I have a 3D model for a house made in sketchup make (the free version) and I’m trying to import it into Unreal so that I can do something like what was shown on the realistic rendering demo.
I export a dae file from sketchup and then convert it to fbx using the FBX Converter from Autodesk. After that I import the fbx file into Unreal but I the textures I apply do not render well.
Unfortunately over on my forum the issue isn’t fixed yet as I’m having the same issue as Jonathan with adding UE4 materials to my imported FBX meshes.
I’m trying to push the epic team to support native .skp (sketchup) file format so that we may be able to also edit the geometry of the fbx (or hopefully skp) in the UE4 editor.
I’m waiting to hear from Andrew Rodham if epic will want to utilize sketchp’s easy modeling (architectural) and have it integrate with easy pipeline between the two which I hope Epic see’s the huge benefit sketchup would bring to game level developers.
Thank you TJ for helping Jonathan as he is in the same situation as me with Sketchup.
It’s great to see the epic team helping and answering question from the community.
I’d suggest cutting out the middle man and exporting directly to FBX from sketch up, that way we can eliminate any problems with the collada export from sketch up, or in your converter.
I’ve done a bit of testing with sketch up and exporting FBX all works as expected for me - you have the option of combining all your sketchup components into a single mesh in UE4’s import step.
Also, FBX does have the capacity to store material and texture information, and this should work correctly for you. I have found you might need to add an extra set of UVs to the meshes in UE4 to get them to work with lightmapping though.
If you have any further problems, send us a copy of your skp file and I can have a look.
In Jonathans and my case with impoting an entire sketchup house model with all of its smaller detailed mesh’s like chairs, kitchen taps, light fixtures, roof tiles etc, we would need to UV map everything in order to apply UE4 materials to our FBX imported model?
If you export materials with your FBX, and import them into UE4 with the FBX, you should see all your materials in the content browser. I’ve tried downloading the PetcoPark model from the 3D Warehouse and all its materials are imported into UE4 correctly:
If you want to manipulate the materials that were imported with the FBX, feel free to do so, or alternatively change the material assignments for your own authored materials. If you want specific control over the UV coordinates in your models, then you’ll have to do that in sketchup, but we do have the ability to generate UV coordinates for you in UE4s static mesh editor.
The model looks great, once the fbx model is in UE4 can you add animations such as doors that open with a key action?
Would you be able to add materials to my house model using UE4’s material editor (my model has no materials on it) adding brick textures and timber textures to the model?
I’d like to make the doors open with a ‘spacebar’ key command if thats possible to a fbx model.
Of course, you could add your own blueprint-controlled doors, cinematic cues, day-night cycles and whatever else you wanted!
I don’t want to hijack Jonathan’s thread too much, but I think you might be getting confused between geometry (BSP) and meshes in UE4. The following video is applying materials to geometry:
We can support material assignment such as the above video with geometry because it is a procedurally generated model that we build ourselves in the editor. We don’t support this for static mesh instances (such as those imported from external programs). If you want to continue using SketchUp, then you will need to do an amount of texturing in there before importing it into UE4 so we know what different material assignments you are expecting.
Hi guys, thank you for all your comments but as Andrew says, we are loosing the track a little bit here.
I strongly believe that supporting collada files is a huge opportunity for Epic to push UE4 to new markets. Take my case as an example. My gf and I bought this apartment and we got the floor plans. In less than a week, with no SketchUp knowledge at all, I was able to build what you see in the first picture. Then, after seeing the realistic rendering demo (which was built for one artist in ten days or so I read) I tried to import the model into UE4 but then applying materials didn’t work as expected. I dreamed, and I’m still dreaming, about seeing my house before it’s finished. I’ve meet several people in this same situation. I could build a company out of this. Just adding OculusVR will do wonders.
Furthermore, adding collada files support will be beneficial and goes towards Epic’s plans for UE4 as an accessible tools for non-gaming applications. That’s why there’s a US$19/mo plan and a realistic rendering demo.
Although it would be fantastic to have direct skp files support, I think collada support is less tied to other tool. Visualize all the engineers, craftsmen, architects, designers and more, that use the free version of SketchUp to show their work. I can’t even imagine what these people would do if they had all the features for lighting, physical rendering, physics, particles or blueprint offered by UE4. I’m a software engineer who never thought of building games, but I join to the people using UE4 for other things rather than games.
Same as Anthony, I encourage you to work hard on this. It’s a win-win. You may not be able to import dae files directly, but you could create a fbx converter that’s capable of taking a collada file and convert in into a fbx file that imports flawlessly into UE4 so that we can apply materials and so on.
Thank you very much for reading such a long comment. I can write a letter if that’s more appropriate, hahaha.
Hey! Over on the other thread (Can Epic add support for Sketchup *.skp files? - Asset Creation - Epic Developer Community Forums) I’ve tried to explain how material assignments work between geometry and meshes, if you understand this concept, you’ll see how applying materials to imported meshes isn’t working quite how you expect for now. We definitely want to have strong support for importing different mesh formats, but while we don’t currently have dae support, exporting to fbx will give you everything that dae would.
It would be awesome to expand the functionality of the static mesh editor to be able to edit material assignments and even geometry. I know this has been mentioned before.
I 100% agree with you, when I saw the realistic demo EPIC had produced I immediately started to try and figure out how to import my sketchup models over to UE4 without so many speed bumps.
It would be a HUGE market that would open if UE4 had direct support for sketchup files as so many people use the application and also it is so well established with a massive community and models made.
I would really try to get support between the two programs streamlined as I and a untold a lot of sketchup users would use UE4 to power their projects.
I’m very passionate about linking these two programs together as I can see the huge benefits between the two.
It’s also the ease-of-use with sketchup that makes it a power tool for creating game levels, architectural designs and other showcases that UE4 would benefit from, sketchup is a powerful tool just waiting to have direct support into UE4.
Thanks Andrew and also Jonathan for helping push this potentially new market opportunity to EPIC.
Hi Anthony, yes. Big opportunity here.
I’m wondering if there’s a better place to make this request to EPIC rather than commenting on the answerhub. Can Andrew guide us there?
Thanks again to both of you for keeping this alert about the topic. I’m looking forward this. Please let know what else I can do
I’m curious to know how other game developers in the past were making levels, If I knew about how easy it was to create detailed level sketchup I would of pushed down this path to get direct support into unreal engine.
Yes, would there be a better place to further push this discussion as it is a gold mine waiting to be used.
Andrew, after importing the PetcoPark you showed earlier, did you build lighting? How did it go? I’m having problems with this step, since sketchup doesn’t work with unwrapped UVs and exports only one set of them.
After I build lighting, the textures and shadows get all messed up, exactly like described here: Overlapping UV's, Sketchup, and Materials - Rendering - Epic Developer Community Forums
Any ideas on how to solve this problem?
Thanks a lot!
Hi! Can you make sure you check “Generate Lightmap UVs” when you import the mesh? (This can also be changed in the static mesh editor under “Import Settings”)
This should generate you a set of UVs suitable for lightmapping.
Ah, my apologies - I just checked and this is something that was added recently, and will be available in 4.5.
I sure it used to be possible to generate an extra set of UVs in the static mesh editor - I can’t get to an older build at the moment, but could you have a look on the lod settings and see if there’s an option to set the number of UV maps?
Awesome, can’t wait for such feature!
In the static mesh editor I can indeed create a new set of UVs (window > generate unique UVs), and at first the new channel, #1, seems to be neatly organized, but when I build lighting I get the “wrapping UVs” error.
Channel #0, the one that comes from sketchup, is messy as usual, but I don’t think it’s a problem, since it’s only for texturing.
Thanks again!
