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Building kits in UE4? Lots and lots of pieces...

Zepic
polycounter lvl 11
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Zepic polycounter lvl 11
I'm still fairly new to the UE4 engine.

I was wondering if anybody had any tips on how to export out multiple kit pieces into the engine in a quick manner.

I'm using 3dsMax as my 3d editor. What I'm finding difficult is I have to painstakingly move each kit piece to 0,0,0. Then select the rendermesh as well as the collision mesh and hit export selected.

When you're making an environment kit with over 40 pieces, this can become a huge time sink.

I tried using this script:
http://www.tomshannon3d.com/2014/07/tstools-first-release-ue4-mass-fbx.html

But, it exports out each collision mesh piece individually as opposed to combining them...

I'm really just looking for quick way to get around this...
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  • xvampire
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    xvampire polycounter lvl 14
    I havent tried this but it seems interesting ,
    he doesnt explain properly how to install it so here we go :
    to install put all the content to
    C:\Users\"yourusername"\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\"your3dsnaxmax version" \enu
    and drag and drop his AdvFBXExport_Macro.mcr file to your max screen ..

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAadp8UiheM"]3dsMax Advanced FBX Export, UE4 - YouTube[/ame]
    the file
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1047231/AdvancedFbxExport.zip


    again, I havent try it , but it look interesting.
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  • Zepic
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    Zepic polycounter lvl 11
    Thanks Arif,
    I gave it a try, it works pretty well for what I needed. :)
    The auto UV thing seems to give me an error ( I might be doing something wrong).
    Other than that, it works!
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  • xvampire
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    xvampire polycounter lvl 14
    what kind of auto UV you need?
    I hav my own auto Flatten UV ( for channel 2)

    it unwrap every individual mesh you selected to its own UV space ( not combined)

    max modify mode
    selObjsArr = selection as array

    for o in selObjsArr do
    (
    select o
    uvMod = (Unwrap_uvw())
    addModifier o uvMod ui:true
    subobjectLevel = 3
    max select all

    $.modifiers[#unwrap_uvw].unwrap.setMapChannel 2
    --selection [1].modifiers[#unwrap_uvw].flattenMapNoParams()
    uvMod.flattenMap 65.0 #([1,0,0], [-1,0,0], [0,1,0], [0,-1,0], [0,0,1], [0,0,-1]) 0.008 true 0 true true
    maxOps.CollapseNodeto o 1 true
    )


    65.0 = your smoothing range how max going to separate the uv island based on this smooth rage

    0.008 = your uv spacing between island, if the lightmap bleeds often, probably you need to inscrease this number
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  • tomshannon
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    tomshannon
    Zepic wrote: »
    I'm still fairly new to the UE4 engine.

    I was wondering if anybody had any tips on how to export out multiple kit pieces into the engine in a quick manner.

    I'm using 3dsMax as my 3d editor. What I'm finding difficult is I have to painstakingly move each kit piece to 0,0,0. Then select the rendermesh as well as the collision mesh and hit export selected.

    When you're making an environment kit with over 40 pieces, this can become a huge time sink.

    I tried using this script:
    http://www.tomshannon3d.com/2014/07/tstools-first-release-ue4-mass-fbx.html

    But, it exports out each collision mesh piece individually as opposed to combining them...

    I'm really just looking for quick way to get around this...

    Zepic, I have heard your cries and have answered your prayers! :D
    I've updated the tool to include UCX_ collision support! Go gets it!
    I also made a script that makes naming your collision primitives easier.
    http://www.tomshannon3d.com/2014/09/tstoolsv11.html

    Enjoy!

    http://youtu.be/XBxRvFUsW98
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  • Zepic
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    Zepic polycounter lvl 11
    You the man! Thanks for doing this! :)
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  • tomshannon
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    tomshannon
    Absolutely! Let me know if you encounter any problems. I tried to be pretty thorough in my testing, but I can only do so much :D
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  • tomshannon
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    tomshannon
    xvampire wrote: »
    what kind of auto UV you need?
    I hav my own auto Flatten UV ( for channel 2)

    it unwrap every individual mesh you selected to its own UV space ( not combined)



    65.0 = your smoothing range how max going to separate the uv island based on this smooth rage

    0.008 = your uv spacing between island, if the lightmap bleeds often, probably you need to inscrease this number

    I've been considering making this into a UI tool as well. I'm often faced with unwrapping hundreds of objects that do well with a simple flatten by angle or smoothing group. Look for it in TS_Tools 1.2! :D
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  • blitz355
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    blitz355
    tomshannon wrote: »
    I've been considering making this into a UI tool as well. I'm often faced with unwrapping hundreds of objects that do well with a simple flatten by angle or smoothing group. Look for it in TS_Tools 1.2! :D

    Hello! I joined the forum to hopefully catch you, either here or on youtube. I see that you have to individually replace the cube with the correct mesh that you imported into the browser earlier(any way to avoid having to do that? Some scenes can have many meshes :(). Which leads me to another question. When i select everything in my model to export to fbx ~50 items it gives me an error on one specific mesh, then I click ok. The exporter then starts flashing through each mesh selected. In the end the exporter only spits out 4 out of the 50+ meshes selected into an fbx. Any ideas?

    I'm trying to go from revit>3ds>ue4 via fbx. Alls I did was import the revit fbx straight to 3ds, and use your script right away. I didn't do any preparation to the scene,and I'm not sure if I should be doing so (I'm extremely new to 3ds and ue4).

    I appreciate any help you may be able to offer!
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  • xvampire
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    xvampire polycounter lvl 14
    tomshannon wrote: »
    I've been considering making this into a UI tool as well. I'm often faced with unwrapping hundreds of objects that do well with a simple flatten by angle or smoothing group. Look for it in TS_Tools 1.2! :D

    flatten map is good for quick lightmap uv in block mesh WIP , but I encourage you guys to use multiple individual Pack UV ( extracted from UV1) for final polished assets :)
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  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    for those that use maya i have similar script as well
    http://cmcproductions.co.uk/scripts/#pbUDK
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  • Feingeist
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    Feingeist null
    passerby wrote: »
    for those that use maya i have similar script as well
    http://cmcproductions.co.uk/scripts/#pbUDK

    The links is dead :( Any way to get this maya script?
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  • WarrenM
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    WarrenM
    FYI, in recent times, UE4 has gotten better about FBX support. I use MODO and I know that if I set the "center" in MODO to where I want it on my mesh, that becomes the pivot when I import it into UE4. Don't have to move anything around.

    Might work the same with the Max pivot ... I don't have Max so I can't check but might be worth trying.
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  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    Feingeist wrote: »
    The links is dead :( Any way to get this maya script?

    can grab it here.
    https://github.com/cmcpasserby/pbUDK
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