I have been fighting with lightmap unwrapping for so long. There

did you try a higher lightmap resolution?
your uv's look ok, though i would try playing with a higher padding and see if it changes anything. but it seems you're just using a low-res map. also, what is the scale of your mesh? you can double-click it in the content browser and see the dimensions

>>514576
I've bumped up the res to 256x256 but it still looks about the same.

The Approx Size is 176x200x87

When I get home from work tomorrow I'll space out the uv's more
and give an update. Thanks

that's how its supposed to be

source: a guy who fights UV's alot

File: LightMapUv_v2.png (1MB, 1440x1740px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1440x1740px

Moved things around a bit, changed scale of some of the islands.

Results are better but the in between of the boards are still looking a bit off.

Inengine lightmap resolution of 128.
Suppose that's fine for this model.

But I really don't know what the proper way to unwrap something like this in terms of lightmap is.
It doesn't feel like I have enough room on the grid after padding between each face on the planks
to give the rest of the faces enough space.

>>514707
Its 2016, lightmaps are irrelevant with a gbuffer and deferred lighting. You're being fooled into wasting your time

>>514573
that table chair combination reminds me of Tony Hawk Pro Skater game.

>>514707
Is this your first time working with UE?
I remember struggling myself with lightmaps.
After 4 years of working with engine (ue3 included), I can say I don't give too much attention to lightmaps. Just copy UVs from first channel, make sure they don't overlap, and change resolution value to 64, or 128 for normal mesh, and 256 or 512 if you need a more
precise shadow.
Now read this. Put a material onto your mesh, not just a color, but a material with textures, you will be surprised how much it would change overall look.
One more thing. I don't know what lightmass quality build you use, change it to production quality to see a final result, it's a good thing Epics finally twiked a lighting engine to rebuild light much faster then before.
If you going to archviz look in the end, check out "Making lightmass epic and understandable" thread of official unreal engine forums.
I hope it helps.

File: C__Data_Users_DefApps_AppData_INTERNETEXPLORER_Temp_Saved Images_uvs.png (1MB, 1440x870px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1440x870px

>>514737
I've played with ue for a while, started with ue3 and never could get great shadow quality.

This was a quick texture I whipped up yesterday night. I'll check out that forum thing when I get home from work later, thanks.

Oh and all these images lights are built in production quality.

>>514775
>I've played with ue for a while, started with ue3 and never could get great shadow quality.
what do you mean by this?

>>514777
Well before UE4 I used UDK but blender didn't play well with it back then.
Blender only just got an "ok" FBX exporter with the release of UE4. Even then smoothing groups are usually still an issue.

Once UE4 came out things improved a lot, but even now I still struggle with lightmaps on some objects.
Not necessarily complex objects, but objects with a lot of flat faces that need their own island.

Something simple like a book shelf I could do fine.
Something like this picnic table which I beveled the edges, where each little face needs 2-3px padding
I just don't know how to fit it all, I feel like I'm doing it wrong.

I think I generally work with resolutions to low by today's standards and just need to turn them up a bit.

>>514737
Slapping a texture on it seems to do a lot so I guess I won't test lighting from now on until I have at least a basic material made.

>>514775
I like your bench, even if it was a one minute texture process.

>>514823
Thank you!
Substance designer/painter really helps with really quick textures.