I am trying to get some .obj objects, created with another program, into the Unreal SDK editor. For that, it seems I need the objects to be .ase files.
I found an .ase export script for Blender 2.5+, installed it, but my objects don’t export. I don’t see any error message – but I am a Blender newbie so I am not sure where to look for script error messages?
I read in the notes for the export script that objects MUST have UV maps for the export to succeed. I think that might be my problem. My objects have materials that imported with the .obj (via a .mtl file), and so they have the proper colors, but there is no texture and I guess no UV mapping?
Is there any way to automatically put a UV mapping on there without a texture? Does that even make sense? I just want my objects with their assorted material colors – I don’t want a texture. But I guess I need UV mapping to export as .ase … anyone know what I need to do?
A UV map is a separate “data bock” (in quotes because frankly I don’t know if that is technically correct but good for understanding). So it can exist separate from a texture. And a UV map can be any kind of shape or configuration to be a UV map. If you go into Edit Mode and select all faces and then hit U, choose “Unwrap” you’ll get a map of a bunch of squares (or triangles if you have them) stretched to the UV border. That is a valid UV map. Will it be valid for your purposes? I don’t know. But the next step is to learn how and where to mark seams in selected Edges (Ctrl e) and that is another story. Try to Google “UV unwrap, Blender” to find tutorials.
The word that Blender tends to use is obData, or “object data.” The UV-map is, indeed, a chunk of data that’s associated with a particular object. Usually, when you’ve got one of these, you’ve also got a texture that’s using it. But, very strictly speaking, you don’t have to. I’ve heard of games that used UV-map information to drive particular effects…