My ceiling_material_instance and additional parameter and maps

[Salim]

hi

i created my material instance from stone_wall_material. After i created the material instance , i replaced the albedo texture with a mossy concrete texture (which i got from MegaScans; unlimited free with Epic account ; with Unreal Project use only).

I also created additinal maps ; roughness, normal and specular uses red channel of the albedo, I also create parameters for each so when you create a material instance you can adjust them without changing the master material. I also added the U,V parameters shown in the class.

The gray area are comments, it groups so it is easy to understand what is going on. To add comment you select an area that has parameters , functions…etc and hit C on keyboard and it creates a grey area and you type the definition. I learned this from Quixel / MegaScans youtube video which i posted earlier.

Create a Photorealistic World in UE4

Note:  MegaScans has also a plugin that export meshes and textures directly into your project and also it creates master material and material instances for meshes. That plugin was broken in UE4.25.2.
But it works with the new update UE 4.25.3 which was a fix for all MarketPlace plugins were not working. For this project i did not use yet but i will add a Light fixture later :)

[Kevin-Brandon]

What’s it like working with Quixel quickscans?

[Salim]

I like they have a very awesome library of materials, meshes to begin with . It is unlimited use free with Epic account to use in Unrelatedly Engine projects so that is another awesome thing.
They have many tools / applications / plugins that help you;

1- Quixel Bridge App;* it* allows you download the asset faster and you can set it up so it can always download to a specific folder in a very organized manner. It has presets for for Unreal Engine so it brings some default required material maps but you can customize it . It also works with Blender, Maya and 3d tools so you can bring your meshes and materials as well.

2- MegaScans Plugin : this plugin installs into Unreal Engine and it can download the selected asset into your project directly. It does not only import the mesh and textures but it also creates a master material or uses UE default master material with the textures it brings and it also creates material instance. It does that in a very organized way that your mesh and textures and material instance are in one place and master material is another folders. You also have different LOD options which means you can bring detailed or low poly meshes depending on your choice.

3- Mixer: this a standalone material editor where you can create your materials using any textures.

The good thing about Qıixel / MegaScans is that you can customize or change things as you wanted. Like you can get one of the meshes into Blender and modify it then assign different materials and make completely use for your own purpose.

Another good thing there are so many professional tutorials that teach you different ways of how to use it. It is like endless. They might be a little heavy for simple games but then you can get the mesh and assign more simple materials. Some of the tutorials / videos I like so far (other than the one I posted above);

Counter-Strike's Dust II in UE4 - Extended Breakdown

Create World of Warcraft in UE4: Extended Breakdown

Mixer Fundamentals: Smart Materials

[Salim]

Is that what you were asking for. Or I can get more info on how to setup Quixel Bridge and MegaScans export and how to make the MegaScans plugin work and do some basic screen shots . For MegaScans plugin to work correctly you have the specify Unrel Engines directory not the project directory.

and maybe give some screen shot from the Meshes I played with in another file just to exprience it.

[Kevin-Brandon]

This is beautiful. Thank you for taking the time to explain this.

Now that’s a cool app. That’s so cool it works well with Blender too.

Wow the MegaScans Plugin is great. I love how fluid all these tools work together.

How good is the Mixer app?

I need to get into Quixel Megascans more. I would more info on how to setup Quixel Bridges and MegaScans export and how to make the MegaScans plugin work and do some basic screen shots. Also I would love to see some screenshots.

[Salim]

I will do some scanshots later just need to wrap up somestuff with my courses Seperate posts; one for Bridge and one for MegaScans plugin.

Mixer; i have not used it cause i will learn more on materials and texturing and lights once i learn basics of Unreal engine and so it will be a while but may learn basics quckly since i used photoshop or similar stuff before.

There is a good tutorial to start with Mixer where they are showing how to a paint a 3D Model.
I also watched a comparison video about Mixer and also Industry standard Substance Painter which is paid pro tool. Mixer has some disadvantages compared to it but also has a huge advantage to use with Unreal having all that library unlimited free; which is rare in the industry. MegaScans is also supported by Epic so I am sure there will be more and more improvements;

Mixer 2020: Introducing 3D Texturing

There are so much good stuff to learn in whole industry; I need to learn AI, multiplayer etc…

There are Livelink animations for character and face animations tthere is a cool app Daz Studio

and there is now an iphone app that connects your face to a character in unreal and gets all that face animations.

There is also environment section which has water, landscape cloud sections and Exciting stuff is coming with UE4.26

Paintable Cloud Flowmaps UE 4.26

Also there is another one that shows the Blender side and how to use it with Mixer; uses Blender to bake out normal, ambient occlusion, material ID and curvature maps to show you know how to generate all the essential assets needed to texture your own custom mesh inside Mixer.

Baking and Exporting Custom Assets in Blender

And this one shows to use all to create a stunning visual fest using almost all ; you will love this one it just is awesome…

Goddess Temple in UE4: Remixing Assets

Honestly I hardly stop myself to leave everything aside and learn every bit of these tricks. But i need to keep focus first trying to be an Indie developer; need to learn as i go . I am also taking Blender Course from you guys : Gamedev.tv. So I will donate my with necessary tools and have fun in the mean time

There are really cool Qixel tutorials on their you tube channel I can go look and put some links.

NOTE: Megascans plugin, i will do another seperate one cause i noticed some weird stuff with c++ rebuild thru VS Studio and Unreal and need to make sure it is not related to any plugins.

Quİxel Bridge;

Quixel Bridge is very straight forward Just click to download , run setup and will ask where You want to download everytime so it is a good idea to setup a general assets folder that you can use for all unreal projects, blender or other 3d softwre.

this folder is not specific to any project and once you download it creates new directories so the assets are organized similar to web site when you download like 3d , surface etc…

And evertime you launch the application it will open up similar to web site and you select what you want hit export select format unreal, blender , unity or custom so it exports related maps or custom ones.
You select which LOD s you want high poly to low poly , texture quality 8k to 2k then export it is in your folder

Also Megascans is kinda for more photorealistic cinematics and might be a little heavy for games But their LOD5 polys and 2k materials are ok for games i believe.
I don’t have much experience in materials yet but i will eventually. I am still learning Unreal