Hi
I’ve been modelling my game characters in 3DS Max 2010 - mostly using Forward Kinematics. As I guess is normal to do so, I create a number of controller objects (circles, boxes, etc) in my 3DS Max Scene to manipulate my character parts. When I export the scene into my Unity project, Unity creates objects in the prefab for all my animation controllers (as well as objects for IK Chains and Bones when I’m animating with IK). As far as I can tell, the game objects Unity creates only consist of a transform (though obviously placed as appropriate in the prefab/game object hierarchy).
My question is, should I keep these seemingly redundant game objects in my prefab in Unity?
Whilst there are options when exporting from 3DS Max to an FBX file to not export lights and cameras, there are no options to, say, only export visible layers from my scene or any other options I can find that might otherwise let me filter the mesh objects that are being exported.
My concern over deleting them is just that it could be a bit awkward if/when I need to make further changes to my Character or animations. If I delete all the animation controllers/helpers from my scene before I export it then I’ve removed them from my 3DS Max project (so would have to delete them before exporting then undo the delete so I don’t lost them when I save the scene). If I keep in them in the 3DS Max scene and delete them manually from the prefab in Unity, then every time I re-export the Character to Unity I’ll have to go through and delete them again.
Is it normal workflow/best practice to leave objects like those in the prefab - even though they won’t render or actually do anything in the game?
Many thanks
Lawro