UV Practices for modern workflows

zachagreg

Hey just wanted some clarification on UVing practices. I know that the entire topic includes so many different workflows and practices. But specifically for non-hero assets is it better to lump a bunch of assets into one UV set and therefore one texture set or is better to assign multiple shared materials to all of the assets and then just use tiling materials? Better meaning performance wise in UE4 and which is most common. Thanks a bunch!

Eric Chadwick

Less materials the better, in general. So, one way is to make a packed texture with your common prop details, then create your props UV mapped to that texture layout.

zachagreg

So basically only have a detail map and then everything else I assume just instance base colors, metalness, and roughness?

Edit: Or do you mean just combine multiple assets into one UV space like I mentioned above?

Eric Chadwick

Both ways could work fine. Depends how much uniqueness you want/need/can afford. 

There are many methods, each based on specific limiting factors in your specific situation.

Best bet is to profile your game in action, see where the perf limits are bottlenecking, then edit the assets accordingly.

If you just want a general rule, work on limiting the number of different materials in use at any given moment.

zachagreg

Eric Chadwick said:

If you just want a general rule, work on limiting the number of different materials in use at any given moment.

Awesome, thanks Eric this is exactly what I was looking for. Does the Wiki have any information on material/detail/dirt masking? I would love to adapt that more into my workflow if I can.

Eric Chadwick

Yeah, see http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/MultiTexture

zachagreg

Thanks a ton!

Ibrahim Aysan

And for the uniqueness, you can always use the strength of the game engine. For example, let's say you created modular brick walls. But when you start level design you will notice it is being repetitive at some point. To break this you can use decals or create some functional shaders in-game engine(Vertex paint blending with multiple materials) but still, you have to consider general optimization because more complex shaders also increase the performance costs. So my opinion is to use every opportunity whether in the modeling stage or level design stage to achieve a balance between quality and performance.