Any Unreal Engine Experts Here?

[Renzatic]

This is neat as hell. I should use this more often.

 

[MEJHarrison]

Yeah, I know. I hate having to rent software. I wouldn't mind it so much if they also provided the option to buy a license, but no. They're all about the temporary leases these days.

I watched a science video recently and he was showing how you could use an app (ScandyPro) to make a 3D scan of your face (on a FaceID phone of course). And if you have the LiDAR Scanner, it can use that to scan rooms.

It's tons of fun. I then go to save my scan and I need a subscription. They actually do have an option to buy it outright, but they want $120. They also offer weekly, monthly and yearly subscriptions. So I deleted my scan. It's not like I had anything fun planned with it.

My subscriptions currently consist of: Apple TV+. It was going to get canceled, but my year was up just as Ted Lasso was beginning, so I've kept it. That's it. 1 subscription. I'm a software developer, so I don't begrudge them trying to make money. I just choose not to be part of that equation.

 

[Renzatic]

I'm a software developer, so I don't begrudge them trying to make money. I just choose not to be part of that equation.

To me, renting software is like renting tools. Yeah, I could probably save a bit of money in the long run renting them, but I'd rather just spend the money, and always have them on-hand for everything from big projects, to little incidental tweaks.

Take Photoshop for example. An old license for it used to cost, what, $400 or so? Paying $20 a month is easier to stomach in the short term, but what if all I want to do is open up and convert old .psd file? I'd have to pay $20 for a month just to do that.

My use case with Photoshop was that I'd use it heavily for awhile, then not need it that much for awhile after, just for the occasional thing. Having to sign up and cancel, sign up and cancel, sign up and cancel for those moments when I do have a need for it is just kind of a pain in the ass. Spending $400 up front, then always having it around thereafter is far preferable.

 

[Huntn]

3 Days and 10+ hours I finished my first hour in Unreal Engine course. The two things that opened my eyes the most was although complex, is how assessable it is as a polished graphics engine. It controls light and atmosphere and character movement. You may have to design a a character, but the engine has programmed into it most the character's interactions with the environment. The other amazing thing are the logic widgets circuts that control character movement based on mouse input and how relatively simple they are as compared to what I imagine working with lines of code is like. No real coding at all, at least not at the basic level. I imagine in some advanced stages the engine with licensing from Epic, being altered to suit a particular game.

 

[Huntn]

Now I'm doing the "Intro to Unreal Engine". It's kind of dry, but it's filling me in on features I missed during the first tutorial. This software still impresses me with what it can do.

 

[Renzatic]

Now I'm doing the "Intro to Unreal Engine". It's kind of dry, but it's filling me in on features I missed during the first tutorial. This software still impresses me with what it can do.

Have you built anything with it thus far? That's the best way to come to terms with one of these engines.

Epic themselves provide tons of free assets and materials to play around with, alongside a number of freebies on the Epic Marketplace.

 

[Huntn]

Have you built anything with it thus far? That's the best way to come to terms with one of these engines.

Epic themselves provide tons of free assets and materials to play around with, alongside a number of freebies on the Epic Marketplace.

I've only built what they have told me to build. During the first tutorial they had me download a free project titled: Unreal Learning Kit: Games (project) which has a bunch of stuff in it, characters, basic building, and they walked me though some of the lighting settings which was very interesting.

The Unreal Engine has basic geometric shapes, so I'd like to find a tutorial that walks you though some architecural possibilities that are possible within the Engine. The learning game kit had some walls, a doorway and windows, a good display of how shadows work, but nothing, architecturally that made me say, wow, I want to build that. And talking to you and others, it's seems like a 3rd party program like maybe Blender is required to get serious about architecture or modeling plants, not that I am planning anything to start off with that is big and crazy.

My interest in not in a general gaming environment, and introducing actors onto a grid. My interest is crafting a natural setting, terrain, plants, and incorporating architecture elements. What I desire are examples of building project tutorials of such things, where I am inspired, more importantly within my grasp, and of course, they walk me through it.

If I lay it out step by step it would be create the natural setting including maybe a pond or flowing water, then incorporate some architectural elements, a create a relaxing environment one might want to hang out in and meditate or something, lol. The day could cycle, maybe learn how to introduce weather. Have a pitcher of margaritas I could pick up and sip while sitting in a lounger or a hammock.

 

[Renzatic]

I've only built what they have told me to build. During the first tutorial they had me download a free project titled: Unreal Learning Kit: Games (project) which has a bunch of stuff in it, characters, basic building, and they walked me though some of the lighting settings which was very interesting.

The Unreal Engine has basic geometric shapes, so I'd like to find a tutorial that walks you though some architecural possibilities that are possible within the Engine. The learning game kit had some walls, a doorway and windows, a good display of how shadows work, but nothing, architecturally that made me say, wow, I want to build that. And talking to you and others, it's seems like a 3rd party program like maybe Blender is required to get serious about architecture or modeling plants, not that I am planning anything to start off with that is big and crazy.

My interest in not in a general gaming environment, and introducing actors onto a grid. My interest is crafting a natural setting, terrain, plants, and incorporating architecture elements. What I desire are examples of building project tutorials of such things, where I am inspired, more importantly within my grasp, and of course, they walk me through it.

If I lay it out step by step it would be create the natural setting including maybe a pond or flowing water, then incorporate some architectural elements, a create a relaxing environment one might want to hang out in and meditate or something, lol. The day could cycle, maybe learn how to introduce weather. Have a pitcher of margaritas I could pick up and sip while sitting in a lounger or a hammock.

I wasn't talking about games specifically, rather pretty environments in general. Over my few years of learning 3D, I've found that the best way to learn is to goof around. You don't always have to set out to accomplish anything, but the experience you gain from futzing around with various shapes, shaders, and whatnot without anything really guiding you is worth its weight in gold.

...though admittedly, you do have to do a bit of learning before you reach the point where you can freely experiment.

 

[Huntn]

I wasn't talking about games specifically, rather pretty environments in general. Over my few years of learning 3D, I've found that the best way to learn is to goof around. You don't always have to set out to accomplish anything, but the experience you gain from futzing around with various shapes, shaders, and whatnot without anything really guiding you is worth its weight in gold.

...though admittedly, you do have to do a bit of learning before you reach the point where you can freely experiment.

I did the your first hour in UE tutorial and thought oh, I got this, but now doing the Intro to UE my pen is flying taking notes, each section of the editor, tons of features and ways to skin a cat. This is totally focused on the mechanics of editing, manipulating, and the organization of a project. I’ve got about 4 more sections of that, and btw at unrealengine.com once you register, they keep track of your progress and give you quizzes, although the quizzes are short and no penalty if you get an answer wrong. You just keep trying until you get 100%

 

[Renzatic]

You just keep trying until you get 100%

Oh, just wait until you get into shaders and particle effects.

 

[Renzatic]

Here’s a nice video for you, from one of my favorite Youtube channels.

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC7cmH--tFhYduIshTKzQUJQ

 

[Huntn]

Here’s a nice video for you, from one of my favorite Youtube channels.

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC7cmH--tFhYduIshTKzQUJQ

Wow very cool! But it looks so cartoony!! I have subscribed. He talked about buying his 13 hour couse for $49, but it kind of looks like the episodes are available on YouTube. The fortunate thing is that what I picture as a first project has no vistas, a rather small tight scene to get started, like a hidden grotto. As I imagine it, not too much in way of terrain but enough and creating plants atmosphere, and depth.

Now that Make a scene in an hour video link I posted, knocked my socks off, but obviously that is a tremendous display, a demo of what is possible, without much teaching value. In the remarks section, someone commented where is the tutorial for the tutorial?

 

[Renzatic]

Wow very cool! But it looks so cartoony!! I have subscribed. He talked about buying his 13 hour couse for $49, but it kind of looks like the episodes are available on YouTube. The fortunate thing is that what I picture as a first project has no vistas, a rather small tight scene to get started, like a hidden grotto. As I imagine it, not too much in way of terrain but enough and creating plants atmosphere, and depth.

Now that Make a scene in an hour video link I posted, knocked my socks off, but obviously that is a tremendous display, a demo of what is possible, without much teaching value. In the remarks section, someone commented where is the tutorial for the tutorial?

What I meant to link to was this, but that's apparently nearly impossible to do when you're browsing on your phone.

 

[Huntn]

What I meant to link to was this, but that's apparently nearly impossible to do when you're browsing on your phone.

This must be a series on YouTube because with about 17 hours studying it, I don’t see learning it in a 9 minute video, but I will check it out.

 

[Renzatic]

This must be a series on YouTube because with about 17 hours studying it, I don’t see learning it in a 9 minute video, but I will check it out.

Well, it's more like a guide on where you should focus your interests, though I do think a lot of these do assume you have some prior knowledge of the 3D scene.

 

[Renzatic]

This must be a series on YouTube because with about 17 hours studying it, I don’t see learning it in a 9 minute video, but I will check it out.

This, by the way, is probably the most important video you'll ever watch. You will learn SO MUCH!

 

[Huntn]

This, by the way, is probably the most important video you'll ever watch. You will learn SO MUCH!

Ya never know…

 

[Huntn]

While I‘m continuing slogging though the UE Intro tutorial, what would you say is the best way to model trees and other plants? I need to do something besides this Intro to EU. I’ve been reading and some say do tree trunks in Blender, import, and then add leaves in UE. There is the Quixel Megascan video I linked to and @Renzatic’s Stylilized Station- Make beautiful environments video. This is besides buying a pre-made plant packs in the UE Marketplace, and there is Speed Tree, but not sure about costs there.

I’m sure that modeling trees would be an educational endeavor, but I’m also thinking of convienence.

 

[Renzatic]

There's always Speedtree, the de facto standard for all things realtime foliage. It's $20 a month, and might have a free trial for you to learn on. You also get to keep the trees you make or buy once your sub ends, though you obviously won't be able to edit them any further.

If you want to go the free route, there's always Modular Tree for Blender, which is what I use. The downside to it is that it's not really built to create game ready trees, so you have to do some work to make them efficient. Plus, you need the latest version to use with the most up to date version of Blender, which is currently a work in progress.

 

[Huntn]

There's always Speedtree, the de facto standard for all things realtime foliage. It's $20 a month, and might have a free trial for you to learn on. You also get to keep the trees you make or buy once your sub ends, though you obviously won't be able to edit them any further.

If you want to go the free route, there's always Modular Tree for Blender, which is what I use. The downside to it is that it's not really built to create game ready trees, so you have to do some work to make them efficient. Plus, you need the latest version to use with the most up to date version of Blender, which is currently a work in progress.

Thanks I will be watching this!

​

This make a forest scene in 1 hour video, it's impressive, but I'm only about 15 minutes into it. It's way, I mean WAY above my level, but it is valuable to me because it shows how a scene like this is constructed. The author creates a large flat mesh in Maya*, imports it to UE, and then applies a blended texture to it which lost me as how as those diagrams with logic paths work when it comes to creating textures, but no matter. He tiles the ground to expand the ground area, and adds the actors/meshes of rock formations and tree stumps is very enlightening to newb such as myself. It looks like he's introducing items from megascans.

* I looked at Maya pricing, LOL, so Blender has to be it.

Here is a question about the floor of this project. In the beginning the author creates what I call a flat mesh and raises a bit of it, and sinks other parts of it, applies a texture to it, and then he tiles it to expand the floor area.

In the First Hour in UE Tutorial, there are square flat tile pieces of textured floor, they have been using to define the floor of a space. These meshes have thickness, but would be something you might use as the floor in a building, that serves as both floor and ceiling. In the video referenced above, the plain which the author above constructs, is a flat plain. without any perceivable depth to it. I'll assume this is something that can be made in Blender. Is it any different than one of the floor pieces with depth, or is it just, I'll assume a flat 2D mesh. Would that be defined differently than a 3D mesh?