“Modular Pipes Project Breakdown with Maya LT™/Maya®, Quixel and Unreal® Engine 4”

Copyright ©2019 World of Level Design™ LLC. All rights reserved.

First Published: March 2019

Version: 1.0
www.worldofleveldesign.com/

Duplication and distribution of this book/ebook is illegal and strictly prohibited.

No part of this document or the related files may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any
means (electronic, photocopying, recording, torrent, ftp, website or otherwise). You may not reprint,
republish, alter, translate or reproduce this book or any part of it in any way or any language without
an explicit written permission of the creator, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical
articles or reviews; and unless noted otherwise below.

• You may NOT upload this book and share it via download or printed in any way.
• You may NOT sell or charge money for this book.
• You may print this book for your own personal use.

World of Level Design LLC makes no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy or
completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaims any implied warranties of
merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose and shall in no event be liable for any loss of
profit or any other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential,
or other damages.

World of Level Design LLC has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the
companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, World of
Level Design LLC cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

All trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

Autodesk, the Autodesk logo, Autodesk® Maya LT™ Maya® are registered trademarks or trademarks
of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries.

Epic Games, Inc. Epic, Epic Games, Unreal® Engine, Unreal® Engine 4, Unreal Tournament, Unreal
Content and Circle-U Logo are registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc in the United States of
America and elsewhere. All rights reserved.

Adobe® Photoshop® and its logos are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Inc. in the United
States and elsewhere.

Quixel and its logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks and are properties of their
respective owners. All rights reserved.

World of Level Design LLC, its tutorials and this book/ebook are NOT affiliated, sponsored or endorsed
by any mentioned companies in any way.

World of Level Design™ is a trademark of World of Level Design LLC and Alex Galuzin.

You may contact World of Level Design at: [email protected]

WoLD Website: www.worldofleveldesign.com

UE4: MODULAR PIPES PROJECT
Pipes have been an obsession of mine for some time. I’ve started this
project 5 years ago but never finished. I’ve had enough. I decided to finish
this once and for all. Learn how-to model, UVs & texture 32 modular pipes
for environment art & level design.

“UE4 Modular Pipes Project” includes:

• 45 Tutorial Videos + 3 Bonus Workflows

• 9+ Hours to Learn From
• Project Files (includes 32 Static Meshes and
more...)
• Digital Download Only
• 30-Day, Money Back Guarantee
• Secure Checkout

Visit Here to Download...

WHAT SHOULD OF TAKEN 5 WEEKS, TOOK 5 YEARS

1
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Modular pipes have been on my mind for over 5 years. A project that has
been ongoing since 2013 when I first bought "Mirror’s Edge". Since then I
fell in love with industrial, modular pipes.

But I failed to finish the project.

5+ years later I am still reminded of pipes in games. I see pipes in

“Dishonored”, “Crysis 3”, “Wolfenstein”, “The Division” and of course
“Mirror’s Edge”.

I reached a point that I’ve had enough and finally decided that I have to
complete this project, once and for all.

I can no longer have open, unfinished projects that clutter my mind for
years. If I begin a project, I must finish it. Otherwise I shouldn’t even start.

“It doesn’t matter how many projects you start, it only matters how
many you finish.”

So after many years I decided to finish it. Here is the project breakdown for
starting, working and completing the “Modular Pipes Project”.

SOFTWARE USED
I will be using the following software:

• Maya LT 2018.3
• Photoshop CS5
• Quixel 2.3.2 (NDO and DDO)
• UE4: Unreal Engine 4.19.2

PREPRODUCTION/PLANNING
Idea: create a set of clean, modern and semi-realistic modular pipes.
Something I can re-use within many other projects.

Research and Reference: collected reference and studied what pipes look
like.

2
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
 3
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Sketch: sketched what I will be creating. This helps me to pay attention to
forms, shapes and detail.

Inspiration: the many games and environments I see that contain any sort
of pipes. Some of these games include “Mirror’s Edge”, “Dishonored”,
“Wolfenstein: The New Order” and “The Division”.

Although main source of influence came from “Mirror’s Edge”.

4
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Walking Away: after a couple of intense focused sessions I walk away. I let
the information soak into my subconscious so it can do whatever it does to
give me ideas and a plan of action.

Asset List: coming back refreshed, I created an asset list. What pipe assets
am I going to create?

I will end up creating 3 different pipe sizes:

• Large pipes
• Medium pipes
• Small pipes

I will create 1 or 2 supports for each pipe size.

Here is the full pipe asset list. I originally had way more than this, but had
cut some out due to time.

Can’t create them all.

Action Plan: I outlined how I will approach working this project.

• Blockout main shapes

• Set the size and test for modularity; export to UE4 early
• Model large pipes
• Model large caps
• Model large supports
• UV all
• High-poly (subdiv)
• Bake normals
• Texture

5
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
 • Materials and Material Instance
• Lightmaps
• Collisions

Remember that this is a rough outline. You should be ready to rearranged

steps based on what happens during production.

Time to get started.

PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES

Here are problems and challenges I anticipated prior to starting a project.

You don’t need to answer any of them. Many will be answered automatically
as you work. Writing this list helps to expect problems early so they don’t
surprise you.

• How do I successfully begin, continue and finish modular pipes

project? What’s the plan?
• How do I create set of pipes varying in sizes, color and modularity?
• What pipe dimensions do I use for different pipe sizes? What is the
correct scale and size do I use?
• How do I model 45, 90 and 180 degree pipes?
• How many segments the pipe cylinder should have to maintain low-
poly but still look good?
• How do I model 3 and 4-way pipes? Booleans?
• How do I model pipe supports that can be reused with variety of pipe
heights?
• How much detail should I add for pipe caps? How realistic do I make
them?
• Should I place all the pipes on one texture? Multiple textures?
• I will want to change color on the pipes, plan to use Material Instance.
• I will probably use combination of UE4 collisions and custom collisions
from Maya LT?

PROJECT SETUP
I have to setup all the project folders first. It will minimize time looking for
assets, deciding where to save and what to backup.

6
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
I created one main project folder and named it. This one folder will contain
all the software files and projects.

Inside the main project folder I created additional subfolders:

• MayaLT
• Reference
• Textures
• UE4

Inside Textures folder, additional subfolders were created:

• FinalTextures
• PSD
• Quixel
• SourceTextures

Then, it’s time to setup 2 working projects. One for Maya LT/Maya and one
for UE4.

UE4 Project: I created a new project, included Starter Content and Third-
Person Game Template.

Project directory to save this project was assigned to the Main Project folder
and into UE4 folder.

7
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Quick Overview for Project and Scene Setup in UE4:

After UE4 engine opens the project, I always go through the following steps:

• Disable Real-Time (Ctrl+R)

• Disable Auto-Save (Edit > Editor Preferences: Loading and Saving)
• Start new map “Default Level”
• Change SkyLight to Stationary
• Change Directional Light Intensity to 3.14 (if it isn’t set to this value
already)
• Create new folder in Content Browser “WoLDModularPipes” and inside
that folder, created another folder called “Maps”
• Duplicate ground mesh for larger ground plane
• Insert a Mannequin for scale reference
• Insert “Post Process Volume”, set “Min/Max Exposure” to 1 and enable
“Unbound”
• “Insert Lightmass Importance Volume” to cover the workable area of
the map
• Save this updated default level in “Maps” folder

Maya LT/Maya Project: I created a new project for Maya LT to keep all
modeling related files.

Project directory to save this project was assigned to the Main Project folder
and into Maya LT folder. Everything else was left at default.

8
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Inside Maya LT, I setup interface the following way:

• Disabled Time Slider, Range Slider, Command Line and Help Line
(Windows > UI Elements)
• Setup Grid Size/Settings to match UE4
• Created a cube for Character Scale Reference with dimensions
60x60x180

DECIDING & TESTING PIPE SIZES, DIMENSIONS

Before I begin modeling, I want to establish pipe sizes and dimensions to
follow.

I spent a couple of hours testing and deciding on pipe lengths, widths and
number of cylindrical segments.

For large pipes I decided on:

• Radius: 50
• Subdivision Axis: 24
• Length for straight pipes: 500 and 200 or 5 and 2 meters

I will do the same thing for medium and small pipes later. For now I’m only
focused on creating 11 large pipe assets.

PIVOT POINTS
Pivot points are extremely important for modular geometry. Control them
early and decide where they are going to be placed.

For most of the pipes I positioned at the center vertex of the pipe cap:

9
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
For some other pipes such as 3-way and 4-way pipes, they will be placed at
the center of the object:

10
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Pivot Point Shortcuts in Maya LT/Maya:

• Hold D = Modify Pivot Point

• Hold D then C and Middle Mouse Click & Drag = Modify Pivot and Snap
Along an Edge
• Hold D then V and Middle Mouse Click & Drag = Modify Pivot and Snap
to a Vertex
• Hold D then X and Middle Mouse Click & Drag = Modify Pivot and Snap
to the Grid

BLOCKING OUT THE PIPES

Everything always starts off with a blockout.

During blockout phase I am testing sizes, dimensions and modularity.

I blocked in 2 straight, 2 angled, 3+4 way, 2 90 degrees and 180 degrees.

No pipe caps yet. That will come later.

Straight Pipes:

Straight pipe at 5 meters and 2 meters:

90 and 180 Degree Pipes:

2 90-degree large pipes:

11
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
To create 90-degree geometry, place 2 straight pipes like so:

12
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Combine them into a single object. Select the faces and run Bridge:

Bridge Settings:

• Blend Type: Curve

• Divisions: 8

180-degree large pipe:

13
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
180-degree pipe was created by using 2 90-degree pipes created earlier.

3 and 4-Way Pipes:

For 3-way and 4-way pipes I used Booleans.

For 3-way I positioned two pipes like so. Modify the vertices and move them
to meet half way up the horizontal pipe:

For 4-way I positioned 2 straight pipes like so:

14
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Select both pipes, Mesh > Boolean > Union:

Boolean leaves a lot of overlapping vertices, so make sure to merge them.

Angled Pipes:

One simple angle pipe and one angled pipe that has some geometry curves
to it:

SOFT/HARD EDGES
Not all edges on your geometry will appear smooth. To control your edges,
select them then go to Mesh Display > Harden Edge or Soften Edge:

15
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Enable Soft Edge Display for all objects under Display > Polygons > Custom
Polygon Display:

• Dashed Edges = Soft

• Solid Edges = Hard

EXPORT AND TEST EARLY

Export and import the pipes early for testing. Make sure pipe size and
dimension are to your liking in UE4 and that everything works.

Export from Maya LT/Maya:

• Move the object to 0,0,0 (World Origin) at its Pivot Point

• Freeze Transformations
• File > Export Selection
• FBX Export
• Smoothing Groups: On
• Smooth Mesh: On

16
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
 • Triangulation: Off
• FBX Version 2018

UE4 Import Options:

Inside the Content Browser, make sure you have the folder selected where
you’ll be importing into then click Import:

Select all exported FBX files and click Open.

Import Options:

• Disable "Auto Generate Collision"

• Disable "Generate Lightmap UVs"
• Disable "Import Materials" and "Import Textures"

Click Import All.

Test out the pipes inside the editor.

17
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
MODELING LARGE PIPE SUPPORTS
Supports help to distribute the weight of the pipes, making them appear
more believable in the environment.

For large pipes I decided to have 2 pipe supports. One taller and one
shorter.

18
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Both can be used with 2 different 90-degree angle pipes by moving the
supports into the ground:

MODELING PIPE CAPS

Pipe caps were modeled separately so I can UV one and then duplicate it for
the rest of the pipe set. All pipe caps will end up sharing the same UVs.

Lugs were a simple 6-sided cylinder. I deleted the back faces on the lug and
used Shift + D to Duplicate with Translate for 8 total lugs at 45 degrees
around the cap.

19
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Some tests in UE4:

MODELING PIPE CAP VARIATIONS

I'm going to keep the pipe cap I created with lugs on both sides. But I
wanted to try some pipe cap variations.

First is the where there is a bolt/lug.

20
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Second with a space between each
pipe cap with a bolt/lug on each
side.

I like them both but I decided to go

with the original low-poly version
with lugs on both sides.

UVING LARGE PIPES, SUPPORTS AND THE CAP

With everything modeled, it’s time to UV.

21
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Pipes come with their own set of problems when it comes to UVs. Straight
pipes are simple to do but when the geometry begins to curve and twist,
that’s when you need to know some techniques.

First I applied a custom UV Grid texture:

You can of course use “Checker Map” that comes default with Maya LT/Maya.

I like using my own texture because I get to see the numbers, different
colors and with it, it’s easier to spot irregularities.

For all the pipes I used a variation of the following:

• Project the faces of a pipe on X, Y or Z

• Select edge where you want to make a cut (where texture seam is
going to be)
• Cut
• Select UVs
• Then in UV Toolkit, run “Unfold Along U or V” or “Unfold” then
“Straighten Shell” or “Straighten UVs”

Variations of the steps above were used for all the pipes.

You can also use Unitize as suggested by Jeff:

22
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Here is the link to the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dahgVetfUZg

One more thing that’s important to maintain is Texel Density.

I will have 3 different pipe sizes and a total of 32 meshes. All these pipes
can be used together within one view and within one environment. For this
to work, you have to maintain the same texel density between ALL pipes.

Texel Density is the size or resolution of a UV shell. You have to keep each
UV shell size across all Static Meshes the same. You could have slight size
difference but nothing drastic. Otherwise the player will notice the texture
resolution difference between each mesh then they are next to one another.

To match all UV shells to the same texel density across every mesh, do the
following.

Inside UV Editor, select a UV shell. Under Transform tab, click “Get” to

collect the value of Texel Density for that UV shell. Then select another UV
shell (you can select more than one) and click “Set” to apply the value from
Get.

The UV shell will now have the same Texel Density as the one you chose to “Get”
from.

Do this for all UV shells on your meshes to maintain a consistent Texel Density.

I UVed the pipes, supports and the pipe cap:

23
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
UV LAYOUT
There are different ways to layout pipe UVs.

• 1x1 Texture: this is where you use 0-1 UV space and place each UV
shell within for unique UV space
• Trims/Tileables: this is where you utilize tileable textures and trims
then you place your UVs within 0-1 space; for this you have plan your
textures ahead of time to know where they will go and have at least a
workable texture created before UVing

I already UVed the pipes and I used 1x1 Texture. Tileable/Trims is

something I want to use in another project.

HelderHP on Twitter weighs in:

24
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Here is the completed UV layout:

25
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
I saved the UV screenshot to be used in Photoshop later.

In UV Editor:

• Image > UV Snapshot

• 1024x1024 (the size of the texture)

CREATING HIGH-POLY LARGE PIPES WITH SUBDIV

Subdivision Modeling is a technique where you create a high-poly version of
your mesh from low-poly without having to sculpt in Mudbox or ZBrush.

I took the low-poly meshes, duplicated them and used them to create the
high-poly.

26
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
I did the same for the caps and supports:

BAKING NORMAL MAPS IN MAYA LT/MAYA

I baked the base Normal Map right inside Maya LT. The result is a clean
Normal map I will use as a base in DDO.

27
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
COMBINING CAPS AND PIPES
After UVing and baking Normal Maps, I can now duplicate the pipe cap for all
the pipes, combine and merge so they are a single object.

The odd in-between limbo stage of the pipes and pipe caps is over. The
assets now finally look like pipes.

28
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
 29
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
TEXTURING WITH QUIXEL’S DDO
I exported all the pipes and pipe supports as a single object for DDO. This
way I can see all the assets at once.

For project setup in DDO I used the exported mesh, baked Normal from
Maya LT and Color ID map that I created manually. Color ID map is how you
texture parts of the mesh that require different materials in Quixel’s DDO.

I used 3 simple materials for large pipes.

• Painted Steel for pipes

• Galvanized Steel (for supports)
• Shiny Dusty Steel (for lugs/bolts)

I used the following settings for 3DO Preview:

• 03 - Clean (Highest Quality)

• High Quality Resampling (Lanczos)
• Sharpness (Pre-Pass)
• Sharpness (Post-Pass)
• Screen Space Ambient Occlusion
• Simulate Physical Camera

I went through few different material variations. Here are some of them:

30
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
In the end I will end up using the standard painted steel with light scratches.

After the texturing I exported all materials using UE4 Preset in Quixel.

31
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
IMPORTING TEXTURES
Once I had the textures generated by Quixel, I imported them into UE4.

4 textures were imported: Albedo, Metallic, Roughness and Normal

For Metallic and Roughness I had to uncheck “sRGB” option in Texture

Editor before using these textures in the Material Editor.

CREATING THE MATERIAL

I created a new Material and used the 4 textures.

32
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Now since I’ll be using a Material Instance to control Roughness Intensity
and Color change on the pipes, I had to set up the material network to allow
for that.

Here is the Albedo Color change:

Note that I used Blend_Overlay node but Multiply can also be used.

Roughness Intensity:

33
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
I used the Metallic texture’s Red Channel as a mask to remove effects of the
lugs and supports for the Roughness Intensity. I didn’t want to change
Roughness for pipe supports or lugs within the pipes. For that I need a Mask.
Luckily, the way Metallic texture was created in DDO, I can use that as my
Mask. Simply drag the Red Channel input and use that as a Mask.

Mask Black/White Values:

• White = visible, what you want to see and change

• Black = invisible, what you want to NOT affect and NO change

CREATING THE MATERIAL INSTANCE

From the Material I created a Material Instance and applied the Material
Instance onto the pipes.

I can now change the Color of the pipes and adjust Roughness Intensity.

34
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
CREATING COLLISIONS
You have 3 options for creating collisions.

1. Create them in UE4

2. Create them in 3d modeling software
3. Don’t create them at all

If you are creating a non-playable environment, you don’t need to create

any collisions.

Collisions can be a time consuming process, especially for so many meshes.

But, UE4 does pretty good collision creation right inside the engine.

Open up the Static Mesh Editor for any of the pipes and under Collision,
choose any of the available presets.

35
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
For more complex geometry you’ll need to use “Auto-Convex Collision”:

Adjust the settings for Hull Count, Max Hull Verts and Hull Precision. Keep
the collisions to a low hull count, low hull verts while still maintaining
accurate hull shape to do its job.

36
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Save and test.

Collisions created in UE4 will not always work. Sometimes you will need to
create custom collisions inside your 3d modeling software.

Here are some guidelines:

• Use simple primitives (cubes, cylinders, spheres)

• Shapes must be closed (no deleting of faces)
• Shapes have to be convex, cannot be concave
• Add convention to use is UCX_NameOfMesh
• Multiple primitives can be used, for that add a number at the end of
the collision name
• Example: UCX_ pipes_large_01, UCX_ pipes_large_02 and so on
• Select the mesh and all the collisions then re-export
• Re-import in UE4

CREATING LIGHTMAPS
Lightmaps are used to display shadow and light information on your
meshes after you bake lighting.

If meshes don’t have a lightmap UV channel then after baking lighting you
will get light/shadow artifacts.

If you are going to be using dynamic lighting, then you don’t need to worry
about lightmaps.

You can generate lightmaps in UE4. But this won’t give you ideal results.
Since UE4 takes the texture channel UVs, duplicate it and then repacks the
UVs for lightmaps. Sometimes it works but often it doesn’t.

Here is how to create lightmap channel in UE4, if you want to try it.

Open Static Mesh Editor and Under Build Settings:

• Enable Generate Lightmap UVs

• Set Min Lightmap Resolution
• Source Lightmap Index: 0 (texture UV channel)
• Destination Lightmap Index: 1

37
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
For best results, you should create a second UV channel inside your 3d
modeling software and UV the object specifically for lightmaps. You may
need to split some UV shells, separate others. Also lightmap UVs cannot
overlap. Make sure you give sufficient UV padding between each shell.

Inside the UV editor in Maya LT. Go to UV Sets > Copy UVs to UV Set >
Copy Into New UV Set:

38
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
At this point go ahead and unwrap object's UVs for Lightmaps.

Remember, two important rules for lightmapping UVs are:

• Cut/separate UVs along edges where there is a significant change in

light/shadow, such as 90 degree angles
• Do not have any overlapping UVs within your lightmap

Apply "Layout" options for better lightmap layout. Go to "Modify > Layout"
(options):

Set the following properties:

• Unfold3D
• Texture Map Size: lightmap resolution size
• Padding Units: Pixels
• Shell Padding and Tile Padding: 2-8 units (lower value for high
resolution lightmaps, higher value for low resolution lightmaps)

39
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
When I reimported the meshes back into UE4, lightmaps didn’t work right
away. I had to update the settings inside the Static Mesh Editor for each
mesh.

Open Static Mesh Editor and under General Settings:

• Lightmap Coordinate Index: 1

• Light Map Resolution: 64-256

Bake lights and test.

FINAL MODULAR LARGE PIPES

I now have 9 large modular pipes and 2 large supports.

40
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Here are some environment tests using the pipes.

41
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
But I’m not done with the pipes just yet...

42
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
MEDIUM AND SMALL PIPES
After I created the set of large pipes and supports, I decided to create
additional 21 modular pipes:

• 11 medium pipe assets and 10 small pipe assets

I’ve followed the same steps as I did for the large pipes. Although there
were unique set of challenges to overcome for each I didn’t encounter during
large pipe creation. I’m going to share some screenshots but for full
workflow watch Module 3 of “UE4 Modular Pipes Project” tutorial series.

Here are the completed medium and small pipes:

43
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
MODELING SMALL & MEDIUM PIPES BLOCKOUTS
The modeling process for both medium and small pipes was very similar to
large pipes.

The difference was the size of the pipes. Both pipe sizes have more straight
pipes variations for width of 50, 100, 150 and 300.

44
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
MEDIUM & SMALL PIPE SUPPORTS
Most, if not all pipes need some sort of supports. They help to create
believability for the pipe set and help to break up the repetition.

I created 2 medium pipe supports. One for the ground and one from the
ceiling:

45
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
And just 1 ceiling support for the small pipes:

MODELING THE VALVES

The valve was most “complex” piece of geometry to create. Just because it
had many different shapes and pieces.

46
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Anytime you are overwhelmed by the complexities of an object, break that
object down to simple geometric shapes and model them one at a time. That
is exactly what I did for the valve.

UVING AND UV LAYOUT

I will use one texture for both medium and small pipes. That means I had to
layout all the UVs for both pipe sizes inside 0-1 UV space.

Here is the UV layout. There is some empty UV space that could have been
utilized better. But the important part is these pipe UVs will match in texel
density of large pipes.

47
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
 48
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
HIGH-POLY & BASE NORMAL MAP
High-poly meshes were created the same way as for large pipes. I took the
low-poly meshes and used subdivision modeling to create high-poly.

The valve was split or exploded into multiple non-overlapping pieces to

make the baking easier and to avoid Normal Map artifacts.

49
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
NORMAL MAP
Here is the base Normal Map baked from Maya LT.

Few additional details were added to the Normal Map after the bake in NDO.

50
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
FINAL MODELED PIPES
I finished off modeling the pipes. Just like for large pipes, I modeled only
one pipe cap, UVed and then duplicated this pipe cap for the rest of the
pipes. Medium size pipe cap contain lugs but small pipes do not.

51
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
DDO TEXTURING
Everything was textured in Quixel’s DDO.

I exported all 21 meshes as one object so they can be seen all at once in
DDO.

The pipes were textured the same way as large pipes. They contained 3
different materials.

• Painted Steel for pipes

• Galvanized Steel (for supports)
• Shiny Dusty Steel (for lugs/bolts)

I kept the colors to a neutral, light grey so the color change through Material
Instance in UE4 is more accurate.

I then exported all 4 texture maps from DDO (Albedo, Metallic, Roughness
and Normal Map).

Since I used UE4 export preset, the Normal Map’s Green channel doesn’t
have to be flipped, Quixel already does that for you.

52
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
TEXTURES, MATERIAL & MATERIAL INSTANCE
I imported all 4 textured into UE4.

Just like for large pipes, I had to disable “sRGB” option for Roughness and
Metallic textures.

I duplicated the large pipes Material so I didn’t have to create it from

scratch. I then updated all the Texture Sample nodes with the Medium/Small
pipe textures.

The process for this was exactly the same except the mask.

I had to use a mask texture to filter out Roughness Intensity and Albedo
color changes in the Material Instance for the pipe supports and pipe lugs.

With large pipes, Metallic Texture worked well. But for medium and small
pipes I had to create a custom Mask to use.

• Red Channel contained the mask for Roughness Intensity

• Green Channel contained the mask for Albedo Color

53
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Here is the Material setup for Albedo Color:

Here is the Material setup for Roughness Intensity:

54
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
COLLISIONS

For large pipes I created some custom collisions in Maya, but for medium
and small pipes, all were created right in UE4 Static Mesh Editor.

I used “Auto-Convex Collision”:

I used various settings for Hull Count, Max Hull Verts and Hull Precision.

I aimed to keep the collisions to a low hull count, low hull verts while still
maintaining accurate hull shape to do its job. I started off with default
values and adjusted depending on the pipe’s shape.

55
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
LIGHTMAPS
Lightmaps were created in Maya LT/Maya by creating a second UV channel
from the first texturing UV channel.

UV Sets > Copy UVs to UV Set > Copy Into New UV Set:

Then running " Modify > Layout" options with the following properties:

• Texture Map Size: lightmap resolution size (this was anywhere from 32
- 128 depending on the size of the pipe)
• Padding Units: Pixels
• Shell Padding and Tile Padding: 2-8 units (lower value for high
resolution lightmaps, higher value for low resolution lightmaps)

56
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
After exporting all the medium and small pipes from Maya LT, I reimported
them back into UE4.

I again had to update every Static Mesh “Lightmap Coordinate Index” to “1”.

Open Static Mesh Editor and under General Settings:

All lightmaps will now work. Bake lighting and test.

FINAL MEDIUM & SMALL PIPES

I ended up creating additional 21 pipe assets. 11 medium pipe assets and 10
small pipe assets. Both can be used together within the same scene to
create more complete environments.

57
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
ENVIRONMENT TEST: BSP WITH MODULAR PIPES
To test further, I wanted to create a scene using all 3 pipe sizes. I used BSP
brushes to blockout a small exterior/interior level and populated it with
modular pipes.

58
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
 59
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
 60
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
ENVIRONMENT TEST: MODULAR PIPES WITH THE
CORRIDOR ASSETS
I then wanted to test how these pipes would be used with another asset set
I created in the past. I brought in “UE4 The Corridor” assets and used them
along with the pipes.

61
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
ENVIRONMENT TEST: MODULAR PIPES IN THE
CORRIDOR SCENES
For last test, I brought the pipes into “The Corridor Project” and used them
in the two scenes already created. Both worked really well.

62
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
MORE THINGS TO DO WITH PIPES
These 32 modular pipe assets can be just the beginning. There are a lot of
things that can be now done now to continue modifying the pipe assets.

Here are some that can be done:

• Different art style (for example, hand-painted like Dishonored)

• Old, rusted pipes
• High-poly pipes more for visualization than a game environment
• Blueprint Splines
• Tileable textures
• More Material Instance controls
• Vertex painted pipes

LIST OF SHORTCUTS USED

List of commonly used shortcuts during this project.

UE4: General
• Realtime = Ctrl + R
• Duplicate = Hold Alt + Left Mouse Click & Drag
• Place Mode = Shift + 1
• Geometry Editing Mode = Shift + 5
• Find in Content Browser = Ctrl + B
• Measuring Tool = Middle Mouse Click & Drag
• Duplicate = Hold Alt + Left Mouse Click & Drag
• Remove from a Selection = Hold Ctrl + Left Mouse Click
• Add to or Remove from a Selection = Hold Shift + Left Mouse Click =
Add a Selection and All Items in Between = Hold Shift + Left Mouse
Click
• Decrease/Increase Grid Spacing = [ ] Bracket Keys
• Full/Immersion View = F11
• Maximize/Restore Viewport = Alt + X
• Marquee Selection = Left Mouse Click Hold & Drag
• Lit Mode = Alt + 4
• Detail Lighting Mode = Alt + 5
• Lighting Only View = Alt + 6
• Group Selected = Ctrl + G
• Ungroup Selected = Shift + G

63
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
UE4: Material Editor
• Create Constant 1 Vector Node = Hold 1 + Left Mouse Click
• Create Constant 3 Vector Node = Hold 3 + Left Mouse Click
• Create Texture Sample Node = Hold T + Left Mouse Click
• Create Multiply Node = Hold M + Left Mouse Click
• Create Add Node = Hold A + Left Mouse Click
• Copy = Ctrl + C
• Paste = Ctrl + V

Photoshop CS5:
• Invert = Ctrl + I
• Positions Moved Layer Within the Document = Hold Shift + Left Mouse
Click and Drag
• Merge Layers = Ctrl + E
• Magic Wand Tool = W
• Deselect Marquee Selection = Ctrl + D
• Add to Marquee Selection = Hold Shift
• Save As = Ctrl + Shift + S

Quixel DDO:
• View Color ID Map = Hold C
• Assign Selected Material to a Color ID = Hold C and Left Mouse Click

Maya LT/Maya: General

• Duplicate = Ctrl + D
• Duplicate with Translate = Shift + D
• Modeling Context Menu = Hold Shift and Right Mouse Click & Hold
• Transform Context Menu = Hold Ctrl + Shift and Right Click Hold
• Default Mesh View = 1
• Smooth Mesh Preview = 3
• Wireframe View = 4
• Shaded View = 5
• Textured View (Shaded Display with Texture Maps) = 6
• Extrude = Ctrl + E
• Bevel = Ctrl + B
• Extrude = Hold Shift and Left Mouse Click & Drag
• Delete Vertex/Edge = Ctrl + Del
• Multi-Cut Tool = Ctrl + Shift + X
• Channel Box/Attribute Editor = Ctrl + A
• Switch Camera View Menu = Hold Spacebar + Right Mouse Click &
Hold
• Delete Edges = Ctrl + Delete
• Center View on Selection = F

64
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
Maya LT/Maya: Selections
• Isolate Select = Ctrl + 1
• Deselect = Hold Ctrl
• Add to a Selection = Hold Shift
• Select the Group = Up Arrow
• Group Selected Objects = Ctrl + G
• Select Continuous Edge Loop or Edge Ring = Double Click on an Edge
• Invert Selection = Hold Shift + Left Click Hold & Drag for Marquee
Selection
• Paint Selection Mode = Hold Tab + Left Mouse Click & Drag
• Select All Faces In-Between = Select a Face then Hold Shift and
Double Click on Another Face
• Select Face Ring Loop = Select Single Face then Hold Shift and Double
Click on Face Next to It
• Select Edge Ring Loop = Select Single Edge then Hold Shift and
Double Click on Edge Next to It

Maya LT/Maya: Pivots and Snapping

• Modify Pivot Point = Hold D
• Modify Pivot and Snap Along an Edge = Hold D then C and Middle
Mouse Click & Drag
• Modify Pivot and Snap to a Vertex = Hold D then V and Middle Mouse
Click & Drag
• Modify Pivot and Snap to the Grid = Hold D then X and Middle Mouse
Click & Drag
• Snap Vertex to the Grid = Hold X then Middle or Left Mouse Click &
Drag
• Snap to the Points/Vertices = Hold V then Middle/Left Mouse Click &
Drag

Maya LT/Maya: UV Editor

• UV Editing Menu = Hold Shift + Right Click Hold
• Shaded View =5 (UV Editor)
• Image Display =6 (UV Editor)

65
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com
UE4: MODULAR PIPES PROJECT
Pipes have been an obsession of mine for some time. I’ve started this
project 5 years ago but never finished. I’ve had enough. I decided to finish
this once and for all. It is now done! Learn how-to model, UVs & texture 32
modular pipes for environment art & level design.

“UE4 Modular Pipes Project” includes:

• 45 Tutorial Videos + 3 Bonus Workflows

• 9+ Hours to Learn From
• Project Files (includes 32 Static Meshes and
more...)
• Digital Download Only
• 30-Day, Money Back Guarantee
• Secure Checkout

Visit Here to Download...

VERSION CHANGES
V.1:
• Current original version

66
www.WorldofLevelDesign.com