Unreal 3 editor question

JO420

So i began to tinker with the unreal 3 editor after 2 years of not touching it and i have a question maybe someone can answer.

I am builind a veihicle which needs to be broken up in 3 parts and i would like to import as a whole but still add the 3 needed materials with the textures on it. Would i have to give the 3 elements different materials ids,import as a whole,make the materials and put them to be applied to the proper material id or is there another way?

sprunghunt

That's the easiest way. It's a common thing to do but it would be more efficient if you just used the one material. You could possibly just attach the pieces as static mesh to sockets on the skeleton. But this wouldn't work if you need the pieces to bend in any way. And you'd need to make a skeleton that has no attached vertexes.

Xoliul

Yes you are basically thinking right. The only thing to pay attention to, is that when exporting from Max, these different materials MUST have different diffuse textures applied to them. Doesn´t matter what texture, but they have to be different files. I just throw random stuff like spec or normalmaps in those slots.

edit: sprung, sure ? Skeletal Mesh just has slots for materials, the number determined by your ID´s ? I think you´re mixing up with physical materials ?

JO420

Xoliul wrote: »

Yes you are basically thinking right. The only thing to pay attention to, is that when exporting from Max, these different materials MUST have different diffuse textures applied to them. Doesn´t matter what texture, but they have to be different files. I just throw random stuff like spec or normalmaps in those slots.

edit: sprung, sure ? Skeletal Mesh just has slots for materials, the number determined by your ID´s ? I think you´re mixing up with physical materials ?

So what you are saying is no multi subs? Keep all the elements unattached,with their own materials with the diffuse applied and export as a whole?

00Zero

they can be attached. just select different polys and apply a different material (with different texture, as stated above can be anything, as long as theyre different). it basically is a multisub, if you eyedrop it.

also remember. max IDs go 1,2,3 etc. in unreal it starts from 0 so 0 = 1, 1=2, 2=3, etc.

JO420

00Zero wrote: »

they can be attached. just select different polys and apply a different material (with different texture, as stated above can be anything, as long as theyre different). it basically is a multisub, if you eyedrop it.

also remember. max IDs go 1,2,3 etc. in unreal it starts from 0 so 0 = 1, 1=2, 2=3, etc.

Many thanks