Static meshes created from basic geometry are black

Development Asset Creation
1

Every time I create a static mesh from basic geometry pieces (i.e. stairs) they turn black when I build lighting.

2

You have to add a 2nd uv channel for the lightmap

either you do that in the ue4 with the generate unique uv tool or you use a 3d program to create it:

3

Yes sounds like you don’t have any lightmaps. Click window and click generate uv’s. Usually does better with using existing channel 128lightmap resolution is good to start with

4

I have also been experiencing this problem. I have tried every suggestion I’ve come across and tweaked numerous settings, all with the same result.

Here’s what I’ve tried:

  • Various lightmap resolutions (8, 12, 16, 20, 32, 64, 128)
  • Toggling/tweaking all of the lightmass settings
  • Generating new UVs on the mesh in the static mesh editor
  • Applying various materials
  • Deleting the meshes and dragging them back out from the content browser
  • Building at various render settings between all of the above

Nothing works, my static mesh’d brushes stay pitch black. What am I missing?

5

Automatic light mapping doesn’t work too well in a game engine, (ie generate new uv’s or adjusting the light map settings). The correct way is to import your models already light mapped into UE4, or export any models you make out of brushes in UE4 to your modelling program. Light maps are basically a second uv channel where you make sure that no polygon faces are overlapping. Your other uv channel can have an overlapped face because this can be an advantage when you have a texture that’s mirrored on other faces.
An example of the above would be a brick unwrapped. The texture on all four sides of the brick is the same, so it’s a smart move to overlap the polygon faces in the uv channel to save texture memory and uv work space. The light map uv channel of the brick would have no overlapping faces .
Understanding what uv mapping is would be a great start, and then watch a tutorial on light mapping on TraptCG](://www.traptcg/tutorials)

6

This seems like a bug, to be honest. UE should be able to properly create static meshes from BSPs without having to export them into other programs.