Daz3D is powerful tool especially if you work alone or on a very small team.
hey THANKS guys for all the info, tried out daz over the weekend with what came with it, tried exporting out a simple fbx, no real luck comes out all torn and pieces missing, any chance someone can give a quick rundown on what it might take to get a workable fbx out that can be sent to another program (ikinema) to be animated ? tried a lot of variations sure its simple.
also why totally resculpt the character, i am pretty sure daz or any number of other programs could be used to drop the poly count ? sure you have a good reason, just curious. got fuse characters in animated with no problem to ue4 also no issue with autodesk character creator. obviously daz looks like you could buy your way into almost endless possibilities with morph kits.
[QUOTE=;24466]
hey THANKS guys for all the info, tried out daz over the weekend with what came with it, tried exporting out a simple fbx, no real luck comes out all torn and pieces missing, any chance someone can give a quick rundown on what it might take to get a workable fbx out that can be sent to another program (ikinema) to be animated ? tried a lot of variations sure its simple.
also why totally resculpt the character, i am pretty sure daz or any number of other programs could be used to drop the poly count ? sure you have a good reason, just curious. got fuse characters in animated with no problem to ue4 also no issue with autodesk character creator. obviously daz looks like you could buy your way into almost endless possibilities with morph kits.
Your welcome - It was not that I Totally re-sculpted the character. I just used a reference picture I made from Daz. I could have used a reference picture from any where. In the case of that character I rigged it my self instead of using daz Skeleton. When you decimate the character in Daz your geometry will not be unifom. That is ok for NPC and prototype characters but I wanted my lead character to have clean geometry that I modeled my self for several reasons. I was try trying to show you that Daz3D can also be good for making ref pictures all other type of pictures not just 3d models. I have other decimated characters for protoype and NPC that just came straight from Daz in to the Game Engine.
I will make a video or screen shots of how to do the FBX export. I have not have a problem with in a long time but I remember last year when I first tried it had the settings wrong. That might be your problem.
Here you are my friend - I made screen shots of the FBX settings over my lunch break. I also show the UE4 import settings. On The Daz export there is button to open up the morph preferences. In there you can used wild card symbols * If I remember correctly to export the specific morphs you want. Also make sure animation is checked so the animations from Daz come through. I used the Upland Troll which is one of few Low poly models that they offer through Daz. Most Daz are high ploy and require decimation for game work unless you are using them for a cut scene or something. The morphs are endless so you can actually design unique char all by dialing the morphs if you want. One correction for my picture. The selected box should be checked for better results.
[QUOTE=;24466]
hey THANKS guys for all the info, tried out daz over the weekend with what came with it, tried exporting out a simple fbx, no real luck comes out all torn and pieces missing, any chance someone can give a quick rundown on what it might take to get a workable fbx out that can be sent to another program (ikinema) to be animated ? tried a lot of variations sure its simple.
also why totally resculpt the character, i am pretty sure daz or any number of other programs could be used to drop the poly count ? sure you have a good reason, just curious. got fuse characters in animated with no problem to ue4 also no issue with autodesk character creator. obviously daz looks like you could buy your way into almost endless possibilities with morph kits.
You don’t have to buy shapes beyond the base male/female body and facial shapes, for that matter the female and male Genesis actors are the same model but reshaped, and the only reason to buy anything after that is for the convenience of someone else doing the work for you that you could have just as easily done yourself.
For example if you want to keep all things inside of DS you could export a target you are working on to an app like say 3ds Max and then import your changes as a new target and inject it in to your edits and keep going from there.
As for Polycounts yes it’s a bit high at 42k but still inside the ballpark as to get things down to where you need it to be but even then that represents the opportunity to scale the quality of your game between those who want eye candy by trading performance or for those who want performance over quality of art.
At 42k UE4 can easily handle that amount of load. Think about it it’s “only” 43k as compared to the megabytes of textures you will be applying and way below the 3 megs of detail data in an environment like Elemental or that of any of the sample files.
So the count it’s self is not the problem but rather how to scale quality based on player choices are. In the case of performance over quality it would be a simple matter of using the primary model slot for the quality and then use the LOD 1 slot for the low detail that can be biased as a choice between the two options.
Tomb Raider as an example uses performance versus quality biasing as a “feature” where the player decides for themselves if they want blowing in the wind hair or the efficiency of mesh based hair.
Granted it’s just my opinion but the days of over optimizing the quality of the art are long gone as in most cases the software it’s self can manage the needs of optimization for performance for you that includes performance scaling as a feature that will allow your game to run on hardware specs far below the minimum specifications.
As for getting the FBX into UE4 directly from DS the problem is probably with the FBX version being use to export the model. Since I generally go from 3ds Max to UE4 it’s not a problem but since UE4 uses the most up to date version you might need to import first into an app that supports that version or use one of the many different converts available that will allow you to go from one version to another.
I’m sure thought the Daz 3D is aware of whats going on so if they are keep I can see them updating in the not to distant future.
actually exported to a desktop file then opened in fbx review. that was where i seen the lack of textures and tearing. im decent at zbrush so could use it, also have max but no where near as comfortable, really trying to figure a way to get skeletons in place that we can simply switch meshes on the fly with.
on the lod note can’t zbrush or max drop the poly count down in app ?
do you rig in daz also or use another program, i know fuse and autodesk character creator both do so as part of their pipeline and they seem to work excellent in ue4.
Good points! I use Unwrap 3D Pro (Cost lest than $50) in between the Daz3D and the Game Engine or other apps because it seems to always import the rigged model and export it well.
daz3D is very underrated in Game Development. I see people using it for CG work and even stand in for film but rarely see people take advantage of the character creation kit.
It is good cover and concept art to.
I have contacted Third Party artist that make assets for Genesis and Victoria 4 when I wanted to use a texture or a model and I have never been turned away so far. They will either say mention in the credits or just say go for it:-)
I’m not making money yet so I have not had to ask Daz for permission yet or buy the $500 license. I only have the license for the Character Creation kit right now.
[QUOTE=;24626]
actually exported to a desktop file then opened in fbx review. that was where i seen the lack of textures and tearing. im decent at zbrush so could use it, also have max but no where near as comfortable, really trying to figure a way to get skeletons in place that we can simply switch meshes on the fly with.
on the lod note can’t zbrush or max drop the poly count down in app ?
do you rig in daz also or use another program, i know fuse and autodesk character creator both do so as part of their pipeline and they seem to work excellent in ue4.
If you’re a ZBrush user, you’ll probably want to use the new ZRemesher to automatically retopologize that heavy mesh. This will also allow you to project your original, detailed mesh onto the new, lower poly mesh as a normal map/displacement map/etc. Have a look:
Cheers,
-D
I’m only allowed one video link per post, but the following video details the auto retop process on a fully sculpted character:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=F7BYTbUIM5I
Good luck,
-D
[QUOTE=;24626]
actually exported to a desktop file then opened in fbx review. that was where i seen the lack of textures and tearing. im decent at zbrush so could use it, also have max but no where near as comfortable, really trying to figure a way to get skeletons in place that we can simply switch meshes on the fly with.
on the lod note can’t zbrush or max drop the poly count down in app ?
do you rig in daz also or use another program, i know fuse and autodesk character creator both do so as part of their pipeline and they seem to work excellent in ue4.
Sorry your having a bit of a time going from DS to UE but it does work as I’ve done it more than a few times even though I’m going DS > 3ds Max > UE4 but since you are using Max then you only need to deal with the re export part.
A word of waring though is because DS is a LOT more complex as a DCC tool there is a massive learning curve of what you need to do due to the shear amount of assets you can harvest based on a direct need where a lot of simple apps just spit out what they think you can make use of.
For example you can export just facial shapes based on the need to make your player talk that can be used as an additive morph on all the player models that share the same base shape.
You can export the model already skin weighted to “their rig” which you can easily modify to work with any rig of your design.
You can choose to only export what you need as part of the main mesh and excluded parts you don’t need. For example teeth and tongue are much higher than what they need to be as well as feet and hands have a lot more detail than require, if needed at all, and all you have to do is turn off their visibility dropping the count down by at least half when exported.
There is a optimizer available for DS as well as a texture Atlas but I found 3ds Max to be a much better solution as to tool available that helps maintain the targets.
As I mentioned though DS doe not have to cost you a cent just to experiment and play around with a few different ideas and the costs only comes in when you decided what you can make use of.
Think of it this way in that you go to the hardware store and the only way you can get the hammer you want is buying the complete tool box. DS “gives” you the hammer , and some other tools to play with, and then you “buy” what you can use when you need it.
As Venged stated DS and Daz3D is underrated but DS is a professional tool used by a lot of professionals for a lot of different reasons that goes unrecognized as it’s easy enough to hid the fact that it was used in the first place.
Sorry for rambling but it is at the least an interesting tool to play around with and do strange things. 
[QUOTE=FrankieV;24656]
Sorry your having a bit of a time going from DS to UE but it does work as I’ve done it more than a few times even though I’m going DS > 3ds Max > UE4 but since you are using Max then you only need to deal with the re export part.
A word of waring though is because DS is a LOT more complex as a DCC tool there is a massive learning curve of what you need to do due to the shear amount of assets you can harvest based on a direct need where a lot of simple apps just spit out what they think you can make use of.
For example you can export just facial shapes based on the need to make your player talk that can be used as an additive morph on all the player models that share the same base shape.
You can export the model already skin weighted to “their rig” which you can easily modify to work with any rig of your design.
You can choose to only export what you need as part of the main mesh and excluded parts you don’t need. For example teeth and tongue are much higher than what they need to be as well as feet and hands have a lot more detail than require, if needed at all, and all you have to do is turn off their visibility dropping the count down by at least half when exported.
There is a optimizer available for DS as well as a texture Atlas but I found 3ds Max to be a much better solution as to tool available that helps maintain the targets.
As I mentioned though DS doe not have to cost you a cent just to experiment and play around with a few different ideas and the costs only comes in when you decided what you can make use of.
Think of it this way in that you go to the hardware store and the only way you can get the hammer you want is buying the complete tool box. DS “gives” you the hammer , and some other tools to play with, and then you “buy” what you can use when you need it.
As Venged stated DS and Daz3D is underrated but DS is a professional tool used by a lot of professionals for a lot of different reasons that goes unrecognized as it’s easy enough to hid the fact that it was used in the first place.
Sorry for rambling but it is at the least an interesting tool to play around with and do strange things.
trust me your not rambling in my book at all, learning a lot, i have not actually had a chance to try the export again, been at work all day, hopefully will get a chance to tonight. really appreciate the help from you guys as i would have never of looked this direction.
[QUOTE=;24715]
trust me your not rambling in my book at all, learning a lot, i have not actually had a chance to try the export again, been at work all day, hopefully will get a chance to tonight. really appreciate the help from you guys as i would have never of looked this direction.
OK cool in that case lets super size my ramblings by tossing on a microphone and firing up the screen cap and do a cough cough bit of an overview of what you can do if you let your imagination out of the cage.
Procedural character design for Unreal 4. (overview) part 1
Procedural character design for Unreal 4. (overview) part 2 3ds Max
(with a surprise guest appearance by yet another super app)
Procedural character design for Unreal 4. (overview) part 2 3ds Max amendment
Procedural character design for Unreal 4. (overview) part 2 into Unreal 4
If I’m not informative I hope I’m at least entertaining.
FWIW Daz3D now has quite excellent Nvidia IRay support. It’s been quite good getting a feel of the characters I’d want to use in my (comic book first, then eventually, game) project, currently in concept stage. The Nvidia IRay rendering is pretty fast too.
Now that Mixamo is free (everything) for a “limited time”, it’d be interesting to see what characters one can create and rig in Mixamo Fuse then bring into UE4 and/or Daz.
(For those curious about the below)
Concept: - YouTube
Github: https://github.com//RevelationAD
(Send pull requests (ideas, etc.) to Suggestions_00.TXT only for now)
Credits: https://github.com//RevelationAD/blob/master/_Docs/Credits_00.TXT
Thanks and God Bless.
That’s a nice piece of work, . (The visor looks a little low-res, though.)
Very nice indeed. 
[QUOTE=Jezcentral;394742]
That’s a nice piece of work, . (The visor looks a little low-res, though.)
Very nice indeed.
Cheers, I have to admit, it’s from the Daz3D store, they’ve got some great stuff there, currently I’m aiming to focus on writing/directing the comic book/ graphic novel and eventually the game. So I’m looking for and obtaining assets, figuring out a look and I’m messing around with lighting and some material modification.
I like to do the modding and rendering myself though, that’s quite fun 
Lord willing down the line I might be able to collaborate with 3D artists.
The visor is umm… because I messed around with the glass and roughness etc. so indeed it seems incongruous.
Thanks for the feedback!