PREVIEW
We have released a preview of Unreal Studio 4.22. The notes below are for updates related to Unreal Studio.
(general details about the 4.22 engine preview can be found here)
Please Note:
- Previews should only be used for testing and not for development
- The notes below are incomplete. Full release notes will be made available with the official release.
- Please share feedback about Unreal Studio features here on the forum thread
- Post bug reports about Unreal Studio 4.22 via the support webpage
- Required: Visit the Unreal Studio Exporters Downloads page for the Preview 3ds Max, SketchUp, and Revit exporters.
- Be aware that only one exporter plugin version can be installed to your software at a time (in case you need to jump between the Preview and the latest officially release version)
Unreal Studio improvements and features to test:
3ds Max Workflow Improvements:
- Object Animation - Object Transform Animation (Position, Rotation, Scale) is now exported as a Datasmith asset. Due to differences in how keys are interpolated between 3ds Max and Unreal, we bake one key per frame. Animation exported by Datasmith will be imported as a single Level Sequence asset.
- Datasmith Attributes Modifier - A new “Datasmith Attributes” modifier is added to 3ds Max. This modifier acts a a attributes holder letting users to tag specific objects meant to be exported to Datasmith, providing a centralized workflow for specifying advanced properties relevant to Static Mesh Assets.
- Specify a custom Lightmap UV channel to be used - Datasmith previously auto generated Lightmaps for all objects, resulting in 2 extra channels no matter if users have created their own Lightmap UVs. The new Datasmith Attributes modifier allows for overriding that behavior on specific objects, typically the ones that have been manually Unwrapped for Lightmaps.
- Custom Collisions - The new Datasmith Attributes modifier allows for explicitly referencing a 3ds Max node for exporting custom collisions, this replaces the previous workflow relying on a naming convention (“UCX_ObjectName”)
- Skip Geometry Export - In some situations, 3ds Max models are populated with high density objects that aren’t needed in Unreal “as-is” and must be substituted with objects that are more suitable for VR.
- IProject Settings > Render Settings > Extend default luminance range - This parameter extends the range of the default Auto Exposure, allowing Unreal to support wider ranges of luminances by default, eliminating the lighting “glare bombs” effect out of the box.
- 3ds Max Physical Camera Translation - In order to improve the visual fidelity between 3ds Max render settings and Unreal, (and thus reduce chances to get the glare bomb effects) we also translate Camera settings that affect exposure and white balance.
- 3ds Max Global Exposure translation - Vray Exposure Control and Physical Camera Exposure Control are now translated as a Post Process Volume object with corresponding EV100 and White Balance values translated.
- Improved conversion of Vray Rectangle Lights - Unitless Vray Rectangle Lights now convert with more consistency with regards to intensity and distribution.
- Improved DatasmithAreaLightMesh BP - Area lights translated by Datasmith all have the most important parameters showing at the root of the actor, making the editing of several lights at a time possible.
- Forest Pack Pro / Railclone refactor - The support of Forest Pack Pro objects has been completely re-written. Instead of exporting all Forest Pack Pro objects as a single Foliage object, we now create one Unreal Actor per Forest Objects and export an array of Hierarchical Instanced Static Meshes subcomponents.
- Export Performance - Some scaling issues with the exporter were addressed.
- 3ds Max Camera Target - Camera Target is now translated as a Look At Actor, to maintain similar behavior to 3ds Max
- Non-destructive reimport for material instances - Previously, re-importing Datasmith files would overwrite material changes (ex: edit a color and roughness, re-import: changes are lost). In 4.22, re-importing a Datasmith scene will no longer overwrite parameters that might have been changed in a Material instance created by Datasmith.
- Resolved an issue with actors being imported with Material Overrides on all materials.
- Vertex colors from 3ds Max are now exported as Vertex Colors in Unreal.
- Like done for Sketchup and Revit, Datasmith for 3ds Max now exports “technical” information as Actor Tags to help with dataprep
- Cropped bitmaps in 3ds Max are now correctly exported
CAD Workflow Improvements:
- Tessellation of Rhino files, instead of using meshes stored in files.
- Exposed stitching parameters which control surface stitching during tessellation
- Fix nested layers import issues on Rhino files
- Performances improvements on large scene import
Additional Unreal Studio Features:
- GLTF files now import via the Datasmith interface (with focus on geometry, scene structure and materials).
Additional Engine feature highlights (not specific to Unreal Studio):
- Early-access Ray Tracing functionality is now available in the Unreal Engine. This includes two distinct technologies: the “Hybrid Ray Tracer” and “reference” Path Tracer. Requires Windows 10 version 1089 or above and an Nvidia RTX graphics card. UE4 must be launched with the -dx12 commandline option.
- The Mesh Editing tools in the Static Mesh Editor window now offer better control over backward-facing triangles.
- Real-Time Compositing with Composure. This release introduces significant new capabilities to the Composure Plugin, making it easier than ever to composite images, video feeds, and CG elements directly within Unreal Engine.
- OpenColorIO (OCIO) Color Profiles. You can now use OpenColorIO (OCIO) color profiles to transform the color space of any Texture or Composure Element directly within the Unreal Engine.
- Hardware-Accelerated Video Decoding (Experimental). On Windows platforms, you can now use your GPU to speed up the processing of H.264 video streams. This reduces the strain on the CPU when playing back video streams, which may result in smoother video and may allow you to use higher resolution movie files and more simultaneous input feeds.
- New Media I/O Formats - UHD rendering, HDMI Input, Kona 5
- nDisplay Improvements (Experimental). This release adds several new features that make the nDisplay multi-display rendering system more flexible, handling new kinds of hardware configurations and inputs.
- see more here
Preview FAQ
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Why do you release previews?
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Primarily for the opportunity for you to catch and report any significant bugs that our QA did not experience. We will try to fix major bugs before the actual release.
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How do I access the Preview?
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Open the Epic Games Launcher to the Unreal Engine > Library page. Click the +] button to add a new engine slot, and select the engine Preview from the dropdown list. The Preview version of the Datasmith plugin should install immediately after the engine installation, but if not, you can also install if from the Library page in the Unreal Studio Beta section.
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Are there updates during the Preview cycle?
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Yes, we typically release an updated preview version every week
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How long does the Preview run for? When is the actual release?
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Previews typically last for a month, but may run longer or shorter on occasion. The release occurs one or two weeks after the last Preview.
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Do I need to uninstall the Preview after it is over?
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No. You can update the Preview installation to become the actual release.