Answered: Metal texture in Unreal 4

FrancisSimard

Hi , I'm having a little problem with some of my metal textures in Unreal engine 4. In Quixel they look shiny and really brass looking and in Unreal they appear really tarnished and not the same color at all. Maybe im plugging the nodes wrong or something. Here's some screenshots. 

Synaesthesia

Hey Francis!

Are you using the Unreal 4-spec workflow in DDO? Currently it looks like you're using a specular and gloss workflow, which will not produce the results you're after. Try adding a Roughness map (DDO menu -> Add New Map -> Roughness), and remove the Gloss and Specular maps before exporting. Alternatively, you could try inverting the gloss map you've applied to your Roughness channel by using a One Minus node in your shader.

FrancisSimard

Hi Jonathan ! 

I did used the Unreal 4 preset for exporting and even if i remove the specular map in unreal the results are about the same. I also tried unchecking sRGB in unreal and setting the sampler type to linear color and same results. 

Synaesthesia

Did you try using a One Minus node to invert the Gloss map you exported? That should be close enough to fixing it by itself.

Exporting as Unreal 4 isn't enough - you need an actual Roughness map in your DDO project. This can be achieved by adding it manually or by calibrating your project for Unreal in the beginning of your project's creation.

Also, be aware that 2.1.5+ now use linear rendering and GGX shading. GGX is only activated when a calibration profile requires it, such as the Unreal profile - if you use it, you'll get a 1-1 preview in 3DO that matches the visual appearance of the model in Unreal.