Why does my mesh in UDK look cack?

Torch

Hi all, bit of a UDK n00b but I'm excited to learn as much as I can about it Just been working on a prop and get very different results from viewing it in Maya/Toolbag as opposed to in UDK.

http://i.imgur.com/kRW58.jpg

I've got the right nodes attached - Diffuse, Spec and Normal, but I'm getting weird black shading on some parts and not very sharp highlights. In UDK I have 2 standard lights on the shield, so I can't imagine why its so dark after hitting build all. If anyone can point out where I'm going wrong it would be much appreciated

Thanks!

EDIT: I also get this error occasionally when trying to build all using my own assets in the scene, if anyone knows what it is:

http://i.imgur.com/ORL8E.jpg

ImSlightlyBored

Are you building lighting? Some of it looks like it's gotten an overlapping lightmap uv set which is causing some parts to be black.


Hope some of that can help


EDIT: I've just re-read your post and you say you have built all lighting... I'm fairly sure, then, that it's your lightmap UV channel. Does it look Ok when lighting isn't built?

Ben Apuna

In addition to the lightmap issue ImSlightlyBored brought up. What do you mean by "2 standard lights"? Are either of those a dominant directional light? because one of them should be. Also you might need to boost the specular value in your material up to get some nice spec highlights. Try multiplying your specular texture with a constant value of 2 - 4 and see if that helps.

You might also need to boost up the your Spec Power value of your material as well to get nice sharp highlights (this may also require a spec power map to help differentiate materials on your model).

Perhaps post a pic of your lightmap UVs and material network.

Froyok

The UDK work in sRGB, be sure that your textures are in the right color profile before importing them. If not, you will lose some data at the compression of the textures in the package.

For the second problem, I don't know. Are you putting your resources inside a group before saving them in your map (the map yes, not a package) ?

Torch

Hey guys, thanks for the advice! Didn't even have a 2nd UV set for my model, so I believe that was causing the problem, doh XD I've got a lot to learn about the engine.

Ben - By standard lights I just meant the light created when holding 'L' and left clicking on a surface.

Froyok - Didn't think of that, I was just saving the package, will try it out - cheers

I'm also going to have a look at boosting spec power, I was reading about gloss maps recently and am assuming that spec maps are used for controling the highlights on a material, while gloss controls the 'sharpness' of those highlights, right? Thanks again

Torch

Hey guys, just tried to do it again and have received the same error. Its weird as I definitely have 2 UV sets unwrapped properly and exporting an FBX to UDK. Looks fine in the static mesh editor or when I place a light next to it in the scene, it only gets the errors when I hit build all. Any info would be appreciated!

Froyok

Don't forget to increase to size of the lightmap (Light Map Resolution), on your screenshot your value is set to 32, try 128/256.

Torch

Thanks guys - think I found the reason, I was importing it at a tiny scale from Maya and then scaling it up by around 50-100 units When I scaled it up and froze the transformations in maya then reimported, the lightmap issue went away, also increasing the resolution helped XD

Ben Apuna

That's good info about the scale of things causing trouble with lightmaps.

I'm glad you got it sorted out.