Modular Modeling and Lightmapping Overview | Blender to UE4

[@fortsts]

One of the most useful tutorial about lighting for modular pieces. Great tutorial! Thanks!

[@franco-russo]

I'm not doing a modular design, but this helped me greatly with even standard models in Unreal. I couldn't get my models to have correct light mapping for the longest time, and finding videos that correctly explains this is hard to come by. Thank you.

[@emmanuelmadehin9109]

Clean, straight to the point, concise and well knowledgeable You’re the best 🙏🙏

[@rav_bar092]

I quit making my project in UE4 due to constant lighting issues, your video may have just brought me back :D

[@TorinX99]

Thank you so much for making this video, you explained enough about the Engine settings that I was actually able to fix the problems with my Project. So thank you again! This is such a great resource

[@LukeStilson]

thanks! Anything other topic in this realm you'd like to see me cover in the future?

[@TorinX99]

Yeah. If you could cover basic lighting setups and engine settings that would be great. There are so many tools to use, it's hard to know where to start just to get a nice set of environment lighting.

[@axelmirambeau545]

Really good and easy tutorial with easy way to setup your static mesh and Unreal to get a good result ! It’s really change my game look ! Awesome !! I didn’t use the part on blender because I didn’t do blender :D but thank’s anyway !

[@neat3954]

Still good! Thank you for going through all the lighting settings too.

[@gabriellandmark751]

Thank you so much!! This literly took my low poly game from looking like garbage to me going "WOW!". Lighting is so important thanks for an awesome video on that!!

[@vyorkin]

Thank you! The best video about UE4+Blender lighting I've seen so far ;)

[@Amelia_PC]

Thanks! Great tutorial! It helped to smooth the seams, but not completely. I can still see them. I'm giving up on modular walls and do everything merged, creating bigger chunks for buildings.

[@LukeStilson]

This is the right thing to do in most cases 👍👍👍

[@Amelia_PC]

@@LukeStilson Now that we have Unreal 5, the issue has been fixed ^^ (Geez, a 3 years old comment and I'm STILL working on my game? Shame on me)

[@LukeStilson]

@@Amelia_PC no worries me too, almost 3 yrs since my last tutorial even, geez

[@allenchen3109]

This seems to solve most of the problems of lighting seams, but there are still some problems, thank you for your help!

[@coffee-beast-99z]

This is the most amazing video ever. Thank you!!!!!

[@ChristopherLMunoz]

Best explanation I have seen on lights in unreal. Great job!

[@diegovinicius3315]

Thanks man this was the only video that really solved my problem

[@gibsonplayer87]

Very nice tutorial! Thanks a lot for sharing this!

[@Lofifilms2]

Every Producer, DJ, soft Maker and writer will love tNice tutorials feature. Please encourage soft-soft to make tNice tutorials happen. Fingers

[@anthonyschilling7132]

That was really helpful, thank you!

[@OtakuWrath]

Very informative, Followed along exactly and ended up with exactly what you had, I'm gonna mess around with this more and attempt to make something unique. Thanks for the tutorial.

[@inhissteps-prasanna3532]

good job! i bet you are great at making s! good luck

[@avakodev]

dammit! that's what I call a good video! thx for sharing your knowledge dude you helped me a lot!

[@Rastafied]

if you don't remove the wall faces on the sides but move them in by 20cm you still have the seamless corners but it removes the hassle of having to reconfigure the shadow cast from the outside wall to the inside wall :)

[@LukeStilson]

But then turn on your lighting complexity and you'll see red in the overlapping areas

[@gatzkerob]

I didn't see a third UV map in UE4 (4.27) after importing from Blender. I set up two UV maps in Blender exactly as you did. Now in UE4 when I click the UV dropdown, I only See UV Channel 0 (My material UVs) and UV Channel 1 (UE4s generated UVs). I tried re-importing my .fbx model but that didn't work. Are there any other settings I should be aware of in Blender or UE4? **UPDATE: I created another object (less complex) with a second UV map and it worked fine. Not sure why one object works but the other doesn't..

[@snowSR1]

thx bro, u saved my life :D

[@eminimamoglu3072]

Thanks a lot man. Great tutorial

[@teeraucher]

I have the same problem using Blender and Unity does anyone know how I can fix it there?

[@TwiejkVR]

How come people tend to tell others that making islands is the best thing against seams ? You do the exact opposite, but tighten the lightmap with resolution so it wont bleed in the first place right? or am i still not understanding lightmaps :p

[@LukeStilson]

Make islands for each face that is facing a different direction, make sure they do not overlap on that UV set, then let UE4 calculate it's own lightmaps from that UV set-- that's what I like to do, there are different techniques to create lightmaps right out of Blender/Maya/Max but this method helps to correct pixel snapping and island padding ( works best on pretty simple objects)

[@TwiejkVR]

Alright then! thanks for the info man :)

[@wishpoosh]

Great tutorial, many thanks!

[@thenortherndoge]

It would also help if you disable lightmap compression as well as upping the reso of packed lightmaps in world settings

[@LukeStilson]

Yeah, but there should be a line drawn somewhere between performance and quality- for this tiny level I didn't go into this- or even lightmass importance volumes

[@desarrollou71x72]

He is Luke Stilsonwalker.. thanks for this.

[@LukeStilson]

Glad to hear this is still useful. The force is strong with this video

[@donjohnson6413]

Thanks for doing this video it helped me out a lot! If I made a wall like this but with a window and one with a door would the lightmap method be the same or do you have to make the lightmap a different way?

[@LukeStilson]

Yes, but make sure the wall with a door does not have thickness, i.e. is a plane with a door cutout rather than a 'solid' object (if you're using the same method)

[@roveism]

Love it! more please, could you do a tut on how to build a modern house from scratch :D

[@MissSnowminx]

I’m about halfway through this video, and just wanted to let you know that the term you are looking for is orthographic not isometric. Normally I’m blender you a perspective view, but you can switch to an orthographic one, where distance does not affect size. Isometric is a type of projection where the height is half the width. :)

[@LukeStilson]

+Snow Bezera my b. Thanks

[@TDS201X]

this is super useful, thanks

[@osallivan231]

Now that works great for static baked lighting. How about a tutorial for Dynamic DISTANCE FIELD lighting (not cascaded)?

[@ereere7074]

Tnx! Very helpfuly!!!

[@兼沛里度]

very good thank you this have a help

[@karlduckett]

Is this still relevant for Blender 2.8 and UE 4.22.2? Looks like the exactly the tutorial I need if so :)

[@EddieGraphicDesigner]

thank you that's what I was looking for

[@catnoir8036]

Greate job

[@LukeStilson]

You're grate!

[@DigitalLoom]

ok im a wits end here i did everything you did here but i still getting strange dark pixles on my static meshes and my shadows are totally wavey!! i just dont understand what needs to be done to fix this!!and the issue is it seems like it could be athousand reasons why its fucked up!! do u now how to get rid of pixilation on the textures and correct shadow blobs!! is this the wrong video ??

[@LukeStilson]

This covers just about everything on the unreal side. Maybe you have a problem with your mesh itself? Did you set your lighting quality to production?

[@SeanNoonan]

I'm curious, is there any reason why you leave "Generate Lightmap UVs" checked on import when you are overriding them with your own?

[@LukeStilson]

I'm creating my own which will be used by UE4 use as a base to clean up slightly create its own. If you use your own and don't import "Generate Lightmap UVs" you have to make sure the UVs you created are not only separated into individual islands, but also are snapped to a UV grid where 1 unit = 1/lightmap resolution (there's a lot documentation on best practices for lightmap UVs that I didn't want to completely get into here).

[@SeanNoonan]

Ah I see, thsat's why you reference UV channel 1 as a lightmap source? That's cool, it's just good to have that explained.

[@LukeStilson]

No problem, yep (for the purposes of this tutorial) 0 is map for textures, 1 is lightmap source, 2 is lightmap destination (for when UE4 creates it), 2 (when generated) is also target lightmap. I just wanted to minimise problems people might have with importing their own UVs to use straight as lightmaps. Check out docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Content/Types/StaticMeshes/LightmapUnwrapping/ if you want to dive into it more.

[@alestesart6429]

I've been looking for this. Thank you so much for making this video. I have a question tho. Why did you make a second wall?

[@LukeStilson]

You mean second material? To have a separate inside and outside material is all, I don't apply materials in this video.

[@alestesart6429]

Luke Stilson thanks for replying. No not the material. I meant the second face. Is it necessary to have 2 walls for 1 modular? Or can I do it with only 1 face

[@LukeStilson]

Just depends on your use. If you use two-sided materials (I do here because I'm not capping the top for lighting) then you do not need a second face. The intended use is a building that is visible on the inside and out. But keep in mind most games will use some thickness in all walls, just for realism. Also you cannot assign a unique material to either side of the same face (even if the material is two-sided). In general it's best to avoid a player's view backfaces where possible. If you are only making only the outside of a house or just making an interior you might want to only use 1 face (not two-sided) and nix the extra polys.

[@alestesart6429]

Luke Stilson thank you for the answer. I am working on a game that player is in a building. So I need only interior modulars. Thank you again you saved a project that's been waiting for half and a year.

[@LukeStilson]

Awesome, you might want to look in to "actor merging" in the newer releases of ue4 for larger walls as well!

[@殷俊-i4v]

Good stuff!And Thanks

[@madhavbharadwajchakkilala4674]

you saved the day man

[@iFukuyama]

How would you go about fixing the lightmap settings for many meshes at once? If you import a full scene from Blender instead of individual props, you might end up with hundreds of meshes.

[@LukeStilson]

You should never import an entire scene props and all. May be tedius, but break your scene into workable sized level parts (walls, floors, etc) keep in mind seams for larger objects, then props. Then import individually (or at once but as separate meshes) and make sure no issues happen with every single mesh. You can mess with import settings, but lightmap resolution and whatnot need to be changed on a per-model basis.

[@iFukuyama]

If I imported everything as one FBX, then I would only need to change it once. I am talking about when you import many props in a row, in order to reconstruct a scene in UE4, like you recommend. Changing these settings involves a lot of mouse movement.

[@LukeStilson]

Yes, but every prop requires attention if you want to do everything right. Think of these settings like part of creating the prop, each one may require a unique approach due to physical size, not to mention creating and setting up collision bounds and LODs in most cases.

[@shamanik1320]

Good stuff!

[@omaralhaj6280]

I have a prediction that in the future soft soft is going to have a assistant like ozone 8 or sotNice tutorialng lol

[@highfly03]

Thank you! Very essential tutorial for lighting your scenes in UE! Wonder how to figure out that all these settings affects each other. Maybe learning the whole unreal documentation?

[@LukeStilson]

Yes, read documentation and take a look at unreal's demo projects

[@ctakah_mojioka9651]

Hey! Thanks for your video! ;)

[@mrchaosmaker1629]

Hey, please can you do one in an interior level with point and spot lights. Ill be really grateful.

[@justinechristianveza5615]

nice

[@RuthIlongga]

ncie sharing

[@tes28282]

GL bro

[@visioncorp5228]

Do you do any tutoring?

[@LukeStilson]

Always love to teach. I’m a technical artist at a studio these days so it’s harder to find time to make vids. Upcoming content will be more high-level Blender/python focused and game-engine agnostic. Dm me here or on insta- @3d_luke. Love chatting about this kind of tech

[@faithfulwords203]

How would I be able to apply these settings to a bigger game? because my light building times are getting ridiculous with those settings?

[@LukeStilson]

Stay tuned, might make a vid on making a larger level - like a simple building with interior and exterior. Basically you'll need larger 'modular' parts with seams in smart places and then adjust global lighting scale as close to 1 as possible

[@faithfulwords203]

Luke Stilson cool, thanks man 👌

[@rampally07]

Thanks

[@circle2867]

when I take my cube up in the z axis it goes really high up and doesn't snap to the grid? wtf is going on? lol EDIT. nevermind my scale was set to 1 which is what it looks like on your vid. it needed to be 0.100.

[@jwbonnett]

Why modular? It's more vertices to calculate, meaning not optimal in the slightest.

[@LukeStilson]

Jamie Bonnett this isn't discussing why, just how. But can be used for fast level mockups, generating random buildings/rooms/levels. Depends on your use case but is desireable for arch viz projects and specific aspects of some games. Very counts don't cost much, it's mainly an issue of draw calls. Blueprints and groups can minimise this cost too.

[@HigashiBashi]

Excellent quick guide.

[@waltage]

distorted lightmap uv? lol!

[@vickylondon1543]

I feel like there is gonna be a r/whoosh joke here

[@benhardwiesner6963]

If every face should fill the whole UV plane, you can just hit reset...

[@TheJoKeR7]

why you're not using the lightmass importance volume and you haven't changed the baking quality : use high/production quality instead of lowring too much the static scale value there here is a great video from epic check it now it explain every setting ! :kzbin.info/www/bejne/n5nKZaifp7KWm8U

[@LukeStilson]

There's lots of ways to approach fixes, this video is just one approach

[@yasuiasianstore7852]

I ain't got exams per say, but I'm tryna study for an IT certification... TNice tutorials is more important tho

[@Phoenix-gz9xb]

Only issue I have is you going over basic ass stuff people probably already know before clicking this video. Cant imagine anyone not knowing jack about Unreal Engine but clicking this video. Same for Blender.

[@LukeStilson]

You'd be surprised.. read some of the comments/threads out there. but I could focus higher level or go faster, thx for feedback

[@shimeinissi6534]

tNice tutorials was really helpful on day 1 of softS for . I managed to create a whole 5 sec loop hahaha. But I am proud of myself and cannot

[@Dhieen]

yeah and with very simple modular parts... with complex ones its get even worse! i have baking lights in unreal!

[@nec8050]

Fixed my initial issue deleted the comment. You should go over the doors windows etc if you ever can.

[@LukeStilson]

Uploading a video now you might be interested in that mentions basic setup of modular doors/windows, but doesn't go into detail in the modeling tool (blender) at all. Thanks for the feedback.

[@nec8050]

Awesome and I already did a basic doorway here myself: gyazo.com/d1f787e5103e947b3c8f0687bbac7f19

[@Youdifox]

Hey,

[@ahmad1080p]

lighting in unreal 4 is a mess, when I import my models to unity I get a perfect lighting immediately

[@JamesKellyWickerman123]

Straight up lie here. I use both in work all the time and you run into the same problems in either package - except in UE4 if your issue is how long it takes you can easily set up network distribution, which you can't in Unity. In either case, switching to a third party baker usually means better results. Unity = Bakery Plugin UE4 = Luoshuang GPU Lightmass

[@5xa]

@@JamesKellyWickerman123 yea i clicked on this video specifically because I'm having this problem in unity.

[@seanerer]

@@JamesKellyWickerman123 I've never seen this many issues with Unity lighting ether. Maybe it exists, but I don't remember having this much of a problem.

[@kr20865]

respond to you all in 1 month to see how tNice tutorialngs have evolved if I rember or if soone is interested. My failure is just that - mine. But I

[@wipeek7116]

Sa

[@nedstudios6490]

lost me

[@gabrielsousa5811]

youre not gonna learn anytNice tutorialng with that ntallity, if you want to learn sotNice tutorialng stick with it, if youre not willing to do that maybe its not