Assembling modular house in third party software or game engine?

salimmatta

Hello guys,

I finished my modular house pack (with interior) for a game I'm working on, I was wondering is it better if I combine the meshes in maya (or any equivalent) and than import them to the game engine (to reduce call draw and better optimization overall)

or simply I should import all my modular assets to the game engine (ue4) and assemble them there? even the snap tool isn't that efficient comparing to a modelling software

frmdbl

I think it mostly depends on what you prefer and the philosophy of the project you're working on.
E.g a LD is working on the level using these buildings, they have to change the building a little then it's easier to have it be modular.

Generally, if you assemble it out of individual modules in an engine, this geometry should be batched, so it shouldn't have a lot of impact on the performance versus assembling it all in a 3d app.

Alex_J

yes, just to reiterate, there is methods to batch models in the game engine so that it not a concern. 

It depends on the teams pipeline, and if there is no team, then it only depends on your workflow preference.

salimmatta

Thanks guys for the reply, actually it is true. It depends normally on  the project, since we are developing a top down survival game, I though of combining the modular pieces in Maya and import them to unreal, but I was thinking that this method might create collision problems, while importing them individually to unreal engine is simply better when it comes to adding simple collision per individual.

poopipe

Dynamic instancing is pretty effective in unreal, then use hlods for distant stuff. 

There's a load of information about how they did Fortnite floating around - that would be an appropriate place to start