Blender - UDK import problem

[Aeos63]

Hi guys I'm new here and relatively new to UDK and Blender. I know how to use both programs alright but for blender I mostly handle 2.49 better. 2.55 is just to different for the modeling and hot keys so I do not know it as well. That being said I am trying to import a .psk and .psa into udk from blender. When I use an exporter from blender 2.49 it will export but ends up looking like this
If i try to export the same .blend file with blender 2.55 and try to export using the build in .psk .psa exporter it will give me an error saying
Granted that is with only part of my mesh selected If I try to export it all it says too many meshes selected and too many armatures selected. I have been looking for an answer all through these threads and online but no luck! If someone could help me out it would be fantastic!

[WedgeBob]

Have you looked at this video from YouTube? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0yUuBE9M-o

Also, that brings up another interesting point...does anybody know what the differences are between the unit scale in Blender vs. the unit scale in UDK at all? I always wanted to write a unit conversion app that would calculate how many Blender units you would need to scale to in order for it to look the same in UDK, before you exported it. That might be something else to look into, otherwise, your mesh will look really itty-bitty.

[ziuber18]

WedgeBob - there's no need. When you press N-key when your cursor is over 3d viewport it brings you Transform Properties. For instance you have an object that is high for 1.457 units. Notice that it is One Unit (!) point 457. So if a character in unreal have 96 units that means in blender it is 96.000. Simple as that.
Sorry Aeos for not ansrering your question but I had the same problem. I haven't tried to fix that.

[Aeos63]

WedgeBob- I have watched that video... unfortunately that is for static meshes and I can do those fine and they look great uvs and everything however when i add some armatures to the mix udk freaks out.
Also .fbx doesn't doesn't work. I did something and the .psk and .psa exported but upon importing into udk it crashes. For both .fbx and .psk idk what the deal is
thanks though for the replies

[darknet]

I see there one bone. You need at least two bones else it will crash the unreal editor. Merge your mesh into one object. Then try to re-import the model. It might have screw up the weights of the bones. The bone should have one main parent.

Here one of my video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps0nXS8ib8Q

[VendorX]

Differences between Blender and UE is that when you have one bone, in blender you can see head and tail, but in UE just head. Here problem is .psk exporter. Try export as .3ds, then load in to another editor i.e. Milkshape (has the best .psk exporter i ever seen) and export to .psk.

Ps: if you like Blender, then change to 2.56 version.

Update:
I forget to say... Blender .psk exporter can't export mesh with multiple materials or mesh groups (even 2.56). To do that you need modified version.

[edx76]

Blender .psk exporter can't export mesh with multiple materials or mesh groups (even 2.56). To do that you need modified version.

Modified version of Blender or the exporter?
Do you have links for this?

[VendorX]

...
If I try to export it all it says too many meshes selected and too many armatures selected.
...

That happen because you try to export multiple mesh in to single .psk - you can't to this. Select all meshes by 'Selsct/Select All by Type/Mesh' then in 'Object' select 'join' - now you have one mesh with multiple materials and you can export with modified exporter to .psk.

But if you have more than one armature you need to parenting them (all armature - one mesh).

Modified exporter you can find here.

Ps: this exporter is to Blender v2.56.

[edx76]

Thanks for the link, I'll try this exporter.
To be clear: with this exporter you can unwrap and apply materials and textures to different meshes, join them in one single mesh, parent this mesh to an armature and export the whole thing as .psk. And when you import your .psk in UDK, you can apply your multiples materials to your mesh.
Is that right?

[Aeos63]

I have tried to join all as one mesh then export. There are two bones one for the action and one for the overall rotation i was just trying to get a simple firing animation. Even when I join the meshes into one object and use the new exporter with blender 2.56 it will export but upon import to udk it still crashes. I tried this method with a shotgun I have and It works when I import the skeletal mesh into udk however when I apply the .psa animation it is warped

left is the animation right is the skeletal mesh. Another minor problem seems to be the position of the shogun on import. Maybe that is part of the problem too?

[darknet]

You need two bones in the armature object. It will crash if there just one bone in psk file.

[VendorX]

edx76:
This is just exporter, every other steps you need to do in Blender.

Aeos63:
1. photo on the left - after join all meshes you need reasign verticles...
2. Intead of two separate bons is betther that you make one 'Root' and from 'Root' two others (this is Unreal way). If you animating only one bone, in this case you need only two bones - 'Root' and other one (like said darknet).
3. Be sure that all verticles are asigned to the bons.

If still you can't resolve this problem, make upload with .psk and .blend.

[Aeos63]

Ok so I have the bones set up now. One Root and from the root there are two others. The only thing I do not understand is how do you reassign specific vertices to the bones. so when you animate the object with the bone you can still have the rotation for the entire weapon and the the slide of the action on top.

[darknet]

Select the mesh. Editing panel. Look for vertex groups. bottom left panel. that is the bones. assign the weight from 0 to 1.

[Aeos63]

Hey guy thanks for all your help finally got it all to work