Modo smoothing groups and rocket

Development Pipeline & Plugins
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1

Im using modo 701, I have all the smoothing groups options, and upon importing into rocket I get the following error:

Warning: No smoothing group
information was found in this FBX
scene. Please make sure to enable the
‘Export Smoothing Groups’ option in
the FBX Exporter plug-in before
exporting the file. Even for tools
that don’t support smoothing groups,
the FBX Exporter will generate
appropriate smoothing data at
export-time so that correct vertex
normals can be inferred while
importing.

Im wondering if it has something to do with the naming of the smoothing group? in previous versions of modo and udk modo users had to change the map names to something that udk would recognize(specifically in regards to multiple UV sets). If anyone knows what the naming scheme rocket looks for when importing smoothing groups, would you mind letting me know so I could test changing my map names?

thanks
-Nate

2

This is how you assign “Smoothing groups” in modo (note modo actually doesn’t have smoothing groups, it edge normal split):

  1. Create mesh (box for example).
  2. Go into polygons mode.
  3. On you left click edge.
  4. Now select face.
  5. And below Commands tab, is Split Normals Button. Click on it.
  6. Some option box will popup, if you using box to try it out, just leave as it is and click ok.
  7. Repeate for rest of the faces.
  8. Export you mesh. Make sure, that in options you have checked Save Edge Smoothing.

Now import you mesh to Rocket. Importer will complain there there is no normals blah, blah, but mesh should be actually correctly smoothed.

3

Hi Nathan,

Thank you for your question. I believe that the details you are looking for may be located here:

However, I cannot verify this is accurate for Rocket as we do not support Modo here for testing. Please let me know if you are still experiencing this problem and I will be happy to assist you further.

Cheers!

Alexander

4

Hello Nate,

We use Modo here at the Dave School and have recently come up with a pretty easy solution to this issue. With Modo you have to bake your vertex information before you export into Unreal 4. If you ever need to make any changes, delete the old vertex map and just create a new one before you create a new FBX. You only need to Split Normals if you want extra control over an edge. We create our groups based on Material assignments here at the school.

  • Create your mesh as normal.
  • Create a new material and assign the
    smoothing angle you want for that
    material under Shading tab >
    Properties > Material Ref > Surface
    Normal section > Smoothing Angle
  • Select all the Polygons on the mesh
  • Go the main menu bar > Vertex Map >
    Create…
  • Create a new Vertex Map for this mesh
    and name it whatever you like
  • Go to System > Preferences…>FBX I/O > make sure Save Mesh Smoothness is checked. Close the window.
  • Export your FBX
  • Import into Unreal 4 and you should
    see your smoothing information

Hope this helps.

Angel