LW10 FBX Export for UDK

[gothshadow]

I D/L the LW10 Trial as I was stoked to see a built-in plugin for FBX exporting. The 3rd party FBX Exporter that works in LW9.0 causes stuck vertex points in UDK. I was exstatic when the FBX imported as a Skeletal Mesh into UDK, this soon faded when there were no UV's to attach the textures to.

My question, how do you export UVs with the LW10 Valkyrie FBX Exporter? If I could get this working, then I could get the main money backer to purchase a few LW10 copies for use in the game dev.

If anyone could please help, it would be appreciated.

[Lamont]

Did you assign the UV's to a surface? Not a LW10 user, but I would start there.

[gothshadow]

Did you assign the UV's to a surface? Not a LW10 user, but I would start there.

I did. No UVs when I import into UDK.

[Danner]

we got that much from your post, but did you assign any UVs IN LIGHTWAVE?

[gothshadow]

we got that much from your post, but did you assign any UVs IN LIGHTWAVE?

Yes, I've added a UV texture to the Color Channel in LW10, and it shows the mesh as textured in both Modeller and Layout.

[Dodgy]

I've used the colladda exporter to successfully get normal and animated meshes into unreal.

[gothshadow]

I've used the colladda exporter to successfully get normal and animated meshes into unreal.

Collada gives an error on import. This isn't my model, but another team member's, is it possible he could have corrupted the mesh?

[Dodgy]

Hmm, maybe there's something being exported which unreal doesn't understand.

[clintonman]

Did you assign UV and a texture? Did you use node material? Lightwave won't export the UV unless a texture is also applied and LW does not recognize the node based materials. If you need more than one UV you need to apply the UV and a texture in another channel like specularity. The only thing that does not transfer to UDK is the smoothing information/vertex normals(for skeletal meshes, ok for static meshes I think).

[clintonman]

I've used the colladda exporter to successfully get normal and animated meshes into unreal.
I think that only works for UT3. Collada has been perpetually broken in UDK for skeletal meshes.

[gothshadow]

Did you assign UV and a texture? Did you use node material? Lightwave won't export the UV unless a texture is also applied and LW does not recognize the node based materials. If you need more than one UV you need to apply the UV and a texture in another channel like specularity. The only thing that does not transfer to UDK is the smoothing information/vertex normals(for skeletal meshes, ok for static meshes I think).

Yes, there was a texture assigned to the Color Channel, not to anything in the node setup. It had UVs with the texture applied, and it showed as applied in both modeller, and in Layout prior to export from Layout.

The model was done by another member of my team. I think his model has mesh corruption, as I've been able to export stuff I've done with no problem both in 9.0 and 10. He had renamed all the "Default" surface to a new name, and I remember from my 7.5c days that could sometimes cause mesh corruption if you didn't leave atleast one polygon assigned to the original "Default" surface.

I didn't realize it was possible mesh corruption until I weight mapped and rigged the model, then tried to add animation different than what was originally provided. Parts I know had a 100% weight for another bone would deform when another bone was moved.

[clintonman]

I didn't know about that corruption stuff. Is it possible you didn't set the weightmap only checkbox for the bones?

[gothshadow]

I didn't know about that corruption stuff. Is it possible you didn't set the weightmap only checkbox for the bones?

Double checked, it is set.

[clintonman]

Double checked, it is set.

Too bad was hoping it was something simple. I would ask in the general support section of the forum about corrupt files and ways to fix them. Maybe post a sample file if possible. Someone who knows might miss it here in the games section.

[gothshadow]

Too bad was hoping it was something simple. I would ask in the general support section of the forum about corrupt files and ways to fix them. Maybe post a sample file if possible. Someone who knows might miss it here in the games section.

I'll give it a try later. like I said, I had the issue 5 years ago with 7.5c, so I model to avoid it, my team member has never modelled for anything but himself until recently. If there is a fix I know he'll be more thankful than an orphan saved from a burning building.

I had to remodel my model 5 years ago when it happened to me, and have told him that may be the only fix. I'll post in the General Support section latrer and see if there is a fix though, couldn't hurt.

[MaDDoX]

I can export anything from Lightwave to Unity without a hitch, it's actually much more solid than Modo's FBX exporter, which did corrupt a complex-UV'd scenery model on export once. I had to export it to LWO, open it in Lightwave Modeler and re-export it, then it all worked flawlessly inside Unity.

I'm confident I can fix any export errors you're getting in your model, supposing you can PM me a link to it.

[gothshadow]

I can export anything from Lightwave to Unity without a hitch, it's actually much more solid than Modo's FBX exporter, which did corrupt a complex-UV'd scenery model on export once. I had to export it to LWO, open it in Lightwave Modeler and re-export it, then it all worked flawlessly inside Unity.

I'm confident I can fix any export errors you're getting in your model, supposing you can PM me a link to it.

Well, from LW10 Trial, I exported FBX, and the animation was good, the mesh looked good, only the UV did not export. If you want I can put the LWS, LWO, and texture in a ZIP. I don't think the problem is fixable due to mesh corruption, but you're welcome to try.

[MaDDoX]

I don't think the problem is fixable due to mesh corruption, but you're welcome to try.

Sure, I'm waiting for the PM with the link if you want to use Dropbox - or just attach it here as a reply if you can. If all else fail I can also exporting it from the new Modo 501. Although I haven't had the chance to test it it, Luxology supposedly fixed its glaring FBX UV export issues from previous versions.

[jasonwestmas]

Well, from LW10 Trial, I exported FBX, and the animation was good, the mesh looked good, only the UV did not export. If you want I can put the LWS, LWO, and texture in a ZIP. I don't think the problem is fixable due to mesh corruption, but you're welcome to try.

Did you know about the fact that you have to apply the UVs to the model in the surface editor before export? Mabe that's just obj format but I think FBX too.

Nevermind, somebody already informed you.

[Julez4001]

merge points in Modeler..make sure there isn't any2 points residing in the same space.

[Gillissie]

It's not just Unreal. The FBX exporter in LW 10 is broken for Unity too. The FBX exporter in 9.6 works fine for Unity. I wish they would fix it for LW 10 (and put the "subdivide" option back in too).

[Gumby22don]

.dae export from LW10 opens in UDK nice enough. I have only to figure out how to set up 'smoothing groups' somewhere in the workflow, and I'll be happy.

Don
have a great day

[DeanoC]

Try 10.1 haven't used it for Daz or Unreal but its much improved for input FBX file, so might be worth a try?

[Tima]

dodgy > what do you mean by "normals", you mean the vertex normals ?

collada export has not vertex normal data, you must use a software to regenerate it, (accutrans)
i use Fbx free converter 2012. and this software don't regenerate the vertex normal data.
According to the online document you must use the fbx 2011 version
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/FBXPipeline.html

IMPORTANT: Unreal currently uses FBX 2011. Using a different version during export may result in incompatibilities.


i have test out with my model it works good, but when i importing the fbx i get an error with the smoothing group..

in the editor i cant see my uvmap in the uvchannel 0 of the static mesh editor. normals, tangent and binormal can be displayed, and my mesh has a really bad render in this editor due of the smoothing group problem.
i have tested if with a normal map the model loks better, but not..
when i build the lightning of the level i get an error with the lightmap.
(StaticMesh has an invalid LightMassCoordinate Index)
the first model i have tested have a symetrical uvmap ( overlapped uvmap)
the second has one uvmap and no overlapped polygons but i continue to have this error.
i know that smooth group are linked to the default lw material system ( blinn shader)
maybe this affect the final model during the convertion from the assets browser in UDK ?
in the asset browser you can import a lightmap with a ASE model. maybe this can help is the model has eaxctly the same scale.

EDIt:
I check the FBX SDK documentation smoothing groups are defined by the KFbxLayerElementSmoothing value.

http://download.autodesk.com/global/docs/fbxsdk2012/en_us/index.html

i have exported one model from lw 10 trial and there is no LayerElementSmoothing data in the ascii (fbx) file .

[clintonman]

I just finished writing a program that will generate smoothing groups for FBX files that don't have smoothing groups. The program is called MergeSmoothing because it was originally written to replace the normals/smoothing from one FBX file with another, but it will also generate smoothing groups from a single file. LW11 exports only smooth normals. It doesn't see the surface smoothing, so I think the geometry would have to be cut to get a combination of hard and soft normals. LW10 only exports hard normals so it would be difficult to get a combination of hard and soft edges. Anyway, the 32 bit windows application can be found here:

http://www.clintons3d.com/vr/index.html