply isn't ready for all kinds of game production. It will rise in popularity off course and I definitely welcome it as a tool for better pipelines, but it's always a case per case thing. As a personal experience, it also became a pain in the ass sometimes with bugs and simply being slow for certain assets that had extreme deadlines.

Substance on the other hand is a quite common tool in the industry and when it's not it's usually because it doesn't really add value to the pipeline. Once again, it goes on a case basis.

I see why they aren't used very often then.
 
We don't have the processing power to do dynamic lighting seen in those demos in real time.
I mean dynamic GI for moving lights, like seen in Enlighten mobile demos as well. (1, 2)
Not fully dynamic where everything in environment and lighting can change.

The method certainly looks efficient enough that it could be used for some dynamic lights in scenes where everything else is baked with lightmass. (best of both worlds. ;))
 
I finally upgraded to 4.5! Before, I was still using the original launch version from March 2014.

Just for fun, I started playing around with the Platformer sample, and modified the lighting.

iAGe5w2VEJjcD.jpg

iYXSXAJv3DSHF.jpg

ibqSNBJafExhib.jpg
 
Jordan:

Did you model that? Or is it some how scanned in? Looks like it was almost Lidar data at one point.

Lookin cool.

It's still the Platformer sample but with Distance Field AO thrown in. Under showflags, you can find the "visualize - Distancefield AO" and it will isolate it in the scene for you.
ibr0aY8KkHTQcp.png


The cool thing about it is the Epic Developers said it's possible to make a whole game look like that if you want.
 
Might be a bit OT but I figure there may be someone here with the k owledge to answer my question.

I'm planning to buy a new notebook because the current one is in its 6th year, and I can't decide between the Lenovo y50 and the Asus G751. The Y50 has a gtx860 w. 4gigs of ram, and the G751 has a gtx 970m w. 3gigs of ram. I know the latter would be a lot better, but the former would be a lot cheaper and I'm a bit short on cash. Question is, how would UT4 run ona gtx 860m, or how badly would it run?

Thanks in advance to whoever answers my question.
 
Might be a bit OT but I figure there may be someone here with the k owledge to answer my question.

I'm planning to buy a new notebook because the current one is in its 6th year, and I can't decide between the Lenovo y50 and the Asus G751. The Y50 has a gtx860 w. 4gigs of ram, and the G751 has a gtx 970m w. 3gigs of ram. I know the latter would be a lot better, but the former would be a lot cheaper and I'm a bit short on cash. Question is, how would UT4 run ona gtx 860m, or how badly would it run?

Thanks in advance to whoever answers my question.

I'm running U4 on 2011 lenovo Z570 with Core i7, 16GB ram, Samsung 840 Evo SSD and GeForce 540m with 2GB DDR3 and it's mostly fine, depending of your project (scale, texture quality, materials, physics). I'm on Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

Also maybe you already know, but from world setting (now just setting) you can adjust material quality, resolution, aa, shadows quality, textures quality and so one if you want a better framerate.

I think you should also check how's thermal management on both machines.

I personally stopped my core i7 turbo boost, because the temperature sometimes goes beyond 80C.
 
Might be a bit OT but I figure there may be someone here with the k owledge to answer my question.

I'm planning to buy a new notebook because the current one is in its 6th year, and I can't decide between the Lenovo y50 and the Asus G751. The Y50 has a gtx860 w. 4gigs of ram, and the G751 has a gtx 970m w. 3gigs of ram. I know the latter would be a lot better, but the former would be a lot cheaper and I'm a bit short on cash. Question is, how would UT4 run ona gtx 860m, or how badly would it run?

Thanks in advance to whoever answers my question.

Make sure you can upgrade the RAM, 4GBs is not going to cut it, specially if you intend to use C++ as VS2013 eats its own fair share of RAM. There's a reason the UE4 editor is 64-bits only. I'm developing a mobile game on 8GBs and I'm thinking about upgrading.

Also, make sure you have lots of HDD space, specially if you're compiling from source. After downloading and compiling my UE4 folder is at around 20GBs.
 
Here's something I've been working on the past few days.

The textures are still W.I.P and I need to add a roughness and normal map.

i8odsYwYLPtAL.jpg

ic5h9EgdVkU0P.jpg

ixvoaEjspPzed.jpg

ibbAFI7NhqT6qf.jpg
 
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