Working with Thousands of Static Meshes

[ideefixe]

I am about ready to give up on UDK, but I'm hoping someone out there has already solved this problem and can help me out!

I am loading a model from a single FBX file and it produces many individual static meshes in the UDK content browser, many thousands in some cases. The models all load correctly and they can be placed individually in the levels.

What I am looking for is a way to load all of the static meshes into the level at once, instead of having to go one at a time. The models are too big to import as a single mesh.

Has anyone else figured this out, whether it's an interface command or some kind of script/macro? I've played with Unity for about 5 minutes and it found my FBX automatically, loaded it with the proper textures, and placed the entire model group at once. I am hoping there is a way to do this in UDK too!

Thanks.

[darthviper107]

There's an import option that will allow it to separate out meshes from a single file or keep it all as one mesh. I'm guessing though that you're trying to create your whole level in your 3D program, and you can't really do it that way. The way UDK is designed is to import a mesh and then place the mesh in the level. If you've got a bunch of objects and instances then there's ways you could try an set it to place them, like the .t3d format that can place your objects into the scene. I believe there's a couple plugins people have made for Maya that can do that type of thing. I haven't found anything anyone has released that works for 3ds Max though.
What I've done in the past was to import 1 of each object into UDK, and then I made a Maxscript that copies the placement of each object in 3ds Max into the format of UDK and then I can just paste into UDK and it'll be able to find the objects in the content browser and place them in the map.

[ideefixe]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not creating the whole level in Max, but I am creating large buildings that have multiple sub-components. For example, each door is it's own static mesh.

I like you script idea, and that would cut down on a lot of the issues, but it's not quite what I'm looking for. I'd simply like to be able to place the entire static mesh group at once; everything loads fine and I can place it piece by piece, it just takes a couple hours to do it manually, and I need to be able to make changes to the source model and re-load it.

[Cuplacakes]

You'll have to place the entire thing by hand. However, updating after that should be easy, as long as you don't move the object or it's pivot point in maya. If you update a mesh and reimport it, it will simply replace all previous instances of the mesh in the level

simples

[ideefixe]

That's interesting - I've never noticed that before.

Does anyone know if there is a way to write a script or macro to step through each mesh in a group and place it at the origin?

[darthviper107]

If you're in 3ds Max you can just select all the objects and go to the move tool and set the position to 0

Be careful about how many individual meshes you use, if you're doing a building you're probably using the same door mesh many times, which was the reason for the script--you could import the door once and place it in the level but that takes a lot of time and it's much much easier to place things in something like 3ds Max. For performance it's best to use instances as much as possible so that's why I had created the script that copies the objects placement from 3ds Max so that I could place many copies into UDK without having to position them by hand again.

[ideefixe]

I do need to get using instances more, though that won't completely help my issue (many things like walls and floors/ceilings and windows can't be instanced).

Part of the challenge I have is the models I'm using are being generated from external data, and are only passing through 3DS Max to correct the materials. I'm trying to avoid having to remodel things or play with the original model data, for both speed (of the process) and accuracy.

[darthviper107]

If you really want to export it all and make it as easy as possible, if you've got everything setup already in Max, then just select it all, put the pivot at 0,0,0 and then export it, you can then just drop them into UDK and they'll end up in the correct position. You can export meshes together, but everything that ends up as a single static mesh would only have a single lightmap so you would need to make sure not to combine too many things or your lightmap won't be big enough to cover it.

[ideefixe]

I am already doing the pivot at the origin stuff - the pieces all import properly and in the correct spot. I stopped trying to do the single static mesh for the reason you stated (not just light maps though, but also materials, collisons, etc).

[Ubuska]

If you want to place meshes in 3d package and export them with .t3d file (wich contains locations, rotations, scales of an objects) you will be fine and dandy.
For maya there is a exporter script called Ragnarok (http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/...orter-Ragnarok)
For Blender I wrote my own exporter to .t3d, which I will release tomorrow on blenderartists and probably here (if you interested PM me).

[ideefixe]

That Ragnarok link was both exactly what I was looking for and a huge tease - the download links are all broken! I usually use 3DS Max anyway, so I'll take a look around for similar exporters.

Thanks for the suggestion!

[Ubuska]

If you still can't find link I have Ragnarok on my computer.

[ideefixe]

After I pleaded for help in that topic Jaka updated with a correct link. Version 1.1 now! I'm still trying to get it to work with my model (I work in 3DS Max usually, I'm not familiar with Maya).

[ideefixe]

As an update, this is kind of a non-issue now with Unreal Engine 4! FBX static meshes seem to be importing as one big group now, and also we can place multiple meshes from the content browser at once. Thank you Epic!

[darthviper107]

FBX does not do instancing, you can take all of your objects and export them into a single FBX file and then you have the option to either combine them all into one static mesh or it will separate out each object as a static mesh, but it still does not support instancing so any copies that you have will be an additional mesh rather than an instance.