Skeletal Mesh Hard edges and normals

AshShpadoinkle

Hi Guys.

I am currently making a game for a university project.

I am having trouble with my character model looking as though its normals are set to the face. and even though i have normalised them in maya it still looks blocky in udk.

The stranger thing is that when i import it as a static mesh (ASE file).. the normals look averaged. as seen here.

http://s1124.photobucket.com/albums/l565/AshShpadoinkle/?action=view&current=ZZZZ_NORMAL.jpg

But when i import it as a skeletal mesh (PSK).. it looks horrible. and i don't know why. As seen below

http://s1124.photobucket.com/albums/l565/AshShpadoinkle/?action=view&current=ZZZ_NORMAL.png

Any help on the subject would be greatly appreciated

KazeoHin

When you output the .ASE file format using actor X, you need to checkmark 'convert to smooth groups' in export options...

other than that I can't help.

Froyok

Have you tried to use the FBX export and import it in the UDK with your own normals ?

Camikaze

I've seen that plenty of times with FBX and ASE (usually just missing a checkbox on export) but never a PSK. Have you got the most up-to-date version of ActorX?

A cheeky quick fix would be to use Simplygon within UDK to recompute the normals - just drag the slider down to 99, set silhouette to "highest" and tell it to recompute normals to "smooth". It'll be an auto-smooth job and won't be as perfect as your original one, but it will sidestep the issue quickly.

Ouija

Just do what Camikaze said and if you need hard edges anywhere, bake them to a normal map.