creating levels and environments in unreal engine 4

hi how are you my friends
i have problem with level designing in unreal engine 4!
i am environment artist but i have basic problem in creating levels!(in any game engine)
my quastions:

  1. for creating levels and maps should i create all of map in 3ds max or maya or should be in game engine?
  2. i do not know steps of creating levels.!should i for first blocking in game engine?if yes,so should i export all blocks from unreal engine to max/maya?if yes why?or creating meshes in max/maya and import to engine?if yes,where fromi can to know scale of my meshes that is created in max/maya with my blocking in game engine?
  3. all levels are modular creating or just all meshes in max/maya?
  4. for texturing meshes should i create all of textures of meshes in max/maya?
  5. for texturing should i create for every Piece Separate texture?or can i use like “one texture Technique” from another texture of mesh?
  6. should i all of meshes in scene created with baking Technique or can i use from just lowpoly?(baking for all meshes is important?)

thanks

  1. You can create parts of the level (modular parts like walls, lights, pillars, tree;s etc) in 3dsmax/maya/blender and import them in the engine to use as modular parts.
  2. you can block out the level first in ue4, but if you already know all the set rules of your game you can already pre-make all the meshes needed for your level. the scale is 1cm in 3d software is 1cm in ue4.
  3. not sure I understand, see answer 1 and 2?
  4. you can create the textures any way you want, photoshop, substance, ddo, ndo etc. and then import them into ue4 and set them up. (normal map, diffuse map, masks etc) and create a material out of them.
  5. You can use the one texture (materials) for all meshes if you want.
  6. You dont need baking techniques if you dont want to. You can use low poly or rather high poly meshes in ue4 (depends on your target though, pc’s can handle loads more than the average mobile) so its up to you if you want to bake textures/meshes/normal but you dont have to.

you can find various tutorials on google, here is one: Unreal Engine: Exploring Modular Building Construction - YouTube
and this one can help beginner to pro level designers: http://worldofleveldesign.com/

I also recommend you view the Creating a Level and Intro to Level Design videos here:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZlv_N0_O1gaCL2XjKluO7N2Pmmw9pvhE