[MAYA] DOLMEN - Asset Manager

[Kromleck]

Heya o/

I’ve finished a first iteration of a tool in python for Maya. I’ve been struggling with import/export rules (naming convention, etc) of Unreal Engine 4 for few weeks as I started to crawl under the amount of assets I’ve had to handle.
Thus I’ve decided to create a small tool to let me manage this. It’s made to be easy to use, so I’ve also wrote a documentation about HowTo use it properly and common issues that I’d like to fix in upcoming days. Below is a small description of the tool, but if I’ve tickled your mind I encourage you to check directly the documentation -well it’s 5:30AM and I’d need some sleep after all.

**TOOL USAGE & CONTEXT **
I’m working for about 9 month on a multiplayer game that takes place in procedurally generated cities. Alongside with the GPP, I’m trying to keep my workflow consistent and pace. I’ve been struggling with some issues, and as the number of assets and procedural stuff was growing, I’ve had an urge to find a proper way to track budget of all my assets, to batch operations and to gain some time on repetitive tasks. The result is DOLMEN, which allows to register an asset database into a CSV, while keeping a clear naming convention and do some operations quite fast ; attach sockets, create UCX colliders, prepare multi materials assets, and so on. I’ve ended with a small tool that helps me.

DOLMEN has been specifically made for Maya and Unreal Engine 4 users.
Its main goal is to keep a track of every assets of your project whilst keeping it** clear**, to iterate
and to manage. To do so it let the user to manage an asset database with metadata-based ID usage. It also contains
little handy features for other uses of Static Meshes such as** UCX generator**, multi-material automatic assignation,
multi-sockets integration with suffixes, and more. All the database generated can also be manipulated in any
other software / batch tool processing, as in Unreal Engine 4 which also manage *.CSV files for several possible purposes.
Problems ? Check last Common Errors part.
Problem still occurring ? Contact me.

**TOOL FEATURES **

Baked Asset with UCX, Sockets and meshes.

Extract from the documentation, showing how to use the socket feature.

**TOOL DOWNLOAD LINK **
You can retrieve the py source, the documentation and a .csv template here : <DOLMEN v1>](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BxcrIO5WZpcJbTctenJQQWFLM2s) (GDrive link)
If you have any issue with something, feel free to contact me ; [EMAIL=“trouslard.arthur@gmail.com”]trouslard.arthur@gmail.com
If you want to see tool usage live, you can see that when I’m live during gamedev streams ; <Twitch link>](Twitch)
I plan to do an overview & howToUse video tutorial soon. But I need to sleep.right.now.

+first post in epic forums, if I’m doing something wrong, ping me.

Hope it will help some fellows Unreal users

[DamirH]

Does that legitimately translate into SOCKETS in UE4 rather than transforms?

[Kromleck]

Hi,

Yes it does. Sorry if it wasn’t clear. Here’s what a proper imported asset gives ;

You have UCX (blue wireframe elements), merged meshes depending on their materials (here 3 elements), and sockets.
Basically, in Maya your socket will be named following this naming convention ; SOCKET_<flag>_<interval> When imported in UE4, only the <flag>_<interval> will remain.
The interval part is very specific to my project but it may be usefull for those who want it also. Otherwise, flag turns to be very usefull.

But as said in the doc, you unfortunately can’t refresh sockets after a first imported asset. UCX, meshes, materials are, but not sockets, if you’ve already imported an asset, you’ll have to reimport it to gather sockets.

[Mr_SquarePeg]

This is really cool!

I got to ask though - Any chance of a blender port of this tool?

[Kromleck]

Hi,

Unfortunately no, I don’t plan to learn blender in-depths sorry.

[DamirH]

(A followup question to the socket thing):

I wasn’t aware you could create sockets like that in Maya… if you animate them in Maya, does the animation transfer to UE4?

[Kromleck]

I might be wrong, but animations come with bones weighted to meshes. You can use the sockets as dummies to then place on bone instead, then weight then properly, then prepare animations. Then you’ll have to set “Skeletal Mesh” in UE4 in order to properly retrieve bones, sockets, and animations. For stuff like that, what you’re looking for more sounds like a rigg tool, especially if it concerns characters