Datasmith Feature Requests

Until we launch a proper feature request system, let’s use this thread to keep track of requests.

is there any plans for Grasshopper or Dynamo realtime connection with the engine so we can evaluate the design with the numeric changes on both parameters , or at leas a comparability with the engine bleubrints , i see this in the future when i export for example a big facade building done in grasshopper and see it in VR in the engine and start playing with the numeric parameters and watch the realtime change

Hello,

I am looking for a way to upgrade the interaction in studio template by activating a small hud (text and maby a picture also describing the part) every time i select a mesh (it can be anchored or just appear in the corner of the screen). I want it to be part of every mesh property so i can choose whenever i want to add it (the info). how can it be done?

thank you

More improvements:

  1. Adding the ability to have interest points you can teleport to (a teleport mesh platform you can add in the scene wherever you like).
  2. option to have an exploded view of the complete model
  3. A very cool feature could be an extend to what i have suggested earlier - every time i pick a mesh i can choose if i want to get an extended info about it. if i choose this option the whole scene will be grayed out and the mesh will spin on a studio platform with a data including pictures explaining what this part is. of-course it must be simple and intuitive tool for noobs like me :slight_smile:
  4. upgrading cad abilities such as an option to have set of tools to pick from like ruler and more.

are you a user who deals with archviz models or more mechanical types?

i am asking so I understand better your context when I read your request

Mechanical - take a look at companies/programs like : IC.IDO , techvis and virtalis to get a more in depth understanding - you have a lot to offer with your platform just need the right set of tools to attract more consumers and companies

A directional light blueprint that takes a long/lat coordinate and gives an accurate sun position based on time and day. For archviz lighting.

Another good option would be easy interface for setting haptic feedback for mesh collisions (between the controllers and the model mesh)

With Niagara around the corner, and with all the laser scanning going on, the first thing i’d look into is some great hdd/memory paging system and -sparse- octree structure to support Massive PointClouds. like 2 billion points at least. And have tools ray intersect, sphere intersect and such on that data for interactive - vr- pointcloud tools and viz. all blueprintable.

Oh man Niagara would be an awesome way of integrating point cloud and viewing them in VR !

Both Unity and Lumberyard now have ECS workflow built-in. It would be awesome if Unreal has a ECS workflow.

Off the top of my head, I would say:
-Bake selected objects, this is the only feature that I miss from Stingray LOL.

  • Generate UV lightmap for selected objects. I noticed some geometries do not import with UV map for some reason and it would be helpful if we can only select that geometry and generate a new UV lightmap, instead of re-importing the whole scene. This is very helpful for large projects.

  • Be able to adjust the size of the ‘baked’ maps that DataSmith create when importing scenes from 3D .
    There are some shaders of complex textures that can be translated to Unreal (this is understandable) but there is no way to adjust how big or small that texture gets baked.
    This can be fixed later in anyways, but wonder when the project is very large if this feature could speed things up.

That’s all for now :wink:

New swarm please!

I post this a year ago:

“Lightmass calculation and quality, swarm distribution methods look old fashioned and time consuming. I tested network rendering for swarm and it is really useless. Cores does not work together. You can not use your cores efficiently . As said before that one core has a job and another cores wait in vain. Unreal team must write new renderer in short term, maybe in UE5.”

You can find critics at this topic : Why I think Lightmass is completely out of Date - Architectural and Design Visualization - Epic Developer Community Forums

Question about Datasmith import options. When I export 3d model from 3ds (unwrapped made in 2nd channel) I got 4 different uvw channels in ue4 and my 2nd channel in 3ds is 4th channel in ue4. So I need manually change lightmap index from 4 to 1, for every mesh. Why it is not automatically goes to 1st channel in ue4, like when I import standart .fbx file??
Thanks!

As a mechanical designer, I use Solidworks A LOT. It’s pretty annoying that Studio supports the native format up to 2014 only, because last years the program improved a lot, and I can’t use SW2014 anymore. Of course I can save models in STEP, but I loose all the benefits of lights or camera. And Studio can be a killer app against Vizualize Pro. (but maybe this explains that?) Anyway, if you can, please support Solidworks up to 2017 (at least) !

Other thing, that can be seen as a feature request: After the beta, the subscription will be 45$ monthly or so. A perpetual license with upgrade if the guy want to would be great, because I hate subscribe for something that I can loose if I stop subscription.

I hope our new re-import workflow in 4.20 will support this.

This is how Unreal Studio subscription will work. If you stop paying, you keep using that version. You just won’t get new versions. We probably shouldn’t call it subscription.

I am confused. I know for a fact we load the most recent Solidworks data (2017). Have you tried it? Or are you referring to some documentation somewhere?

A callback that maxscript can respond to would be great.

  • DatasmithHandleMaterial
  • DatasmithHandleMap
  • DatasmithHandleLight
  • DatasmithHandleGeometry, etc.
    The parameter would be the node.
    You could return false for DS to handle it, and true if its handled by your script. This allows us to handle materials and maps DS doesn’t yet support.