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Maya LT or Blender for AC

When working w/ your own assets, characters, and animations, which is more compatible when bringing into AC — Blender or Maya LT? I'm familiar w/ both, but was wondering.

Also, is AC compatible w/ FBX animations made in Adobe's Mixamo? What is everyone's general workflow when making 3D games w/ AC? What tools are you all using? Do you usually build your environments whole in a 3D program of your choice? Or do you break everything down as individual objects before and then assemble in Unity?

Comments

  • Generally speaking, if you can import a model into Unity and play it back with an Animator - without the need for any supplemental scripts - you can use it with AC.

    If it relies on its own animation engine, then an integration script can be incorporated by setting the character's "Animation engine" field to "Custom".
  • I use 3ds Max. For art models, I always start with good intentions of building accurately in Max, then bring everything into Unity. However, I soon lose patience and just start plonking stuff down in Unity, then cause myself a load of headaches later on because stuff doesn't line up correctly. That being said, reusable, "generic" assets are also a godsend.

    For animation I use 3ds Max Biped (for humans anyway). I also often use Mixamo, which I bring into Max to modify, then send the fbx into Unity.


  • So Chris, Deckard, or anyone — what is your workflow of setting up 3D environments for AC/Unity? Do you sketch out first, or a basic block-in via Blender, or do you just go to down in a 3D program? What dimensions do you use when working in a 3D app? Does it have to be real-world dimensions?
  • It's generally better practice to rely on Unity's own 1 unit = 1 metre scaling, and avoid having to scale the models up/down when importing.

    I generally block things out quite roughly in Blender first - just focusing on the scale and basic shape of the room - and iterate the camera position in Unity.  I'll then take an in-game screenshot and do a paintover, sketching in where additional detail / props should go.
  • Can you show us your process via a blog w/ images. 
  • Okay so what size should I start w/ in Blender. I just want everything to import okay into Unity. Does your AC come w/ a demo scene so I can get an idea?
  • Both the 2D and 3D demo games are included with AC's package.
  • edited June 2018
    Like Chris said stick to meters to make sure your scale is correct in Unity. If you are making a modular kit then try to stick to your base grid unit. I usually go by a 2x2 squares grid when doing modular pieces (most pieces need to fit inside that unit). When exporting from Blender to Unity you can either import the whole Blend file into Unity or just export an fbx file. Just make sure to apply your scale and rotation before exporting (CTRL+A). I find using the experimental option to apply transformations automatically on export causes more problems than it helps (specially since applying position to a mesh can change its pivot).

    Also, in some cases you might want to have your walls and ceilings have a density (like a using a cube rather than a plane), since that will get rid of light leaking in unity when you bake the lighting, and you can place mesh or texture variations on both sides of the model, so you can just flip the model in Unity to get a different look. It also lessen the jarringness of leaving gaps between floors or walls by mistake.
  • The ideal would be to have one file,asset. For example, a room from one part (one model). I also noticed that the edges that are not very sharp ( angle of 90) and are slightly curved are better for the baking process. Also,the good thing about unity 2018 is integrated package as ProBuilder, ProGrid  and Poly Brush assets which are ideal for quick prototyping levels and customizations inside unity editor.
  • "Also, in some cases you might want to have your walls and ceilings have a density (like a using a cube rather than a plane), since that will get rid of light leaking in unity when you bake the lighting"

    Yeah, I struggled for a long time with light leaking, then ultimately had no choice but to replace my "walls" planes with cubes. Shadow bias, Normal Bias etc had no effect. Nothing else but "thick" geometry would solve it.
  • edited June 2018
    • ProBuilder, ProGrid and Poly Brush assets which are ideal for quick prototyping levels
    This.  PB and PG especially make things massively easier to block out scenes now.
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