Snapping the modo bend tool to UDK
polycounter lvl 6
Hello all
I started working on modular cave segments a few weeks ago and I could not for the like of me get my 90 degree bends to snap to UDKs grid. I searched and searched the internet void and found nothing on how to do this in modo.
I finally found a way how to do it
I have been using my own pie snapping menu that locks modos grid to UDKs without any effort and the pie menu will assist you in keeping your bends locked to the UDK grid. This bending solution should work on the normal modo grid set to game units but I personally cannot work that way.
Here is the pie menu link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6rml8uk2oaoejdm/ModoGameUnitSnapping.zip
F1 activates the pie menu. The macros and cfg files are included !
Step 1
Make sure the dimensions tool is activated and subtract the value of the vertical side of the dimensions tool off the total length of the segment.
Step 2
Input the value you get into x in the Action Center Auto 3D (this changes of course if you are bending forward or backward)
Step 3
Adjust the snapped edge loop by pulling it to the right, down and back again to it's original position
Step 4
Now the segment is snapped to the UDK grid
360 270 180 can be achieved with one segment:
Also works with uneven bends:
and the result in UDK:
I hope this helps some of you Modo / UDK users on your modular ventures
Good luck
Pete
Replies
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=130480
As igi says, and as I said in your previous thread, using fixed snapping is not necessary; you have mistakenly imported something from udk (possibly by having the incorrect unit under import settingsI believe meters is default which would explain this) which caused the default UDK cube to be sized up x100, from which you took 102400 as being a grid number instead of 1024. 25600 won't align with 102400. 256 and 1024 will. So change your settings and make things easier for yourself. Even if for some strange reason you must use fixed snapping there's no reason to use 102400.
As for getting a perfectly matching bend there should be some way to do so without having to manually move the end to a gridpoint. What you could do is set the start and end points, then bridge edges with smooth on, like so:
No need to mess around with numbers or ruin your perfect circle/bend by fiddling with the end edges to make it align to your grid.
Whereas his method is.
Still I don't get the purpose of using rather weird measurements :poly122:. It seems you're multiplying everything by 100 in modo, instead of doing this, you can easily change your meters per game units to 0.01 to get correct size in udk.
I did exactly what you did Bek and I get this:
so far so good right ?
Then I exported using your grid settings and game units set to 0.01 and this is what I get in UDK:
Then I compare my forced fixed grid to Beks grid and I get this:
The large cube above is 256x256 the same as the UDK scene, the cubes 16x16 and 128x128 using modos grid need to be scaled.
The bending calculation gives you a perfect circle as you can see in the pic below and I don't see how simple subtraction is hard work :poly122: nor do I see pulling an edge loop to the right and down as hassle, it gives perfect results.
You seem to be hell bent on contradicting my findings Bek *shrug* and what about the people who use the force fixed grid and find it useful, we can't all be wrong can we ?
@igi
I have my game units set to 0.01 and the grid I am using is force fixed and that is why there are 3 zeros after the power of 2 dimensions. This enables you to draw out power of 2 snapped units without thinking about scale or zooming in or out to get the proper scale.
This is the mesh I used: FBX
a tip worth to be said is to do the subtraction directly in the field that you enter the subtracted number (z-x)
So, fixed grid. The only situation I can see it would be useful is when you have say a large selection and you don't want to do a lot of zooming to get the grid level you want (or conversely, you have a very small selection and don't want to zoom too far out). I've never really had this problem when working though, so I'm dubious as to fixed grids benefit. If you prefer to use it by all means, but understand that fixed grid is not the correct solution to your mesh scale differences inside udk.
What you're doing is drawing out items that are 100x larger than the default grid (so 12800 instead of 128 ) and then exporting, when what igi and myself are doing is using 128 and exporting. For some reason your items imported into UDK are scaled to 1% it seems. What file format are you exporting as? All versions of FBX work for me. Importing the default udk cube back into modo matches the grid with my settings. The reason you were having problems with that in your previous thread was that you were measuring it by your x100 grid, not the grid it actually adhered to. Perhaps post your unit/workplane/fbx settings, although I don't see any fbx settings related to scale... you're not doing anything odd like exporting .obj, converting to .fbx then importing to udk are you? Or using any custom fbx exporter? igi's cube should work for you in UDK. If it does not, then something is wrong with your udk import settings. If it does, then something is wrong with your modo export settings.
Basically; fix your scale problems at import/export rather than changing your whole grid system based on incorrect values. You'll be saving yourself time in the long run and making sure your scenes are compatible with all other users.
I know what the problem is. The FBX export script I use is scaling my fixed grid to UDK units.
The reason I use the fixed grid is for modular work on a large scale:
This pic is my actual height map exported out of UDK.
I could just build "kits" and build them into the terrain in UDK but I find this looks repetitive and not very organic. My way is to build modular parts that are unique to the terrain and designed as modular sectors so having the grid set in modo to forced fixed makes the process a lot easier. The parts are exported into mudbox and I do some simple sculpting, I freeze both ends of the modular segment in mudbox before I sculpt so they stay modular in modo / UDK. For this type of work at this scale my grid settings work like a charm in modo. Sectors are then exported to UDK and interlinked. The reason for the large numbers btw 102400 etc is simply to make the grid bigger so I don't have to think about or zoom to scale, try setting your grid to forced fixed at 1024 and you will see what I mean. Even at this grid size the FBX exporter works like a charm.
This has left many of you perplexed but remember that not everyone works the same way as you.
On that note I will leave you with my latest find:
Perfectly snapped 45 degree segments using my bend technique:
So now I can get 45, 90, 135, 180, 225 etc with no texture stretching visible, zero seams and all modular :thumbup:
Goodluck
pete