Creating 3D modeling app with UE4?

Development Programming & Scripting
4

#My Remake of 3ds Max

I started remaking 3ds Max in UE4, just for fun.

*"
So more precisely, my two questions are: 1.How suitable UE4 would be for something like that in terms of performance? (let’s say I want to make something like Zbrush’s “dynamesh” feature, if anyone here is familiar with it?)

2.How suitable UE4 would be for something like that in terms of time/effort to make something like that in UE4 vs time/effort to do something like that with pure code from scratch. (keep in mind that I haven’t found a single engine for creating 3D applications so far,"*

#“It’s VERY VERY POSSIBLE” -Rama

#Video

I got as far as dynamically building Torus knots where you can set the exact specifications, and then you can watch it render!

Keep in mind I do the rendering slowly just for fun

Video on Forum

#UV Mapping and Collision

I later added collision and UV Mapping

6492-dynamicmeshuv.jpg
6492-dynamicmeshuv.jpg914×678 150 KB

#My 3ds Max Progress

I had selecteable triangles, could add and delete vertices, and flip normals and all of that. as you can see in video I had no issues rendering extremely high details meshes using DynamicMesh Builder

#Where to Start

Look up how rendering works in BoxCollisionComponent.cpp or SphereComponent.cpp

For legal reasons I can’t post too much code, but this is the general vicinity of what you want:

//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
// 	 Scene Proxy
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FPrimitiveSceneProxy* USculptor::CreateSceneProxy()
{
	class FDraw3DSceneProxy : public FPrimitiveSceneProxy
	{
	public:
		FDraw3DSceneProxy(USculptor* InComponent)
			:	FPrimitiveSceneProxy(InComponent),
				Sculptor(InComponent)
		{
			bWillEverBeLit = false;
		}

		//Draw Dynamic
		virtual void DrawDynamicElements(FPrimitiveDrawInterface* PDI,const FSceneView* View) OVERRIDE
		{
                    //draw to the PDI here!
                }

#How To

I created a single actor with a single “Scultpor” component which is my custom version of 3ds max.

That single component renders all the geometry for a single object that is being edited and shaped by the user.

So you are always drawing the PDI of a component that is part of an actor, but you can draw a LOT.

This keeps everything contained, and allows me to create or delete my “Canvas3D” whenever I want, or hide it, or move it, as you see in my video.

#Dynamic Mesh Builder

Look up info on dynamic mesh builder in the source code

FDynamicMeshBuilder

Creating Static Meshes at Runtime

Wiki Tutorial:

To get UVs working you will need to study how dynamic Mesh does it and modify the procedural mesh code accordingly.

I posted about it on the forums and on answerhub several times.