Static mesh art pipeline

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bfreese

Drawbot 9000
May 20, 2004
9
0
0
What is the best method to pull in a complete level from Max or Maya? What I mean is if I have built the entire level in Max or Maya and I want to import the entire level what is the pipeline? I have geometry with uvw information and pre-lit textures mass exported with Max 6. What I have done so far is selected all geometry and exported it from Max as an ASE file. When I pull it in to UnrealED it is of course one Static Mesh. Should I use a bunch of Multi-sub textures in Max and have it all as one mesh with objects broken out into mult-subobjects? My theory is that I would then apply texture after texture to each channel in Unrealed.

Am I close?

Thanks for the help

Brett
 

Bot_40

Go in drains
Nov 3, 2001
2,914
0
36
York, UK
No, building a whole map in max is a really bad idea to start with. For a start you are going to have problems optimising the map, you can't have a level as 1 mesh, otherwise the engine will render the entire map all the time. Really bad idea. Second is that even if you split it up into smaller meshes, you will still have horrible memory problems because of the way the engine batches meshes. If you have a single static mesh pillar, then it doesn't matter how many times you place that mesh in the level, it will only be instantized in memory once. The engine is designed for meshes to be modular like this, you build a bsp shell, then create individual decorations in max and import them as seperate meshes, that way you cut down on video memory usage by prolly 1/20th and you get a massive performance increase.
 

bfreese

Drawbot 9000
May 20, 2004
9
0
0
Thanks for the reply

So the way I have been doing it is the proper way - prelight individual mesh objects and import.

Thanks



Bot_40 said:
No, building a whole map in max is a really bad idea to start with. For a start you are going to have problems optimising the map, you can't have a level as 1 mesh, otherwise the engine will render the entire map all the time. Really bad idea. Second is that even if you split it up into smaller meshes, you will still have horrible memory problems because of the way the engine batches meshes. If you have a single static mesh pillar, then it doesn't matter how many times you place that mesh in the level, it will only be instantized in memory once. The engine is designed for meshes to be modular like this, you build a bsp shell, then create individual decorations in max and import them as seperate meshes, that way you cut down on video memory usage by prolly 1/20th and you get a massive performance increase.
 

Hourences

New Member
Aug 29, 2000
5,050
0
0
40
Belgium/Holland/Sweden
www.Hourences.com
he will then get a massive memory save and a massive cpu slow down
you need to find the balance in between, as long as all your corridor sections and whatever else dont have 50 multi sub object materials but lets say 20 max or less prefferably then your map will be heavy on mem (tho barely, 1 big mesh = 500 kb * 20 parts = 10 meg..) and light on cpu
when a mesh is drawn its split up in sectors, each different texture is a sector, the more sectors the slower it is, if you copy the same pillar 90 000 times around you will have 10 kb in your memory but 10 000 sectors to draw :)

if youre going to pre render then all your lightmaps do might be a problem for the memory
its also rather hard to get the exact same lighting you had in max in ued
it always shows up different in game then it looked on the max renders
its also very hard to really light everything, you might skip smaller details and if you do then you end up with 2 types of light in game
pre rendered and ued made, with prolly a whole other brightness, result=its looks like a mess

so in short, its perfectly possible to make the whole thing in max but only if the map is medium poly
high poly will prolly kill it, less optimal
and you definalty want to split the whole thing up in lots of different parts

you really want to consider using re usable parts, modular pieces
and you also really want to consider of using a lot of UED's vertexlight
believe me, i tried to do the same as you and its really hard to get it all perfect and certainly in the beginning
 

X22887

!Crap Mapper!
May 2, 2002
267
0
0
37
1. don't use that pre lit crap it looks horrible especially when in any proximity to vertex lighting the contrast is a nightmare
2. you can import it all as one mesh for alignment purposes, and then bring individual segments over it an once it's assembeled to your liking delete the one large mesh.
3. any repeating objects like hourences and bot_40 said should seperated for optimization
4. build bsp arround it and zone so that it occludes I noticed horunces did that in dm-ragijagr or whatever it's called ... point is occlusion = preformance spike :)
5. learn to use what epic gave ya ... smaller file size 56kers like that
that's about it
 

bfreese

Drawbot 9000
May 20, 2004
9
0
0
Thanks for the response

Thanks everyone for responding - very useful information. Hourences has some very useful workflow tutorials on his website. Thats what I'm talkn about.

Thanks

B
 

Zlal

New but not improved.
Nov 4, 2001
1,285
0
0
Exeter
X22887 said:
5. learn to use what epic gave ya ... smaller file size 56kers like that
that's about it

People get bored of seeing that static mesh or this static mesh oer and over again. Good custom stuff = good
 

Nemezis

Marcio Nemezis Silva
Mar 18, 2004
69
0
0
43
Portugal
www.nemezis.pt.vu
Fautl Meshes

Hi
I'm making a map, DM-Fautl2004, it is based on a real college, and as such, I need to know the exact dimensions (I have the project of the buildings :D , I have a post about this) and the matter for this post is the static mesh talk-about. The college has many many cilindrical pillars, that i made up on 3ds max, and the same for the collumns, chairs, tables, and even the snooker table that exists in a certain halway :lol: My way-of to do all of this is simply, draw out the shell in UED, and fill in with the meshes. I have some screenshots here: http://nemezis.no-ip.info/pub/dm-fautl2004 , though, the map is far away from beiing finished. I hope it covers all bugs that i left on DM-Fautl for UT Goty, and I also hope that is possible to insert vehicles on the map :rolleyes: , but thats another post...

\/_ see yas