The project profile series of Blender 3D Architect is a collection of articles with the aim of feature projects related to architectural visualization. We invite talented artists to share additional details about each project to demonstrate how they approach each stage of the process. And also allow each author to publicize their work among our readers.
- Blender Export To Unreal Engine 4
- Blender 2.79 Export To Unreal Engine 4
- Blender To Unreal Engine 4 Export
- Blender To Unreal Engine 4 Materials
- Blender to Unreal engine Pipeline Hey everyone, if you ever wanted to get into game dev with Blender and you haven't heard of the unreal engine send to unreal pipeline you must get it! Check this vid out to help you get started.
- In this short video tutorial we’re gonna take a look at how we can import our awesome Blender fluid simulation into Unreal Engine 4. During the recordings B.
How does it work? It is like an interview, where we sent a couple of questions about a project for the artist.
Blender to Unreal Engine 4 Scale. I'm used to using Unity 3D. I use the Metric system in Blender with a scale of 1.0. Epic, Epic Games, Unreal, Unreal Engine. Hey, I am debating about if i should get unreal engine 4 or not. One question i have that i cant find a good answer to yet, is that if i have a Model i Textured in blender Say a rock that is fully textured for example, Can i Export all that into unreal engine 4? I have read some where that you can only export the model with animation but you cant do textures thanks for any answers.
If you want to check previous project profiles, visit this link.
Today we have an apartment interior from digital artist Wessel Huizenga, which uses Unreal Engine 4 as the primary render engine for models created with Blender. Since the artist shared a lot of details on this project, we divided the profile into two parts.
(Click to enlarge)
What is unique about this project? Unlike many of the projects that start with Blender for a render with either Cycles or Eevee, you find an architectural project using real-time renders with the Unreal Engine. In this detailed profile, the artist shares a lot of his workflow and shows how he manages to get an architectural scene ready for rendering in the UE4.
The use of tools such as the Unreal Engine 4 for architecture is something new for a lot of artists because it involves handling and adjusting a game engine. It is a different workflow from Blender, which could give some impressive results if you know how to set up lights and materials. With the benefit of having a fully interactive 3D space to present your ideas and projects.
(Click to enlarge)
Let me thank Wessel Huizenga for sharing the details about the project with Blender 3D Architect readers.
Was it a commercial project? What can you tell us about the motivation for this project?
”Top Floor” is a personal project of mine. It is part of a series that I did for my ArtStation portfolio. In this series, I took existing architectural renders made using “traditional methods” as a reference. I built those scenes up from the ground inside Blender and recreated them (in my style) entirely inside the Unreal Engine 4.
The point of these series is to use them as a connection or conversation starter. Before I started doing archviz around a year ago, I did some research on what programs to use. I quickly found out that UE4 was a big upcoming game changer within the archviz industry.
Knowing that I wanted to create two or three scenes that look identical in quality but are made using very different programs. Whenever I get invited to a company to do a speech about my work, I can convince them that it is more than possible to achieve a similar result using UE4 than you can with the “traditional method.” Remaking a scene gives a fantastic way to compare both scenes, and makes it really interesting for companies that are looking to dive into UE4.
Did you use any references for modeling, like technical drawings?
For the project ”Top Floor” I aimed to recreate an existing scene. I used the renders of a scene called Not So Small as my reference and my experience in 3D evaluate dimensions and scale. The blueprint that came with this project helped me get the overall layout of the scene.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
How long did it take from start to finish?
It’s hard to give a precise estimate of the time as it was a side project. It took me around two full work weeks (80 hours) to get a finished product. I could have done it way faster because I have a fully developed pipeline developed for such types of projects.
But because I am still studying, I was also looking to take some time to learn new things during this project. With the pipeline I have, it is more than possible to set up the scene within a week (working with a 3d library that I created over time).
(Click to enlarge)
Do you convert only the architectural elements (walls, windows,) or the entire project, including furniture?
Personally, I’m a fan of exporting my assets as custom FBX files. Exporting everything myself gives me more control. When I export, I make sure that I create my scene using the right groups. I have a group for all the walls, furniture, and small props. Selecting everything in one group makes it easy to import to UE4.
I simply have to drag and drop and put the values on 0 for all the objects to be in the same position as they are in Blender.
What hardware did you use to render? Can you share some render times?
With a mid-range PC, it is always a challenge when it comes to baking times. For this reason, I always optimize my 3D Assets by making them as low poly as possible and using a custom UV that helps to improve the quality of the lightmap. A good lightmap really helps to decrease building times. I make sure that the assets I export aren’t too big so that I can keep the resolution of the lightmap pretty low.
When separating bigger objects into smaller ones, I have to be smart to choose where I would cut them up. Having weird cuts in the wall might result in bad artifacts (shading errors).
Keeping everything in mind and optimizing as much as I can result in good overall quality and a baking time around 2–3 hours on CPU. Because I can keep my building times quite low on CPU, I never felt the need to switch to GPU baking on my personal PC.
I believe resolving the issue of long baking times in UE4 really helps improve the overall scene rather than switching to GPU. In the future, I would love to see the power of GPU rendering inside UE4.
My specs → Intel Core i5 8400 – 2.80GHz Hex Core (Coffee Lake) Processor, GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, and 24GB of RAM.
This concludes the first part of our project profile. Later this week, we will post the second part with details on the lighting process for this project. Keep reading the rest of this profile in part II.
Thanks again to Wessel Huizenga for sharing details about his work. Visit his portfolio page if you want to reach him or see more of his architectural visualization projects.
You can also reach him on LinkedIn.
Using Blender for architecture
Do you want to use Blender for architecture or render your projects using Cycles or Eevee? We have three books available that could help you!
They cover the use of Blender for producing architectural content and also all information you need to render projects in real-time:
You can get them in both digital and paperback formats. By ordering those books, you will not only improve your skills with Blender for architecture but also support Blender 3D Architect.
Just dance nintendo switch 2020. Just Dance® 2021 is the ultimate dance game, with 40 hot new tracks from chart-topping hits like 'Rain On Me' by Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande, 'Kick It' by NCT 127, and 'Ice Cream' by BLACKPINK. Just Dance® 2020 is the ultimate dance game with 40 hot tracks from chart-topping hits like “Old Town Road (Remix)” by Lil Nas X Ft. Billy Ray Cyrus and “God Is A Woman” by Ariana Grande. Just Dance 2020 - Nintendo Switch Standard Edition by Ubisoft Nintendo Switch $24.99 Just Dance 2021 - Nintendo Switch Standard Edition by Ubisoft Nintendo Switch $24.99 More items to explore Page 1 of 1 Start over. Dance to your own beat with Just Dance 2019, the ultimate dance game featuring 40 hot tracks from chart-topping hits to family favorites, including 'Havana' by Camila Cabello, 'Bang Bang Bang' by BIGBANG, 'No Tears Left To Cry' by Ariana Grande, and many more!
Translations:
A while back, when I was creating my own 3D engine, I started using Blender for my modelling needs. At the time, Blender 2.4 was very strange to me, being used to modelling with 3DS Max. I didn't like it then, but since I didn't have the money to buy the 3DS Max, I had no choice. Fortunately, as I got more and more used to it, and had a good impression creating my add-on to export the models to the format I used in my engine, I started to like it.
I stopped modelling for quite some time, but then recently I had the need to create 3D models again. So, it was time to choose the 3D modelling program again. Surprisingly, I really felt at home with Blender, now at version 2.7, with a much better interface. So I decided to use it again.
Unfortunately, Unreal Engine 4 works only with FBX, and only offers nice integration with plugins for Maya and 3DSMax. So, to use Blender, I had to learn how to configure it so I can use the models inside UE4 with no surprises while importing.
Setting up the start-up file
Blender Export To Unreal Engine 4
I don't like to change all the settings every time I create a new model, so the best option is to setup the Blender start-up file. Starting Blender and creating a new file, the first thing I like to do is delete all the default objects (the camera, cube and light).
Then, I configure the unit settings. UE4 uses centimeters by default. I saw some modellers adjusting the unit scale at export, but it may make exporting models and skeletons in the same file harder. To set the global unit scale, I go to the 'Scene' tab inside the Properties view, then I select the 'Centimeters' preset in the 'Units' area. Done.
The last thing to do is to create an 'Export FBX' preset. Using the default preset as a starting point, I change the following options:
Main tab:
- Check Selected Objects;
- Forward: to -Y;
- Up: to Z;
- Right below, I only leave checked the Empty, Armature, Mesh and Other;
Geometries tab:
- Use Modifiers Render Settingsunchecked;
- Smoothing set to Faces;
And finally, the Armature tab:
- Unset Add Leaf Bones;
- Primary Bone Axis to X Axis;
- Secondary Bone Axis to -Y Axis;
The reason to change the Armature axis is to make them match the same axis orientation that the engine, that uses the positive X axis as 'forward' and the Z axis as 'up'. That way, you can use the bones as sockets directly, not having to correct the rotation.
Finally, we press Ctrl+U, or in the File menu, select Save Startup File.
Details before exporting the model
Blender 2.79 Export To Unreal Engine 4
Firstly, check with the Triangulate modifier if all the faces of your model are being transformed to triangles in a satisfactory way. Sometimes, faces can have non-coplanar vertices, which can result in unexpected triangulation and/or tangent calculation errors, which leads to shading errors. In this case, it's better to manually triangulate or use the 'make planar' function in the Clean-up edit mode menu.
Next, the model need to be oriented depending on how it'll be used in the engine. It helps to make your model face the positive X axis if it is a projectile, or other object that will mainly travel forward after being spawned. While the engine can do that rotation when importing, it won't work on models with skeletons, since the orientation of the animations will be different from the 'corrected' orientation.
Import options in the Unreal Engine 4
Generally, the option that should be used for all the models is the import of normals and tangents. Since both Blender and UE4 use the same tangent space, MikkTSpace, the model can be rendered in the engine as close as it was in Blender. This is most important when importing models used with skeletal animation because it's the only way you can preserve smoothing groups.
Recommended Blender Add-Ons
uvmap_tools - A tool to organize UV layers.
Blender To Unreal Engine 4 Export
YAVNE - Add-on to manually calculate normals for low or medium complexity models. Excellent for mechanical models, allow the creation of rounded edges using only one face.
Blender To Unreal Engine 4 Materials
mesh_curves- Generate curvature information and saves it into vertex colors. Great for using this information to create complex materials, vertex based ambient occlusion, etc.