VDBs Look INCREDIBLE In Unreal Engine

[@VFXHut]

Thank You so much for featuring our unlimited library in this video. It’s so exciting to see complex volumes working in UE5 🎉. - Great content as usual! - Happy creating! 😊

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Thanks! They've come out really well. Glad you enjoyed the video.

[@metaroonlabstech]

I think you guys should sponsor the development of the plugin. It's a win win! ❤

[@sabarishkandregula4571]

Amazing. Keep up the good work. Please don't stop posting content.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

I certainly will.

[@williamreid-u7z]

Nice work, great details! Thank you sir

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Thanks.

[@m_r_y_o_s_h_i]

Exactly what I needed! Thanks!

[@JoshuaMKerr]

You're welcome!

[@petecrouch8277]

Nice one Josh, love the audio that you matched with your renders, very cool.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Cheers Pete. Sound design can really sell an effect.

[@dpredie]

nice find! quality alternative to niagara cards

[@JoshuaMKerr]

I think so. Once they can take on and cast shadows plus react to lights it'll be amazing.

[@imvisuals215]

This was insane! Thanks for sharing

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Thanks. Did you enjoy the cinematic at the end?

[@imvisuals215]

@@JoshuaMKerr Absolutely! I am learning this technique today and I’m subscribing.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Welcome to the club. There's a discord too if you're interested.

[@collectiveunconscious3d]

Good stuff Joshua, I do wonder if niagara is liquids are more or less taxing, I think niagara looks better most of the time, compared to imported vdb's, but not sure about how true that actually is

[@JoshuaMKerr]

I tried niagara fluids and wasn't totally sold on their performance. I also don't think they work in path tracer. What did you think of the renders at the end of the video?

[@collectiveunconscious3d]

@@JoshuaMKerr I think they look good but I always got a feeling with explosions that they aren't fully integrated but I think that relates more to the overall particle effects that come with an explosion. Embergen is really cool though for making them and also houdini is the top G lol. Keep your video's coming I've been watching all of them

[@burov.a.4467]

Thanks for the video! But while fire, explosions, etc. in unreal engine do not look very realistic, I think the best option for such tasks is to use embergen and do compositing

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Appreciate that. I don't think they look too bad but they're going to look amazing in the near future. I'm throwing in with trying to do as much without compositing as possible

[@nathanielacton3768]

I've been playing this week in 5.3 as a native import. Some observations : Import Attribute and colour channel matter. I'd say in the beginning screenshot the import dialogue as your material will have to match the import. As you mature you'll change the attributes\channels to match the code rather than matching the code to the import (facepalm). There might be a better way but I had a hard time spawning Hetero's directly playing the anim. Putting it inside a BP and hooking it up to begin event worked great. You really want to delete the object as soon at the effect is done. These things keep killing performance as long as the actor exists in a playing state. I tried turning the playing' state off, but I could not work out how to query when it was finished as there seems to be no end event or pause delay. So, for now I just divide the frames by the frame rate and set the bp object lifespan to that. If I use a 1gb explosion I saw a 15fps drop (in PIE sorry) on my 3060ti. So, if you envisage a cool battlefield with explosions, grenades, dust clouds... prepare to pay for that dearly. The VDB's are usually offset. I kinda work this out but creating a level with a cone at 0,0,0. Then reset a test hetero to where it should be, then recorded the relative transform and edited that in in the BP. Lastly, look carefully at what you use VDB's for. I can only find use cases for either things like fire, which can smoothly loop(because it's not smooth) and short lived effects. Things like smoke have no looping assets so are only good for cutscenes, etc. Looks bloody awesome... until you couple it with a sun light source (like Ultra Dynamic Sky). then all the white\\grey smoke ends up end up brown form the sun's orange component. I'm sure someone more experience with lighting knows how to solve that, but so far thats not me. Best of luck.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Thanks for the detailed comment. I haven't played around with native VDBs yet in 5.3 but it looks like fun. I'm sure your writeup will help someone too.

[@plagiats]

Hi, can't wait to try import VDBs from Houdini. Thanks for the tutorial! A question I have is how does this compare to alembic files (which are natively supported in UE) ? EDIT: asked ChatGPT and got this answer : VDBs (Volumetric Data Blocks) and Alembic files serve different purposes in 3D content creation. Alembic is a file format used for transferring complex 3D scene data between applications. It's widely adopted in the VFX industry due to its ability to efficiently store complex, time-varying geometry, and other scene data. It's ideal for representing animated models and complex effects, including high-resolution models with hundreds of thousands to millions of polygons. VDB, on the other hand, was developed by DreamWorks Animation for the representation of sparse volumetric data discretized on a three-dimensional grid. It's commonly used in simulations, such as fluid dynamics, smoke, fire, or any other kind of 3D volumetric data. VDB allows artists to handle large, complicated volumes of data while optimizing space and computational resources. The main difference is that Alembic is geared towards geometric data (like polygon meshes and subdivision surfaces), including animation, while VDB is designed to handle volumetric data, like fluids, gases, and volumetric effects.

[@MelonadeFX]

the meain caveat is that this is too expensive for game production, it's not meant to be used everywhere for cinematics and certain sequences it can be done if not much else is rendering in your scene.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Nano VDB is actually quite easy to render for films and cinematics. You're right that even though they work in real time I certainly wouldn't use them much in game production, but my focus is on film.

[@MiDaY_i]

I'm early today!

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Yes you are!

[@zixiaoyin8276]

Amazing content as usual! I tried the VDB plugin, but it seems to have some limitations. It doesn't appear to be integrated with path tracing reference depth of field (DOF), and height fog. I'm not sure if I didn't set it up correctly or if something else is causing the issue.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Thanks, glad you enjoy the content. Yes it does seem to have those limitations. I don't think theres a way around it unfortunately. We will just have to sit tight.

[@isanVFX]

How did u make the explosion be emisive? Like i want to know how to affetct the world.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

I animated a point light position radius and colour over time in sequencer.

[@isanVFX]

@@JoshuaMKerr THANK YOU VERY MUCH, there is no one in youtube that could explain me this simple answer😤, everyone didnt even answer me. Ure a 10, again, thank u very much. Do u know if there is gona be a plugin in the future where the actual vdb affects the world?

[@JoshuaMKerr]

@isancreates1258 hey no problem. Glad I could help

[@fran.fndz.techart]

All fun until u do a ps5 package with minimal setup (1Frame vdb) and see 10 ms down 😅

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Except this is a filmmaking and Virtual Production channel.

[@georgeyeor9579]

what about render times and path tracing? Are they improved in 5.2?

[@JoshuaMKerr]

I may have a look at this in a future video

[@OMG3Dmax]

tell me how to get rid of noise on VDB? I have a fire with smoke that looks very pixelated and noisy, do you have any tips on how to smooth it out or eliminate it?

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Are you using 5.3?

[@OMG3Dmax]

I did it in version 5.1

[@JS-lq9ur]

When I click on track in the sequencer, there’s no option for vdb. Is there anything I can do? Everything up until that step works fine. Thank you.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Did you drag your vdb into sequencer?

[@JS-lq9ur]

@@JoshuaMKerr I thought I did but I’ll double check

[@SitinprettyProductions]

I have a question: let's make a short film using VP! OKay, admittedly, not a question.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Thanks for asking. I have a bit too much on at the moment for collabs but maybe in the future.

[@OMG3Dmax]

in which version did you turn out so smoothly and cleanly? or did you then bring DeNoiser by grinding

[@JoshuaMKerr]

There wasn't any grading denoising. The reason I ask about version is VDBs are now native in 5.3 and I'm not sure how those work yet.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

If you're using Thiabaults plugin then I'd look at the step size settings. Also trilinear interpolation helps blockiness

[@RYKZETP]

Hey, thanks for the tutorial that's very neat! I also have a question; I've been using this plugin for few weeks now, I do have a explosion vdb which looks very nice in editor, good flame colours, nice smoke clouds but when I render it out, explosion looks very different.. any idea why is that happening? Keep up the great content!

[@RYKZETP]

I HAVE ACTUALLY FIND IT ACCIDENTLY, so leaving this comment here incase anyone struggles like me; Just try to disable/enable tone curve according to your setting.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Glad you solved this

[@metatronorder3565]

nice post...but plug in does not work for 5.3 - Btw, unreal's greatest let down / weakness is their plug in's don't update with each version (unlike blender i.e. once you pay for a plug in, blender do everything possible to ensure it works in future versions).

[@JoshuaMKerr]

This video is a bit old, mate. Vdbs now work in 5.3 natively, so i suggest watching my more recent video about it kzbin.info/www/bejne/jWTReaCpfr-FY5Isi=Jzs5FxnNQ5gaN-Jz It wasn't an unreal engine plugin in this video, so I wouldn't expect it to update for every version of unreal.

[@stefevr]

Great stuff Joshua! 7k subscibers as i write this, I'll come back to this comment in a while to see you at 100k :)

[@JoshuaMKerr]

See you then.

[@fokoff_inc]

Нихера не понял где эти файлы vbd искать, в поиске добавить не находит ничего, посмотреть папку отдельно, несколько версий, ничего не видит

[@JoshuaMKerr]

I'm not sure what you mean. The VDB files were downloaded from VFX hut

[@AlmazovS]

Hi Joshua, tried that plugin. My VDB's look different in editor and in a game mode. Why? In editor they are much nicer.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

I haven't tried them in game mode. What does it look like.

[@AlmazovS]

@@JoshuaMKerr it was a glitch probably, but when you use MRQ for example it renders in a game mode. A good trick can help to achieve the identical results in editor and in MRQ - just to switch to Simlulate / Game mode a couple of times. Shader of VDB can be of a different colour / shadow.

[@hgsupertramp]

Not working with 5.3

[@JoshuaMKerr]

5.3 has native vdb support

[@olekstarasov]

@@JoshuaMKerr hi. Can you explain 5.3? When I set up native VDB, there are no Shading or Blackbody controls like in 5.2. What am I missing?

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Hang tight. Got a video coming soon

[@agora3D]

Is working with Path tracing ?

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Yes, I do mention that in the video.

[@agora3D]

@@JoshuaMKerr Thanks, sorry I didn't pay attention 😅

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Lol

[@sidneyjemison4879]

Vdbs look amazing till you try and hit that compile project button and it errors out for 3 hrs till it finally compiles. They look really good though lol.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

I can imagine them being more of a pain for games sure

[@Viscte]

What are VDBs? I can't watch the video yet since I'm at work

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Basically a format used to store volumetrics. Great for fire, smoke, explosions and many other things.

[@Viscte]

@@JoshuaMKerr oh that sounds cool, so better FX unreal compared to what we had

[@Nevetsieg]

iT'S funny that when you set the local step to 1, the computer start to be so slow even your video recording gets laggy😂

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Mad :)

[@RahhmiPoofs]

..uses paysite VFXHut.. hasn't activated windows o_O

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Brand new machine. Haven't activated yet.

[@RahhmiPoofs]

@@JoshuaMKerr congrats!

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Thanks. And cheers for reminding me to activate. Too much going on :)

[@RahhmiPoofs]

It's odd.. like.. my former roommate had this on his screen for months. Eventually he just went to the bathroom and I took care of it. Maybe I'm easily distracted?

[@dsp4392]

Fun fact: VDB, today, doesn't stand for anything as an acronym.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

That is a fun fact

[@sunlightevidence4359]

nah man, this is overkill for vdb's really. You could easily replicate that using a higher quality flipbook or multi flipbooks and it'll be way cheaper than rendering verts.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Depends what you're doing and this workflow and approach feels more intuitive to me. But that's just my opinion.

[@Nashfanfl13]

activate windows wowowo :)

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Yeah I really need to get on that

[@bencastor9207]

Are we all gonna gloss over the pirated version of Windows? Lmfao.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Haha, it's not pirated mate, thats not how windows works. I just hadn't registered it at the time.