SURVIVOR MODELLING AND MESH EXPORT GUIDE.
I have written this guide to help everybody that is working on the 3d team for Survivor get their meshes into unreal smoothly.
1./ Create your model.
Following the concept/brief you have been given create your model with high detail but low poly/tri count.
2./ Create the LODS.
Once the model is finished you need to create the LODs the best way to think of this is to create a lower poly versions of your model, you want to take a 3rd or more of the polys away in each LOD so for example you model is 90 polys then LOD 1 will be 60, LOD 2 will be 40, LOD 3 will be 18. Each LOD should hold the shape of the full detail model.
3./ Create your collision meshes.
Collision meshes are made of basic primitives with as little polys as possible, collision meshes cannot have holes but floating geo is fine so for example if you are making a set of goal posts for a football/soccer field then the collision would be made up of 3 3 sided cylinders
4./ Naming conventions.
For Survivor I have set up a naming convention for all 3d team members to follow when you export your models this convention is "SURVIVOR_MODELNAME" for example "SURVIVOR_GOALPOSTS" if your model is part of a modular set then the naming convention adds a number so you could have "SURVIVOR_GOALPOSTS_01", "SURVIVOR_GOALPOSTS_02"
For LODs export your LOD mesh's separate from the main model with no collision name each LOD "SURVIVOR_MODELNAME_LOD1" change the number at the end depending on what LOD level you are exporting. For our goal posts we would have "SURVIVOR_GOALPOSTS_LOD1" "SURVIVOR_GOALPOSTS_LOD2" "SURVIVOR_GOALPOSTS_LOD3"
For collision meshes you NEED to name the collision correctly for udk to understand its a collision mesh the convention for this is "UCX_MODELNAME_01" the number denotes the peice of the collision mesh the primitive is so our 3 3 sided cylinders for the goal posts would be "UCX_GOALPOST_01" "UCX_GOALPOST_02" "UCX_GOALPOST_03"
5./ Exporting from max/maya.
When exporting your models from your modelling program do a quick bit of housekeeping to make things easy for everybody.
1. Make sure your models pivot point is in a logical place preferable on the contact point of the model so if the model sits on the ground then having the pivot set to the ground would be a good idea, if the model is wall mounted then the place where the model will attach to the wall.
2. Make sure your model is central to the world before you export. If you export a model that is 100 units away from the centre of the grid then when its placed in unreal it will be 100 units away from where its wanted and its a ball ache for the level designer, it takes 2 seconds to centre stuff so make sure you do.
3. Is everything named correctly? Check your model/LODS/collision names before you export.
Once you have checked all of that you can then export your models make sure that the main model is exported with the collisions (select both then export selected) for LODS just export each LOD separate .
6./ Importing to unreal.
When you import your models to unreal there are a few naming things that i would like everybody to follow.
PACKAGE NAME - the name for the package will be "SURVIVOR_YOURNAME"
GROUP NAME - the name of the group depends on what your importing for models name the group "MESHES" for textures name the group "TEXTURES" and if you are going to create the materials for your model then you should name the group for the materials... guess what "MATERIALS".
FILE NAME - If you have followed the naming conventions from your modelling program then you wont need to change the file name.
IF YOU NEED ANY HELP/ADVICE ABOUT ANY OF THIS THEN CONTACT ME VIA SKYPE
