How can I optimize materials with tillable material mask

skyboyfly

So I know the best way to optimize games materials, and I've seen other games like uncharted 4 do this, in where they make 5000 different materials from only a few, by combining mask/layers. How could I do this in substance designer, and then if I wanted, how could I intigrate it into Substance painter for smaller details/ect. without compromising the game's  performance (Which after a while it would) And another question is how would I start with the images for combining them? Any good tutorials on this?

skyboyfly

Can Someone Please answer this?

RaptorCWS

Material blending on that scale is generally done through shaders in engine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fLW2tLaVFE

 but for material blending in designer is done like this  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7sr1w3kXOs

algorithmic has a ton of intro tutorials on their youtube channel.

skyboyfly

RaptorCWS said:

Material blending on that scale is generally done through shaders in engine.
 but for material blending in designer is done like this 
algorithmic has a ton of intro tutorials on their youtube channel.

Thanks so much, but UE4 technique I've heard is incredibly un-optimized. And I remember watching a youtube video that was at a GDC and people that made the Uncharted 4 game were showing how they blended/added layers apon layers from different mask, that didn't look like texture or materials at all, and they would take out and put some in making thousands of materials when combined together, all which was done in Algorithmic. Substance Designer into UE4, but maybe they used Painter with it also, I don't know. But I need to know.

skyboyfly

skyboyfly said:

RaptorCWS said:

Material blending on that scale is generally done through shaders in engine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fLW2tLaVFE

 but for material blending in designer is done like this  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7sr1w3kXOs

algorithmic has a ton of intro tutorials on their youtube channel.

Thanks so much, but UE4 technique I've heard is incredibly un-optimized. And I remember watching a youtube video that was at a GDC and people that made the Uncharted 4 game were showing how they blended/added layers apon layers from different mask, that didn't look like texture or materials at all, and they would take out and put some in making thousands of materials when combined together, all which was done in Algorithmic. Substance Designer into UE4, but maybe they used Painter with it also, I don't know. But I need to know.

Can someone answer this please?

Froyok

Paragon use Material Layering. So it's definitively optimizeable in UE4.
However it's mostly a matter of profiling performances and managing the resource budget between the various in-game assets to keep the shaders performant. There is no magic solution here.