Questions about UE5 port - 3D-Art related stuff

[WildRover84]

Hey guys and gals!

I posted this on the discord but it might get lost there - so...

Hey guys! Now that you are porting FS to UE5 I am curious about a few things relating to how you treat, translate or even enhance the 3D-Art and how that works out in practice. A good chance to get a little insight into how UE5 behaves - away from the hype-train on YT. @NodSaibot briefly answered a few things - thanks for that - but maybe the 3D-Artists can give a deeper insight.

And sorry If i get a few things wrong or if they seem confusing. I do 3D and Modeling as a Motion-Designer but I know little about Game-Dev/Engines itself.

1. Nanite and it's impact on 3D-Resources
Nanite was heavily advertised and with all things Internet I am a little sceptic about how that works out in practice. 
As I understand it Nanite handles environment "so well" that it frees up resources and you get a better draw-call budget. Is that right? 
If so: Does it free up so much that you can up poly-counts on models or give them higher resolution textures throughout?

2. "Re-Mastering" 3D Assets for UE5
Did the situation occur that you said to yourselves: "Well, we got more possibilities in implementing 3D-Art so we can up the quality!" What I mean by that is: Do you for example re-create props with higher a higher Poly-Count or just export them "less optimized"?

3. Lumen and it's GI
I've seen a few examples and UE5's new lighting-engine personally strikes me as the most impressive feature. I just love good lighting. How does lumen behave in practice? Does it feel more natural to work with or is it "just" and enhancment in lighting quality.

4. PBR-workflow
FS was initially made with UE3 afaik. IIRC UE3 uses a Base/Spec/Gloss workflow and UE5 deffo uses Base/Rough/Metal. I don't know what you used for texturing (Subs Painter I guess).
How do you handle the transition? If you did the textures with Painter, do you just export/convert them to the new workflow? How does it work for you? Are there any textures you might redo now - for different reasons?

5. Poly/Pixel
If it's true that UE5 gives more performance would you rather use it on upping the Polys on a model or use higher resolution normal maps?

Bye, Rover

[NodSaibot]

Keep in mind that we are still heavily working on Firestorm Assault (UDK), we have not begun fully working on UE5 and processing our assets for the new engine.

[NodSaibot]

On 7/4/2022 at 12:11 PM, WildRover84 said:

3. Lumen and it's GI

 

I've seen a few examples and UE5's new lighting-engine personally strikes me as the most impressive feature. I just love good lighting. How does lumen behave in practice? Does it feel more natural to work with or is it "just" and enhancment in lighting quality.

 

A reply from one of our artists on Discord.

Quote

Lumen makes the artist's life way easier since complex lighting updates in realtime. About quality, It's kind of a trade-off. Baked lighting is still better in some situations where the environment is mostly static (still hurts in the iteration time and memory footprint). Lumen benefits more of dynamic lighting changes in an environment (ex: a room being flooded with sky lighting after a door has been opened). It's downsides is that it can generate visual artifacts/noise if not handled correctly and it's kind of performance intensive.