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Seeking Export Workflow Tips (3ds Max, Maya, Unreal etc)

R2D2X
Explorer
Hi Everyone.
I've read the export guideline pdf and skimmed some other posts but am still having trouble and would appreciate any workflow tips you have.

Today I exported a model at 10% decimation with 4K textures, and it looks spotty when imported to 3ds Max. I noticed in the pdf that I should export with no decimation, but that often means super slow exports that sometimes take what seems like forever (I have an i7 with 32 gigs ram and an Evo drive).

Eventually I would like to bring them into game engines, and I know there will need to be some kind of re-topology / baking of high res textures. However I know nothing about that stuff!

If anyone can give me tips I'd be so grateful.

thanks!

ypvz40vx2q39.pnga8x1ywcc6e2t.png
7 REPLIES 7

P3nT4gR4m
Consultant
Not sure if it's what's wrong here (don't know max) but try flipping the green channel in your normal maps. Also no decimation should only be used with vertex colour exports. As you noticed - it'll take forever to unwrap a hipoly and the results will still suck.

*edit - make sure you use tangent space normal maps too

falken76
Expert Consultant
Medium will create extremely heavy meshes, so the extremely slow reaction on your I7 w/ 32 gigs is normal.  I would try importing the model as it is from Medium with no decimation and then add that modifier from within max.  It's going to be alot of work to fix.  Medium doesn't seem like a good option for modeling for game engines, the meshes are made out of what look like metaballs so they'd be super dense.  Is this the case?

R2D2X
Explorer
Thanks for the earlier replies, sorry for not seeing them.
Hi Everyone. I'm still struggling to understand a workflow.

Right now (since update) I tried exporting using the 'real time' preset. When I import the model directly into the Unreal engine though, it looks strange (no texture and UV looks distorted).  I know very little about rendering, UV, re-topology etc, so I'm looking for any suggestions on what I should be doing / researching. If anyone has a workflow of Medium to game engines (or other 3D rendering etc) I'd be grateful.

The following images show my output settings, what I see in Medium, and what I see in Unreal.

r6qi5aw6dkbs.png1w3ftgtuaxy8.png
sujk9odijveh.png

P3nT4gR4m
Consultant
320-odd kilopolys is ludicrous! Jack that slider down until it's coming out nearer a tenth of that number. Also looks like your normal maps are back to front so find the flip-green option and that should fix that.

R2D2X
Explorer
hey thanks P3nT4gR4m
Do you see the grey square alignment? It seems all messed up. Is that the UV's?

P3nT4gR4m
Consultant
Aye. The Medium UV unwrap is all over the place and will come out all patchy like that every time. The normal and diffuse maps it spits out account for this, tho and should look fine. If you plan on applying textures other than the ones medium gives you, you'll need to switch from UV to triplanar mapping. Haven't been near UE for ages but I'm sure it has this option somewhere.

If memory serves that grey checkerboard thing is a placeholder for - textures not found - Looks like you might need to build up a node tree and hook up your .png's. If there's no diffuse map, there's probably no normal map either, which would account for the rough looking edges.

R2D2X
Explorer
Hey thanks again for the helpful info. really appreciate it!