Help with importing 3ds max objects into UDK, PLease :)

[nametaker]

hey guys, i dont post that much but i've been a member for a while. Im doing a project for university and i need to import a building i made in 3ds max into udk.

I've got as far as importing each object individually but there are loads of objects that make up the building, so please tell me i can import the whole building??


Thanks Guys
Nick

[mktwo]

Well, from a performance perspective, separate parts are better. Use .FBX to export all the files, then once in UDK, you can place them all and set all their respective locations to 0,0,0. That should make everything fit as it was in 3DSMax

[nametaker]

ok thanks, how do i set the respective locations?

[r3t]

AFAIK it's actually better to combine static meshes performance wise. I'm no expert but I remember a programmer explaining me that this way the engine has to make less "drawcalls". In other words, take less steps to render the scene.
Of course for very large objects you would still have to consider streaming, culling, lod's and whatnot... but I think in general it's better to have objects combined.
If you we're to pick this approach, you could export your entire 3dsMax scene as a single .ase or .fbx file.

[nametaker]

Well if so, do you know how to export as a single object?

[r3t]

in 3dsMax, just select all your static geometry and go to file > export > export selected
Choose Ascii Scene Export (*.ase) and confirm.
It then pops up an export dialog, just check the right options (it's pretty straight forward) and that would be it.

[nametaker]

I've just tried that and it comes up with a message saying...

"ASE importer error: Did you forget to import geometry AND materials in the export?
Faces:36, texture co-ordinates(channel 0) : 0 "

[Nawrot]

Use keens batch exporter to export all meshes from max. http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/sc...batch-exporter

However it does not export collision correctly.

I made some perl script to pick up what keens exporter produced and make ASE files with collision merged out of it also create snippet to place all meshes at world origin in udk, but it is not finished (.ie has no real options, no readme, and its not tested).

I will publish it in new thread when it is in more solid state. If you (or anybody else) know perl (at least to undestand comments and what script needs) and are interested in it pm me or reply here for script. I will test and polish it soon, when i have something real to export and some more time.

Or you can use FBX for that process, i think it preserves information about multiple objects.

AFAIK it's actually better to combine static meshes performance wise. I'm no expert but I remember a programmer explaining me that this way the engine has to make less "drawcalls". In other words, take less steps to render the scene.

It is not true for objects like houses that have smaller meshes repeated multiple times, i think biggest slowdown in unreal is loading object, not drawcall. For eg. one drawcall + loading object of 20000 polygons is slower than 20 drawcalls for 1000 polys and loading 1 object with 1000 polygons. And this is only tip of iceberg, multiple dynamic lights (or lightfunctions) work much better on multiple, smaller meshes than single big one. Then consider occlusion and not drawing at all for occluded objects, with one big you always draw everything, but if you split huge building only detail on wall facing camera will be rendered.

[nametaker]

dosent let me extract either the readme file or the MAX file. Is there no other way to export all my objects as one object? Seems like it would be needed when creating architecture with 3ds max.

[Nawrot]

Read whole tut, it shows ase exporting also batch exporting.

http://www.hourences.com/tutorials-ue3-modeling-1/

[nametaker]

If i use Keens Batch Export script will that simply speed up how long it takes to upload to UDK? because im not having that problem, i want the 124 objects i've used to create my architecture in 3ds max to be compiled into one object on the other end. I dont want to take each shape and object and rebuild in UDK like a jigsaw

I'l read through the tutorial now so thanks for your help.

Nick

[Nawrot]

One single, big and high poly object will be rendered slower in udk, but for uni projects it is not big issue.

However making whole building with single lightmap 1uv space can be more pain than rebuilding it all in udk from jigsaw puzzles.

There is some way to export/import such stuff using FBX, but i have not tried it. Search forums here you probably find it.

Other way is that keen batch exporter, my (unfinished) perl script speeds up importing to UDK when you need collision on meshes.

[nametaker]

Thanks alot Nawrot iv got it working now and its looking great! I'll continue to use Keen Batch Exporter, very useful.

Cheers
NIck