Blocking out levels - BSP vs Max/Maya/Other

CJE

Hey Guys,

I'm starting to explore some environment art, and building environments in UDK. I've noticed some people will block out there entire level in Max/Maya, and then import it into UDK after.

Other people seem to use the BSP primitive shapes right in UDK to block out a level.

I'm a bit confused, is there any benifit to building out a bsp level proxy, as opposed to building out a proxy level in Max/Maya and sending that to UDK afterwards?

sprunghunt

Here's some reasons why you might use BSP:

1) BSP allows you to play your map in-game right away. This can be very useful for making sure everything looks right when you play the game before you have to start making stuff.

2) Not every designer knows how to use max or maya. And using BSP means you don't have to buy a separate copy of max or maya for the designers to use.

I usually do both. I'll make the level very quickly in bsp. Have a run around in it and discuss it with anyone else who's working on the level. Then I'll go in and make some placeholder mesh to replace the bsp. Then I'll do the rest of the modeling.

cholden

Yea I use both. Basically same reason sprunghunt said. You're in-game editing immediately. Gives you an accurate measure of scale, etc. It's so many less steps.

CJE

Is there an easy to export your bsp block out level and replace it with static mesh assets imported from your 3D app?

sprunghunt

CJE wrote: »

Is there an easy to export your bsp block out level and replace it with static mesh assets imported from your 3D app?

select some surfaces then go File>Export>

Then just import and place meshes like you normally would.

passerby

CJE wrote: »

Is there an easy to export your bsp block out level and replace it with static mesh assets imported from your 3D app?

ya udk can export out section of a level to fbx which can be imported into pretty much any package.


personally i like to build sections in maya and ussualy got my high poly done in maya before i got anything into the engine than i start breaking my scene up into assets to do low polys for than i bring those into udk 1 by 1.

CJE

Is there a way to set up Max to mirror UDK scale perfectly so you can build something to scale in Max and have it translate 1:1 in UDK? This would be my preferred method if possible.

sprunghunt

CJE wrote: »

Is there a way to set up Max to mirror UDK scale perfectly so you can build something to scale in Max and have it translate 1:1 in UDK? This would be my preferred method if possible.

It always translates 1:1 - 1 unit in max is 1 unit in unreal.

I just set my units to generic.

there's some stuff here about how big gears of war level scale is:

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GearsMods.html#Custom Content

McGreed

And you can always look at this page as well: http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/Legacy:General_Scale_And_Dimensions