Re-import static meshes misses new materials

[BBman]

Hi,
Everytime I import a static mesh, and check the "import materials" it works great. however, when I replace the material in 3dsmax,and then use the "re-import" option, the material wont change in udk. how can I make udk always take materials from max, even when I re-import?


Thanks..

[MrRipGames]

Do you export your model and replace the existing in your "work folder" ?
Because the change of material in 3dsmax do not work in live with UDK, you need re-export your model in the same folder and remplace the existant. And AFTER that you can use "re-import" option.

[JessieG]

Yeah the reimport option only works with static meshes and textures. Materials can be changed in the editor with different node setups and can't be reimported, though if you change the texture you can reimport that and the material will update itself.

[BBman]

I think I didnt explain myself well.
Im working hard on a platform that will automaticly import static meshes from max to unreal. actually im really into it and have a great success so far. it works in the way that I assign a material called X to a static mesh, then import the static mesh to UDK, and UDK automaticly searches for the X material from the content browser, and puts it on the static mesh->for example I put a metal material on a mesh in MAX, and UDK assigns an unreal-made metal material, what makes the whole process easier for me (The material part is only on the max side).
What happens in my case is that I put some materials on the mesh and import it to UDK. everything works great and UDK successfuly replaces the max materials with the UDK materials.
then I change the material in max, to Y for example, and reimport but the material wont change.

Any suggestions would be appriciated!

[BBman]

I think I didnt explain myself well.
Im working hard on a platform that will automaticly import static meshes from max to unreal. actually im really into it and have a great success so far. it works in the way that I assign a material called X to a static mesh, then import the static mesh to UDK, and UDK automaticly searches for the X material from the content browser, and puts it on the static mesh->for example I put a metal material on a mesh in MAX, and UDK assigns an unreal-made metal material, what makes the whole process easier for me (The material part is only on the max side).
What happens in my case is that I put some materials on the mesh and import it to UDK. everything works great and UDK successfuly replaces the max materials with the UDK materials.
then I change the material in max, to Y for example, and reimport but the material wont change.

Any suggestions would be appriciated!

[Henrik]

Some things to note: Depending on whether your FBX is binary or ascii, it will either store the texture info inside the FBX itself, or in a subfolder of the folder containing your FBX, respectively. If it's the latter, I suggest you check that the folder which should contain the images does indeed have the updated versions. The second thing you should check is that none of your images, whether inside max or in such a folder, are JPG or another format that UDK cannot read.

[BBman]

well thanks, Ill check it up later!
Btw, what's the differenece between Binary and ASCII?

[Graylord]

It's two different formats.

[Henrik]

Binary can store executable or audiovisual data. ASCII is a human readable format. An exe file or dll is always binary, a txt or xml file for example is always ascii. FBX can be either. Therefore if the ascii FBX refers to images etc it simply stores a link rather than embedding the data directly as the binary version would.

[BBman]

Well, its not working for me.
I tried exporting a mesh, for example "Mesh". In 3dsmax I assigned a "Mat" material, which I also have in udk.
Then I imported "Mesh" into the content browser and UDK replaced the max material to the Udk material.
Then I came back to max and assigned a new material called "Mat2", and re-imported the mesh into udk, but the material didnt change to "Mat2".
What can I do?

[Graylord]

The material won't change, what it does is reimport individual textures. So if you are using a material with those textures, it will "update" to those textures. But it won't setup a new material for you.

[BBman]

Its really strange cause I open the FBX file with notepad and see that the materials are updated, but udk wont see the changes even though they are there.
How come? unreal isnt just reading the ASCII and translates it? cause if so, my logic says that it should read also the material part every time and updated the changes.
Is there any way to make a good translation between max and udk? cause I spent a lot of time making materials in udk, and dont want to assign them one by one on the scene which is huge. I just wanted to sapperate between max and udk, so the work on the scene is on Max, and UDK just replaces the existing materials with it's own, which have the exact same name. Is it possible?

[JessieG]

Well you're really supposed to import one piece at a time and make the material for each piece and put it in the scene, not a whole scene at once. You're also missing out on tons of features in the material editor trying to make it just import the materials from Max.

[BBman]

Yeap but for my needs its ok. Just want udk to replace max materials with its own.