M2u interactive sync script for Maya -> UE4

alfalfasprossen · August 12, 2014, 1:43pm

hehe, version control can be a ***** sometimes…
good to hear it works though.

anonymous_user_689e935a · August 12, 2014, 4:38pm

So this is really fun. It has a nice side effect too. UE4 editor doesn’t support 3DConnexion devices like SpaceNavigator yet, but Maya does. With the camera sync enabled I can now basically use this, even directly in the editor with Maya in the background for some reason. The only limitation being that I can’t select an object and use that as the center of rotation like I have set up in Maya. I guess selecting in the editor doesn’t result in selection in Maya, otherwise even that would work.

The other slightly bothersome thing is that I can’t control where new meshes go in the content browser. They all land in the root directory and if I move them somewhere else the link breaks.

Excellent work for sure, it really is a bit magical

B_May · August 13, 2014, 2:53am

;116776:

the missing slashes should be fixed, please make sure you checkout the develop branch, not the master branch!

the freezing might be caused by the tcp not being able to connect to localhost, maybe caused by a firewall or your machine being in a LAN. It was only recently that I came across the same problem and I’m not sure about the solution to that problem yet.
please execute the two following command in a python shell, when the editor is running and m2uPlugin is loaded:
import socket

# client code
s=None

def openConnection(TCP_IP = '127.0.0.1', TCP_PORT=3939):
    BUFFER_SIZE = 1024
    global s
    
    s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
    s.connect((TCP_IP, TCP_PORT))

openConnection()
the log-window in the Editor should tell you if a connection was made. Otherwise you will get an error by python, that the connection has been refused.

Thank you. You mean the other editor windows, like the Static Mesh Editor? I didn’t think of that yet, I think the most used means of collision authoring would be to create UCX prefixed meshes in the 3d-authoring program and export them with the mesh to the FBX file? But I did not actively investigate anything in the form of syncing collision yet.

For some dynamic objects it’s better to use the built in tools to place capsules or spheres. The built in tools for moving in the environment and placing the capsules is really bare-bones. This could be a pretty nice set of tools for dealing with that

anonymous_user_689e935a · August 14, 2014, 2:52am

So when I edit an object in Maya, say bevel or extrude something, it doesn’t auto-update in the Editor. When I then use “Send Selected To Editor” I now have the updated object duplicated on top of each other.

I assume this is a known limitation currently or am I doing it wrong?

alfalfasprossen · August 14, 2014, 12:13pm

yes, this is because there is no fancy UI yet to tell exactly what you want to do (send as new, send as overwrite, etc.) And there are some checks like “does this asset already exist in UE” not implemented yet to get this fully working. Possibility of an interactive update of the geometry is not yet investigated, and even if, it would most likely only be a preview with an temporary actor, because you would still have to “export and import” the asset, which takes too much time to be “interactive”.

I’m sorry I can’t implement more features or fix bugs currently because I have to write the theoretical part of my thesis

anonymous_user_689e935a · August 14, 2014, 12:32pm

Nothing to be sorry about, it works quite well as it is. Good luck with your thesis.

RedEyes · August 17, 2014, 1:32am

Hello ,
i would like to express my satisfaction with the amazing connection you made with the plugins, i had successfully installed and compiled the plugins, the connection is correct and the workflow is acceptable if you do not edit the scene i want to export from maya.
So it fit well in my case and the current state, but that would be awesome if if was possible to define all the various path per objects, but the drag n drop within the content browser work too but will corrupt the connection with maya. so that would be something important in your next build, good luck with your thesis anyway and thank you again for the plugin, also hope that the hook you need from the engine would be added without pain, but you must to submit a pull request by yourself, epic can’t do anything you that, so github is an obligation

sporty · September 2, 2014, 3:58am

This is awesome!

Which is this software’s license?
MIT?GPL?

anonymous_user_8f916b13 · September 12, 2014, 11:11pm

Keep it up bud! Can’t wait till you get finished with Maya and turn to 3DS! Good Luck!

anonymous_user_689e935a · September 19, 2014, 1:27am

Just noticed what’s a bit odd is that the pivot is reset to 0, 0, 0 every time I hit “Send Selected To Editor”. Also results in the same pivot in UE4.

Actually it only happens on some meshes.

Evilmincer · September 23, 2014, 10:59am

I tried to get this to work in my maya, but couldn’t.
I don’t usually have problems adding plugins and custom scripts.
So a quick refresher on how to install this to maya and ue4 would be greatly appreciated.

anonymous_user_689e935a · September 23, 2014, 11:38pm

Assuming you have the plugin compiled, you’re probably stumbling over the whole path/Python thing. Here’s what I did:

I have the m2u Python code in a directory “d:\GitHub\m2u”. I then set an environment variable in Windows (8.1 in my case) with name PYTHONPATH to “D:\GitHub”. So without the m2u directory. You can do this in Windows in Control Panel > System and Security >System >Advanced System Settings > Advanced > Environment Variables > System Variables.

Then you can create a shelf button in Maya with the following Python command:


""" maya startup file

called by a shelf button or so, will initialize the system
to use the maya program modules and create the UI attached to maya
"""

import m2u

m2u.core.initialize("maya", "ue4")

# create UI here, send the initialized m2u module to the ui if necessary (max)
# in maya it should be in the maya namespace ?

#createUI(m2u)

#TODO check if pyQt is installed, if not, use the simple internal maya UI

from m2u.maya import mayaInternalUI
mayaInternalUI.createUI()

anonymous_user_689e935a · September 28, 2014, 4:14am

Added button “Export Selected To Editor” that only exports to UE4 but places nothing in the level. Good to update existing meshes or in cases where the mesh has been made into a Blueprint. Also fixed the pivot so it no longer centers on export.

Made a pull request. Until it’s updated you can get it from my fork at

https://bitbucket.org/Gigantoad/m2u/branch/develop

Of course it’s probably **** and may not adhere to concepts of But it seems to work for now.

cvax · October 3, 2014, 3:15am

Awesome stuff guys. Looks amazing. Curious, has still been working on this?

anonymous_user_689e935a · October 3, 2014, 3:32am

No life sign from him in a while. No updates on BitBucket since August. Guess he’s still busy with the thesis.

vertigoo · October 5, 2014, 7:03am

wow

You sir are a god amongst men. I hope I can get it working. cheers!

cvax · October 8, 2014, 6:10am

Ah. Understandable. Hope things calm down soon for him. Thanks.

anonymous_user_bd3f0a59 · October 22, 2014, 12:12pm

Hi,

I’m trying to run the plugin with UE 4.5, but I’m getting compile errors
error C1083: Cannot open include file: ‘Editor/UnrealEd/Private/FbxImporter.h’: No such file or directory

Can anyone point me in the right direction here?

Thanks!

anonymous_user_d08b4c5a · October 23, 2014, 3:58pm

This is amazing work
congratulations,

anonymous_user_689e935a · November 17, 2014, 10:57pm

So Epic just intergrated my pull request for the little alteration that we needed to make to each UE4 version so far. I was getting fed up having to do that and since it can be assumed that seems to have other priorities on his mind at the moment I went ahead and submitted it. This also potentially means that the plugin could now be distributed for the binary version. Guess we’ll see when the change arrives in a final build (actually not sure if this will be in 4.6 or 4.7).

Also, the plugin is going to break in 4.6 but I have the necessary changes working in the preview. I guess I need to ask, does anyone besides me even use this plugin at the moment?