ZBRUSH Modeling for UT2004

[ROADKILL]

Anyone doing models for UT2004 with ZBRUSH?
I'd be interested to know how well it works
and what the workflow looks like.
Also if your using displacement maps to
make a low poly character with high detail.
:cool:

[Ctrl-Z]

UT2004 doesn't support displacement maps, last time I checked. No normal maps, either. It's behind Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 in that way. But it did come out on time, which should count for something.

Expect some form of displacement mapping (not just normals) in the Unreal 3 Engine. But, also expect a long wait before that's released.

[travart]

make a low poly game mesh externally, import, sub-d bunch of times to sculpt high poly detail.. pretty easy workflow if you need a normal map... check the practical guide and the Q&A section for some tips and detailed methodology

[travart]

"Expect some form of displacement mapping (not just normals) in the Unreal 3 Engine. But, also expect a long wait before that's released."

nah there's no real form in it, just a trick called offset bump mapping which uses a heightmap to make the texture look distorted by depth... other bump types only affect the lighting's distortion... it's a cool but limited affect, really only good in certain places like stone floors

[ROADKILL]

Thanks travart,
maybe we'll see some example ut2004 characters posted and make a tutorial of the
workflow from this post.

[Ctrl-Z]

That's a shame. I haven't seen the e3 demos, merely heard talk of them along with descriptions of what they showed behind closed doors at GDC. I figured, with the LithTech engine already doing LOD Displacement, anything less than that wouldn't get this kind of attention.

Disillusioned now. :(

[travart]

don't be disillusioned, in reality what it means is most of this tech will be out this year. far cry already does the whole shebang, including offset which i added to a small test level you can download off the net... U3 is mainly just made pretty by putting a light source up to a normal mapped, gloss map character... you'll be able to do that in far cry, d3, hl2...

epic is basically just trying to steal some thunder, but the reality it is zbrush is going to handy quite soon for effects of that level in this year's engines

[Game Master 770]

I've gotten static meshes into UT2004. I did so using 3dsMax and the ASE format to import. There are only a few formats UT supports, and OBJ is not 1 of them, but DXF is. as you probably know, DXF doesn't carry UV's for your materials. Polaris suggested Milkshape to me if I didn't want to use Max. Milkshape is cheap, and supports lots of game formats.
If you want to do a basic test, send me an OBJ and i'll send you an ASE of your file.

ADDED:
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By the way, ASE file format is ascii text, just like OBJ. If you didn't want to use software, you could be clever and write your own OBJ -> ASE, or even do it manually.

[ROADKILL]

I like using max as well with the actorX
plugin.
I was just curious how much tweeking was
done after import to 3dsmax before you had
a usable model.
hopefully in the future there will be a
actorX for ZBrush.
I would be cool if everything could be done
in the one tool.

[Game Master 770]

I didn't use the actor x plug-in. That's for IK animated objects, and like you, I just started playing with the idea of using UT editor.
I just wanted to see a basic imported model, and I did that simply by exporting object as ASE. In addition, I had to re-assign textures, but the UV's were there.

[ROADKILL]

no actually I've been mapping and modeling for ut for a couple of years.
static meshes are a nobrainer.
I'm starting to do players and vehicles
and thats what I want to use zbrush for.

[devilbunny]

The information for the next-gen Unreal engine can be found here. (http://www.unrealtechnology.com/html/technology/ue30.shtml)It looks like Unreal Engine 3 will fully support normal mapping, though the first game will be released after HL2 and Doom3.

As has been mentioned, making static meshes in 3DS Max for the current Unreal Editor is fairly simple. So long as you export your ZBrush models as OBJs, import into Max, and make certain they abide by the axis orientation constraints, maintain mapping, and fit within acceptable poly limts, it should work. Obviously, UE2 doesn't support displacement or normal mapping, but you could use texture maps rendered from a higher res model.

If you work out any good tricks for this, please share. Thanks.