Documentation

Importing and Exporting: Static Meshes from Maya to UDK

Documentation by Andrew Lewis

A .TXT of this document can also be found on the Dropbox

Importing a Static Mesh from MAYA to UDK using .FBX

MAYA

Naming convention:

Make sure the file is approprately named, for example the Pickups for this project are named "<Group>_<Size>" eg: Candy_Large.mb

Make sure Outliner is clean:

Unless the model specifically requires multiple meshes, the only non-default object in the Outliner should be the mesh named "<File Name>_Mesh"

Make sure Hypershade is clean:

Note: UDK does not support transparency sorting well, make sure viewport > Shading > Polygon Transparency Sorting is turned off

Transparency Sorting:

- To manually sort transparency apply an oapque version of your mesh's material to all opaque faces

- You will need to create new materials and/or meshes for intersecting transparent faces, I'll leave this up to your judgement

- Organising transparency sorting can be difficult, look at the mesh from all angles to find intersecting transparency, let me know if you need help

Unless the model specifically requires multiple materials, the only non-default object in the Hypergraph should be the material named "<File Name>_Mat"

If the model requires transparency sorting, the transparent material should be named "<File Name>_Transparent_Mat_<Number>"

Make sure the target of your material is set to a local image that is appropriately named, for this project we are using .TGAs named "<Package>_<File Name>" eg: Pickup_Candy_Large.tga

Make sure History is deleted:

If the outliner is clean this shouldn't be an issue but it doesn't hurt to be sure, select from the menu: Edit > Delete All By Type > History

Exporting:

Select from the menu: File > Export All, Then choose "FBX export" from the "Files of Type" drop down menu

Boxes that should be selected for most Static Mesh exports are:

- General Options > Default file extension

- General Options > Preserve references

- Include > Geometry > Referenced Containers Content

- If something else seems like it should be selected for your mesh, it probably should be. Try it both with and without and/or check with me

Boxes that should NOT be selected for most Static Mesh exports are:

-Animation > Animation (remember these are STATIC meshes, ex/importing will probably vary greatly for animated meshes and Actor X is a more prefered export format)

- Camera > Camera

- Lights > Lights

- Embeded Media > Embeded Media

- Once again, If something seems like it should be selected for your mesh, it probably should be. Try it both with and without and/or check with me

-Note: Ive had no problems with leaving these on but there's no point include stuff you shouldn't need

Export, making sure to use the naming convention decided on previously

UDK

Select from the menu: View > Browser Windows > Content Browser, The press import in the lower left of the screen, then select your .FBX file

Info:

- Select the package for your Static Mesh, if creating a new package remember naming conventions, for this project Static Mesh packages will be named "<Project>_<Purpose>" eg: Grow_Pickups

- Name the group for your Static Mesh, this may not be neccessary but is a good idea to fill it out anyway, an example could be "PickUps" or a sub group, eg: Candy

- If you have stayed to a naming convention for your .MB and .FBX then the mesh name should already be appropriate, otherwise change the name to your convention

Options:

- Many of the default options for importing the .FBX should be left as they are, however here are some boxes you will need to check

- Items that should be selected for most Static Mesh imports are:

- General > Import Type > Static Mesh

- Static Mesh > Advanced > Explicit Normals

- Materials > Import Material

- If something else seems like it should be selected for your mesh, it probably should be. Try it both with and without and/or check with me

- Boxes that should NOT be selected for most Static Mesh exports are:

- Skeletal Mesh > Import Morph Targets

- Skeletal Mesh > Import Animation (remember, STATIC mesh, no animation)

- Once again, If something seems like it should be selected for your mesh, it probably should be. Try it both with and without and/or check with me

- You may be given a warning about Smoothing Groups, if this is relevant to your mesh then read the message and change your FBX export settings, otherwise dismiss this message

You can now place your Static Mesh in the UDK level by draging it into the scene from the Content Browser, although it may not behave correctly yet

Transparency:

If your mesh's material uses transparency this won't show up right away

First you need to find your mesh's material, the fastest way to do this is to select the materials folder, that should have been created automatically, of your package in the content browser

Right click the material and select > Edit Using Material Editor... (this should be in bold)

In the Material Editor you need to change the material settings, to show the settings at the bottom of the window, click anywhere in the blank space of the node map

Complex transparency (glass, etc):

- For transparency that uses greyscale (semi transparent pixels) select from the settings: Material > Blend Mode > BLEND_Transluscent

- Now connect (click and drag) the alpha channel node (white box) of your texture sample to the Opacity node of the material

Simple transparency (vegetation, etc):

- For bitmap (black and white only) transparency select from the settings: Material > Blend Mode > BLEND_Masked

- Now connect (click and drag) the alpha channel node (white box) of your texture sample to the OpacityMask node of the material

Click apply in the top right of the window and your material will be updated

To fix transparency sorting issues, you may have to make a prefab from multiple meshes, this can be tedious and is dependant on your model, ask me if you need help