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

Summary

So far, we learned the essential steps to prepare our scenes before importing them into Unreal Engine 5. We discussed two primary workflows, one for images and animations that utilize the Lumen system, and another for baked light scenes. Remember that generally, we recommend going for the first workflow since it is more versatile and flexible, but the second one is still useful for specific cases such as VR and mobile applications. However, it used to be the most common method for building photorealistic scenes in Unreal Engine 4.

We also learned how to prepare primary elements such as walls, floors, and structures, as well as secondary elements such as doors, props, and furniture, in terms of meshes, polycount, and UVW coordinates. Additionally, we covered how to export regular assets and scattered compositions, such as grass and foliage, while paying attention to texel density and the importance of using UDIMs.

Best practices:

  • Organize your assets with a clear...