The bpy.ops.export_scene.fbx argument block was duplicated in six scripts (hero,
block frontage, north buildings, site, scale test, MPFB character) and all six
carried mesh_smooth_type="OFF", which drops smoothing groups and made every
Unreal import warn and every round part faceted.
Tools/fbx_export_preset.py now owns the presets:
- preset_kwargs(preset, selection, **overrides) is bpy-free and unit-tested;
- export_static()/export_character() are thin wrappers that import bpy lazily;
- ue_metric_v1 and ue_character_v1 keep the recorded scale contract
(FBX_SCALE_NONE, apply_unit_scale, -Y forward / Z up) and use FACE smoothing.
Callers switched: hero_facade_build, export_block_frontage, export_north_buildings,
scale_test_export, mpfb_character_export, Art/blender/site/export_site_fbx.
Verified by re-exporting every asset through the preset and re-importing all of
them: 0 smoothing warnings on site, frontage and north buildings; packaging and
-qaselftest all PASS (walk, transect 0 holes, wall probe 0/35, facade probe 0/9).
49 tool tests pass (9 new for the preset contract).
UE export hygiene (unreal-export skill checklist) plus a gameplay defect the new
probe caught:
- FBX export now uses mesh_smooth_type="FACE" (was OFF, which is why every import
logged "No smoothing group information was found"), and the round parts are
shaded with shade_smooth_by_angle(35 deg) before export, so columns and
medallions read round instead of faceted.
- SM_HeroFacade had complex-only collision, so capsule sweeps and line traces
passed through the wall: the player could walk through the hero facade.
auto_generate_collision was tried and rejected (coarse hulls bulged into the
street; the QA wall probe went 0/35 -> 2/35). It now uses UseComplexAsSimple,
saved on the asset, like the terrain.
- New -qaselftest facade occlusion probe: 40 m traces sideways from the road
centre at walking height, required only where a building is staged (explicit X
spans mirroring ue_build_demo_map). Result 0/9 -> PASS, alongside transect
0 holes and wall probe 0/35.
Docs: release-checks records the probe and both collision attempts; Tools/README
lists the new phase; MEMORY records the smoothing/collision lessons.
Detail pass on the hero, all verified by measuring the built mesh:
- Column base moulding: a 1.36 m wide, 0.22 m tall cylinder at each shaft foot
(2.00-2.22 m). The shaft previously started straight off the square pedestal,
so the base never read in silhouette.
- Abacus: a 1.30 m square, 0.14 m thick slab over each capital. It takes the top
of the capital zone, so the colonnade still ends at 9.70 m and the 53.1 %
proportion is unchanged.
- Medallions fixed: they were built with the Z-axis cylinder helper, so the two
'discs' were pancakes lying flat on the parapet coping (1.1 x 1.1 x 0.02,
z 14.02-14.04). New disc_on_wall() helper rotates the cylinder 90 deg about X;
they now stand 1.1 m across on the parapet face (y -1.32..-1.28,
z 13.05..14.15).
Hero rebuilt (95 parts, 2420 tris, still 14.50 m), re-imported, DemoMap rebuilt,
screenshot set re-rendered. Part report records the new dims and their assumption
notes. Screenshots README notes the detail pass.
Adds Tools/facade_detail_concepts.py: generates architectural detail plates from a
local reference photograph through OpenRouter's image models. Spec-driven (eight
studies: door recess, entrance, column order, entablature/cornice, parapet/motto,
window rhythm, street wall, banner), never overwrites (writes -vN), writes a
.refgen.json sidecar (model, prompt, source photo, SHA-256) per image, and keeps
all output under the gitignored Art/reference/facade-details/ - local only, never
shipped. Stdlib only; http 429/5xx back-off; refuses to write a sidecar containing
the token. 11 tests cover the study table, prompt assembly, next-free naming,
data-URL decoding (both response shapes plus a refusal) and the local-only rule.
Measurement pass on the plates: the hero window panes were at Y -1.98, i.e. 1.44 m
in FRONT of the wall (Y -0.50) and ahead of the column line, so the glazing floated
in the colonnade instead of reading as openings behind it. Moved to Y -0.56; hero
rebuilt, re-imported, DemoMap rebuilt, full screenshot set re-rendered.
Docs: Tools/README row, Screenshots README known-issues entry now records the fix.
Measured from the built mesh, the colonnade (columns + capitals) was 6.90 m of the
14.50 m elevation = 47.6 %: the entablature (3.40 m) and parapet (2.20 m) were
using 5.60 m of the height. Thinned both to 3.00 m and 1.80 m in
hero_facade_build.py, which lifts the colonnade to 7.70 m = 53.1 % - inside the
50-60 % band - with the envelope, motto band and medallions unchanged relative to
the parapet.
Hero rebuilt, re-imported (bounds 2604 x 1257 x 1450 cm), DemoMap rebuilt and the
screenshot set re-rendered for review. Hero part report updated (columns 7.45 ->
8.25 m, entablature 3.40 -> 3.00 m).
TODO: colonnade item closed. MEMORY records the FBX-vs-blend --out gotcha.
The reported fall-through was a misdiagnosis: the player never fell. The
imported Terrain_DEM had only a bounding-box simple collision proxy, so a
downward trace anywhere in the block hit the terrain at Z 819 (the mesh
bbox max) and the street sat under an invisible 8 m lid. Standing on that
box looked plausible, which is why it read as working.
- add UGigLineAssetTools (C++): force CTF_UseComplexAsSimple on a static
mesh. UE 5.8 dropped bUseComplexAsSimpleCollision and Python cannot set
the flag; the builder also saves the asset, since the flag lives there
and a map-only save silently reverts it.
- spawn (-13336, -1150, 600): inside the carved corridor (the cut is a
10.7 m half-width around the road centreline), lands on the road at 456.
- fix ResetToStart returning to the mid-air PlayerStart captured in
BeginPlay: StartLocation is now captured on the first grounded frame.
- HighResShot 1280x720 instead of "1280 720", which is a multiplier.
- add -qaselftest: scripted walk/reset/pause on a core ticker plus a
swept ground transect. Results: walk 746 cm/2 s with Z steady, reset
0 cm from spawn, pause/unpause 1/0, transect 84 samples 0 holes.
- rebase onto main, keeping the frontage materials and placement fixes.
Adds the five remaining verified south-side buildings to the demo block
(6922, 6902, 6838 El Capitan Theatre, 6822 Budget, 6806-6820, 6800 Lee Drug),
exported in place from the OSM blockout by Tools/export_block_frontage.py,
imported to /Game/Hollywood/Frontage/ and staged by the demo builder with the
look material set (stone for the theatres, stucco for the retail run).
Adding neighbours exposed a pre-existing placement bug that was invisible while
the hero facade stood alone in an empty field:
- UE south is +Y here (south sidewalk Y +718..+1447), but the hero sat at
Y -1450 on the NORTH side of the street.
- It was also at X -12024..-9420, 26 m east of the 6840 footprint; the frontage
gap between 6902 and 6838 is X -14591..-12082.
- The two north-side buildings were on the SOUTH side, because their exporter
mirrored Y.
Fixes: hero moved to X -13336 / Y +1307, inside its frontage gap; the frontage
and north-building exporters no longer apply a Y mirror (the FBX preset already
lands Blender -Y south on UE +Y south); player start and demo cameras moved to
the north sidewalk looking south; sun raised to pitch -62 so both frontages read
instead of the north side silhouetting.
Result: the demo is a street - continuous south frontage with the hero in it,
both sidewalks, the road with the designated crossing, and the north-side
buildings across the road.
Screenshots re-rendered and approved by the owner.
Squash of branch frontage-block-0.1.0 (PR #6).
Completes "Materials and look development for all exported assets". Every
exported surface previously carried a flat Constant3Vector fill, which read as
plastic. ensure_material() in Tools/ue_build_demo_map.py now builds a
procedural material per surface:
- base colour blended between two shades by world-space noise
(WorldPosition -> Multiply -> Noise -> Lerp -> BaseColor) for large-scale
variation,
- an explicit roughness and specular so the surface type is readable.
M_Asphalt 0.92, M_Concrete 0.88, M_KerbConcrete 0.85, M_Ground 0.98,
M_RoadPaint 0.62, M_FacadeStone 0.72, M_Stucco 0.86
Site meshes take their material by mesh name; the hero facade and the two
north-side buildings take theirs by actor label, so they are covered even
though other scripts stage them. Materials are deleted and rebuilt on every
run, so a look change cannot be masked by a stale asset.
Result: the facade reads as warm stone with surface variation, asphalt as dark
asphalt with grain, concrete and kerbs lighter and matte, and the north
buildings in stucco instead of flat grey.
Screenshots re-rendered and approved by the owner. The richer texture-based
pass (baked/procedural brick_facade, seamless_concrete, glass, material
instances) stays in the 0.1.4 facade patch.
Squash of branch materials-lookdev-0.1.0 (PR #5).
Completes "Fixed daytime lighting and basic ambience" for 0.1.0. All 14
screenshots approved by the owner.
Lighting rig (Tools/ue_build_demo_map.py):
- Sun pitch -50 / yaw 120, intensity 4, warm (255/245/230), atmosphere sun light
- Sky light 2.6 with real-time capture, sky atmosphere, height fog (density 0.008)
- Unbound post-process volume with fixed exposure (min == max brightness) so a
shot cannot wash out or crush to black depending on how much sky it frames
- Dynamic-only: r.AllowStaticLighting=False plus MOVABLE lights and mesh
components, so the editor's "LIGHTING NEEDS TO BE REBUILT" warning no longer
fires and nothing needs baking
Bugs found and fixed on the way:
- Blender diffuse colours do not survive the FBX -> Unreal import: every site
material arrived white and the terrain arrived with WorldGridMaterial, which
is what actually made the scene look blown out. The demo builder now creates
and assigns M_Asphalt, M_Concrete, M_Ground and M_RoadPaint.
- Only one of the three crossings reached the game: each zebra band was its own
object, so Blender renamed the duplicates .001/.002 and exact-name site
assembly skipped them. All bands are now one Crossing_Markings mesh.
- Demo cameras: street-level sat inside the facade body (rendering its unlit
back face) and the crossing camera aimed at the s=36.6 crossing instead of
the designated s=130.1 (UE X -14956).
- The terrain had no material and imported as a bright default grid.
- Cleared a committed Android File Server SecurityToken (plugin disabled and
shipping-excluded; the value must stay empty).
Docs:
- Screenshots/README.md: one consolidated table for all 14 shots with map,
camera view and description; all approved.
- MEMORY.md: records the material-import, exposure, light_color struct,
band-naming, camera-bounds and lighting-build traps.
- TODO.md: lighting item marked done.
Squash of branch gameplay-lighting-0.1.0 (PR #3).
- street_mesh.py: continental zebra markings (0.5 m bars, 0.5 m gaps, 3 m
band) at all three signalised crossings, triangles not quads (FBX SDK
refuses to triangulate the crown-twisted quads), stripes +6 cm above the
DEM so they stay above the road surface; winding flipped so every street
surface faces up (road/sidewalks/markings were 100% down-facing and
invisible in engine once the terrain stopped covering them).
- terrain_from_dem.py: cut a 10.7 m corridor around the Hollywood Blvd
centreline so road, kerbs and sidewalks are not buried under the terrain;
sidewalks themselves cover the transition band, walk-check stays at 0 holes.
- Blender builders save with a writability guard + fatal failure: *.blend
is LFS-lockable and checks out read-only; a failed save previously left
downstream steps building from stale files.
- ue_import_site.py: Crossing_Markings imports with no collision (paint on
the road); ue_build_demo_map.py stages it and chmods the lockable .umap
before saving (save_map silently returned False on read-only maps).
- ue_build_review_map.py: demo-crossing camera moved to the real crossing
(s=130.1 m -> UE -24291,-1340) and fixed the ensure_writable path (was
missing the .umap suffix, so the chmod never fired).
Tools/ue_build_demo_map.py builds /Game/Hollywood/DemoMap: sun, sky, the hero
facade on the building line, six site meshes imported with collision, and a
player start on the north sidewalk. Tools/ue_import_site.py imports the site
FBXs; terrain, road and sidewalks use complex-as-simple so a simple hull cannot
ramp over the kerbs. Art/blender/site/export_site_fbx.py exports one FBX per
object so each can carry its own collision.
Reset (R) and pause (Escape) join the character and the input context: reset
restores the spawn transform and clears momentum, pause is a real game pause that
releases the cursor. DefaultInput.ini captures the mouse on launch.
Three placement defects found by measuring the imported actors rather than
trusting the plan: the spawn was on the wrong sidewalk because the FBX flip
inverts north, a mirror I added to the exporter double-corrected an already
correct sidewalk, and the street meshes only carry part of the north walk - the
rest is terrain.
zwitschi