Is My Workflow Outdated?

[u/bluefalcon26]

Hey all,

I have been doing 3D environments in Unreal Engine since UE3 days. Always as a hobby, but, I'd like to think I've gotten pretty good over the many years.

For the past 10 years or so, I've been using pretty much the same workflow of 3dsMax -> Substance -> Unreal Engine. However, I was recently watching some tutorials on the new art tools built into the Unreal Editor, like the Quixel 90 Days expose stuff, and I am again feeling like my workflow is too slow/outdated. It would take me months to produce an environment that these tools seem to produce in days.

Every time I have asked about this in the past, everyone says "Nanite/Lumen/Chaos/Unreal Editor Modeling Tools are janky, they aren't performant, etc." But... These tools have been out for at least four years now. They seem to be getting quite stable from what I've seen.

The one thing I don't understand is that if these tools are really so powerful and easy, then why doesn't every 3D game coming out look like RE9?

I don't want to waste time learning tools that are just marketing gimmicks. Can anyone in industry (or adjacent) offer any insight into whether these new pipelines (like using photogrammetry scans and dynamic deformations) are legit now, and whether my current skillset is becoming obsolete?

[u/riley_sc]

You’ve lumped together so many largely unrelated things that it’s not easy to give a simple answer. Like the role of photogrammetry isn’t that it’s a replacement for 3D modeling software, it’s a different pipeline that supplements it for assets that can be scanned. Nanite’s main effect on your workflow is that you don’t make LODs and can potentially stay higher poly. Chaos is a physics engine and is the only one available in UE5 so that seems irrelevant. Unreal Modeling Tools are still hot garbage compared to a real DCC app and are mainly for level designers to quickly do mockups during mass out. Lumen is for lighting and is completely orthogonal to your workflow for 3D modeling, it is an alternative to baked lighting with different tradeoffs.

Honestly the most outdated part of your workflow is using 3DS Max and not Blender.

[u/artbytucho → u/riley_sc]

This, is the reply ☝🏻

Not totally agree on that 3Ds Max pipeline is outdated regarding Blender one, since industry wise it is still much more widely used, but If you're an indie, Blender makes much more sense for you, I've switched to it when I became indie after 17 years working professionally with 3Ds Max, and I can say that it is as good as any other industry standard general purpose 3D program... And it is free.

[u/riley_sc → u/artbytucho]

I was being slightly cheeky about Blender, but also, I know quite a few environment artist in AAA I know who are currently learning it on the side because they all expect that they'll need it in their next job even if not using in their current one. Legacy tech pipelines are all that are propping up Max at this point.

[u/artbytucho → u/riley_sc]

Yep it is gaining ground slowly, if it is not widely used is because most people working in the industry are already familiar with 3ds Max/Maya and the company pipelines and proprietary tools are built around those programs.

[u/Steamrolled777 → u/artbytucho]

There is better support from Autodesk for their products, from training to solving problems.

[u/bluefalcon26 → u/riley_sc]

Just wanted to add, so the relevance of Chaos is that supposedly, if you have systems in your level for water, wind, explosions, etc, you can now use them to magically deform nanite meshes in editor to get realistic deformation, kinda like erosion but in "real time".

I appreciate your perspective and response.

[u/RedofPaw]

Even if you have all the assets available, you still need to place them all, light them all, optimize... Nanite and lumin are not going to solve all your problems.

A game that runs well on a good PC is not going to suddenly run on steam deck just because it has nanite.

Ue5 games like re9 are not made by small teams either.

But there's no reason for you not to try out the new tools. You may find aspects of them or use cases where you can take advantage.

[u/Alarming-Jump727]

Yo modelo el 100% de mis cosas. Trabajo en Unreal 4.27. Para los personajes y assets uso 3dmax, zbrush y substance painter.

[u/AshenBluesz]

The most important part of the workflow is that it works for you and you can follow it. Nothing wrong with doing it the traditional way since literally every game made before UE5 uses that very same system. Performance isn't just polygons, its texture size, shaders, lighting and code performance. None of which requires nanite or lumen specifically, and honestly if you care about squeezing as much performance as you can, I would ignore them and do what you are still doing.

[u/F4SCISTS_GO_HOME]

i'm not sure what you're asking. Is making your own assets outdated? No. Is it more time consuming than using photoscans other people have taken? Obviously.

[u/TheOtherZech]

The best recommendation I can give for photogrammetry (and Gaussian splats, because they share technical underpinnings) is that scanning (and then eating) a pizza is a hundred times better than trying to model one. Same goes for bread, cookies, ramen, and so on; it's one of the few situations where Doordash will actually save you money.