Material looking for non-texture.references, not texturing most ActorX imports.

[Gildor]

I have tried and tried not wanting to bug you, ;~)  I'm having an problem importing objects with Material / Textures into 3dsmax (of objects that look perfect in Umodel..) :

Please record a video showing model in UModel, how do you export, how do you import, Max's log window (F11 key).

ps. About that audio issue, it does seem to convert the ones it didn't before now,  but instead of the .ogg output, it is making them .ue4opus  I tried renaming to ogg and converting with good ol' 'Pazera free audio extractor', but it did not recognize,..  I greatly appreciate the help! 

Search for "ue4opus" over the forum.

[Gildor]

Hi,

Regarding materials. Are you familiar with Unreal engine material system?

Materials could be fully procedural, i.e. generate picture from shader code without use of any texture. Also, in your case I see that material has "Master" in name, it hints me that this is a "material template", i.e. material which is used as base for other materials. It should have some parameters (probably including texture parameters), and designer can use it to set up these parameters and create a "final" material which will appear in a game.

An example (just a generic one). Let's say I want to create a very very simple material with diffuse and normal textures. If I'll create a "Material" class in UE4, then put diffuse and normal texture there. Changing a texture will force engine to recompile shader. Also, if I'll need to make a material with different diffuse, I'll copy a material and change texture. This will allocate 2nd hardware shader, and will compile 2nd material again.
Now, I decided to use "template". I'll create the same material, but put textures as "texture parameter". Then create 2 "MaterialInstance" objects as child of that material. Put relevant textures as texture parameters. Only the "template" material will be compiled, and in hardware there will be just 1 shader for any number of material instances. Changing textures in instances will be instant. And it will allow to replace textures from game code, at runtime, by changing shader parameters.

So, if I'd like to export that "template material", I won't get anything. UModel will see only those 2 texture parameter values, their names and default values. For instances, it'll see which template is used, and which parameters are set to which values. If I'll name parameters as "DiffuseTextrure" and "NormalTexture", export will be perfect. If I'll name parameters like "DT" and "NT" etc, UModel won't understand what's that, and everything will be exported as "Referenced textures" but with no real use. And you'll see color checkerboard in viewer.

Material can use math to compute color. For instance, if I'll say "(Tex.U < 0.5 AND Tex.V < 0.5) OR (Tex.U > 0.5 AND Tex.V > 0.5) then use black color, otherwise white) - it will create a checkerboard material without any use of texture. Of course, usually expressions are much more complex, then can use world coordinate of pixel, world normal, vertex color from mesh, etc. They can split texture into separate color channels, and use them as some mask values to perform another math.

In other words, if materials are exported fine - that's good (and that material is simple enough for umodel). If no, probably you will be able to understand what should be inside yourself, using material name and .props information. Probably not.

[Gildor]

ActorX Importer should pick textures automatically if they're correct in umodel's viewer mode. There are 2 relevant options (probably you already figured that out) - "path to materials" and "look in subfolders". Materials and textures BOTH should be under that path. I'm usually setting "path to materials" to UmodelExport directory, and "look in subfolders" is always enabled.

[SchoolHomeVR]

ActorX Importer should pick textures automatically if they're correct in umodel's viewer mode. There are 2 relevant options (probably you already figured that out) - "path to materials" and "look in subfolders". Materials and textures BOTH should be under that path. I'm usually setting "path to materials" to UmodelExport directory, and "look in subfolders" is always enabled.

With so many separate steps of un-pak'ing, then converting then importing I got a little lost and was (from the very beginning) sending the Actor-x plugin looking in the wrong place for Materials.  I realize now that early on,  I just didn't know enough about the overall process to understand exactly what it was all doing and looking for...

Now after I had my 'Material Path Epiphany' tonight LOL,   it seems so obvious I am laughing at myself! 
I am having so much fun with the projects I always wanted to try!

Do you like Star Trek Gildor my friend?  and/or, do you have VR?

W.