HÉCTOR ESTEBAN

PROCEDURAL WALL DAMAGE SYSTEM | MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT

Technical details

Resolution	4096²
Authoring	100% Substance Designer
Integration	Substance 3D Plugin for Unreal Engine 5
Validation	Unreal Engine 5
Additional Tools	3ds Max

Project Goal

This project explores the development of a Procedural Wall Damage System designed as a reusable Substance for Unreal Engine.

The objective was to develop a procedural system capable of generating multiple materials through Exposed Parameters, allowing for rapid iteration, a non-destructive workflow, and direct integration within Unreal Engine.

Workflow

Reference Analysis → System Design → Procedural Development → Unreal Engine Integration → Environment Validation

Production Notes

The system was designed as a modular tool where each stage can be modified independently without altering the rest of the Graph.

The Substance integrates directly into Unreal Engine via the Substance 3D Plugin, while the combination with Decals allows for adding localized damage and enriching the environmental storytelling while maintaining a completely reusable workflow.

Production Features

Completely procedural system.

Modular architecture.

A single reusable Substance.

Exposed Parameters.

Direct integration with Unreal Engine.

Compatible with Decals.

Non-destructive workflow.

Scalable production pipeline.

System Architecture

The system is divided into independent modules that automatically generate all material maps from a single Height, allowing a single Substance to be reused to create multiple variations directly within Unreal Engine.

Architecture

6 Different Crack Shapes → Crack Layers → Surface Generation → Rebar & Bullet Holes → Height Generation → Material Maps → Exposed Parameters → Unreal Engine → Decal Composition → Final Environment

Exposed Parameters

Exposed Parameters allow control over the selection of five cracks and a completely smooth wall, crack intensity and thickness, Rebar visibility, and the quantity, size, and distribution of Bullet Holes, making it possible to generate multiple variations directly within Unreal Engine.

Examples of different variations by changing the values of the Exposed Parameters

Integration into Unreal Engine

The Substance maintains all Exposed Parameters after its import into Unreal Engine, allowing the material to be modified in real time without needing to return to Substance Designer.

The final scene is complemented using Decals, adding localized damage and increasing the visual variety of the environment without compromising the reuse of the system.

Substance 3D Plugin screenshot in Unreal Engine showing the system's exposed parameters, including resolution control, procedural variation via Random Seed, and real-time dynamic damage generation.

Material Breakdown

DIFFUSE, ROUGHNESS, NORMAL, HEIGHT, METALLIC

DIFFUSE, ROUGHNESS, NORMAL, HEIGHT

Final Result

The project demonstrates how a single Procedural Wall Damage System can generate multiple reusable materials directly within Unreal Engine through Exposed Parameters.

The combination of the system with Decals provides a flexible, reusable, and scalable solution for the creation of complex surfaces within a AAA production pipeline.