Blender 2.72 to UE4: Looking for Vehicle rigging tutorial.

[anonymous_user_a624771d]

In Vehicles: Overview & Car Setup | 01 | v4.2 Tutorial Series | Unreal Engine - YouTube it says that there is no skeleton for the vehicle.

Does anyone know of a good tutorial for creating and rigging/skinning a vehicle in blender 2.72 for use with UE4?

[anonymous_user_f70d3582]

I don’t like having vehicles with no bones, seems wrong:p

anyway if you check out youtube channel he has a video showing how to rig a vehicle in blender, its a little old now but the workflow still works for creating vehicles to use in UE4.

[Geodav]

while you don’t “need” bones in vehicle for it to work, i would advise using bones unless your vehicle is really simple

[anonymous_user_a624771d]

What is the difference between vehicles that are made with and without bones?

[Geodav]

once you start adding complex structures like suspension then things can get confusing with out a bone structure, but its up to you just make sure the origin of the main section is at 0,0,0 and that is the “root” of your vehicle

[anonymous_user_a624771d]

While I have you here GeoDav, Can I get a link to the correct video? I see several on your channel about vehicles.

[anonymous_user_f70d3582]

ahh, speak of the devil;)

@Tontow;148271

What is the difference between vehicles that are made with and without bones?

just to add to what geodav said, if you wanted to animate parts of your vehicle it will be a lot harder to do without bones and a complex vehicle without bones will take a lot longer and be more difficult to set up in UE4.

@Tontow;148350

Can I get a link to the correct video?

is the one you want.

just so you know, in the video geodav uses the psk exporter witch isn’t supported in UE4 so you will have to use the fbx exporter.

if you have any issues let us know and we will help you solve them:)

[anonymous_user_a624771d]

As a side note, I’m finding next to nothing on aside from whats on channel and what I am finding is related to UDK.

[anonymous_user_a624771d]

And then I would use to get it into the game or are there still issues with doing it that way?

UE4 0 1 Basic Wheeled Vehicle a

[anonymous_user_0df12f74]

@Tontow;148408

And then I would use to get it into the game or are there still issues with doing it that way?

It is much simpler now, if you have UE4 version 4.2 or greater, just follow guide:
.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Physics/Vehicles/VehicleUserGuide/

Let us know if you have any questions!

**EDIT: Also check out these videos by Epic as well:

[anonymous_user_f70d3582]

@Tontow;148408

And then I would use to get it into the game or are there still issues with doing it that way?

you can use that way or the way in link’s, they both work fine.

[anonymous_user_a624771d]

What about hard-points on vehicles?

I’m guessing that I would have to be creative and come up with something in blueprints or is there already functionality in UE4 that supports hard-points and damage models for hard-points?

[anonymous_user_f70d3582]

what do you mean exactly?

[anonymous_user_a624771d]

@;148717

what do you mean exactly?

IE: An interchangeable turret that you can be blown up. Or being able to blow up half the vehicle and have the other half keep going. Or someone rams the door and the door would show the damage from the impact.
(Basically, a high end damage model.)

[Geodav]

uhmmm, long way to go on that, changable turrets i would use sockets to attach the turret mesh and to show damage then use morph targets, of course you’ll have to code/bp all that yourself as Epic only supply the very basics of vehicle code.

wish you the best of luck

[anonymous_user_a624771d]

If you think about it, I would just need 2 things to pull it off:

• support for detecting a hit to a mesh that has been attached with a socket. (So I can tell what got hit.)
• Some way to attach a vehicle to a socket (so you could change it out like a sword or a piece of armor once you hit a certain damage level)

If I can manage that much, then I would just be able to make a model that had no mesh (or a very small mesh) and a base bone that I could add sockets to.

[anonymous_user_f70d3582]

I see.

@Tontow;149170

• support for detecting a hit to a mesh that has been attached with a socket. (So I can tell what got hit.)

there used to be a per bone collision setting for that, don’t know if its still there. you could also set up hit boxes instead.

• Some way to attach a vehicle to a socket (so you could change it out like a sword or a piece of armor once you hit a certain damage level)

there is 2 ways I can think of for that:

1. have a base skeletal mesh and then use the skeletal mesh socket manager.

2. use a blueprint to put it all together as components and use variables to swap them with other parts

[anonymous_user_0df12f74]

@;149219

1. have a base skeletal mesh and then use the skeletal mesh socket manager.
2. use a blueprint to put it all together as components and use variables to swap them with other parts

Tontow: If you download the Platformer Game from the marketplace, the green cars are exploding cars, they have pieces attached in a similar manner that blow off the base vehicle mesh when it explodes. It is a very simple example, but may be worth having a look at the way they created , it is only a stationary actor, but the same approach could be used for a vehicle with it’s bumper, hood, roof, trunk body panels etc attached using sockets. Hope that helps!

[anonymous_user_a624771d]

Thanks, I will have a look at it.

[anonymous_user_a624771d]

I imported the buggy from the racing demo and am looking at the wheels and the suspension bones.

The bones in the wheels and the base bone are all +x forward and +z is up, but all of the other bones are rotated differently.

Would I be correct in saying that only the rotation of the main bone and the wheel bones matter is the only rotation that matters? And that the rotation on all of the other bones (IE: tank treads) doesn’t really matter?