Unreal Ed_max static meshes

animatr

ok, my question is this:
I want to make my next environment entirely in max, and bring everything in as static meshes in Unreal Ed. My only concern, what scale should i be working in max to accomplish this. the purpose of this environment is not to have a game level suitable for Unreal, it is merely to demonstrate that I have the proper tech skills. However, I cannot find a max units to Unreal units conversion anywhere, and although I know you can use draw scale 3d to scale static meshes, I believe there just has to be a more precise way to set things up from the beginning.

Thanks!

chip

i assume Max has the means to choose a default unit for its workspace (as does Maya and every other higher-end 3D modeling/animation app i've used); that choice can have an effect on the scale equivalence. nonetheless, it should be fairly simple to establish a relationship between Max & UEd units. create a cube in Max that's 10 units on a side, export it as .ase, import it into UEd as a static mesh, then measure its sides (various ways to do this). measure of cube side in UEd/10 = number of UEd units per Max unit.

btw, "proper tech skills" when creating any game content means making stuff that can be used in "a game level suitable for Unreal." looking pretty & technical "correctness" don't count for much if players snag on overly complex SMs, or if your polycount is so outrageous it drags the FPS down, or if you don't take advantage of vertex caching optimizations, etc.

animatr

good call with the first idea.
what i meant with the proper tech skills and that this wasnt meant to fit in the unreal genre, was that im making an RPG level, meaning, its not going to mesh well with guys in weird armor with big guns. other than that, its going to be just as efficient as any other unreal level. Considering that staic meshes only take up memory for each unique one.
thanks for the tip on the units.

MoP

Max units match UnrealEd units on a 1-to-1 basis. It's handy like that

animatr

wow nice! thanks a lot! That is good news.

chip

[ QUOTE ]
Max units match UnrealEd units on a 1-to-1 basis. It's handy like that

[/ QUOTE ]Maya's default units (cm) are also 1:1 with UEd. handy, indeed. but UEd's units != realworld cm, it's just an app-app equivalency.

Delaney King

if all else fails, before you begin make a few boxes in max and export them. get the volumes right and then go to the trouble of building the complex art. By the way, thats how we do most of our levels... rough, crappy geom first to test the idea and look, then the real art later.