UE1 - UT Help importing .obj assets

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gopostal

Active Member
Jan 19, 2006
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The one thing I've tried to avoid over the years is advanced modelling. The spatial reasoning part of your brain that's used in creating them must be a charred and blackened mess in my head as I have spent more than one weekend trying to suss out roughly how it's done. (no offense 3DBuzz, that fail is on me)

I'm currently importing some assets and I need to bring some .obj files into the engine. They are gibs meshes that won't need animated and I already have existing textures to apply as skins. I simply need them imported to a usable thing. Now I am able to import them easily with 227 because of the added features but is there an easier way of doing this than making brushes from every one of them in 227 then importing the brush into 436 and making a mesh that way? I have a bunch to do so can the process be shortened with some third party app?

TIA.
 

War_Master

Member
May 27, 2005
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227h and 227i can export meshes to perfection and is the only thing that can do that. Those meshes can be easily imported to UT if you have the correct import commands.

If you can't open packages from another UE1 game with 227h/i, you will need to edit the Engine.u package until its able to open them. I already made one that can open any UT package for the 227h version and I've been able to export all of TacticalOps meshes and most of the X-Com Enforcer meshes as well.
 

gopostal

Active Member
Jan 19, 2006
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I tried the methodology you discuss but the models were *really* a wreck. Rinsing through so many import/export iterations just damages the model too much. I just scripted some partially specific carcass classes for most of the monsters and called it a day.

I did open the original obj files in 3ds MAX and checked some of the gib models and they are fine there so the process of conversion is what's messing them up. It's all good, thanks for your reply.
 

War_Master

Member
May 27, 2005
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I use Milkshape to export .obj models which then I can import them into 3ds max for animating using the psk/psa format. So far, that's the only format that milkshape can export correctly with all of the model's info intact.

If milkshape can import the format you're trying to convert all you will need to do is Merge the model using (CTRL + W) and have the "Auto Smooth" option checked so that it applies the shading automatically when it merges it. After that, just export the model as the .obj file and see how it comes out in the game. That, if 227 can import that format.

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Another option is using 3ds max to export the model as psk/psa. For that you will also need to merge the model and apply the shading with its modifiers. You might also need to have a bone or two and a single frame so that it exports correctly.

You can also use Milkshape to export the model as psk/psa but first you will need to merge the model as I mentioned above and give it a couple bones so that it can export it. One problem with milkshape is that it messes up the skin position a bit. I figured out a while ago that you need to move all the material positions in milkshape by 0.001 units on the Y axis using the Texture Coordinate Editor before exporting to that format.

Also, exporting meshes to psk/psa format has an advantage of reduced file size to almost half the size compared to the default .3d format on animated meshes. I'm guessing that it would be a bit smaller for a single frame mesh as well. And its also a 16 bit file which makes the animations a lot smoother in game.
 
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VendorX

Member
Aug 2, 2010
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BXL/Paris
MilkShape is supporting .3d ue (1&2) specific file format ...
... so, I would suggest writing a basic resource class and (batch)load all these meshes by using: #exec MESH IMPORT ...
 

War_Master

Member
May 27, 2005
702
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Milkshape's .3d exporter is completely wrong. It uses the same calculations used on 3ds2unr where both of them screw up the model's vertex and UV positions making the model in a way, useless. Also, when Unreal-Engine-1 imports the .3d models it automatically reduces 10% of its original size which complicates and accurate conversion of the model from another game or prefab. These are the biggest reasons why I don't use the .3d format when UT already supports the psk/psa format and everything comes out more accurately, even from Milkshape.


There's also MeshMaker. It does convert the model from a .t3d file pretty accurately but it does not merge the model or adds any shading to it.
 

gopostal

Active Member
Jan 19, 2006
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This is what happened when I tried meshmaker after importing to 227/create a brush:
2lwak5h.jpg


Have you seen anything *that* jacked up? :D To be fair we are asking a lot from such an old engine.
 

War_Master

Member
May 27, 2005
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that happens when the model is bigger than the 256x256x256 box boundary, or when the model is off from the center pivot and part of the model is placed outside that boundary. It can also happen when the number of vertexes exceed the maximum.
 

gopostal

Active Member
Jan 19, 2006
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Interesting list, thanks for clarifying. As far as I can tell (I'm very much new to using MAX) I don't think it's crossing any of those boundaries but it may just be that I am the one making the mistake by not seeing the problem.

In the end I released the monsters without using the gibs. It was getting pretty large already (35MB+ for just 10 monsters) so I scripted some texture-replaced default meshes to use. I honestly got tired of working on them knowing that likely no one would use them anyway. I just wanted to see if I could do a full import of assets from another game and I'm happy enough with the results.

Monsters download in case you want to see the results: http://www.forum.unrealtournament.info/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=345

Thanks for taking the time to do such detailed responses. Precious little good modelling information is out there for UT so nuggets like you are leaving will be important for people coming along later.
 
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