Using UDK

I admit I am a little hesitant to work into UDK when I am new to the software. Although I have played with static meshes and effects before, I have never imported my own models or textures. I decided to start from the bottom at basics and work my way up.


(Unfortunately I was unable to upload screenshot evidence at this time as it was lost on the computer University)

Firstly I followed a simple tutorial from a friend who had done some basic work in UDK before. I learned the export procedure from Maya to UDK through the FBX plugin. All I had to do was select the object I wanted to export. Go to File-Export Selection and then click on the settings box. From there I had to select the FBX file format. I then opened UDK and made a new folder which I labelled accordingly, I then selected 'import' and chose my FBX export from Maya. When I imported it the first time an error message appeared informing me I had to have 'Smoothing Groups' selected. I then went back into Maya, checked the export settings through FBX and managed to select Smoothing Groups through a preset button.

I then imported the model back into UDK and the Smoothing selection worked well. All my edges had been smoothed and looked exactly how it did in Maya. However, something I did notice was it seemed parts of the walls were missing? I looked up some help tutorials and discovered that it was an inverted face normals. I had already looked at face normals before so I knew the next step to take. Firstly I went back into Maya with my model, highlighted the object and clicked Display-Polygons then Face Normals. Here I was able to perfectly see the areas of the object that were facing the wrong way. Thus the reason why UDK seemed incorrect. To fix this I clicked on the Normals tab and then Reverse and then I clicked Conform. This then fixed the inverted faces I was experiencing. I then imported the model in for the third time into UDK and then it worked perfectly.

(Thankfully have screenshots this time)

Secondly I then decided to import the model again but this time import the colour maps too. I followed exactly the same steps, However this time in UDK under the 'import' tab in a drop down menu I selected 'Import Materials' and 'Import Textures'. From the screenshots below we can see how I took each step from Maya to UDK.



Here is my terminal model successfully imported into UDK. I was actually really pleased with how it turned out and it didn't seem so bad. However, most of the time I had complications were normally due to a selection box needing to be ticked. Even following tutorials from the UDK site, including ones from building light. I felt completely overwhelmed. I felt insecure with the concept and daunted with the lack of  one to one help at my disposal. Because I was unable to receive the lessons/tutorials on UDK as I requested in my learning agreement, I have given UDK second thoughts for rendering and lighting at this time. I have however shown evidence of importing Maya files including it's materials. I certainly respect and understand the importance of using game engines. However, I feel it was not right for me at this point. To still persue my project I will light my environment in Maya.