Real-time Hair Breakdown
References
Sculpt
Hair Textures with HairTG Hair&Fur Plugin https://www.artstation.com/a/7639
This is how I create hair clump variations with HairTg plugin https://www.artstation.com/a/7639
Texture for Maya - to better see what I am doing
Maya Viewport setup
Red - is a base cover layer, other layers come in Rows of hair clumps.
UnrealEngine 4 Standard hair shader. Check documentation about this: https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Resources/Showcases/PhotorealisticCharacter/index.html
I place the hair cards in a Smooth Preview mode in Maya ( Subdivision Preview), then preform Smooth and Reduce operation. The Reduce operation is a form of remesh/auto retopology. Though this method isn't good for models lower than 10k tris.
Try to have tapering on texture level - not on geometry level. The more you taper hair cards - the more UV deforms and gives that ZIGZAG effect. I add additional edge loops and use the Edit Edge Flow command to smooth the geometry.
it's a real-time 9k triangles male hairstyle and the breakdown of my process. Let me know what you think, thanks!