Smesh optimization UEd -> MAYA

  • Two Factor Authentication is now available on BeyondUnreal Forums. To configure it, visit your Profile and look for the "Two Step Verification" option on the left side. We can send codes via email (may be slower) or you can set up any TOTP Authenticator app on your phone (Authy, Google Authenticator, etc) to deliver codes. It is highly recommended that you configure this to keep your account safe.

RFairey

King of the Faireys
Aug 2, 2000
169
0
0
Somewhere Else
Visit site
I've been trying to get to grips with MAYA for a while, and the polygon manipulation tools are either inadequate or painful to use. I know that UEd can create Smeshes from BSP geometry, but that they are not properley optimised in some way (too many vertices or something).

Can someone explain exactly how they are deficient, and whether it would be possible to export them to MAYA PLE for some cleanup and texture adjustment before reimporting them to UEd.
 

Doctor7

New Member
May 1, 2001
37
0
0
Reading, UK
www.genesis-sf.org.uk
RFairey said:
I've been trying to get to grips with MAYA for a while, and the polygon manipulation tools are either inadequate or painful to use. I know that UEd can create Smeshes from BSP geometry, but that they are not properley optimised in some way (too many vertices or something).

Can someone explain exactly how they are deficient, and whether it would be possible to export them to MAYA PLE for some cleanup and texture adjustment before reimporting them to UEd.

Basically, UEd treats each polygon as a separate object. So your basic square face is two polys and four vertices, but one created from UEd would be two polys and six vertices, because the two triangles, even though they share coordinates, are stored separately. On top of this, UEd has a fairly low resolution when it comes to storing coordinates, so it tends to introduce rounding errors which separate the vertices slightly.

I don't know how easy it is to weld the separated vertices in Maya. Even if you can, it will probably mess up the UV mapping - two vertices that were treated as different when the UV map was created will break the mapping if they're welded.
 

chip

New Member
Nov 14, 2002
524
0
0
Visit site
afaik, there is no pipeline from UEd to MayaPLE.

PLE has no model format import options, so even if a BSP object could be converted to static mesh and exported in some fashion, there's no way to get it into MayaPLE for further work.

just out of interest, if you're OK with the BSP modeling tools in UEd, how do the poly modeling tools in MayaPLE seem inadequate? they're way more capable in terms of operations, and though the watermark is a pain, the interface is much more flexible than UEd's for modeling. IMHO, of course.
 

RFairey

King of the Faireys
Aug 2, 2000
169
0
0
Somewhere Else
Visit site
To answer your question, look here:
http://forums.simplymaya.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7089

Is a bit of vertex duplication really going to kill me? I know there might be some purists out there that insist smeshes should be maya or max, but if you read the thread above you'll see why I find MAYA so painful. Max seems to be incompatible with my OS, so thats out, which leaves Ued itself, which I have been using for years with UT1.
 
Last edited:

Radiosity

Minty Fresh!
Jan 3, 2003
2,217
0
0
45
UK
www.radiant-studios.net
Random vertices are bad, so yes it will kill you (metaphorically speaking ;) ). Main reason is that Ued uses vertex lighting for meshes, and if you've got random vertices hanging around a mesh then it'll look like crap when you light it. You might get away with some stuff, but it's pretty hit and miss.

And how is Max incompatible with your OS? What OS are you using?