Hi,
I’ve already been struggling for 3 days to get a tank model into UE4 and animate it. I have a simple Tank model with parented hierarchy like this:
Body
-Treads
-Wheels
–Turret
—Gun Frame
----Gun
Now, there are 3 options to bring the Tank into UE4
1, Import via content browser as static mesh
When I do this, my tank is broken into individual mesh pieces with their pivot points completely lost and instead scene origin being used as pivot point for each. I think it’s obvious that this is not an acceptable workflow because I don’t want to re-assemble every single vehicle I bring into UE piece by piece, risking doing a mistake.
2, Import via File-Import into level
When I do this, I get individual mesh pieces as static meshes, but also automatically created actor class with the entire tank scene assembled exactly like when I exported it out of the DCC, with the pivot points on their correct places! This is great, however there is nothing more I can do with that pre-made actor class.
If I try to copy and paste static mesh components from the pre-made actor class onto a different actor class, the one I am using as player pawn, the hierarchy as well as the component naming gets completely ruined, with all the offsets and scale wrong, and the hierarchy flattened. If put the entire actor class inside my pawn actor class, as a child actor, then I can no longer easily access its components.
3, Import via content browser as skeletal mesh
If I import my tank as a skeletal mesh, I do not get individual mesh pieces scattered in my content browser as individual static meshes, I get just one tank, which is nice. However, I can not just put them all into my player pawn blueprint. I can only put it in as one, monolithic skeletal mesh, and I can not access for example a tank turret from the blueprint to script its rotation. I now have to do everything indirectly through an animation blueprint.
So I am wondering what is the most common way to do this. I mean handling importing of the vehicles and other hard surface mechanical assets in a way that’s streamlined and easy to deal with.
Thank you in advance.
