Unreal Editor 3 problem
polycounter lvl 15
Messing around with Unreal Editor 3 and I came across a few problems.
Here's an example of what happened. Any ideas? It's the exact same scene imported into UE3. As you can see, it flips my UVs.
3dsmax
Unreal Editor 3
[IMG]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xp_5Vf6lSqI/SWEMULiR2pI/AAAAAAAAAYU/9W_dVeqDhcs/s1600/U3E.jpg[IMG\]
On another note, it would also make a texture appear on entirely different objects that had seperate UV channels assigned in 3ds Max! Couldn't figure out a work around for that 
Unfortunately it's also a pain, because with a large scene, if you go into 3ds Max and fix something then re-import the Mesh into UE3 you have to plug in all of your materials into the slots again. Anyone have a tutorial on the procedure from scratch? Either that or any info at all concerning some of the problems that I've had? Thanks![/img]
Here's an example of what happened. Any ideas? It's the exact same scene imported into UE3. As you can see, it flips my UVs.
3dsmax
Unreal Editor 3
[IMG]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xp_5Vf6lSqI/SWEMULiR2pI/AAAAAAAAAYU/9W_dVeqDhcs/s1600/U3E.jpg[IMG\]
On another note, it would also make a texture appear on entirely different objects that had seperate UV channels assigned in 3ds Max! Couldn't figure out a work around for that ![http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xp_5Vf6lSqI/SWEMULiR2pI/AAAAAAAAAYU/9W_dVeqDhcs/s1600/U3E.jpg[IMG\]](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xp_5Vf6lSqI/SWEMULiR2pI/AAAAAAAAAYU/9W_dVeqDhcs/s1600/U3E.jpg[IMG\]){kind=link}
Unfortunately it's also a pain, because with a large scene, if you go into 3ds Max and fix something then re-import the Mesh into UE3 you have to plug in all of your materials into the slots again. Anyone have a tutorial on the procedure from scratch? Either that or any info at all concerning some of the problems that I've had? Thanks![/img]
Replies
If you want to use multiple materials then in Max make sure to assign them to different material ID's on your mesh, then when you apply the multi/sub-object material give them the corresponding texture ID from your material list (this doesn't make a difference to Unreal, but you need to have a texture of some sort applied to each material otherwise UEd throws the dolly out of the pram).
When you then import to UEd, find LODInfo in the mesh properties browser for your level mesh, and keep opening the drop-downs until you a material array. Assuming you've already got your materials sorted out just plonk the material references into the corresponding ID's, remembering that UEd starts counting from 0, not 1 like Max.
That sounds quite long winded; I can clarify if anything is unclear.
The other thing, if you import your mesh and give it the exact same name as the mesh you already have in your package then it will overwrite the old one and take all the setup info you had assigned to it, e.g. the materials.
If you just manually re-import your mesh in the generic browser with the same name as your older mesh, I think the materials stick with it under the LOD material settings.
I can't remember if you have to also go into the static mesh properties in your scene and request it switch to the new selected mesh in the generic browser or not...but I don't remember this being as big of a pain as you just described.
Junkie_XL thanks as well. I think you're right, if I re-import the mesh with the same name it retains the materials...so no biggie there, but these other 2 problems are absolutely ridiculous. Not sure what to do to fix them.
Do you mean material ID's or map channel by this?
Do you have the same number of material slots in UEd after the import as you do in Max?
Do you have the same number of material slots in UEd after the import as you do in Max?"
What I mean is that I have an oil drum and a concrete platform that are seperate objects and have seperate map channels applied to them in 3ds max with seperate textures. In Unreal Editor, they both appear with the Oil drum texture. If I switch the Oil drum texture to something else, both the oil drums and the concrete platform will switch to that new texture (this is a huge problem, as both objects should have seperate textures showing).
I'll take a look at my Unreal Editor scene and compare it to my Max one, and get back to you on that, gimme a few minutes.
PS is it a huge deal if my multi-sub object were to have 1 or 2 blank materials? Is that what's causing the problem in Unreal. I really don't know what the exact problem is, I can't put my finger on it.
3ds Max is Materials 1 to 62
Unreal Editor is Materials 0 to 60
Is this causing the problem? Thanks.
This is probably your problem. I take it you're exporting these together with an 'export selected' operation. If this is the case then these objects need to have the same 'map channel' but different 'material ID's'.
When you import them UEd treats them as a single object and is trying to apply the materials based on map channel 1 (or 0 in UEd's case). You can give the two objects different UV's but they must both be on map channel 1.
That's a lot of materials to be applying to a single mesh! Not good for optimisation. But if the materials are more or less showing up then it should pinpoint to the problem above because you should still be able to change the materials around.
Blank materials won't bother unreal - if there's no texture applied it won't even know it's there.
Try this and let me know if it works.
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?p=884648&posted=1#post884648
I've also found something very odd that may be causing the texture cloning problem. In the LODinputs, I've found a material number 23 that is empty in Unreal. It's just an extra empty material that is there for no reason, I think it's causing all of the materials to be pushed down a number, therefore causing the last one in the list to share the first one in the lists texture.
Is there any way to delete a material number in the list in Unreal??
basically the end of the list is a texture called trash01_d and it is being overwritten by the first material in the list that's called dockPlatform_d
In my Unreal Static Mesh Editor both the trash geometry and the platform geometry are sharing 1 texture between the two of them and it's the dockPlatform_d texture.
Am I confusing you? Or does this make sense.
I'll get back to the Max file and hunt around for it. Thanks!
Like said, 60 is too much anyhow. You are suppose to have as few material ids as you can per mesh.
Be very careful with things like empty submaterials in the multi subobject in Max. Also be very very carefully with cloning a material in Max, because it usually makes it keep the same name, and upon exporting/importing that duplicate name confuses Unreal. For that reason I dont clone materials anymore in Max.