Creating asset in a DCC application

In the previous chapter, you learned how to use BSP to block out a level. However, we need to replace them with static meshes for better performance and more control of materials, collisions, and so on. We will create models in the Digital Content Creation (DCC) application (such as Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya, Blender, and so on) that are imported into Unreal Engine through Content Browser. Unreal Engine supports the import of both FBX and OBJ but its recommended to use the FBX format.

The following screenshot is an example asset that I will use in this chapter:

Note

Note that at the time of writing this book, Unreal Engine import pipeline uses FBX 2014. Trying to import using a different version might result in incompatibilities.

A few things that you need to keep in mind when modeling are as follows:

• Units: Unreal Units (UU) are critical when modeling assets for games. Incorrect units will result in assets looking larger or smaller than they are supposed to look. 1 Unreal Unit is equal to 1 cm. The sample character that comes with Unreal Engine 4 is 196 cm high. So when you are modeling assets for Unreal Engine 4, it's best to use a box that is 196 cm high as reference.

  Note

  To learn how to change units for Autodesk 3ds Max, you can refer to https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2015/ENU/3DSMax/files/GUID-69E92759-6CD9-4663-B993-635D081853D2-htm.html.

  To learn how to change units for Blender, you can refer to http://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/blender/metric-imperial-units.php.

  • Pivot Point: This represents the local center and local coordinate system of an object. When you import a mesh into Unreal Engine, the pivot point of that mesh (as it was in your DCC application) determines the point where any transformation (such as move, rotate, and scale) will be performed. Generally, it is best to keep your meshes at origin (0, 0, 0) and set your pivot point to one corner of the mesh for proper alignment in Unreal Engine.
  • Triangulation: Remember that, the Unreal Engine importer will automatically convert the quads to triangles so there is no skipping from triangles.
  • UV: When you do UVs for assets, you can go beyond the 0-1 space, especially when you are dealing with big objects. UV channel 1 (which is channel 0 in Unreal) is used for texturing and UV channel 2 (which is channel 1 in Unreal) is used for lightmaps.