Export/Import into Unreal
After texturing and setting up my scene, I started exporting everything to Unreal. I applied all my modifiers and exported as one FBX file, but when importing into UE5, a lot of the textures and meshes didn’t import properly.
I tried toggling different import settings, making sure all my meshes had different names, and also checked all my UV materials and UV maps, but I couldn’t find an issue.
Instead of exporting everything in one file, Sam said to export them in batches using the EasyMesh Batch Exporter add-on in Blender. This would export my objects in separate FBX files based on the collections I had them in in Blender. This worked with no issues at all; all I had to do was drag all the static meshes in together and change the pivot points.
I changed the version of Unreal Engine to what I was working on before with my blockout, as I didn’t seem to have any issues with that version (5.4.4). It fixed some of my material/texture issues. I ended up having to get help from Sam with the rest of the import, as no matter what I did, there were always meshes that couldn’t import properly.
Project Settings, Camera and Collisions
Going back to a YouTube video I watched before from William Faucher, which included project settings and how to set up interior lighting in UE5, as well as two more YouTube videos on interior lighting from Ryan Manning and other lighting settings from Jon Jags Nee. All these were very helpful for understanding the different lighting options and toggles.
For collisions I set up all my meshes. and changed all collisions from simple to complex. There were a few objects that had to be stretched, like the overpass and train, as there were some height differences that prevented smooth movement between the meshes.
The train needed to be stretched longer to make the opened door gap wider, and the height needed to be adjusted to make sure there were no levelling issues when walking in and out of the train. The overpass had to be stretched and stairs brought down a bit, as there was no space on the top of the stairs to fit the player in.
Lighting
After everything else was sorted, I could get started with lighting. I grabbed a fluorescent ceiling lamp asset from Fab. and made some lightbulbs with an emissive material and some cylinders.
For the lights, as I was following one of the YouTube videos, I did the same and chose a spotlight for the ticket hall. and set up a few lights around the room.
This is what it looked like without changing any of the lighting settings.
I wanted a darker/eerie type of atmosphere. But it was quite difficult to get enough lighting to brighten the really dark areas without making the entire scene too bright.
I added some directional light with a blue tint to brighten the scene and then changed my spotlights into rect lights, as it fit the shape of the light better and also had softer shadows. I thought it was slightly better but not really what I wanted, so I scrapped the directional light. and added more ceiling lights around.
I changed a few settings for each light. Bringing down the intensity, exposure blend and spectacle, then increasing the attenuation radius.
I also added a height fog to create some haze/fog around the lights, making it more atmospheric. I ended up removing some lights, as it made the scene too bright.
I also added three point lights around the areas that were too dark. only using minimum intensity just to get enough light to brighten the areas so I can see.
Before
After
I also added an extra spotlight in the corner of the office to make it look like lights are coming in from the ceiling lamp outside. I wanted too add enough light to show bits of the inside of the office (desk and locker behind)
The Platform was very easy to set up as I had all the right light settings already. I duplicated my lights and placed them into my scene. I was really struggling with the train as the light just would shine onto the train right. so I opted for a few point lights instead, lowering the intenstiy just enough to show some sort of detail of the train.
the interior was also very dark and somehow would really reflect in some areas. At some point the light from outside the train was bleeding into the carriage itself creating avery harsh fake glow on the walls so I had to adjust the settings outside, turning up the intensity but making the source smaller.
Extra Lighting
I did wnat to incoperate flickering lights into my scene as well. I followed a video by HALbot Studios on youtube which helped me set up the blueprint for it.
I also made an on and off material for the light bulb to add onto that.
The effect turned out perfect at first but because of lumen settings I think the actualy light source didnt have enough time to react to the flicker enough so it just stayed on constantly while only the material changed so I ended up scrapping this in the final.
Additional works
Other parts I added were ads to put on the walls. I decided to go for a PSA type of poster. In the original plan I wanted the story to be of I creature lurking around the station, the player would get flashes of this creature as a slight jumpscare but nothing more than that.
I wanted to incoperate the story a bit even if i couldnt actually make it properly into the scene.
I also made some posters of my friends work to put up across the walls on the platform. This would be for the exhibition where I could sort of advertise their works too.