UE4 Beginner Questions

Anth

ok so I often build my scenes in Maya and then render it within maya aswell to produce my final image of the scene. However whenever I see other peoples work which looks amazing they use 3D modelling software to create what they want and then import it into unreal to produce a final render.

I am new to UE4 and have just grasped the basics. But I have a few questions if someone could please help , how do you actually render an single image in UE4, or do you just play and screenshot ? Can I change the quality settings to produce the highest quality image like you can in other software? Why do I have preview written all around my scene in UE4? I want to try and produce a similar render to the one attached but with a darker atmosphere within the room and finally is it possible to get some light rays coming in from the window?.

I know I have asked a lot but if anyone could help with any of these it would be appreciated

kanga

I can answer some but not all. Hope someone else here can give exactly what you want.

People here dont show screenshots in engine software because it gives better results than a 3d package, they do it because they want to show what they have made in a game engine. Screenshots show an understanding of the process and demonstrate assets in a realtime environment,... mostly.

Yes you just make a screenshot. In UE4 I think there is even a button for it and yes most definitely quality settings you can change. I dont know about the volumetric light you were taking about, Its possible in Unity so I would think that it is in UE4 as well.

Are you using some kind of demo plugin that puts a watermark on your screen. UE4 has been free for a while now?

Anth

Thanks for the reply, I have now realised to get rid of the preview I just needed to build my lighting

Rob Macko

You could also set your directional light to moveable so you don't need to bake lighting after a scene adjustment. This is easier if you're constantly making small tweaks just for an image. If you're intent is to show a baked light scene of course you could just switch it back at the end.

For screenshots I like to enter a command in console, but the pop out option is the same. I recommend you go higher resolution than your intended output as the screenshot option does not anti-alias and this will clean that up.

example > HighRes Shot 3840x2160

Then resize your image in Photoshop to 1920x1080 (or desired size)

Anth

Thanks rob this helped

alexk

Rob has the proper way to do a high quality screenshot

Additionally, if you haven't already, you should read up on post-processing volumes and within that, there will options to tweak your overall scene. Lightmass importance volumes are also recommended reading.

The preview text all over your meshes tells you which meshes need lighting to be baked. This happens when you make changes like moving the mesh or changes to the lights. This can be toggled off/on. I don't have UE4 in front of me right now, but it should be in the viewports "Show/Visualize" then look for "Preview Shadows Indicator"