Setting up proper scale grid and spacing in Maya is crucial to importing from Maya to Unreal 3. It helps you to snap to the grid, set up and follow proper scale proportions and makes the whole workflow between Maya and Unreal 3 hell of a lot easier.
So lets set up the grid in Maya to match the grid in Unreal 3 editor.
First go up to Display --> Grid, and click on the options box.
Grid Options box comes up. These are the numbers you want in the first three input boxes.
1 --> How big you want your grid to be, size wise. This has nothing to do with grid spacing.
2 --> In the third box we have 16 units. 16x16 is 256. 256 is relative to 16 subdivisions in our third box. So this numberwill change depending on the subdivisions. If you want your grid to be 32 units, then 32x32=1024
3 --> 16 means that 16 units are exactly the same 16 units that will be in unreal. If you want to change it up or down then you would multiply that number by itself. The number that you come up with will go into input box 2. Lets say you want your grid to be 8 unreal units then 8x8=64. 64 would go into box number 2.
Keep this number in 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 etc. This will make sure your maya units are the same as unreal units.
This is Unreal 3 scale box. Each square is 16 units, as in our subdivisions above. There are 6 boxes total that scale takes up.
16x6=96 units high.
Which is exactly the number of units it is in unreal.
My setup in Maya is 1:1 as well, but you need to know what units you're
using, so that you can import/export data in the same scale into/from other
apps. It's never as easy as, "well, it works...", because you're never
going to be dealing with just 1 3D app in production.
It's tricky, because Maya doesn't have generic units or an adaptive system,
but modo does, and you'll most likely need to work with FBX for Maya/Max
transfers to keep scale, and Max is setup for generic units usually... In
other words, centimeter is a unit system that will transfer properly
through pretty much all apps, using FBX or OBJ.
AlexG
30 Jul 2009, 06:49
Maya unit/grid system may not be user-friendly with Unreal but I made it
work. It really comes down to making the tools work for you, I figured out
how to make Maya work with Unreal.
The way I have it set up, I never need to scale up or down before
exporting. It is EXACTLY the same as Unreal. I don't have to deal with
It doesn't make any sense to having 1cm equal to .5uu and then I have to
scale up 2x? That is confusing.
Why not set up a grid to where if you create a 128x128 unit box in Maya so
it equals to 128x128 unit box in Unreal. That makes sense. Making Maya
units exactly the same as Unreal units.
Pirate Breath
29 Jul 2009, 20:48
What the crap system units are you using?... centimeters? inches? yards?
microns? strides? fathoms?
1 unreal unit = 2 centimeters
therefore, if you're using centimeters, 1 cm = .5uu, therefore you need to
scale your model up 2x before/while exporting.
maya's grid/system units is retarded; you can't setup generic units, or
scale one system into another, there is no simple HUD grid unit display in
the corner of the viewport, and the grid doesn't scale in/out when you zoom
in/out. maya is NOT the best for game dev...even if it was a decent
modeler, which it's not.
AlexG
14 Apr 2009, 19:35
Will do.
Most likely in May I will focus on Hammer Editor. With Left4Dead coming out
with SDK and CS:S(my all time favorite) I am looking to complete a few maps
for these two games. I will be coming with many tutorials for these two in
the process.
Right now I am working on Unreal Map for MakeSomethingUnrealContest, so
there will be quiet a few Unreal 3 tutorials until then.
Hang in there Keith, Hammer SDK tutorials will come.
:)
keithg
13 Apr 2009, 22:40
I would really like to see something like this for Hammer SDK as well.
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