Importing an entire level from Blender

[ma1069]

Hello,
I’d like to ask if, in your opinion, would be possible to design the entire static part of a level in blender and then import everything into the unreal engine editor.
I’ve already performed some tests, but the main problem seems to be that during the FBX import all the information about collisions are lost, and the automatic collision detector works terribly: hence, my only choices are either to completely re-design all the collision areas again or not being able to enter the levels that have been designed.

Do you think that there are some alternatives to make this workflow to work better?
Thank you

[anonymous_user_923c79df]

I personally would create the level in the UE4, because otherwise you cant cull the meshes + no separate LOD’s. So bette would be when you create single meshes which you will put together in the UE4.

Have you already tried the “use complex as simple”? ->

[anonymous_user_6e8cf325]

Yes, I am having the same problem.

From what I can gather, the collision mesh has to consist of a convex hull https://docs.unrealengine/latest/INT/Engine/Content/FBX/StaticMeshes/index.html

You can make your own collision mesh, but if it isn’t convex the unreal engine will automatically turn it into one. This is a real problem, as most levels are going to have a lot of non-convex hulls. For instance, Something like a circular room is going to be very painful since every single segment would have to be a seperate mesh

[anonymous_user_6e8cf325]

@;185919

I personally would create the level in the UE4, because otherwise you cant cull the meshes + no separate LOD’s. So bette would be when you create single meshes which you will put together in the UE4.

Have you already tried the “use complex as simple”? ->

Hmm, that does seem to work …

A related question would be, in terms of level design, how often is this “acceptable”? In other words suppose I do break up the level in terms of lots of static meshes, but most of them have this “use complex as simple” behavior … would the performance hit be that bad?

Right now I am doing a castle/fortification … even a simple wall with a battlement fails to be convex … I can easily break up the wall into sections which can be snapped together (and hopefully, I plan on having the player be able to do that themselves to build the castle) … it would be nice if I could keep the wall/battlement as a single mesh (and the same for towers/gatehouses/etc.).

[Jacky]

@praphael;185990

A related question would be, in terms of level design, how often is this “acceptable”? In other words suppose I do break up the level in terms of lots of static meshes, but most of them have this “use complex as simple” behavior … would the performance hit be that bad?

It mostly depends on the poly count and the complexity of the mesh, as far as i know. There shouldnt be much of an importance impact if you dont keep the whole battlement of the castle as a single mesh.

[anonymous_user_5755f430]

bump I heard creating an entire level in a 3d program and them importing it all at once is possible in 4.12, is that true? would it get recognise duplicate meshs?

[ZacD]

NEW: FULL SCENE IMPORTER

With Full Scene Importing you can now take that environment you’ve already constructed in / Maya / Blender and import the entire scene into a level in the editor.

A new Scene FBX asset is created for your environment so that you can re-import it allowing iteration on the environment as well. An early version was available in 4.11 supporting only scenes containing static meshes. The 4.12 version is more complete including the ability to import scenes that include skeletal meshes… To try out the feature, just go to File > Import Scene, and select an FBX environment to import.

From: https://www.unrealengine/blog/unreal-engine-4-12-released

I haven’t tried it out yet, but I don’t expect it to work for instanced meshes. Still, it’s a quicker way to get a scene together.

[Martin_Bean]

I was looking too, to answer 's question. Funny thing is, when I open up UE 4.12, I cant find File > Import Scene. I do have File > Import Into Level ??