Hi,
I have lots of interior/exterior furnitures in obj format. I’m a SketchUp user and i’m using Blender for exporting obj format furniture files. I’m not blender expert and i have problems with Lightmaps.
Is there anybody to give advices for this case? I need a workflow to achive this situation.
How can i export detailed obj files to Unreal via Blender? For example a sofa group. There are lots of sub-model in one file. I use smartUV for making UV maps and i let Unreal to generate second UV channel for me when i’m importing. This workflow is useful but not always. And sometimes there are lots of artifacts on model.
In conclusion, i have lots of ready-model for designing in obj format and i want to import them Unreal perfectly. Which method/workflow/software is fit for this case? What should i do?
By the way i want to create materials at Unreal Engine.
I feel your pain. I use Blender too and have not been able to make proper UV lightmaps and UV’s without too much labor per piece - manually unwrapping everything. I am going to give up and either hire someone to do them in 3DS Max or get a monthly subscription and do them myself.
Ideally you want .fbx for UE4 with two UV channels.
Can’t you use a demo version of 3ds max just to do your unwrapping ?
When Unreal generate your second uv channel automatically, it’s doing it based on your 1st uv channel I’ve heard…so the end result isn’t very nice. It’s just easier to do it in blender/max. Have you looked for unwrapping scripts or plugin for blender? (if that exist)
Yeah, I could get the demo and devote a few days into making a furniture library, which I might do. If I offer a walk through I’m going to tell the clients it’s my library or the highway hahahahaha.
I build my building shells in Sketchup because it’s so fast and forgiving then import them into Blender as .3ds or Collada and I use Cycles which I love! I was using Modo for rendering but it’s like UE4 a tweakers dream or nightmare!
Blender when I first learned drove me nuts but once I learned just enough to do the work I need to do I feel okay with it, I hated Max too and Blender in a way is similar. Modo is by far the best 3D software I have used but I don’t like the render engine for Archviz, for product renderings though it’s outstanding and modeling too.
I feel same . Sometimes i think i should give up Unreal since lightmap adabtability will be easier or solved accurately. I have no problem designing areas with sketchUp and exporting Unreal. It works perfectly. But i don’t want to design or draw furnitures. I have hundreds of models in my library. But i can’t use them. This situation pull down my motivation. I need a workflow with Blender works perfectly but i don’t think so there is a way for it. I tried lots of things, i watched tutorials but i can’t find the solution.
Can’t you just flatten it? (with a good spacing, I use .02) That’s always what I do in max anyway. Just raise it’s lightmap resolution to 1024 and see if there are artifacts!
Important and complex meshes in my scenes always have high res. I don’t go higher than 2048 tho.
Flatten map should not take long, just 3-4 clicks in max.
There isn’t a flatten unwrap, there is a smart unwrap which I guess is about the same but I still get massive errors. I get import errors like overlapping uv’s by 50% when in the uv window of Blender there are no overlapping uv’s.
Maybe there is not enough spacing between uv islands. Can you change de spacing before using the ‘‘smart’’ uv’ing?
Also, a single mesh with a high res shouldn’t affect build time that much. I have a ton of meshes with 1024 and 2048 res. Takes 5 hours to bake everything but it’s manageable! That’s with 2 core i7 (3.4 and 4.4 ghz) and 24 gb or ram total.
Send me that couch file i’ll try to unwrap it in max with steamroller and we’ll see
Here is the Blender screen. On the right is the UV window and the left is the piece being uv’d. I stripped off all uv’s and smart mapped both uv channels for every piece.
Blender user here!
Just my 2 cents: I model most of my content in Blender but I import it to 3DS Max first and then to UE4.
I unwrap my model with this script: http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/steamroller
It does it automatically for you, it’s a lifesaver. I also texture my model there and then export it.
I haven’t had any issue at all with this workflow.
Hope it helps!
16 pieces unwrapped individually automatically with steamroller, 512 res on each mesh (overkill lol), default lightmass settings. 1 min to unwrap in max. 2 min build time. Floor res is 2048 and still ugly cause the mesh is way too big!!!
One thing, if you combine meshes on import in unreal, I think they merge all UV’s together. It’s gonna be messy lol. Be sure not to combine them!!! Just group all 16 pieces with ctrl+G instead!!!
This is higher lightmass settings, 0.8 scale, 100 bounces, 10 quality, 0.65 smoothness and 1024 res on all 16 meshes. You can have different resolution on each mesh, depending on the visibility/size in your scene.
This one took 16mins to build!
New mat, medium lightmass settings I’d say. Res of 256 on each parts. took 3 mins. Couple artifacts on the small cushions but it’s my uv mapping that wasn’t great!
One thing, if you combine meshes on import in unreal, I think they merge all UV’s together. It’s gonna be messy lol. Be sure not to combine them!!! Just group all 16 pieces with ctrl+G instead!!!
You mean in Max group them first? Could you give a quick step by step?
At the import dialog in unreal, there’s a ‘‘combine mesh’’ ticked on by default, Untick it. In max I ungroup everything just to be sure before exporting.
