Tottally Black object after light rebuild etc

Development Rendering
43

Absolutely np at all.

I started in blender, thx to its nice terrain plugin, then into unity since I already had it and is free up to a point of course and then as I grew with the design my needs changed, hence coming to UE4,so that’s the history behind it.

Yes its that big but not really on purpose as much as just something I imported into unity and it grew ( unitys basic terrain default size) and I exported it out of there and into ue4 later .

It started as a mountain design with a path winding up to top with a few caves here and there spread out over entire mesh. The design was initially just a experiment, but later I realized it all made sense with the overall game design I had in mind, so yes as to is it walkable. I had a heck of a time getting the slope right everywhere but not wanting it to be too easy either :slight_smile:

The player starts out on the terrain at a plot point,and then goes up to the mesh, finding start of path at bottom ( and seen in picture).

I must admit I wondered if 1024 uvmap was enough ( blender atm) given how big the mesh was and how densely populated it made the resulting unwrap, so if I read you right, if I made the uvmap say double or triple that size, it might help with the lighting being correct ? Is there a formula to use for such things for future reference ?

Im updating the mesh, or trying to so I need to get those pics to you later after I’ve imported new updated lower res mesh with normal map, as I’m trying to take advice of all here and lower tris to get a better lightmap.

BUt atm Im having a big problem where , after saving new mesh over top of current one as I presume you do, and doing a reimport in ue4, the mesh doesnt’ get placed right where other one is, even though the transform values didn’t change. It’s placed way off to the side, and is going to be a major problem, because the mesh is placed at just the right height and place .

How do I resolve that ?

45

Have you checked your pivot? Open the model in blender and see where the pivot is. When you say X=0, Y=0, Z=0 as transforms (in UE4), they apply it to the pivot point. So is the rotation. So it is very important you put the pivot in the right place. There was a guide about . Let me see if I can find it.
Ah, here it is:
.unrealengine/latest/INT/Engine/Content/FBX/StaticMeshes/index.html#pivotpoint

try increasing the light map resolution. Some light baking artifacts can be fixed way. Unfortunately I dont have any formulas for that. I usually go with trial and error.

PS: If that mesh is supposed to serve as a terrain, I would advice you to create it using Terrain editor in UE4 instead of a static mesh. way you can always adjust or edit the terrain from within the editor itself. I think you can export a heigtmap from blender and use ti with UE4 terrain.

PPS: I saw your Normal map. It looks like it is in object space instead of tangent space. i think you’ll need tangent space normal maps. And it has overlaps I think. Please keep in mind that for lightmass, you’ll need non-overlapping UV maps.

46

Ok thanks I’ll check out url, and yes I did wonder about the pivot given I always seem to have such issues in blender ( or import from sculptris may be culprit who knows), but I never thought it would be so far off if it was that, but I’m thx so much for heads up )

It isn’t officially a terrain, it sits on top, of the terrain,here I’ll show you ( It is much smaller than total terrain size which is 4096, at least that was size unity showed before I moved it over here) :

https://onedrive.live/redir?resid=79A04534F6B84EF5!20403&authkey=!AEmtx7s-PJv3Q34&v=3&ithint=photo%2Cjpg

AS you can see short of its awesomeness ( ha), its quite alpha.

Later and thx tons!
nl

47

I think I understand now.

Did you try increasing the resolution of light map?

Its also good idea to break up a big static mesh into smaller ones. Could reduce draw calls if only a portion of the huge mesh is visible.

48

I mean that it’s a terrain piece, where it’s going to be very large–each static mesh can only use one lightmap and one lightmap even at a high resolution probably isn’t going to give enough detail for a mesh of that size, it needs to be broken into multiple pieces.

50

How do I do breaking up so that it all comes into ue4 in say 5 pieces but merges as one object ? I wasn’t aware ue4 could do that as I’ve seen no lists showing that. What I mean is, do I name each piece or just split and export all as one object and ue4 automagically 'see’s the split object and culls it as such ?

Thx for clarification. as I’m new to ue4.

51

The objects should be separate in Blender, when you import to UE4 there’s an option to Combine Meshes, uncheck that and they will be separate objects.

52

Ok I’ll give it a try :wink:

53

Meant to ask, if my current mesh’s cursor isn’t set to ‘corner’ of mesh, and I’m using blender, how do I get it there. I’ve tried everything and having zero luck.

54

I have removed the argumentative posts in thread in order to keep the thread from being closed. Moving forward please do not get into arguments and please try to be more understanding and patient with each other especially when you’re asking for help.

As for the purpose of thread please see my input below which will hopefully answer your question and fix your mesh import issues.

  • Your particular mesh should have a lower poly count. If you’re using it for gameplay then i would recommend no more than around 20K polys with a high-res normal map and/or tessellated displacement. If it’s for cinematic use i would say you could get away with 40K
  • If you can get your hands on it, i would recommend using ZRemesher within ZBrush to retopo your model then use **XNormal **to bake your Normal, AO and Height maps
  • When you export the mesh be sure to use **FBX **format (least problematic with UE4)
  • As of 4.5 the option to Generate Lightmaps within UE4 is no longer within the Mesh Editor, it is now within the Import Options
  • When you import the mesh be sure to check Generate Lightmap UVs in the import popup dialog, will automatically create your Lightmap UVs and assign them to the lightmap channel
  • You may also need to adjust your Light Map Resolution within the Mesh Editor if the lighting detail is not to your liking after building your lighting

Here is a video of ZRemesher in action
v=CVoFi2mnyhA

Here is a video of XNormal in action

?v=e8M4wrCBcDE

55

[QUOTE=CharlestonS;174612]
I have removed the argumentative posts in thread in order to keep the thread from being closed. Moving forward please do not get into arguments and please try to be more understanding and patient with each other especially when you’re asking for help.

As for the purpose of thread please see my input below which will hopefully answer your question and fix your mesh import issues.

  • Your particular mesh should have a lower poly count. If you’re using it for gameplay then i would recommend no more than around 20K polys with a high-res normal map and/or tessellated displacement. If it’s for cinematic use i would say you could get away with 40K
  • If you can get your hands on it, i would recommend using ZRemesher within ZBrush to retopo your model then use **XNormal **to bake your Normal, AO and Height maps
  • When you export the mesh be sure to use **FBX **format (least problematic with UE4)
  • As of 4.5 the option to Generate Lightmaps within UE4 is no longer within the Mesh Editor, it is now within the Import Options
  • When you import the mesh be sure to check Generate Lightmap UVs in the import popup dialog, will automatically create your Lightmap UVs and assign them to the lightmap channel
  • You may also need to adjust your Light Map Resolution within the Mesh Editor if the lighting detail is not to your liking after building your lighting

Here is a video of ZRemesher in action
v=CVoFi2mnyhA

Here is a video of XNormal in action
v=e8M4wrCBcDE[/QUOTE]

Already have xnormal, due to a prior moderator noting it would help.

I don’t use 4.5 and I did try to reduce low poly mesh to something lower but Im having trouble doing so, and the other moderator told me 65k was ‘ok’, are you disagreeing with him ? THe mesh is very complex and I don’t think ( not sure yet) I can get it below 65k,and I was also told if I split mesh up into say 5 pieces that would also help a lot.

Consistency is better to avoid confusing new users :slight_smile: ( said: " but in case even if we can cut the poly count in half, it will make a big difference. " which equals the 65k Im referring to.

I realize the other moderator mentioned 10k-25k, but I can’t imagine getting it that far down. I tried, and it distorts way too many thing that depend on a reasonable amount of fidelity. Yes, maybe if I was better at normal mapping I could do it I have no idea, I just know atm it seems impossible to get it that low and have something resembling my artistic workflow. Maybe is a case of my lacking ability I have no idea since I have nothing no similar example to draw on where someone successfully lowered a high res mesh similar to mine (or higher) and got it down to 20k. If I had that, then I would know its possible right ? :wink:

Thanks !;

nl

56

I forgot to respond to : It’s impossible to export mesh as a heightmap ,I"ve tried. The only option that seems to work is using a ‘color ramp’ method which is common, but it results in a very poor looking result so its just unacceptable. I wish I could as it certainly would make some things much easier. I don’t have access to anything atm, but blender or sculptris.

Thanks!
nl

57

Moderators do not necessarily work for Epic, ‘Moderator’ just means that they asked us to help moderate the forums since we have a knowledgeable, helpful posting history and are active in the community. So we may have differences in opinion.

The engine itself has a hard limit as to how many polys it will allow you to import so you can get away with higher poly counts but there is a difference between what you CAN get away with and what is necessary.

From what i saw of your mesh the poly counts i posted should be more then enough and you will not see any different in fidelity by having more than those poly counts especially if you use normal maps and tessellation correctly.

If you would like to send me the mesh in OBJ format via a PM i would be more than happy to try my hand at making is engine friendly for you and explain the process by which i did so.

58

If you want to lower the poly count you need to do it by hand, do a search on retopology and there’s lots of info out there. In blender you would bring in your high-detail mesh and there are tools that allow you to build new geometry that snaps to the surface of the high-detail geometry.

If you use multiple meshes then it needs to be split in a way so that the seams aren’t in bad locations, doing retopology can help since you can plan out how you want to split up the mesh an make the topology flow around it.

Ultimately, you can use a high detail mesh—UE4 supports it, and even use automatically generated lightmap UV’s, but it’s not the right workflow and will end up with poor performance and bad graphical results.

59

I know about those tools , but its called shrinkwrap and as I understand, I’d have to make a new mesh by hand going around what I have now, starting with a plane, at least thats what I saw done on a youtube tut. I think my mesh i s too complex to do that .

All that leaves, that I’m aware of, is a normal map which I’ve tried but I’ve yet to finish that so we’ll see. If I get my mesh down to say 20k it leaves some parts of it very badly damaged and I don’t know if the normalmap will fix them. I’ll keep trying .

60

If you would like to send me the mesh < I may just do that if I get stuck, and ty for offering, very appreciated :slight_smile:

Cheers
nl

61

Normal map just changes the normals to add the appearance of detail, normals are the direction a surface is facing so they can be used to give a fake “bump” like effect, they won’t change the actual geometry. Anything can be retopologized, ultimately you’d want to start very simple with how much geometry you use and then you can subdivide it after that and then push it snap it back to the high detail mesh, that way you can start at a very very low poly count just to get the flow and then you subdivide to a good level.

62

Ok, In blender to set the Pivot (called Origin in blender), do :

Step 1:
First you must move the 3D cursor (the circular thingy thats always on screen), to the location whcih must act as the pivot. I usually move it the center of the world . But it depends on the mesh ion question, so you can move it manually. To move it to center, Press [Shift+S] -> [To Center]

Step 2:
Now we will ask blender to use the current 3D cursor location as pivot. To do that, you must switch to Object mode. Then select the object and
Object Tools -> Origin -> Origin to 3d Cursor"

That should do it.

About Baking normal maps in Blender:

If you have a mesh with high poly count, make a copy of it and apply some modifiers to bring down the ply-count. But make sure the low-poly model almost does not chip into the high-poly model. Next step is to UV map the low poly model (no need to UV map high poly). But make sure you have NON-OVERLAPPING UVs. Then follow tutorial to bake the high poly normals onto the low-poly version:
https://cgcookie/blender/2010/06/30/normal_maps_blender_2_5/

NOTE: Make sure you bake Tangent-Space normals. Also you can export height maps as well (if you dont have cavities in your mesh).

63

I really apologize if I lead you to think I don’t know how to do normal maps in blender, I sure do, I just never felt I had great results BUT, then again I never got around to finishing it and making a material for it in UE4. I’ll try to do that tonight.

You’re a gem for taking the time to post the video, so out of respect I’ll check it out in case Im missing something.

Thanks also for cursor stuff but what I meant is , I was told that im having issues with 'reimport’ing a mesh. I tried the other day and it came in way off to the side instead of directly replacing current mesh , in place, directly where it is in the scene.

That’s the dilemma I face atm, making sure when I reimport that it replaces the mesh right where it is, all transforms intact ;)_ I have no idea why but last time I tried to import I guess the pivot was off,no doubt to changing it in blender not realizing the mess I was creating for myself. When that happens is there anyway to verify in UE4 what ‘pivot’ the current mesh is so when I reimport I don’t have problems guessing what pivot its expecting ? is the biggest hurdle I think for me , even over normal maps.

So, one Iget normal map working, should I ditch the idea of splitting mesh into 5 pieces ? ( because its proving not to work at all as ‘pieces’ I try to grab with ‘b’ aren’t all getting selected and sometimes I can’t seem to get a few strays no matter how much I zoom.

Ty for all your help everyone, very appreciated I hope you know.

Cheers
nl

64

EDIT EDIDT : I had to ‘remove a texture’ which was placed there by blender itself as it baked the NP. Talk about a nasty bug in 2.72! Anyway fixed! :wink: I’ll update thread IF I get working which I prob. will given should make lightmap much easier to deal with and the NP should in theory allow to perfrom tons better ofc and look’ ok’ I hope.

Alright, Im having major problems trying to make normalmap and I’ve followed tut directions,but Im getting VERY odd, tiny results, and it creates the map far too quickly, and an error.
Here is pic:

https://onedrive.live/redir?resid=79A04534F6B84EF5!20435&authkey=!AKWOrk0kaZrM644&v=3&ithint=photo%2Cjpg

‘circular reference in texture stack’, error, and the normalmap is almost non existant as you can see.

Any idea ?

SO CLOSE :wink:

<or not>

ty anyone
nl

p.s. if I need to ask on blender forum that’s fine too.