model material limit

[smokey13]

hi, just a quick question, how many materials can you have on one skeletal mesh?

thanks

[geodav]

as many as needed but a few as possible.

i always use the UT3 game content as an example, characters 2 , vehicles 1 , weapons 1.

[smokey13]

as many as needed but a few as possible.

i always use the UT3 game content as an example, characters 2 , vehicles 1 , weapons 1.

that's what I would normally use but this time my vehicle has 13 materials and just wanted to know if UDK could handle it.

I figured it would be better to check now rather then have issues later

[geodav]

SolidSnake explains it here http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/...enders-X-times a lot better than i can

to be honest most things will only need max 3 mats, i know some of my vehicles have 4 mat slots thats 1.main tank 2.turrets+weapons 3.lefttrack 4.righttrack

[smokey13]

thanks for the link. as for the materials this vehicle is kind of a 3 way experiment so I think it should be ok.

just in case your wondering.

experiment 1: to see if I could model a half decent realistic-ish looking vehicle, can be seen here http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/...-(vehicle-WIP)

experiment 2: to see if I can make a vehicle with suspension that doesn't move around as much as my buggy's suspension did.

experiment 3: materials,2 things, first the model has almost 30,000 tris and it would have taken ages to layout the UV, second it allows me to change different materials properties/nodes on different parts of the mesh when ever I want to without having to redo the texture/s (as well as anyone who downloads it when I release it).

I know random (or crazy)

[geodav]

seen it
and yes thats you
CRAZY

[smokey13]

seen it
and yes thats you
CRAZY

this one might be a little crazier then I thought it was going to be.

check this out for a vehicle skeleton.



61 bones (I was going to put damage bones in as well, glad I didnt) imagine the amount of skeletal controls I am going to need, lol

anyway i'm off to start skinning.

[darthviper107]

You know, you don't have to use bones for that, UDK supports rigid animation, you can just animate those objects

[smokey13]

I have not done rigid animation before (i'll google it), but would that work with the spring compression and the stretching of the wishbones (they need to stretch slightly to stay inline with the hubs because wheels only go straight up and down in UDK so the wishbones move away from the hubs as the ends move in an arc from there pivot point). also how would I get the suspension animation to move when the wheels do?

--EDIT--

forgot to say its all one object.