Modular vs. Unique Approach for Walls in a Small Interior Scene (Bathroom) in Unreal Engine

SwordOfPeace

Hello everyone,

I'm currently working on a small interior environment project in Unreal Engine that includes only a corridor and a bathroom. I have set up my perspective and blockout based on a concept art, and now I'm at the stage of refining the scene. I have a question regarding modular versus unique approaches for creating walls, specifically in non-repetitive environments like bathrooms.

My Current Situation:

• Modular Issues: When trying to apply a modular approach, the shape of the bathroom doesn't align well due to the unique lengths and angles of each wall. To keep the shape as desired, it seems like I would have to model each wall as a separate piece, which kind of defeats the purpose of modularity.

• Current Approach: I decided to go with a unique approach where all the walls of the bathroom are modeled as a single piece. This way, I have better control over the shape and details. The entire wall mesh is around 4677 tris, and I made sure to keep a suitable topology for potential vertex painting.

Question:

1. Is 4.6k tris suitable for a single mesh like this in Unreal Engine? Considering that the environment is not very large and the bathroom is a small part of it, I believe this polycount is reasonable, but I'd like some feedback.

Additional Considerations:

• I also have a corridor in this scene where I can efficiently use modular assets. My goal is to balance performance and visual quality, so I'm trying to decide where to apply modularity and where unique modeling is more beneficial.

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance for your help.

ZacD

One large piece with a hole in the middle is going to cause issues with lumen, it doesn't like closed in concave areas like that. But if you're not using lumen or DFAO, it'll be fine. 4.6k tris is pretty light. 

SwordOfPeace

ZacD said:

One large piece with a hole in the middle is going to cause issues with lumen, it doesn't like closed in concave areas like that. But if you're not using lumen or DFAO, it'll be fine. 4.6k tris is pretty light. 

So if I separate the meshes is it better? Btw I'm using lumen and in Unreal it looks okay. I didn't see any lighting issue.

ZacD

Lumen does a lot in screen space that can mask issues until they are on the edge of the screen where screen space fails, it also looks inconsistent even if it's doing a decent job of hiding issues. Id check the lumen debug views under lit and make sure it isn't missing coverage. It matters more if you're using software lumen.

SwordOfPeace

ZacD said:

Lumen does a lot in screen space that can mask issues until they are on the edge of the screen where screen space fails, it also looks inconsistent even if it's doing a decent job of hiding issues. Id check the lumen debug views under lit and make sure it isn't missing coverage. It matters more if you're using software lumen.

I’m not sure if I’m looking in the right place according to your explanation, but this is what it looks like when I switch to the Lumen Overview. I’m using an additional rect light, and if it’s turned off, the scene looks like the top image.

ZacD

Yeah the lumen coverage looks good (it should look similar to the scene), you're using hardware lumen so it's going off the actual geo instead of SDFs and cards that software lumen uses, it'll be fine for a portfolio project or a hardware raytracing only project.

SwordOfPeace

Yup, it's only for my portfolio. I feel relieved now Thank you for your help!