Hello, I created a planet that can be seen from a window. I just used a simple sphere scaled up to 8000x. I know there are other, better ways to create a planet, but I did this to try it and it looks pretty good. However, at that scale it has blocky edges instead of being an actual sphere. Is there a way to somehow scale it up while visually keeping it a perfect sphere? I’m a beginner to UE, so just learning basics.
Yes, you have to make one with more polys in Blender - 5 mins… 
The default sphere is about 500 verts. There is one in the engine content folder ( Engine/EditorMeshes/EditorSphere ) which is 2333. But really, to blow something up that much, you’ll need more like 20000.
Thank you. Not the answer I was hoping for, but at least now I know why this isn’t a great method.
Were you hoping for the ‘polygonate mesh’ tick box?
Do you want me to explain what to do in Blender? ( easy ).
That’s EXACTLY what I was hoping for lol. I have never used Blender. I figured I would learn it once I have the basics of UE down. That said, I would love if you could explain how if it isn’t too much trouble to walk me through.
No worries. It’s good to have a stab at something every now and then in Blender. Eventually, you’ll find you can start to make rudimentary assets, and it will grow from there.
Get a copy of Blender from blender.org.
When you start, you’ll have a cube in the scene. Delete that.
Top left menu, Add → Mesh → UV_sphere. You get a raggedy sphere. Don’t click on anything else and you’ll notice bottom left, there’s a collapsed menu, also called ‘UV Sphere’.
Open that, and you can change the number of segments and rings to something like 128x128. Don’t scale it up here, unless you want a bit more of a crash course.
Now right click on there sphere and choose ‘shade smooth’.
Then in the main menus File → export → FBX: On the right click ‘selected objects’ ( otherwise you get the camera and light ).
Now in UE content browser: right click on the background and choose ‘Import to /Game/…’ and choose your file.
UE will whine about smoothing groups, but that’s basically it
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That did it, and you were right, it took 6 minutes including the time to install Blender and fumble around, thank you! That brings me to a follow-up question, though. I put it into my level and it’s not lit. Do I need to specify something so that the sun lights it?
Did you put a material on it?
I did. The same material as my blocky planet, and sized it similarly. In unlit mode, they look the same, but in lit mode only the blocky one lights.
Can you do a quick pic?
Ah… The default sphere from Blender has twice the radius of the UE sphere. I think you’re inside it… ( if you scaled by the same amount )
I posted pics, but they showed up higher up in the thread for some reason. It doesn’t look like I’m inside the sphere, and I also navigation around all sides, moving it around to different locations.
No idea I’m afraid. It’s a bona fide sphere… :-/
I did exactly the same thing and dropped it in an empty level with a directional light:
Anything crafty in the material?
EDIT: Only other things I can think of are:
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Something in the material
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You’re using a point light rather than directional, and the first planet is obscuring this one.
Try: different material, removing the old planet ( for now ).
I feel like I’m missing something on the material side. What I did was imported the fbx file, then dragged the static mesh it created in UE into the level, then dragged the material onto it. In unlit, it shows up with the material, and it’s the same material I put onto the blocky planet, so it would seem as if the material is okay. Am I missing a step somewhere with adding the material to the new sphere?
That’s right.
I’m afraid you’ll need to tinker around until you find the problem, I’m all out of ideas here.
Try the sphere in a default level ( the one with the grey floor ). It will be fine.
I think it’s something to do with your black level, although I’m not sure what yet…
yeah, I think you’re right that I’ll need to mess around a bit. Thank you for the help, at least I have my sphere now!
Tell me when you suss it…
EDIT: Fixed yet?!