The big question about Unreal 4 Scale

[starseeker]

I know this has been asked to death (at least on UDK), but unfortunately, there is also many different answers.

Before getting to UE4, let get back to UDK.

I have heard that the default character is 96 unit high, as well as 1UU=1cm, to 1UU=2cm.

Yet, when I load UDK (2013 July version), with one of the main character, he is closer to 128 unit tall. Again I load my real world scale Maya character of about 170cm tall, she looks like a giant in UDK. I discover that I can get her to my eye level by scaling of about 0,75.

Also, I have heard that Skyrim use character of 128 height, for main character of about 6ft, 128/183=0.7

So in the end, I used scale of 1cm=0.7uu, or 1uu=1.43cm. It works fine for assert created in UDK I guess.

Like everyone else, I would like to make the jump to UE4,

But now, I am back to the headache again. I haven’t got UE4 yet (My PC is a bit under the spec), but soon (after I upgrade my rig).

I do not want to create my asserts & then have to waste time to rescale & rematch grid points (especially hard for the high poly normal map models). The latter point about make nice perfect UU size model is critical in modular design.

So do anyone know the default unit conversion in UE4?

[Daydreamer]

Hi starseeker,

The default setting is 1cm to 1uu. In the Unreal Editor, under World Settings, there is a World to Meters field (defaulted at 100, which is one centimeter), so you can change it as needed.

Cheers,
-D

[TK-Master]

I find it strange that there seems to be so much confusion about scale.

If I make a box that is 180cm tall for example it is always going to be 180 unreal units tall in both UDK and UE4 (unless I change the default settings in UE4).

Make sure you set your units to cm in maya and also make sure the scale factor is 1 when exporting to fbx.

I think it’s as straight forward as it can be o.o

[Sladus]

So 6 foot tall is about 1.8 uu?

[Geodav]

no 6" tall = ca 180uu
1uu = 1 cm

tip from an old guy thats been there and done that, change all your content to the new scale in you 3d programm “BEFORE” you export it. it will cause less problems later

[starseeker]

@TK-Master;14369

I find it strange that there seems to be so much confusion about scale.

If I make a box that is 180cm tall for example it is always going to be 180 unreal units tall in both UDK and UE4 (unless I change the default settings in UE4).

Make sure you set your units to cm in maya and also make sure the scale factor is 1 when exporting to fbx.

http://i57.tinypic.com/35hqlwi.jpg

I think it’s as straight forward as it can be o.o

Its true. But thats not the problem.

You see, in UDK, when you export a person of 170 unit. he is 170 unit,(true) but you are actually much shorter (defualt setting FPS view). So everything you export to UDK in real world scale become giant scale!

Yes, you can of course change view height, but then you also have to change step distance & speed, & all the default physic, like gavity that have a length component have to be modify. Thats a lot of work.

So many people prefer to stick as close as possible to default character size in UDK, & the default character height scale is about 128 unit, which when convert as 128cm, is a Dwarf or kid.

[gmpreussner]

Please note that our default scale has changed between UE3 and UE4. Old information, such as character height = 96UU is no longer valid. As others have said, the default scale in UE4 is 1 cm == 1 UU.

[starseeker]

@Daydreamer;14360

Hi starseeker,

The default setting is 1cm to 1uu. In the Unreal Editor, under World Settings, there is a World to Meters field (defaulted at 100, which is one centimeter), so you can change it as needed.

Cheers,
-D

This you meant in UE4 right? UDK doesn’t have this setting, last I checked (1 min ago). Thats nice to know.

So Can I assume if I use world to Meter, everything I modeled in real world scale, as well as FPS camera, will look just right in UE4 (as oppose to furnitures & chairs looking like from land of giants or hobbit)? If so its a god send. tell me this is true please!

No more needing to convert realworld to UU scale anymore…

[starseeker]

@gmpreussner;14400

Please note that our default scale has changed between UE3 and UE4. Old information, such as character height = 96UU is no longer valid. As others have said, the default scale in UE4 is 1 cm == 1 UU.

Thank you very much. This is good news for everyone I guess. Now if we can grid snap to sub 1uu (like 0.25 UU or 0.5UU), which is very useful for small fabricated objects, that will be perfect.

[TK-Master]

@starseeker;14399

Its true. But thats not the problem.

You see, in UDK, when you export a person of 170 unit. he is 170 unit,(true) but you are actually much shorter (defualt setting FPS view). So everything you export to UDK in real world scale become giant scale!

Yes, you can of course change view height, but then you also have to change step distance & speed, & all the default physic, like gavity that have a length component have to be modify. Thats a lot of work.

So many people prefer to stick as close as possible to default character size in UDK, & the default character height scale is about 128 unit, which when convert as 128cm, is a Dwarf or kid.

Ah so that’s what the confusion is about.

Well it’s simple, UE4’s scale is basically twice as UDK’s.
The default character height in UDK is 96UU, in UE4 it is 192UU (which is 96 times two) so basically assuming you will use the default pawn heights for reference you can just scale everything you had in UDK by 2.

[Spaehling]

@gmpreussner;14400

Please note that our default scale has changed between UE3 and UE4. Old information, such as character height = 96UU is no longer valid. As others have said, the default scale in UE4 is 1 cm == 1 UU.

hey, thanks for the information. where i can find this in the documenation?

greetz

[anonymous_user_a57c1d73]

First post to Unreal forums. Hi everyone…

When I model in Maya, I use cm for UE4 meshes, much easier than UDK. In UDK a typical character height = 96UU in UE4 the character = 180UU or 180cm (my actual height).
I exported a static mesh from one of the files I downloaded from Marketplace. Heres what I found:

In Maya (or Max), I first made a reference box (x=40, y=180, z=40) and based all of my sizes for environment and asset modeling from that.
If Max is Z up then adjust accordingly.

Nice to be here. Having great fun with this new technology.

Hope it helps someone…

…

[anonymous_user_272e36ca]

…that is a great help. Thanx for posting it. I am just starting with UE4 and stuff like this seems basic but its very important to know. Great Help.

[anonymous_user_247ec667]

Is this just in UT? I thought the average highlight of a door was 128 units tall so you’re character would be at least 96 units tall?

[glenn1979]

yes I did model an interior in 3dmax 2015 in mm and when I finish wit everything I did change system unit setup to cm, and I believe that if you do that its going to be ok,but when I did open it in unreal 4.9 everything is big the light are so small and the character (you) are sooo small like ant small hehe ,so what should I do next time model every thing in cm in max and export it like that?

[DEBCal]

This is a very old thread but just wondering if anyone has had experience with scale conversion between SketchUp and UE4? I model in millimetres in SketchUp and exported FBX with scale factor of 1.0 but it appears that my model is very small in UE so I can’t drop a character into the environment I created. As it is architectural, scale is critical so I’d like to scale up in UE accurately. If there’s a way of ensuring good scale conversion from SketchUP, then that would be good to know as well.

[ZacD]

Millimeters / 10 = centimeters

[DEBCal]

Thanks. I tried to scale by 10 and the Unreal character was then too small in my environment. I created my own scale factor based on the height of the character in relation to objects which I know the dimensions of and it seems that scaling by 2.5 had the best result. So at present (until I fiddle a bit more or someone else has input) when drawing in SketchUp (in millimetres) one will have to scale up by 2.5. Therefore 1mm = 2.5uu which doesn’t seem to align with the previous comment that 1cm = 1uu.