Simplygon Unreal Engine 4 Integration Guide. January 9, 2015

Transcription

1 Simplygon Unreal Engine 4 Integration Guide January 9,

2 LEGAL NOTICE This publication, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form, by any method, for any purpose. Donya reserves the right to revise and improve its products as it sees fit. This Publication describes the state of this product at the time of its publication, and may not reflect the product at all times in the future. DONYA LABS PATENTS AND TRADEMARKS The following are registered trademarks of Donya Labs in Sweden and other countries: Donya, Simplygon (trade name/logo), donyalabs.com, Simplygon.com The Simplygon technology is covered by patents and patents pending. THIRD-PARTY TRADEMARKS All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. 2

3 Contents 1 Introduction Unreal Engine Integration Overview What s new in UE4 Integration? Version Version Version Version Version Version Version Getting Started with UE Shared UE4 Installation Basic UE4 Installation Advanced UE4 Installation Troubleshooting Initial Build Updating Simplygon Version

4 1 Introduction 1.1 Unreal Engine Integration Overview This guide is written for people somewhat familiar with Simplygon and its features already. If you want to learn about Simplygon, visit To use the UE integration, you need to get hold of a license and Simplygon must be installed on the corresponding computer. Visit to request an evaluation license. The Unreal Engine integration is available for both UE3 and UE4. UE4 is constantly updated with new features, workflow improvements and more. 1.2 What s new in UE4 Integration? The major changes of UE4 integration are as follows Version For this version you would need Simplygon 6.1 or newer UE4.6.0 compatibility. Static mesh LOD-chains with mixed optimization types i.e Reduction or Remeshing. MaterialLOD support for static meshes. New layout for MassiveLOD tool Version For this version you would need Simplygon 6.1 or newer UE4.5.0 compatibility. Minor bug fixes Version For this version you would need Simplygon 6.1 or newer UE4 August 2014 QA (4.4 Public Release) compatibility. Maximum number of LODs changed to 10. You can now choose where to store the processed asset. Possibility to flatten the material before processing the asset(s). 4

5 1.2.4 Version For this version you would need Simplygon 6.1 or newer UE4 July 2014 QA (4.3 Public Release) compatibility. The switch distance for a MassiveLOD is now calculated based on Size On Screen Removed MassiveLOD Distance from UI Version UE4 June 2014 QA (4.2 Public Release) compatibility Version UE4 April 2014 QA (4.1 Public Release) compatibility Version UE4 Mars 2014 QA (4.0 Public Release) compatibility. UVs can now be generated with Simplygon in static mesh editor, located under Window > Simplygon Unique UVs. Mesh merging has been moved to a tab, located under Window > MassiveLOD Tool. Improved MassiveLOD workflow. Fixed material and texture names when merging meshes. Added Automatic Symmetry Detection for static meshes. 5

6 2 Getting Started with UE4 Simplygon can be installed in two ways, basic and advanced. The basic integration provides automatic MeshLOD for UE4 s own LOD system. The advanced also adds support for creating proxy objects out of multiple objects (MassiveLOD). It s generally recommended to use the advanced integration to get the most out of Simplygon. 2.1 Shared UE4 Installation This needs to be done regardless of using the Advanced or Basic installation. 1. Create the directory <UE4Root>\Engine\Source\ThirdParty\Simplygon\Inc 2. Place the file SimplygonSDK.h in this directory. This header file is located in the Simplygon installation directory 1 3. Create the directory <UE4Root>\Engine\Binaries\ThirdParty\Simplygon 4. Place the file SimplygonSDKRuntimeReleasex64.dll in this directory. This file is located in the Simplygon installation directory 1 5. Place the file Simplygon_5_license.dat from Simplygon license directory Basic UE4 Installation After completing the shared steps, do this: 1. Open the file Simplygon.Build.cs located in <UE4Root>\Engine\Source\ThirdParty\Simplygon. 2. Rename "NotForLicensees/Simplygon/Simplygon /" to "Simplygon/" assigned to string SimplygonPath. 3. Open the file UEBuildConfiguration.cs located in <UE4Root>\Engine\Source\Programs\UnrealBuildTool\Configuration\ 4. In function PostReset(), force bcompilesimplygon to true and comment/remove the rest of the line. (Since you know that you are going to use Simplygon) 5. Open the file SimplygonMeshReduction.cpp located in <UE4Root>\Engine\Source\Developer\SimplygonMeshReduction\Private\ 6. Rename TEXT("Binaries/ThirdParty/NotForLicensees/Simplygon") to TEXT("Binaries/ThirdParty/Simplygon") 7. Rename TEXT("license.dat") to TEXT("Simplygon_5_license.dat") 8. Compile the editor to gain access to the integration. 1 Simplygon Installation Directory: C:\Program Files\SimplygonSDK 2 Simplygon License directory: %LOCALAPPDATA%\DonyaLabs\SimplygonSDK\ 6

7 2.3 Advanced UE4 Installation Start by following the shared instructions above. 1. Download the advanced integration from our FTP. (The FTP login information can be obtained by contacting 2. Copy the engine directory from the Simplygon UE4 package so it matches up with the engine directory in your unreal engine 4 tree overwriting the existing files. Note, this will also revert any changes you have done to the files Simplygon is overwriting. It is also crucial you apply the code on the same version of UE4 as the integration was made for. 3. Rebuild Unreal Engine 7

8 3 Troubleshooting 3.1 Initial Build If Simplygon builds properly after installation but somehow is not enabled (i.e the Number of LODs is greyed out in the Static Mesh Editor) the most likely culprit is the loading of the Simplygon DLL, using the wrong Simplygon version or some issue with the license file. This happens in FSimplygonMeshReduction::Create (Engine/Source/Developer/SimplygonMeshReduction/Private/SimplygonMeshReduction.cpp). To make sure we don t end up popping up dialogs because of expired licenses etc. this function failes silently. You can monitor the loading in two easy ways: Place a breakpoint in the function and step through it Look at the output window in the debugger and look for LogSimplygon messages. By looking at this information you should be able to track down if there is a license error or one of the files were copied to the wrong location. 3.2 Updating Simplygon Version When copying new versions of SimplygonSDK.h and SimplygonSDKRuntimeReleasex64.dll the unreal build system doesn t always detect the updated header file. This means you manually need to rebuild unreal engine to make sure the Simplygon header file used in the build matches the Simplygon dll. Also make sure you use the right minor version recommended in the documentation. As an example, you can t expect Simplygon 6.2 to run and build correctly if the Unreal Engine integration was made for Simplygon