Import Sockets on a Skeletal Mesh

I don’t seem to be able to get this working with Maya 2016.

If I add a Locator with the “SOCKET_” prefix to a Static Mesh and import it, the socket is created correctly.

If I do this with a Skeletal Mesh, I just get a bone on the mesh with the socket naming, no socket is created.

I’ve tried with the Locator parented to the render mesh, the bones, and outside of the joint hierarchy. Not sure what to try next.

Thanks,

Hi loraptor,

This is because the “bone” you’ve added to your skeletal mesh can be used as a socket -or- you can select that bone in the skeleton, right click and choose “make socket” and a socket will be placed in that exact location.

If you can provide a reason why you need to import a socket that the above does not cover, I will enter a feature request on your behalf.

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Ah right I see what you mean, that makes complete sense. I don’t really need them in the first place…

…I do like the little socket icon in the viewport though…

If you right-click on the bone and choose “make socket” a separate socket will be visible in the viewport (when selected) and you can adjust it’s location away from the bone/joint.

One reason would be that Sockets added via the Editor get blown away when re-importing the mesh, so they then need to be re-added. A pipeline where sockets could be set up in the Max content and which would be created in the skeleton automatically would prevent this.

Hey AchillesWF,

I performed a test where I added sockets to a common skeleton used between two skeletal meshes. Importing the second skeletal mesh and selecting the common skeleton resulted in the sockets in place for both characters:

As long as you keep the same skeleton, your sockets will remain and can be used across a myriad of different characters. However, if this is not the situation you are describing, please list in detail how to reproduce it and if we can, we wil add a feature request to add that functionality.

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I would also like to see if this is possible. Having the locators appear as bones in engine does allow for exact positioning, but then each location contributes to the bone count. I am developing for mobile, and my understanding is that the sockets created in engine do not contribute to the bone count. If it is possible to import them in any way, I would like to know.

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@andy.alberto My thoughts exactly. Spending additional bones just to generate positions for sockets is not a viable option for a lot of developers. It’s wasteful from a performance standpoint and I think it’s past time that Unreal should be able to interpret locators as sockets for Skeletal Meshes, in the same way it does for Static Meshes.

If there is a way to do this now (in 2023), please advise here, since I’ve never seen any documentation on it, and this is the only relevant thread that Google search results point to.

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