Datasmith Feature Requests

Development Pipeline & Plugins
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42

Hi, I am new to UE & VR. I am wondering if Unreal Studio will have similar template like the Blueprint VR in future?

Currently the Product Viewer VR is not exactly like Blueprint VR, where we pickup, throw & interact with objects -or- is it possible to create something like that with Product Viewer template? I am coming from archvis industry and wanted to create something like Blueprint VR but using the benefit of Datasmith export/import process.

43

We are constantly working on improving the templates that ship with Unreal Studio. We know we have further to go. Nothing should stop you from using Blueprint VR with assets from Unreal Studio (that I know of).

44

Hello,
Lots of people (including me) want to have the compatible exporter for 3dsmax 2019. currently it doesn’t support 2019. here is even a thread about this topic:

I bought couple of v-ray scenes that i need to import to ue4. Will there be any update about this problem anytime soon? Im currently using trail version to try unreal studio. renting v-ray and 3dsmax will depend on unreal studio.

Thanks

45

Another patiently waiting for 2019 support here, thanks to anyone listening! We had already made the move to 2010 and don’t want to roll back to get Unreal/Datasmith operational. Here is hoping :slight_smile: Cheers,

46

Datasmith - Unreal Engine has been updated for the 4.20 preview release. Still no Datasmith exporter for 2019!!!
Why?

47

It’s coming. We successfully compiled it for 2019, but we still have to QA it and we’re all at Unreal Academy. Sorry, shouldn’t have to wait more than a week or two.

48

+1 for this. , I know you did mention the team is aware of this but if I may add another vote for this so you can tally up feedback. Specifically the Hierarchy and layer explorer is very limited. If your team wants to look at examples to follow I would say is not a bad place to start as it is pretty powerful when is comes to its layer and hierarchy explorers. There are some issue with allowing duplicate names and so on that maybe shouldn’t be that way however simple things like:

  • Collapse all
  • Auto collapse
  • Select children
  • Allow nested layers

Addition features that would be useful are:

  • A more powerful layer or grouping system (perhaps Both). I listed a few things above but in depth research could be done on this
  • Allow quick isolation of objects
  • More robust snapping and alignment tools - options to choose what to snap to or functionality to press tab to switch to different reference points (this is a hard one to do but look to Revit as a example software. I know that their software is intended for industrial use so accuracy is very important which is not such the case for UE but look at how things can be rotated and moved by any point or reference accurately and easily)
  • More effective select all assets with the same Material (Maybe its just me but i cant always get this to work right)
  • Selection Sets Feature. Additional to having Grouping and layers. Selections sets can be a real life saver in
  • Simple Uv mapping - Planar. Cylindrical etc. This is just a nice to have for some of those odd Revit object that need better mapping
  • Fixing the issue with using altered pivots correctly in UE. With the Revit plugin coming these types of changes will only be done in UE and not . So offsetting the pivot to the end of the door so it can be animated in sequencer is going to be required. - it is possible to hack this with creating an parent actor and moving the static mesh the to the correct place of the desired pivot but the current pivot offset feature should work with sequencer)

These are just a few things that would allow UE to become alot easier to manage as a go to solution for Visualization. UE with the intention of Datasmith is in effect replacing many common tasks that one would use a DCC app to do. It would likely become the final software where all other data is being imported and composited in. Therefor Organization of actors and the ability to correctly place data from multiple sources in the final level is very important.

A simple example of where I hope our workflow in ArchViz will go in the coming year or two.

  • The building will be created in Revit and Linked/updated directly into UE using the coming Datasmith plugin (Cant wait for this become a reality)
  • 2D/3D plans will quickly be exported to as a reference to allow population and placement of custom interior assets (either created in or SKP) - Populating Interior in UE really isnt the best workflow so its best to do that in a DCC app.
  • Interiors will then be exported to UE from with datasmith (The ability to properly update these assets with proper bi-direction sync is vital - no more finding which actors need to be deleted in UE because the scene in has changed - I believe this issue better resolved in the next version)
  • Utilize Substance materials as much as possible (I hope Datasmith will translate this material from to UE in the future with the new substance plugin for now available. Substance materials should not have their textures exported but rather a link to the actual substance file with the correct preset used in the mat should be done when exported)
  • Utilize SpeedTree for vegetation.
  • Render HQ stills with VRAY for UE (For now this is requirement till hardware is up to date with DXR than maybe Vray would not be so necessary bu certainly still useful)
  • Produce walk-throughs / VR experiences / videos with already power UE features.

If the Team working on DataSmith can keep this workflow in mind when testing and creating new feature I think this would be wise as I see UE being used in this way a lot more for ArchViz. I know thier focus is mostly on the export and transfer tools however i like the new addtions being added in 4.20 like Mesh Editing. You guys are on track to start making more changes to the way the editor functions and how it can be more efficient and easier to use and not just translating data from different sources. So although alot of the above mention are just mere wishes, in the long term they can be invaluable.

49

You’d be happily surprised to learn how many of those wishes are in progress…

50

Two (2) point perspective.
I know this does not make seance in a gaming environment, but for anything Architectural related this is very important.

51

Sequencer video renders at runtime/packaged projects, please! We need the functionality to render videos to disk exposed through blueprints.

52

Hello everyone,

I noticed that in the beta version I have problems with importing fbx.

It seems to lose faces.

Does it happen to you too?

53

I just tried an FBX import to level, and I was missing faces as well. Thought I was the only one, or that my model was messed up.

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@gidiodev
@sbecker777

Please reserve this topic for feature requests, and not issues. You are welcome to create a new topic, or log a support ticket for Unreal Studio workflow issues here. Although, since you mention importing FBX and not files through the Datasmith workflow, then it sounds like it may be a general engine issue, in which case it should be logged as a bug report here.

Thanks

55

Hi Datasmith Team,

Another quick request :slight_smile: There is a fantastic new plugin called SmartRefs, it basically does everything Xref scene, object and containers were suppose to do.
The developer is very active and helpful. The site has documentation for accessing his plugin via maxscript which might be helpful if you plan to integrate compatibility with Datasmith.

I might be worth supporting it as I think this plugin is very powerful and its here to stay. I see Kstudio’s Project manager plugin for already supports SmartRefs.
I personally have not yet tried to export a scene with Datasmith that has a SmartRef linked to it.

http://smartrefs.com/
http://smartrefs.com/documentation/maxscript/

56

We import whatever a renderer in 3ds would see. Doesn’t that mean we support SmartRefs?

57

Testing 4.20 with Rhino, and definitely enjoying the improvements! The reimport process has been noticeably improved, but still a few requests:

  1. Option to delete assets that have been removed from the original file (one option to remove from the level only, and another option to also delete from the unreal project entirely). Currently, the static mesh actors that correspond to deleted objects remain in the level, but are not attached to a layer-actor. This makes them relatively easy to spot and delete manually, but still a pain when it includes potentially hundreds or even thousands of meshes. We go through lots of iterations, and having to manually delete these makes it often not any better (and sometimes worse) than simply importing the entire file as a whole new level.

  2. Option to merge blocks into a single mesh on import.

  3. Bring back the option to import a file as a blueprint!

4.Not sure how technically feasible this is, but an option to only to reimport a selected mesh (or potentially the whole file, but only overwrite geometry that has changed). Currently, if I make one change to the texture mapping of one object, reimport still overwrites all the other meshes, and then I have to re-save all of them. Not deal breaker, but it does take significant time for very large files.

  1. Option for material behavior for geometry with no materials assigned to be a basic white instead of using layer color.

Thanks!

Edit: After testing with Blocks some more, the recent changes have unfortunately made them nearly worthless, at least for my workflow. The pivot point of the imported block actor is at zero, forcing the elements within the block to have non-zero relative transforms, which is pretty much the opposite of how blocks are meant to behave in my mind. The added actor within the hierarchy breaks the layer=actor pattern that helps navigate through the scene, so they hurt not just block workflow, but also breaks layer-based workflows. And most importantly, the usefulness of a block is that if I change one, that change is seen in all of them. When they came in a single static mesh, I could at least easily replace that one mesh with my own custom mesh. Now I have to write a custom editor script that searches by name, digs down the hierarchy to the components to get the appropriate world pivot, spawns my custom actor at that spot, and deletes the imported actors. I think importing them as blueprints by default would come closest to mimicking how they work in Rhino. If anyone finds them more useful this way, I’d enjoy hearing about it. Maybe I am thinking about them all wrong!

58

Returning on the same project will be also valuable a tool for importing GIS buildings such as OSM.
If Unreal Studio ambition is more than being only for interior renderings this is one of the first needs, and I didn’t find any reliable tool to do so, except the beautiful CityEngine that’s anyway an overkill for most needs.

59

Hi there!

I work as a VR programmer revolving around Cinematic/Archvis content. The following is primarily requested for the ‘3DS to UE4’ pipeline:

UE4 Import process:

  • Have a checklist to update only the objects intended, not at a bulk each time.
    (Like the ‘import into level’ feature)
  • Option to retain custom lightmap info on a per object basis.
    (Lightmaps assigned within UE4 are overwritten on reimport.)
  • High-level ability to control the lightmap generation on import.
    (I.e add auto unwrap or which UV channel ID to use.)
  • Option to delete existing geometry on update rather than being additive
    (i.e keeps the UE scene in sync with the Datasmith file)

3DS Export Process:

  • Integrate the ‘deletemesh’ modifier and delete existing geometry accordingly.
  • better handling of non-Xformed objects
  • Integrate object visibility as an animation track or similar.

~ Thanks.

60

[COLOR=#222222][SIZE=16px]thanks for the answer, I apologize for having the wrong page.
I will try to report the bug, in the correct section.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

61

Can you log this as a bug?
Report Unreal Studio bugs here: https://unrealstudiohelp.epicgames.com/s/article/How-do-I-report-a-bug