Quickest path from Zbrush to UE4 without autodesk and blender

JamesQuall

I do all my modeling in Zbrush now. I'm kind of new to bringing high poly models into a game engine. I was looking for opinions from people who have used a wide range of tools as to what would be the quickest way to get into UE4.

I'm thinking topogun would probably be good for retopo, zremesher or zbrush's other retopo tools possibly, but everything I'm doing is hard surface so not sure. The largest issue is uvmapping, and possibly texturing. I am NOT willing to use Maya, or 3dsmax, they cost way too much even the monthly options, plus I'm not fond of Autodesk even though I do admit to using 123d design for some things. Also not fond of blender, and I'm fine with importing as an obj instead of fbx. Worked fine for me on some basic shapes.

Just trying to get some opinions on other NON Autodesk programs to use for this that would be super quick, that's my main priority due to the sheer volume of models I want to import. Substance painter good for this sort of thing? I already have Photoshop but haven't learned how to uv with it.

shaderfx

I know you asked for non-Autodesk specifically due to price, but have you seen Maya LT? $20 a month.

If you can afford Zbrush, Substance Painter etc then $20 cannot really be the issue?

There is Modo, but even its cheapest version on Steam if close to Maya LT and I believe is limited by polycount or DOTA only...cannot remember exactly.

Beyond that there is Blender for free, which you say you also do not want.

If $20/month is too much then it does not leave room for much else that is cheaper and not Blender

JamesQuall

Not just that but I hate Autodesk as a company, I'm doing my own thing with 3d I don't plan on working for a company ever in this field. Also I am just looking at static meshes right now, animation will be outsourced.

Looking for opinions on what is the quickest pipeline outside of that, programs like photoshop, topogun, modo, uvlayout, 3dcoat etc. I know there's tons available, just looking for opinions from people who've been around the block and tried quite a few different options. Lot to be learned, and I don't want to waste my time choosing a slow path.

monster

You pretty much named all the things. I guess there is more obscure software like Cinema4D, Project Messiah, and Google SketchUp. There is no magic workflow, especially when you choose to use an array of software. Maya, 3ds Max, and Blender have the most robust toolsets, the best FBX support, and the most community support.

What type of work are you doing? You mention hard surface and static models, but that's not a lot of info.

JamesQuall

making an fps, just looking to get my models into ue4, I'll either be using mixamo or paying someone else to do the animations. Perfectly fine with using obj even with its limitations within the engine.

I've imported some basic stuff already, just seeing if there is something significantly quicker than the zbrush way of doing it as it does seem really time consuming.

giakaama

Try Modo Modo
or if you want something cheaper try Silo 3D
Silo3D
or if you want free software excluding Blender try Wings3D
Wings3D

You can try them, and see if you like some, don't forget Maya, Max etc from Autodesk they are just tools, when you buy a hammer you don't look at the brand .

I still think Maya LT it's a good choice to export models to UE4.

Ace-Angel

I'm not sure how this is going to work, you need some kind of middle generalist package software to clean up your models, preview them, stress test them so they don't cause issues (flipped flaces, empty cull faces which might leak light in the game engine, etc) like it or not.

Topgun is great, but the updates can be slow, and some of the tools leave much to desire (I'm surprised how much of the symmetry functions it lacks *last time I saw it in 2.0 initial release* compared to older tools like Polyboost).

ZRemeshing tools are also great, but last I checked, the lacked the pinpoint precision needed for such things on smaller scale, especially if you need to change the topology of a certain part of the model on the fly without having it warp in critical joint areas.

I'm guessing at this point, your only baking solution will be XNormal? Since ZB's baker has fallen off on how clunky it can be.

UV'ing requires a model package, ZBrush can do this, but once again, it's kinda does it own thing with it (flattens the model and you move it around with the brush, symmetry for standardized UV space is not an option in this mode iirc).

Photoshop is only for texturing, but since you will be lacking a middle software, you may get some issues with seams, which you will be using Zbrush to solve, but a quick search can show you once again, it does its own thing (Vertex coloring =/= Real texture maps) so there is that to consider as well.

The stuff Gia mentioned is your next best set of options, but honestly, 2 tools that don't have any kind of synch workflow will only cause headaches.

Jason Young

3dCoat is a good option to take care of the retopology, UVs, and texture painting(works well as a companion with photoshop if you'd like to stay in there as well).