(Tutorial) Use Diffeomorphic for unreal engine 5

[bouich jules]

Hello,

I mainly use Diffeomorphic to render my videos/cinematics on unreal engine 5 i rarely use blender. ( so i never cared about the shaders geometry etc..) for me blender is just a transit software.

so i wanted to share with you this small steps to use diffeo for Unreal engine 5 For Video/Cinematics rendering instead of using blender or of course for game development.

Steps 1:

If you have a genesis 8 model:

1. Import a simple genesis 8 figure with single principled BDSF
2. impart all morphs and everything what you need
3. Create an HD mesh with XIN plugin

If you have a genesis 9 model (because xin plugin is not yet supported so you’ll have to ):

1. Import an HD mesh of genesis 9 with single principled BDSF
2. impart all morphs and everything what you need
3. Convert morphs to shapekeys ( will take you minutes to hours depends on your computer)
4. Add drivers to the new morphs
5. Apply Subdivision ( will take your 1-2 hours depends on your computer)

Steps 2 :

1.Convert you rig to MHX ( not rigify)

2. import your actions/poses.

You are done with diffeo.

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Now the next steps.

1. download this plugin: ( GitHub - xavier150/Blender-For-UnrealEngine-Addons: I have created this addons for export asset from Blender to Unreal Engine 4 )

2. click on your genesis figure then on “ Export recursives”

3. Check errors and click on Export to unreal engine!

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You are done with blender.

Open Unreal engine 5:

Paste the script in the CMD, wait sometimes ( can take minutes to hours) , and here you go!

it’s unbelievable you will have your genesis figure ready! with your MHX rig and all the morphs and shapekeys, and the animations.. 100% similar to what you get in blender, except the BODY textures .. ( cloth, accessories etc.. will all have the textures ready! ) except the genesis body i don’t know why even if it’s a simplified principled BDSF ;-) , but of course it’s okay you can add them manually!

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Anyway hope that helps ( i remember alessandro was asking for a tutorial for unreal)

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[bouich jules]

people will ask “ WHY USE DIFFEO WHY DO ALL THIS IF YOU CAN USE DAZ TO UNREAL PLUGIN DIRECTLY”

well because you will be limited to the daz features which are strictly limited ( to be honest the official daz to unreal plugin is almost useless), BUT with this steps you have a whole new world ( you can add new bones, freely edit you figure, add new morphs, freely changes uv, remove materials) do EVERYTHING with your genesis figure in the transit software blender.

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[Thomas Larsson]

Is it OK if I convert this into a guest post on my blog. It will have a longer shelf life there.

[bouich jules]

yes if you wish so, you also can give it a try if you want, i can answer any questions.

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[Jason Weise]

Will this enable the JCM’s to work with Gen9 in UE5 if all steps are followed above? I really like this workflow, so I am hoping so.

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[Alessandro Padovani]

The jcms are baked with the animation when you export to fbx, but dual quaternion is not exported so it has to be handled by the game engine. For G9 jcms there’s #1228 to fix.

note. From what I understand the method by Bouich exports the true HD figure to unreal, I see the unreal addon supports alembic that’s probably easier. I don’t use unreal myself and know nothing of it.

note. The iray materials work much better on eevee so, unless you have to do UE game, eevee is a better choice for animation.

[bouich jules]

Just a small bump, Xavier150 addon support now Geometry UV merge that we have in diffeo.

lol it’s like thomas and xavier works together haha ;-)

[bouich jules]

don’t know why in diffeo it’s still in “ Experimental” though.

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[AnonymousBlender]

Oh wow. That makes it ridiculously simple, good stuff. Just what I didn't need though, a distraction. So much for getting things done today. lol

[Alessandro Padovani]

If there’s nothing to add I’m closing this as invalid since this is not the place for tutorials. Please consider making a nice tutorial with pictures at the daz forum that is also more followed by daz users than the tracker.

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/categories/blender-discussion

[bouich jules]

ok i’ll close it ;-)

i remember creating this because you asked me anyways.

[Prenses Karolin]

bouich jules You still around?