So even if you recreate skeleton of UDK model in Blender, with proper bones naming, the mesh will be screwed up in-game?
Well you can’t recreate it fully, because you don’t know the proper bone roll of each bone. Otherwise yes, it will be screwed up.
Well, if you want to spend time figuring out roll angles, you can by loading UDK mesh into UEd and seeing orientation of each bone. It won’t be precise, but you can get close enough to avoid mess.
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/SkeletalMeshSockets.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GettingStartedContent.html#Skeletal Meshes
As you can see in the GUI there rotation angles for bones in UDK, so you might even be able to get it precisely.
I’ve had most success recently using the .FBX exporter, using a custom rig with UDK bone hierarchy. The bone roll had to be set either -90° or 90°, depending on the bone. It was trial and error. I still can’t figure out what’s up with the feet, though.
If you want to try it yourself, select the armature and character mesh and export them using the .FBX exporter with the following settings:
And import the .FBX file into UDK with these settings:
Don’t mind the warning after importing, just click OK, open the imported model in UDK’s AnimSet Editor, go to the Anim tab and choose K_AnimHuman_BaseMale from the drop down list. After that just choose the animation that you wish to view with the imported model.
The .blend file: UDK_fbx_char.blend (1.05 MB)
I really want to hear from you guys if this works for you
EDIT: Forgot this(very important!!): You have to modify the fbx exporter python file in blender scripts/addons, because it automatically ads a b_Root bone every time you export and this messes up your model. What you have to do is this:
Stop the armature being added as root bone after FBX export
This helps keep your bone heiarchies how you want it, rather than an extra root bone appearing everytime.
Open “C:\Program Files (x86)\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.63\scripts\addons\io_scene_fbx\export_fbx.py file” (Back it up first).
Around line 2546, you should find the following:
[TABLE=“width: 888”]
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else:
# the armature object is written as an empty and all root level bones connect to it
fw(’
Connect: “OO”, “Model::%s”, “Model::%s”’ % (my_bone.fbxName, my_bone.fbxArm.fbxName))
[/TABLE]
Comment it out:
[TABLE=“width: 888”]
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# else:
# the armature object is written as an empty and all root level bones connect to it
# fw(’
Connect: “OO”, “Model::%s”, “Model::%s”’ % (my_bone.fbxName, my_bone.fbxArm.fbxName))
[/TABLE]
I checked out you’re file about and year ago, I tried several things but had the same results as you. I decided to try it again today and i noticed that you do not have any IK chains on the skeleton. I tried to put one on myself but I am having some glitches, could be because I have windows 8. That is the only feedback I have, but I want to thank you for posting the file! I was thinking of doing the same thing about two months before you posted it, but didn’t ant to waste my time trying it and not have it work. So you saved me a lot of time and frustrations.