Daz3d to Unreal Engine Bridge
giffordgarry_3fc684a5f9
Posts: 1
Hi, Do you have any plans for a bridge between Daz3d and UE4?
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There was a very recent update to DIM that included filters for Unreal and Unity, so it's definitely in the works.
https://www.daz3d.com/daz-to-unreal-bridge
It is amazing - well done Daz.
They really did it. amazing! this is a ture milestone in 3D & game creation IMHO. I no longer need CC3 or other custom made plugin as the medium to export Daz assets.
Works perfectly, and saved most of my morphs. haven't tried rigging yet, hope they kept the skeleton.
I don't know anything about Unreal. Does it have a cloth sim? If so, will it work with DAZ clothing? Are the morphs adjustable in Unreal? Does the Bridge transfer Geografts? Can you pose characters? Does it have an animation timeline with keyframes?
yes,yes, think so I myself don't usually export morph rules, not tried the new bridge yet but watching this thread, yes, yes
well ok let's try
1 - yes it support xloth simulation, it have it's own "cloth symulation system", you can look for a "minitutorial" which i've made on how to work with unreal cloth simulation the a using daz content in unreal big thread, it have some "tutorials" to help you.
2 - it work with any daz cloth, but it don't "enable the dforce", dforce only run in daz and also in case you ask, others "dforce stuffs rater than cloth can't be exported or don't work on unreal, things like dforce hair or fur don't work on unreal and even can't be exported, you get a error message, they are exclusive for daz
3 - i believe it will transfer the "geographic however again since the "geographic is a "daz" feature in don't proper work in unreal, it will be exported as a "non rigged" stuff, like for exemple a geographic outfit, it will be exported with the character but it will loaded as a "non rigged" stuff with the character which means it not "move or pose with the character, it will transfered as a "objt", well at last this is how used to work with me in the past, maybe in the future if the pluging creator find a way to make it "prper work then maybe we can get the "right stuffs.
4 you can pose you character in unreal but i feel would much better precise and accurace you export your own poses aswell since it can be a little troublesome to proper setup poses since it don't have a proper rig control (you have a free rig control for unreal plugging in epic marke but you must learn how to "add and use it with the tutorials.
5 - basically the same as the 4 you can animate it but you would need to use the control rig otherwise would be very troublesome animate the character without any tool and just moving the bones, also like the 4 you can export yout own animations from daz to use in unreal or you can "retarget others animations" from others type of characters or programs and use it on the daz charracters;
A important note while the pluugging do export all the basic corrective morphs and create a proper post processor animation controler for the joints, some poses or animations can still not "look good" in unreal as they look in daz since unreal don't have support for dual quartenion, then some poses or animations can have some small weird results if you try to anime in the same way as you did on daz, to have the dual quartenion you have to look at the thread talking about it and learn how to insteal the "dual version" of unreal and work on that.
so far all characters are exported only at sub level 1 no "high resolution", models, you can "fix it" by baking the "high poly model" into a normal map and using the "baked" normal map, it work perfect and make the character look almost the same as it looks in daz at high resolution.
Another note while unreal can support many high poly stuffs( at last the 4.25) it still limited, then i can't recomend you use stuffs like "fibermesh" or strands hair i means really high poly haris or outfits, it could have a chance to not load or work really heavy in the engine, then let's say some hairs near 1 million polygons (like 500 or 600k+) i don't recomend to load or load a character with too much heavy stuffs, like a character with a 500k, hair + 200k eyebrows + 300k beard + let's say 300 or 400k in the outfit, then forget it have a huge chance of unreal don't load the characater or load but it will be really heavy for it. then becarefull when playing with, if you want to really load insane stuffs wait for the incoming unreal 5 which it will allow to load high poly stuffs into the unreal, but currently i would advise you to keep your characters if its for render, to be around 300 to 500k total of vertices, if for game then around 30 to max of 120 to 130k verrices.
i'm not saying which it can't handle "billions or millions of polygons, it can handle but one thing is you load "hunderds or millions of stuffs "low poly" to reach the millions or billions another is load a single stuff with millions or billions, then pay attention to those details and everytthing wil be fine.
I have posed both DAZ and Unreal assets and keyframed animations in Unreal
so yes you can but its rotating a bone at a time
Thanks. I have a better idea of the possibilities now. Much appreciated.
Been waiting for this. This changes the game :) Amazing news.
Been using character creator suite because of this...No need to anymore:) Well done.
oh another thing, like iClone the Unreal cloth hates multiple shading domains and will tear along them so you need to assign them with the geometry editor to the one surface, I do this anyway for Dforce clothing in iClone so something I am used too
as long as they don't have overlapping UV's
at least unlike iClone cloth weight-maps you brush directly on the mesh so the UV layout irrelevant
still going to have to figure out how to get the plugin in my beta too, only way I can actually use it as my other build too old, will probably have to grab the zip from DIM as no manual download
Just installed it and I have couple of questions
How does it handle the Dual Quaternion skin? I've just installed it in 4.25.3 and it seems it's normal linear skin. I also tried to install the bridge in AlienRenders dq mod but it wont work, because the plugin was compiled for 4.25 i suppose. Btw, it would be really cool to include source code, so people can build it with custom engines.
Also, I'm looking at the skeleton and all joint local axis are world aligned, so the postprocess jcm driver anim blueprint cannot work: if you try to bend the shin or elbow no corrective morph is applied.
EDIT: Also, I'm looking at the roughness and specular channels in UE4 and roughness is all uniform. Is there some parameter to make it work correctly? Just putting specular won't work, that's not how PBR is supposed to work
I cannot get the Plugin to show up in Unreal
wondering if I installed it to the wrong place
think a folder below will move and retry
nup no luck
UPDATE
found it was nested
I am trying to install but the DIM Installer for DAZToUnreal expects a path name for an application. Which it doesn't say but I'm guessing Unreal. See attached dialogue.
Tried the following all failed:
C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_4.24\Engine\Binaries\Win64
C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_4.24\Engine\Binaries
C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_4.24\Engine
C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_4.24
What's the correct path? As I've not found the right path it doesn't find the version number from the binary or such eith.
I've also tried similar path in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Epic Games directories.
I tried importing my lion model and converting mane fur to UE4 native hair format. More experimenting to come:
https://youtu.be/9g8tkJwfDjg
well it does not seem to create a skeleton to retarget to
just mesh, animation asset and physics asset
you can go to skeleton from the mesh and animation but there isn't one anywhere
C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_4.25\Engine\Plugins
but one folder up so they merge
well as i told in the other post, it don't support DQ, which means any "bend" made in daz not gonna work in unreal in the same way, some poses or animations in unreal will not look "perfect" as it look in daz if they come from DQ, if they are "normal" then they will work, only Corrective morphs will work, you need to have a "DQ" version of unreal to have it working.
about that stuffs with the joints you can ask it to the plugging creator he is the only which can proper answer it.
about the "roughness" issue, it is a "DAZ issue", DAZ PA artists normally don't work with rougness maps(textures), only for some outfits which need a roughness map(and even not all pas), it is handled in daz as a paramenter to configure, then if you don't have a rughness map then the pluging will have that "alternative" way which is the same as daz which is the paramenter, if you want a better controll you must find some "roughness" textures" in some daz products like for exemple "wet" bundle"
https://www.daz3d.com/wet-and-tanned-skins-for-genesis-8-males
which have rougness map and use it, that is one of the issues, daz render is different from unreal render which means daz don't use all the same textures as unreal use, then normally for characters you have only base color, normal and maybe specular, stuffs like roughness or metalical or ambiente occlusion don't have on daz you must create your own "maps" for those stuffs or play with parameters or find in daz some possible replacements.
a advise for you would be if you have stuffs like substance paint", would be generate your own "textures" using the already existing ones from daz and create the "missing ones", then inside daz in the materials changes the "daz ones" for your created ones, it would help a lot, ofcourse only if you know how to do that.
OK opened the other content browser after searching for the skeleton but retargetted it pulls his mouth and tongue out!!!
rather painful
lol you are using "a already existing project" or creating a new one?, because for what i got each time you install the plugging it can affect the "already existing" skeleton from old projects, for exemple in my case both my g3 andf g8 characters it work "normal" but when i've tried to "change the pose from my g3 character from my "old exported" version to the one which come with the pluging" it bugged then i needed go back using my original pose, would be good if the old project is not "that important start a new one to test if everything is working right.
everytime you install the plugging it can mess any modification you have made in the skeletong before the update of the pluging.
I use dq-mod version of ue4 but I cannot install the bridge into it, because the bridge is a binary plugin and it was compiled for standard ue4.25. I think there is a workaround, moving daz plugin content into your content folder then disable the plugin. If they would include the source code that wouldn't be a problem.
For the roughness, there are various simple ways to approximate it from specular, I thought the material would do it.
For the rotation axis, if you look the elbow, the bend axis is Y and the X axis is going down to the hand. The elbow morph "pJCM_ForearmFwd" depends on Y rotation. Now if you import it in UE and you look the axis are completely different, so there is no easy way to know how much of the morph to apply. The post process animbp coming with the plugin just cannot work i think.
yeah best delete and start over by looks
thanks
all new same issue
might try genesis 8 instead of 3
I am having an issue with the new Bridge. I actually compiled the Daz to Unreal plugin from github before the bridge came out and that worked fine. Now that I downloaded the bridge it doesn't work! In Daz I do not have "File >Send To". I used DIM to install.. What am I doing wrong?!
OK, thanks. I could manually install but on doing that I found out plugin was designed only for UE4_4.25+ and so am installing that. This is massive downloads & uninstall also of the 4.24 UE4 Engine. The DIM install will probably work after that UE4 upgrade.
Genesis 8F worked
but I crashed it applying a cloth asset and it cleaned out my folders on reopening
Is there a way for the daz3d to unreal bridge to import a unreal engine animation back into daz3d?
no, because the bridge is to export from daz to unreal, not to work togheter as others bridges, like maya to unreal or blender to unreal bridges which unreal have, if you want to export back to daz you probably need to manually export the animation from unreal to a fbx then from that fbx see how it can be applied in the daz studio.
after retargeting animaions it is feasible one could get that data back as the bones match but it probably would need to be in BVH form so one would need some intermediate software to do that, I know of paid options, I don't know if Blender could possibly do it.
yeah, to work in backward you still need a "bridge", this current bridge is just "one side"
, you need another "bridge" to the other side, or maybe if daz catch enough attention to unreal like blender did then maybe later they could also get this bridge idea and make the "unreal to daz bridge" or a full "bridge" like how they did to maya, blender and others and you be able to work in "realtime with both daz and unreal working together, maybe in that way you can export unreal animations do daz without need a "third party" or "work around" in daz.