[UE4] Creating a Laboratory

Blitzwood

I'm creating this old-style laboratory in Unreal Engine 4 (meshes and materials).
I could use some opinions about what to improve.

The scene has 152.393 tris so far, how many tris would you aim for? What do you think about the materials?
Here's how it is looking so far:





My plan is to add more meshes over time and make it more multiuse (lets say usable for witchcraft as well).





video from the viewport if you prefer:
https://youtu.be/uimUwdNnj5I

Maxilator

The textures look pretty wrapped mostly, try to add some wear and tear to the items in the scene, I saw some pictures of old laboratories with tiles going up the walls which would make them look less monotone.

Blitzwood

Thank you very much for the input. I'll start working on it and post the results. I'll try different options on the wood texture to try to get a better too.

As for the lighting somehow I'm unable to replicate the results Epic shows in their "Realistic rendering" example:

JabacOrdof

I like the space a lot!  Really nice aesthetic you've got going on.  A couple things you can think about, perhaps adding a sort of rim or lip to the area where the wall meets the floor, its a good idea to get rid of as many 90 degree angles like that as you can.  Also, the wood on the window sill is a bit shiny for what I think you are going for, but it is not a large tweak.  Great humanization of the space.

nickcomeau

You may want to try and work with some post processing in UE4 to help with your lighting. Also, you may want to revisit your wood material. It is feeling very flat at the moment. The lighting isn't helping that either. Did you bake the lighting yet at all? All of the objects look like they're floating on the floor because they don't seem to have much in terms of shadows where they meet the floor. Honestly right now, the scene is looking a lot better without the materials than with at the moment, I don't think they're helping you. Also, not a huge fan of the type of tile that you picked, it isn't doing anything for you. Do you have any reference for a scene you're trying to replicate at all or no?

Blitzwood

Thank you everyone for your contributions. I didn't have so much time to work unfortunatly so I couldn't implement a lot from what you guys mentioned yet.
- added a few more meshes, like new bottle types, a Galvanic Cell,
- made a few more experiments with the wood material,

Didn't modify the building parts yet. So far only gathered some possibilities for a different floor.
Here's a couple of new pics with just light from the outside:

I'm planning to add more detail to the Galvanic cell lamp stand:

Blitzwood

I've changed the ceiling and making some experiences with the lights:

Also added some metallic decals to one of the shelfs:

Blitzwood

Changed the center a bit with some shelves on the working table. I'll make a burette model too as this kind of vertical objects fill the space and were on the picture Maxilator posted.

I'm still suffering with the shadows and lighting options and I just hate this change value/bake light/change values ... I tryed the options from the UE4 troubleshooting guides ( LINK ) but it's still not sharp.

I hope in next update I'll have some new kind of floor to show.







If I use the "Play -> Simulate" Mode my nVidia GTX970 is running this at 40fps average @ 1080p but in terms of visuals things are not so different from the "Play -> Perspective" mode which runs at a locked 120fps value. I wonder how there is such a fps difference.

Doxturtle

IMO I don't think the walls and floor fit with the the theme of the furniture, they look too clean and modern

Blitzwood

I've created a couple different floor materials and tryed a new decoration.






For some reason the furniture wood material looks great in darker areas and strange in illuminated areas. And there are a few inconsistent shadows courtesy of UE4 calculations. Critics welcome as always.

Blitzwood

I'm having a hard time figuring how to create realistic glass+liquid on UE4. I've tryed different materials, different post processing, etc.. but still no convincing results. Usually the problem is that the liquid looks like having an emissive value which is not the case.

Here's some attemps I made:

liquids_example2.jpg

Has anyone got a solution for this? I'll post if I find fix.