So, i finished the project 
My goals with this was:
- learn more about ue4
- learn new things
- improve my general skills and pipeline
- make a better project than my first one
- having fun!
I can easily say: i achieved this, i learn more things on unreal, i also discovered new things and way to do stuff, i improved my pipeline by making better assets and learn how to do things to make it looking good as possible on unreal, this lake cabin is much more prettier than my first project on playable apartment.
This archviz is not playable, I can't run this on my computer with a minimal decent framerate speed, This also is not the thing i would be very proud to talk about optimization, shader complexity is bad... awful bad to be honest here. I did many optimization i could, for make this usable as i can.
There are two videos of the archviz
1) the extended version, this is 13 minutes long! yeah... this going to be a little trip on my project where i tried to cover many details i was could.
2) the "short" version, this is 5 minutes long, i used the same camera cuts from extended, but a fewer less on this one
The EXTENDED movie: 1440p 60fps (2k maybe get processing by youtube right now, 1080p fugly pixelated is up)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wlgwzAWiL8
The SHORT movie: 1440p 60fps
~uploading now~
Screenshots: i took a few screenshots of the project, you can see all 30 screenshots on my artstation page
The project page on artstation: (not uploaded yet, going live soon as i finished the short version of video)
https://www.artstation.com/frazao
I hope you like it, i will prepare another post talking about some stuff i have done to create this scene and what market place things i used to save time if people get interested.
My goals with this was:
- learn more about ue4
- learn new things
- improve my general skills and pipeline
- make a better project than my first one
- having fun!
I can easily say: i achieved this, i learn more things on unreal, i also discovered new things and way to do stuff, i improved my pipeline by making better assets and learn how to do things to make it looking good as possible on unreal, this lake cabin is much more prettier than my first project on playable apartment.
This archviz is not playable, I can't run this on my computer with a minimal decent framerate speed, This also is not the thing i would be very proud to talk about optimization, shader complexity is bad... awful bad to be honest here. I did many optimization i could, for make this usable as i can.
There are two videos of the archviz
1) the extended version, this is 13 minutes long! yeah... this going to be a little trip on my project where i tried to cover many details i was could.
2) the "short" version, this is 5 minutes long, i used the same camera cuts from extended, but a fewer less on this one
The EXTENDED movie: 1440p 60fps (2k maybe get processing by youtube right now, 1080p fugly pixelated is up)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wlgwzAWiL8The SHORT movie: 1440p 60fps
~uploading now~
Screenshots: i took a few screenshots of the project, you can see all 30 screenshots on my artstation page
The project page on artstation: (not uploaded yet, going live soon as i finished the short version of video)
https://www.artstation.com/frazao
I hope you like it, i will prepare another post talking about some stuff i have done to create this scene and what market place things i used to save time if people get interested.
Replies
Hi, sorry for that long break i took
i was been busy and also working on it.
I will post more details soon i have to share here.
The OP map doesn't exist anymore because i have remake it from scratch redoing many of assets, including a propper shore for lake and new rocks to separate the landscape from the lake shore border.
i have uploaded on my artstation some images of the props i have made, currently i have finished the meshes, painted all the textures, imported the stuff to UE4, it's time to redo the foliage and start create materials and placing things on my new landscape, this going take a while to do, but i hope have this thing finished in two weeks or so.
the area is big, i have took one map from affordable landsacapes bundle and reesculpt the whole terrain. This makes me think will be impossible to bake the illumination on my machine, even on the lowest baking settings available. But still something i'm going to see when i start teaking the illumination a bit better
i manage to get ~30fps as minimum on my machine by propper optimize my assets, using single polygon bilboards for very far distance tree pines do the job pretty well and looks good enough, still having problem with the fake fog, but also managed to make it hit way less than on my previous attempt and i'm using a more simple material with less instructions. I also reviewed the lod of many assets and did some better meshes on lake shore to save performance of placing billions of little rocks
you can check the progress of props on my artstation page: https://www.artstation.com/frazao
there are over 200 unique props i did or optimized, but i recently upload just a few some.
i'm using some, i think it's 8 or 10 props from my last archviz to save me some time
but, check out!
front view:
perspective top view:
back perspective:
going start pack things together on this week just after i create the materials and redo the foliage on the new area.
as you can see, two floors with a balcony
there is a pit fire, a bench on tree
the roof is made with big four windows and get a better light propagation and cool view when we are inside, there are a fireplace on the 2nd floor with a chimney, this chimney will have a nice ray march material smoke similar to the ones we see on the division, and the pitfire will be able to turn on and off.
there are plenty of cool things to do, i hope the results are great when i start packing it and i will keep this topic updated.
the dock is almost finished
here is the current result without light baked, i still need to add two more props on boat and the dock ramp stairs
then i will can move to the cabin.
but damn... i loved this
Gyfcat link: https://gfycat.com/gifs/detail/AdvancedEmptyDorado
where are you getting your foliage assets from if you don't mind me asking?
Thanks
all foliage are from marketplace/megascans, except the distant coniffers on high mountain. These ones i created by myself the textures for bilboards
it was difficult to bring this prop to the EU4, but in the end everything worked out I had to split the mesh into 5 parts, in fact it was 6. But there is an entire part that I did not decide to use. The part of the interlaced basket was the most complicated
also, there are few new props on the dock area
the paddles are already on the map and placed, there are 8 of them
and this is how look like the second floor roof window from the cabin
still speaking about the cabin, i have to see another color for textures, maybe white painted wood or that color, but a bit more darker... still under consideration
i also have to find out how to avoid the leafs from particles go inside the cabin.
Gyfcat link: https://gfycat.com/gifs/detail/FaithfulLiveGrayfox
and another ss from the back of cabin
i need to do just a few things on its interior before move to the second part of the cabin
here are some ss from outside area right now
So, when finish everything i will build the light and see the first results
this cloud thing on distant pines is something i have to tweak or remove, the performance get hit so hard and the scene is currently pretty heavy and the results doesn't look like exactly something i wanted
edit: i just noticed there is an overlaping mesh on my basket sofa
now i will try to fix little things, improve performance
then start working and building the lighting (already did a small test)
if everything goes right as expect, i will clone the map and make it dawn like 5AM
and i need your help here, let me demo what is happening for you better understand and see if you have a fix for this
please take a look on this gyfcat:
https://gfycat.com/gifs/detail/MenacingGlamorousBluemorphobutterfly
- the static mesh of panels doesn't have build in lods
- i haven't make any lods for this, because this is already low poly
- i tried to use ue4 auto lod, but didn't work... this flickering still happening
- i tried to remove all lods and the flickering also happen
- the project anti aliasing is temporal aa and set to cinematic
- this strange flickering happens some where on screen size ~0.3 but after pass this range, it looks like ~0.4
- i tried to use a single mesh with textures on that panels, but didn't work well. The gaps just "close" with this screen distance
i'm running out of ideas, any one know how to fix this?
Also, until i can find a way to get rid of this flickering. I'm playing with two things: neofur and give a darker mask on the floor
neofur on optimized shader doesn't kill the performance and make my carpet way better than it can look, the other version gives a big impact on performance for a very little gain.
and the dark mask variation on the floor:
i did this on my substance painter file, since there i have a bit more control on what is going on over the textures
and yeah, there will be fire:
i just don't know how to animate the emissive burned bark, i think is something with panner nodes (have to research how to do)
The flickering that's happening with the blinds looks to be a moire artifact. Take a look at this: https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/121845/moire-problems.html
I'd try solving it by switching to a single textured plane like you did for LOD1, then making custom mipmaps for the texture to ensure the blinds don't fade away completely at a distance: https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/323747/how-to-import-custom-mip-maps.html
about the reference, i will try to put some raymarch fog cards on to lake distant shorelines and see how this will work
currently i'm trying to make the fog going down from the top of mountain to the botom, without getting the particles concentrate too much and makes a "bloat fog balls"
some times works, some times doesn't, i liked the reference on the girl is sitting
this is most close from what i'm trying to achieve
So, i finished the project
Like i said on OP. my goals with this was:
- learn more about ue4
- learn new things
- improve my general skills and pipeline
- make a better project than my first one
- having fun!
I can easily say: i achieved this, i learn more things on unreal, i also discovered new things and way to do stuff, i improved my pipeline by making better assets and learn how to do things to make it looking good as possible on unreal, this lake cabin is much more prettier than my first project on playable apartment.
I have been in trouble last week to build the light, I tried a bit more quality and this took a lot of time. The worst part of this was lose almost 5 days building the light because my dumb neighbor did a stupid move to drink and drive. So... what is happened? he was drunk, took his car, went out of garage and hit the light pole, this immediately caused it to lack light energy. lol
And before that i lose another 3 days or so because i was impatient and start using pc for working on another things, so the result you maybe know: the editor crashed ... anyway, i used a previous light baked i have done for the project and i think this is more than enough and bring some ok results for what i wanted on the project.
The changes so far:
- i have replaced the whole world grass for a much better one, with better LOD and better billboards
- i have "replanted" the grass by using 3 different sizes, 3 different density sizes, and manually put this on the cabin area
- i have added some new props on cabin
- i have used planar reflections to improve the lake reflections a bit more, it's not the very best water i have done but good enough for now
- i have made a simple fog card, to bring more dense atmosphere going down from sky to pines, this is just a gradient noise texture i have done on PS for fake this effect
This archviz is not playable, I can't run this on my computer with a minimal decent framerate speed, This also is not the thing i would be very proud to talk about optimization, shader complexity is bad... awful bad to be honest here. I did many optimization i could, for make this usable as i can.
There are two videos of the archviz
1) the extended version, this is 13 minutes long! yeah... this going to be a little trip on my project where i tried to cover many details i was could.
2) the "short" version, this is 5 minutes long, i used the same camera cuts from extended, but a fewer less on this one
The EXTENDED movie: 1440p 60fps (2k maybe get processing by youtube right now, 1080p fugly pixelated is up)
The SHORT movie: 1440p 60fps
~uploading now~
Screenshots: i took a few screenshots of the project, you can see all 30 screenshots on my artstation page
The project page on artstation: (not uploaded yet, going live soon as i finished the short version of video)
https://www.artstation.com/frazao
I hope you like it, i will prepare another post talking about some stuff i have done to create this scene and what market place things i used to save time if people get interested.
this is 5 minutes long and has less camera cuts than the extended version, but share the same camera cuts... so, nothing "new" here, just not that long than the other.
about the bevels, i can agree in many levels, this is something i have to learn stop doing hard edges, or at least normalize then
and that camera cuts i agree, the foliage gets too close and has a camera clipping on a bark
but yeah things to get fix for my next project, i will remember
As a five minute touch up you could try a HDRI skybox to really sell the outdoor shots. https://hdrihaven.com/ is a good resource.
bookmarking it here
i surely will take a look, now i'm trying to convert the map to 4-5AM with a very blue sky mood version, currently this one is 9-10AM
maybe there is a nice cloudy bluesky hdri box that allows me try doing something
and thanks for the feedback