I'll be using this space to chronicle my latest project. In the few days I've been working on it I've already hit quite a few things I think I should document.
I don't want to jot down only what is working, but what doesn't work and why. I tend to learn more from my mistakes and maybe you will too as I write them up, who knows maybe you'll have a work around or the idea might work on something else.

I started out with this piece of concept art by Thierry "BARONTiERi" Doizon I think it was for Dues Ex Human Revolution, either that or it was fully awesome inspired art.



Max blockout:

Using the grid and regular max units (1 max unit = 1 unreal unit) and some rough measurements from UDK (96 units = player height) I blocked in a basic room. Wall tiles 128x128 units.

I didn't account for perceived scale which is why things look pretty cramped, but I worked that out once I got everything in UDK. It was something like 1/3rd bigger for everything.

I planed out texture sheets using a 4:1 ratio, 4 pixels to every game unit and worked out naming conventions for the pieces.
FloorTile.fbx
FloorTile_D.tga
FloorWood.fbx
WallPlaster.fbx
WallPlasterCornerR.fbx
ect...
This way I could start grayboxing with the peices, work out the scale and start working on materials and lighting.

The export prep script:
Search for something like wallworm but for UDK, if nothing exists create it.
The script would, record the objects position, move it to world 0 0 0, apply turn to poly limit it to 3 sides, rename the material to match the objects name then trigger a FBX export with explicit normals and then move the object back to where it came from.

More to come...