Unreal Studio Beta 4.23 Preview

Development Pipeline & Plugins
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PREVIEW

We have released a preview of Unreal Studio 4.23. The notes below are for updates related to Unreal Studio.
(general details about the 4.23 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 4.23 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:

Datasmith Import for Cinema4D:

  • Cinema 4D Support - Files can be imported natively via a new dropdown option on the Datasmith import button

  • Using the Save for Melange command in C4D users will be able to translate whole scene hierarchies.

  • Current Limitations

  • C4D’s node graph materials are not supported in Melange

  • C4D’s procedural shaders. Bitmaps, colors and settings only.

  • Animated deformers.

  • Only PSR Animation.

  • Skeletal Animations are not supported at this time.

New Collaborative Design Review Template:

  • This provides a single project template combining features of the previous 2 templates.

  • Addition of a camera mode panel in desktop mode to allow selection of camera navigation technique

  • Refactoring of commands implementation, so it’s easier to extend the project in blueprint

  • Commands are accessible through a UI (Desktop and VR menus)

  • VR can be toggled On/Off, instead of selecting a mode at startup and living with it for the rest of the session

  • Current Limitations

  • 4.23 version does not work on mobile

New HDRI Backdrop Actor:

  • With the new HDRI Backdrop Actor, it’s faster and easier to create a realistic background and lighting environment for your Level from a single HDRI image
  • Simply drop the Actor into your Level and assign it the HDRI texture you want. You’ll get your texture projected onto a backdrop, a Sky Light automatically set up to provide ambient light drawn from the texture, and a floor surface that captures the shadows from your Level

3ds Max Workflow Improvements:

  • Vray lights - Disc shapes - A Vray light set to Disc now exports as a Rect light with a Disk shape. Lumen calculations are also be taken into account, identically to rectangular vray lights.

  • Photometric lights - Uniform Diffuse Distribution - Diffuse distributions emit lights in one direction (cosine) as opposed to all around (isotropic).

  • Corona Light Improvements

  • All intensity units are now properly converted to an equivalent value in units compatible in UE

  • Support for light Shapes and types

  • Corona’s Cylinder lights now have the proper rotation in UE

  • Body Objects now use Viewport Tesselation

  • Refactored limit of 100 material IDs for MultiSub Materials

  • Helper objects imported as null objects

  • Support Autodesk Bitmap Format

  • and more…

Revit Workflow Improvements:

  • Fixed UVs inverted on the Y axis
  • WallSweep now exported
  • Export light sources on “Light Sources” layer for easier selection

Additional Unreal Studio Features and Improvements:

  • New Re-tessellate command for static meshes imported from CAD
  • CAD importer has been refactored for future benefit. This impacts Python API; scripts made for 4.22 don’t run in 4.23
  • VRED and Deltagen animations now import as Level Sequences
  • Editor Python API added for the Variant Manager. (unreal.VariantManagerLibrary, unreal.VariantSet, unreal.Variant)
  • Improved performance when working with large scenes (many updates)

Preview FAQ

  • Why do you release previews?

  • 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.

  • How do I access the Preview?

  • 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.

  • Are there updates during the Preview cycle?

  • Yes, we typically release an updated preview version every week

  • How long does the Preview run for? When is the actual release?

  • 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.

  • Do I need to uninstall the Preview after it is over?

  • No. You can update the Preview installation to become the actual release.

2

what a great feature like HDRi lighting

4

Seeing so much great features in this PR, looking forward to the official release.

5

When i use omni light , it had shadow problem (in raytracing mode)
but i replace omni to reclight ,it seem look ok . i don’t know what made it ! shadow? or post bug?

oculus vr in raytracing dx12 is crash… lol

6

HDRI backdrop is great. Do you have any documentation on the design review template or will this drop with the full 4.23 release?

7

PS - Am always holding out for C# integration from Epic in the next release however USharp is coming along really nicely and it’s allowing us to speed up our development using some of our own libraries (and others that are available).
https://forums.unrealengine.com/unreal-engine/feedback-for-epic/1508112-official-c-support/page2

This may be a great way to increase market share with developers more familiar with C# based engines!

8

Are there any plans to support Solidworks Decals?

9

I have to tried to import from Archicad using C4D. However, in Unreal the import appeared with all materials transparent - even though they’re all solid in Archicad.

10

It doesn’t import double-sided materials as two-sided in UE.

11

UPDATE: PREVIEW 3

UE 4.23 Preview 3 has been made available today - (full engine details here)
Unreal Studio 4.23 Preview 3 is available along with it.

  1. On the Launcher, update the 4.23 engine version
  2. On the Launcher, update the Datasmith plugin
  3. Download the latest Exporter plugins for 4.23 from the Downloads page.

Unreal Studio fixes: [TABLE=“border: 1, cellpadding: 0, cellspacing: 0”]

Datasmith result numbers are wrong after import

Fail to cook QAEnterprise.uproject - pin Config File Path no longer exists on node

Project fails to packaged for Android when Enterprise is enabled

Crash when executing dataprep graph

Dataprep - No warning when committing if last execute is out of sync with current pipeline graph

Gear VR fails to launch packaged projects on a Device when Enterprise is enabled for the project

Dataprep buttons’ tooltips are too complex

Cinema 4D - textures are not imported after project cleanup

Cinema 4D - Cloned mesh gets renamed upon reimport.

Mesh Editor plugin enabled by default in Studio project

Collaborative Viewer - Changing Navigation technique change all name to host name

12

So is the mograph cloner in C4D supported or do I need to break it down into editable objects?

13

Actually I figured it out it does work which is pretty cool. I made a walk through for anyone looking to see how to integrate C4D into Unreal step by step https://youtu.be/eJBLOXKahQk

14

Question: I tried to Update from 4.23 P2 to P3 and before that, I updated the installed plugins because there was this exclamation mark. Anyway, now when I open any enterprise 4.22 project, it says that a lot of modules (Datasmiith, MDL, Variante manager etc.) are all not found or built with a different engine version. Could it be that the update had overwritten my 4.22 Datasmith files?
How can I resolve this the easiest?

15

The UE 4.22 and 4.23 installations are separate, and so is the datasmith plugin version for each. But, if you had a project created with 4.22, and then you opened it via 4.23, then that project will get updated to a 4.23 version. (we recommend never updating projects to a new version, always update a copy of the project). If a project does get updated to a newer version, then if you try to launch it again from the older/original version, then you may experience the issues you are describing.

16

Well, I did not update this project. I get the same errors when I create a new blank 4.22 Unreal Studio project. And this happens since I updated the P2 and P3 and as I said updated the Plugins for 4.23 as outlined in my post above.

I re-installed the plugin and everything is fine now but I think there was a bug somewhere during the Launcher Update process but this is hard to track down for me. Anyway, I just wanted to point you to the problem I had :slight_smile:

17

Anybody else running into installation problems with this?

I can download and install the Unreal Engine 4.23 Preview 3 without a problem but it doesn’t install Datasmith for the Preview and a click on the Plugins shows me that none are available for this version.

18

Click on “Installed Plugins” on the Launcher under the 4.23 Engine slot. Does it say that Datasmith is already installed?

19

UPDATE: PREVIEW 4

UE 4.23 Preview 4 has been made available today - (full engine details here)
Unreal Studio 4.23 Preview 4 is available along with it.

  1. On the Launcher, update the 4.23 engine version
  2. On the Launcher, update the Datasmith plugin
  3. Download the latest Exporter plugins for 4.23 from the Downloads page.

Unreal Studio fixes: [TABLE=“border: 1, cellpadding: 0, cellspacing: 0”]

Dataprep progress bars don’t show progress

Crash importing a file through Datasmith in Python headless mode - DatasmithImporterImpl::CheckAssetPersistenceValidity() …\enterprise\plugins\editor\datasmithimporter\source\datasmithimporter\private\datasmithimporter.cpp:209]

Large Datasmith file crashes at the end of the import process

[CrashReport] UE4Editor-CoreUObject!UObjectBaseUtility::GetOutermost() [UObjectBaseUtility.cpp:121]

Disable Dataprep editor from non-studio projects

Missing Retessellate action from actor context menu

Crash reimporting cityEngine Redlands scene (…datasmithimporter\source\datasmithimporter\private\datasmithimportfactory.cpp:698)

OpenNurbs.tps file is empty.

Wrong triangle orientation after CATIA CAD import

Retessellation materials issue

Crash on CATIA file import

Triangles disappear when doing fine tessellation

Datasmith CAD: Tessellation settings not accessible from Static Mesh Editor

Materials and mesh association are broken when importing a RHINO file

Editor crash when importing a RHINO file

Missing triangles on Datasmith Import

Cinema 4D - Reimport datasmith scene doesn’t update the UVs

Cinema 4d - PBR reflectance conformity is not maintained

Cinema 4D - Object resize is not updated through DatasmithScene reimport

Cinema 4D - Unsupported dependent euler angles rotation order

Cinema 4D - Fracture tool should import only visible meshs

Cinema 4D - Particles are visible before birth

Cinema 4D - Material assignment not properly updated upon reimport

Cinema 4D - Materials are washed out

Collaborative Viewer - Oculus - the command menu is upside down on left hand.

Unreal Studio Collaborative Viewer Blueprint Runtime Error: “Accessed None trying to read property ContextualWidget”. Blueprint: BP_Desktop_FlyMode_Pawn Function: Execute Ubergraph BP Desktop Fly Mode during PIE

20

No it doesn’t show Datasmith there. On the other versions I get the Datasmith installed but on the 4.23 Previews, even after upgrading vom 2 -> 3 and 3 -> 4 I don’t get the Datasmith.

Unreal Studio Beta shows as active.

UPDATE: It seems to be an issue with either my account or with the launcher. Because for testing I deinstalled 4.22 and after reinstalling it Datasmith is missing there too and can’t be reinstalled.

21

On the collaborative design template, is there anything specific that work prevent it being opened in 4.22?

The reason I ask is that with a few rings I’m working on they rely on a number of plugins that run with 4.22 and I would much rather build on top of this right now then transition to 4.23 when its more stable and guarantee of plugin support (eg I suspect USharp may have issues being recompiled for 4.23 however I don’t know for sure)

It’s the curse of working at the bleeding edge in a production environment!