I'm trying to import my animated turret into the UDK from 3ds Max. When I import it as a static mesh, aside from some texture issues, its fine. But the guns on the turret are animated, so I have to import it as a skeletal mesh. However, when I do this, Unreal breaks up my mesh, even though I checked "combine meshes".

So the question is how do I get Unreal to keep my mesh together when I import as a Skeletal Mesh? If it's because they are not joined as one object in Max, how do I combine all the objects in Max, but still preserve my animation?

Also, once my mesh is imported into the UDK, how can I tell its animated?

PLEASE AND THANK YOU!

Is it actually rigged in some way in 3DS Max? Skeletal meshes need bones to work, and I think it will only combine meshes that are rigged together either using bones and skinning or linking them.

Originally Posted by AlexLeighton

Is it actually rigged in some way in 3DS Max? Skeletal meshes need bones to work, and I think it will only combine meshes that are rigged together either using bones and skinning or linking them.

This is what I've found as well. Create an empty bone and either skin the base to it or sometimes even parenting it works. I had this exact issue and rigid binding it one way or another tended to fix it.