[3DSMAX] What is the best unit scale to use consistently?
interpolator
I want my objects to be mostly in real-world scale. So a figure would be for example between 1.50 and 3 meters but not 30 meters. A bag can be 30 cm, a nail 2 cm. (I use mostly scene scale in CM). But should I use generic units? I have downloaded kitbash libraries and they are all over the place. Mark Van Haitsma Uses Generic units. But His cables and objects seem far too large (for example 200 generic units for a small cable). That would be 200cm? = too large. 200 MM = too small.
max default 'system units' is inches.
max default 'display units' is generic.
max default 'system units' is inches.
max default 'display units' is generic.
Replies
max default 'display units' = cm
is most common.
Most commonly used is CM
Kitbashes will be all over the place in scale because difference artist uses difference unit setup. And sometimes they just scale it up because working with tiny objects in Max is a pain in the ass
I'm european so inches never made sense to me.
a watch : millimeters
a human : centimeters
a house : meters
a terrain : kilometers
The display unit is just a helper and has actually no influence on your file. I usually set it the same as system unit, but sometimes it could help to have different units. For instance if you deal with ancient mesure system like roman or egyptian units. Not that it is used often in video game art tho
You're making a 200metre high box and then scaling it down to1% of its size when you could simply make a 2m high box.
If you're not getting the precision you need then work in cm and let fbx handle the unit conversion - which it does a perfectly good job of.
Does working on 200 units have advantages for 3dsmax tools. I know 3dsmax can behave strangely when objects are too small. But what is too small?
Display units fall down a bit when you need to use small numbers (Eg 0.0001) because the default setting is to show only a few decimal places(this can be increased but you still don't have much actual screen space for the numbers)
For anything human(ish) scale, working in cm gives you enough precision to deal with tiny things (0.001 cm) or big things (99999cm) without any issues at all.
The only reason I move to metres is if I'm working on something vast (city/massive landscape etc). I'd probably go to km for a whole planet
Your display unit setup is up to you - I like generic units because they show you exactly how many system units you're using and you don't have to deal with the unit symbols when copy&pasting values.
None of this is a rule, it's just a default starting point I've ended up adopting over the years.
@OccultMonk It happens more often than not that people dont really care about "real" scale at all and just model something
@OccultMonk woah no no mate 200 generic units (system units set to 1unit =1 meter) I do it for all my work, 200 units for me = 2m (200/100=2m) in Unity. Like I said I either scale it down before export or I change scale factor in Unity to .01. Basically I have established my proportion / scale setup first by using a biped at 1.8m (6feet tall, 180 generic units) and 2m tall cube (200 generic units) now note we are not doing cad work so this setup gives a good starting point to eyeball stuff in relation to your human character. As for how small is too small, well 8x8x8 grid area as you can see in pic below bolts and knob lie on 16x16x8 grid (16Width 16Length 8Height)
Also I just checked Mark Van's asset sample cables and he is exactly doing same or rather I am doing same as him given he worked at Epic and I learned from Epic docs back in UDK days.
Reason why we do it this way is also linked with using grid for modularity for environment art, power of 2 setup.