I'm really new to daz and unreal. Could use some help
reflectivewanderer
Posts: 45
I just started using daz a month ago and I would like to import some of my characters into unreal. I was wondering when you import a character into unreal if it loses quality. I read somewhere that unreal doesnt support dforce hair. Does that mean it wont even show up in unreal? Sorry I'm a complete newb when it comes to both programs. I basically want to import the daz dire wolf and a woodland huntress into unreal and then build a forest scene around them. Would it be better to just do that all in daz? It seemed to me that unreal would be much better for building enviroments at least from my limited experience with quixel bridge and megascans.
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ok to use daz characters into unreal it's not the same as use in daz, some stuffs work a little different, starting by the "render itself, since daz use a different way to render the characters and scenes than unreal it means which you not gonna ge exactly the same results, unless you do some extra work to configure the unreal material shaders which you do have to have some "basic to advanced knowledge about render, materials and pos processing" inside unreal in order to have the same or better results than daz but once you manage to do that it can be amazing, it's just not like daz "one click" and magically everything is awesome you need some extra works.
so far what don't work outside daz is:
1 - dforce hair or fur, because they are a internal way to genereate hair, they don't work outside daz even if you try to export to unreal it can lead to errors or even crash unless someone create a plugin or something to add the dforce hair/fur to unreal it not gonna work.
2 - geoshell, another "daz only feature" which don't work outside daz, it sometimes can even be somehow by lucky exported to unreal but it not gonna work, because geoshell is a sort of "fake mesh" genereated inside daz, without any rig or anything which just use some daz configure to allow it follow the character mesh, then when it get "lucky exported" to unreal it is exported as a obj which not follow the character or is not rigged which means not gonna work and you would rater need some extra work, to make it work.
a work around for that is which in many cases the texture of the geoshell match the "character uv textures" then you export the texture to apply it direct into the character mesh by mixing it into the unreal material which again would you need to have some basic to advanced knowledge on unreal materials to proper blender multiple textures in a character.
3 - fibermesh - due to most of the fibermesh stuffs being tooooooooooooooo!!!, high poly normally unreal can't handle it and you can have some crashs or big perfomance issues trying to use it outside daz or into unreal, or not get exported at all, then normally "avoid it".
stuffs which partially work on unreal or outside daz
1 - gegraft elements like the centaur horse parte or horns or others "extras" sort of limbs, they can work outside daz but they can bring some weird results like when exporting to unreal you get a "extra" mesh" without texture, like instead of having a single "horse mesh" for the centaur you get 2, one which is rigged to the character and another which is exported as a static mesh, then being really painfull, this will give a better info about the issue.
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/489851/tutorial-how-to-work-around-fix-the-double-down-export-issue-of-geografity-stuffs
2 - jcms those type of morphs can be really trick and lead to some issues, while they are fine exported and supposed to work "fine" it's not really happens, due to how the daz characters are skinned/rigged by using DQ system, better info can be found here:
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/134926/adding-dual-quaternion-support-to-unrealengine4-images-inside/p1
then since unreal don't have support to DQ you can end with this type of issue when animating or using poses:
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/512186/help-to-fix-a-really-annoying-pose-bug-in-unreal-from-daz-if-anyone-know-a-good-way-to-fix-it
In general avoid using "too high poly or dense meshes, like some outfits with "millions of polygons" normally a "fine character", would be around 100k to at best 300k tris and worst case around 500k tri in polygons count, it counting "the character base mesh, outfit, hair and any other detail/acessory, characters above it normally would lead to crashes or not being exported or big perfomance issues, it also have some extra here and there but those are basically the stuffs which normally you gonna have to deal when exporting
Another tip, daz have basically 2 type of main meshes(3d models) aside stuffs, like geoshell and dforce and fibermesh, which are skeletal mesh and props and must be deal in they own way when exporting to unreal or outside daz.
skeletal meshes are 3d rigged meshes which have "bones" and can deform to be animated or posed, when exporting to unreal you don't have much to worry about normally they will work fine in most cases.
most of the skeletal meshes are the characters, most of outfits parts and most of the hairs.
"props" or others way to be called are the obj meshes - those meses are not "rigged then they can't deform, they are "simple 3d models" which normally works apart and they must be exported "apart" from main meshes, most of the times they are "props" like weapons, held in hands, some outfits parts some "old hairs", they must be exported outside the model and they own and then attached to the model inside unreal by sockets.
here you can get some more info, while the post itself is a little old, most of it still valid today
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/432206/daz-to-unreal-guide-for-newcomers-the-famous-before-your-buy-or-limitations/p1
also you can have some bad english, srry, but it will help with most of the limitations.