A question on lightmaps when creating kits

JWDD

Hi there, I have created this walkway kit that I want to take into UE4, but I am assembling it in Maya and then importing as it's easier to set up certain walkway configurations that way (like the one pictured on the right) rather than assembling all the separate objects on the left in UE4.

 
If I import it as a the group on the right would I need to fit all the duplicated items in their own UV space for the lightmap or would there be a way to create a lightmap for the original pieces (they all share 1 2048 texture map) without having to layout about 50 copies of the bolt etc...

poopipe

Unwrap it uniquely if it's going in as a single mesh

JWDD

Ah ok, thanks.

HAWK12HT

I am sure you can send this to UE4 as a prefab in which case you can have each object with unique light map uv (that is if you have made them for each asset in first place) otherwise what poopipe said fit all assets in 0-1 space (uniquely unwrap)

JWDD

So would I just import it as a group in fbx rather than merging it all into one mesh to be able to use the individual lightmaps? I have already created them for the individual parts.

TTools

I got tired of laying out lightmap UVs manually in Maya, so I wrote a tool that made it a lot easier for me. It makes quick work of copying your diffuse channel UV's to secondary UV sets, and laying out multiple objects separately or together in 0 to 1 space based on your need.
Here's a video and web link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODbq18vfp2Q&feature=youtu.be
http://www.thomashamiltonart.com/TTools.html