Here are the results of ironing out a few bumps in the road to learning how to use Unity, as someone coming from 10 years or so of working in units of 16…
For the record I am using the latest build if Unity and 3DS Max 9 SP2 on Windows XP SP3.
OK, so I have kept my Max units set to General Units then gone on the config and changed them from inches to centimeters. In the FBX exporter I select meters. My grid spacing is 16 and 8 in Max.
I whip out a 256x256x256 cube, export it, and import it into Unity. As far as I can tell this means I have made a 256x256x256 centimeter cube, roughly 2 and 1/2 meters, or 7 feet. In Unity the cube is slightly above my player’s head, which would be about right if we assume I am 2 meters, or 6 feet high.
In the Unreal universe I work with the same settings and general units set to inches. My character is 160 units high, so something 256 units high should be well over my head. To my mind this means I have to double everything in size with my settings to get it to work correctly in Unity. If you have any ideas as to how I could get a 1:1 transfer between Unity, UT 2004, and 3DS Max please let me know!
So my problem is creating textures. I’m used to working in units of 16, so for my 256x256x256 cube I would design a 256x256 texture, or size down something bigger. If I were to create a texture for my cube with these settings, with the resulting scale change between Max and Unity on export, is this going to mess it up? Will my texture be stretched bigger or shrunk too small? If you are creating textures for Unity, especially if you are using the same texture in different game engines as well as Unity, what guidelines do you follow in the creation of those textures?
I would greatly appreciate your advice!
Well thanks to nobody’s help and a few hours of wasted time Googling I set about figuring this out the hard way, and you guys get to enjoy the results of my labor. Here goes…
PLEASE NOTE, this is of interest mainly to anyone who has worked with UT - UDK, Morrowind or Oblivion, OR any other engine running close to units of 16.
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DO NOT change your Max settings and try to work in meters unless you really want to attempt to re-program yourself after however many years you have put in mapping for any of the aforementioned games. Your Units should be set to the bottom radio, Generic I believe its called, and when you click on the top button you should have inches selected from the drop-down. You should have the grid set to 16.0 with major lines every 8th. Save a new, blank, default scene with these settings as maxstart, close 3DS Max, and start it up again.
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Now all you have to remember is this… 1m (meter) = 96uu (Unreal Units). I don’t know how exact this is yet, but looking at it in-game from within Unity, comparing a 192x192x192uu cube to a 2x2x2m cube they are spot on. I will get an exact measurement if I can and post my results.
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So just double the size of anything from what you would have used in UT-UDK or Morrowind-Oblivion. A 512x512 platform in Morrowind would feel like a 256x256 platform in Unity, so you would design your platform to be 1024x1024 for the desired size.
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Texture your objects like normal, you shouldn’t notice any under-stretching from something that’s 1024x1024uu, or 10x10m, roughly, which will look to your character in Unity as a 512x512 mesh would to a character in UT-UDK+ or Morrowind-Oblivion. The only problem here is you will have to re-size your mesh or create a smaller mesh if you wish to use something you have designed for Unity in UT-UDK+ or Morrowind-Oblivion.
Well that’s it! Characters in Unity are 2m (meters) high, or 6ft (feet), roughly. In Unreal Tournament they were 96uu or 16x6uu (remember that 16uu = 1ft), which comes to 6ft high. In UT3+ they were closer to 128uu or 8ft high. In Morrowind characters were closer to 160uu or 10ft high. A character from Unity is 192uu high or the equivalent of 6 feet in their universe, but if they walked into an Unreal Tournament level they would be twice as high as everyone else. In UT 2003+ they would be 4 feet higher, and in Morrowind they would be 2 feet higher.
Hope that helps someone else besides me. My arse hurts, I’m going to bed -
Anyone use this information yet, and if so what results have you come up with?
Ive been using:
- 1 Unit in max = 1 Unit in Unity = 1 Unit in Quake/Source = 1 Unit in Unreal
As far as I know a unit is a unit. Simply put as everything lines up with the grid lines in Unity perfectly if I make a 10x10x10 cube in max. So that confirms it.
UDK and Unity are definitely two different beasts. I too have experienced issues, not quite the same, but with Texture mapping, and mesh coordinates. Best thing I can suggest is get intimate with both, and learn the quirks.