Exporting from UDK to Maya - Problems I am having.

Clickpiss

Hey

I have a basic blockout level I made with BSP brushes in UDK that I now want to export and then import into Maya.

I can export it from UDK fine, with either .obj or .fbx. The problem I am having is with the faces being all over the place - meaning what should be a simple quad has been split not only into 2 tris, but about 20 that are not uniform. This puts up the polycount so much that it is just unnecessary. I tried to simply delete the unwanted edges but Maya was having none of it. I also tried to delete the faces and append to polygon to fill the hole - this also didn't work because of all the random vertices that are dotted about.

I figured it's down to UDK and how the wireframe works and pieces together the geometry - is there a way to make it neater and more optimized? Say, having a single faced flat surface instead of it being split into multiple faces for no apparent reason?

Any help would be appreciated.

Chris

mdeforge

I've never seen any information on or examples of this workflow before. Maybe it's common place, I don't know. Regardless, why do you need to export your blocking? Care to explain what you're trying to do? Maybe we can offer an alternative.

I've always just cut out large BSP sections of levels and then used geo to create my maps.

Clickpiss

Hmmm maybe I am just over complicating things. I am at the stage now where I need to start adding textures to the walls of my map and start making and adding in props. For some reason I thought it might be easier to export the whole map into Maya and texture it in there. After a bit of thought this probably isn't the best idea, at all.

Here is a run down of what I am doing:

It's a missile silo, so it's mainly underground. The top is open so you can see a skydome. I modelled the geometry by sculpting out holes for rooms using the subtractive brush within a huge additive cube. This has worked very well and I am pleased with the results.

I have lights, paths, pickups and have play tested it for balance. I now need to make it look good.

Maybe the whole exporting into Maya thing was a bad idea in the first place - in which case can you recommend a more suitable workflow that will work for my needs?

Thanks for the quick reply btw

Chris

duckman21

Hi Clickpiss

I have used a similar workflow in the past, and I am not sure if it is a good idea. This method is good for figuring out the general, relative size of the props in relation to your level, but that is about it.

The way I did it, I just used the BSP import (now the messy tri planes you described) and used that as a background template. My understanding is that you are trying to use the BSP obj to model in Maya/3DS Max (which I wouldn't recommend).

The problem with this method is that, once you are finished, you are going to have to align all your props to the 0, 0 coordinate of the grid and export them separately, basically undoing all your design efforts.

Games like "Uncharted" build their entire levels in Maya, however, they have their in-studio software that exports everything neatly into the engine. I hope this helps a bit.

Clickpiss

Oh I see, that is a good point. I think I will open it in Maya and use it for scale reference when it comes to modelling some props - thanks for that.

Also another good point that I didn't realise, and I didn't know Naughty Dog modelled the whole levels in Maya THEN exported them! But yeah as you said that will be a bit more difficult for me to do.

Thank you, duckman21