Speedtree and UE4

Development Asset Creation
1

Hello my dilemma is quite unique,

I’m making a top down RPG in UE4, love how the models turn out in Speedtree but, we are working on getting the tree mesh to disappear when the player character is obstructed by it and wanting to have it leave behind a cross section of that tree mesh (the trunk essentially) that is still visible.

Here is my issue, I’m only able to export to UE4 with my UE4 sub in SpeedTree, then attempting to export the mesh from UE4 to Studio max to make the edits needed to split the mesh in to it’s 2 parts (the top and the trunk) causes ALL material ID’s originally on the mesh to be removed leaving only 1 material (the bark).

It’s absolutely excruciatingly painstaking and a time thief to manually select every single quad of the leaf mesh (100’s in some cases) in Studio max just to apply a new material ID to them that was originally lost on export.

Is there no possible way to export my mesh from UE4 in to Studio Max retaining all of the original material ID slots??

So far I have found no way around this issue, which makes a straight forward process of creating trees a nightmare.

I’ve scoured the UE4 forums and no one has any answers other then just modeling the trees yourself which I can do but kinda defeats the purpose of using Speedtree.
Anyone else run in to this issue and found a way around it?

Much appreciated in advance for any advice.

2

not sure about max, but in maya you can just double click a face on the trunk (after separate) and it will select all the faces, then select all the roots if they are separate, invert selection and it will select all the leaves

3

Thanks for the suggestion, I will admit I haven’t attempted to do this in Max, I’m sure they should have similar functionality. I’ll give it a go tonight.
would be lovely if exports from UE4 would keep their assigned mat slots though :wink:

4

yeah its not ideal, but material id’s seem to be flaky in any 3d software, it appears to be a problem with max-maya and not speedtree or ue4. when ever you combine or separate a mesh with 2 or more mat id’s it breaks them.