Can anybody tell me, please, what is the 3D editor that has best import support in Unity?
I know that FBX/Collada import generally works fine, but I’d like to know if one or another package has more quirks to deal with when creating models, animations, UV and lightmaps.
I’m considering to get one of the following in the following list to have in my art pipeline:
- Blender
- Maya
- Studio Max
- Cinema 4D
- Lightwave
- anything I missed?
The learning curve and cost does not concern me, I’m looking for a time savior and trying to avoid situation when I’m trying to import animation and I have to jump through bunch of things to get it right.
So, what would be a (swiss army) tool that works as expected out of box with Unity in this areas: correct animation import, correct models (no scaling/rotation quirks), lightmapping and UV correctness.
Thank you for any input!
I can speak with confidence regarding Blender, although from other’s forum posts here it would seem Cheetah, Maya, and Cinema4D all work without major issues.
As for Blender:
creating models - works seamlessly. Import the .blend and you’re done. After you edit the import settings, assign a shader to the materials, changes to model and textures are automatically updated.
animations - if you set up your animations properly, this is also seamless. Look for some of the past threads on importing animations into blender.
UV - I’ve never once had a problem with this. Blender supports multiple UV’s and I use it all the time.
lightmaps - If you’re talking about terrain lightmaps, Unity can generate these internally. If you’re importing a terrain mesh (and not using the Unity terrain engine) then this can be done with a lightmap shader and textures or by vertex colors. I often import terrain meshes (gives me a slight bit more control) and am experimenting with a Blender plugin called “A.N.T. Landscape Generator” which so far is generating some lovely terrains.
You can also import heightmaps, splat maps, etc. from other applications for use with the Unity terrain engine. There are a number of applications which allow you to do this (L3DT, Terragen, etc.).
Bigkahuna, thanks a lot for the info on Blender vs Unity! I’m following Blender development and used it for other engines prior Unity, and very excited about upcoming Blender 2.5 release.