Materials in UE4

Chridelisle

Hey everyone, I am somewhat new to Unreal Engine 4.  I have a question about materials.  I've seen some tutorials and videos that talk about making your own materials inside of UE4. I was going to make a small environment scene using 3ds max for assets and then texture them in substance painter.  Is going that route a good idea or should I just make the materials inside of UE4?  What are the differences between UE4 and just using substance and importing? Thank you for taking the time to answer.

Zack Maxwell

You don't make textures inside UE4, it's more the shader that you control. It's how the textures get used.
For example; you wouldn't texture a crate inside UE4, but with careful planning you could control the tint of the crate in UE4, or create a switch to add or remove some decals you made for it.

Chridelisle

Oh ok.  Thank you for explaining that. Really appreciate it.

kysg

hypothetically you could build shaders from scratch in UE4 but it's a bit complicated and a lot of extra nodes.

olgakoupt

In my experience if you are making objects and texturing in substance you can make one master material in unreal and then plug the crap out of all of the textures. But if you are looking for a landscape material or a wall material with variation build it in unreal

EliasWick

Hey Olgakoupt.

Create a great material now, so that you can reuse it by creating instances of it. If you have many different materials it will slow down the game.