Need some help from a 3D Guru :)

Hello everyone,

I could use some help understanding why my 3d stuff do not retain their z order when i import them inside the engine.

As you can see from my signature we are creating a 2d game and in the past month we started experimenting with a few 3d models in order to spice up Spartan a bit.
Problem is that although i am using Unreal i haven’t really worked with any 3d models prior to this(oxymoron!), and i do not know if i am doing something wrong or it has to do with paper2d and the reversed Y Axis.

On the first video you can see my model rendering inside the FBX Preview and the second one is from inside one of my levels.

Any ideas guys?

Thanks in advance!

Any good soul out there that could help me figure this out?

Looks like you are using a translucent material? Translucency does not sort accurately per polygon. Sorting is done on a per mesh basis with translucency.

Thank you Ryan!

Yes i am.
I will do my research on the subject but in order to save some time since you are the expert, can you please give me some pointers on how to tackle this issue?
Should i set it up “correctly” from within Maya or the UE4 editor?

Since nothing on your mesh appears to require translucency, I would make the material opaque and call it a day.

If you wanted to solve it with translucency, your options are limited. You could try breaking the mesh up into small pieces but that won’t work 100% either. You could do the method where you render a second hidden copy of the mesh set to render depth only, and depth test against that to fix the sorting, but that is a fairly technical method for a problem you could avoid just by not using translucency.

If you can make a material opaque, then make it opaque!

When you cannot, then make each “piece” a separate submesh using a separate material. Then make sure that the order of the meshes is expressed in Z – three meshes that are all at Z = 0 will render in some indeterminate order, so you have to put them behind each other along the Z axis to define their render order.

Thank you both!

Much appreciated!