Book Image

Architectural Visualization in Unreal Engine 5

By : Ludovico Palmeri
Book Image

Architectural Visualization in Unreal Engine 5

By: Ludovico Palmeri

Overview of this book

If you excel at creating beautiful architectural renderings offline, but face challenges replicating the same quality in real time, this book will show you how the versatile Unreal Engine 5 enables such transformations effortlessly. While UE5 is widely popular, existing online training resources can be overwhelming and often lack a focus on Architectural visualization. This comprehensive guide is designed for individuals managing tight deadlines, striving for photorealism, and handling typical client revisions inherent to architectural visualization. The book starts with an introduction to UE5 and its capabilities, as well as the basic concepts and principles of architectural visualization. You’ll then progress to essential topics such as setting up a project, modeling and texturing 3D assets, lighting and materials, and post-processing effects. Along the way, you’ll find practical tips, best practices, and hands-on exercises to develop your skills by applying what you learn. By the end of this UE5 book, you'll have acquired the skills to confidently create high-quality architectural visualizations in Unreal Engine and become proficient in building an architectural interior scene in UE5 to produce professional still images.
Table of Contents (24 chapters)
1
Part 1: Building the Scene
6
Part 2: Illuminating and Materializing the Scene
12
Part 3: Completing the Scene
16
Part 4: Rendering the Scene
Appendix:Substrate Materials

Understanding post-processing in Unreal Engine

In the context of Unreal Engine, post-process refers to a screen pass shader or effect that’s typically applied after the main rendering pass when the entire scene is already rendered: at the end of the rendering pipeline to the entire frame. It acts as a pixel shader that processes each pixel of the final image, independent of individual objects.

So, why do we perform post-processing? Apart from regulating technical algorithms for lighting and reflections, the primary purpose is to adjust the image’s appearance through color grading and tone mapping, which is the process of mapping high dynamic range (HDR) images to a lower dynamic range (LDR) image – in simpler terms, it is the process of remapping all the light information into values that result in a realistic image in terms of light, shadows, and contrast.

This allows us to achieve the desired look, whether it’s filmic, photorealistic, or cartoonish...