Blender to UE4 Vehicle Workflow - Unreal Engine 4 Tutorial

[@nunogomesrebelo]

For those using blender 2.8 and are having trouble with the wheels being positioned at the root bone no matter what, here's the solution: Create a new file in Blender; make sure Blender Units are set to Meters; Unit Scale must be 0.01; Follow this great tutorial; In the FBX export options make sure to tick the scale anchor and set the scale to 1 (it should be by default). What happens is that blender always uses meters as base unit (even if you use Centimeters in length) and UE4 always uses centimeters. If you don't do this, the root bone in UE4 will be scaled at 100, impossible to change and the other bones will be scaled as 1, a total mess.

[@n4_PURR]

Yay, mate! You save my sanity) For me it was enough to change Unit Scale, scale model to previous size, select all objects(A) and apply all transformations(ctrl+a a)

[@Jahaniam]

@@n4_PURR Thanks. You saved me a lot of time! Although I am so newbie with blender. for my own reference and others: change "Unit Scale" to "0.01 metric", then click "a s 100" to scale everything 100 times then "a ctrl+a a" to apply all transformation! (not sure what it does but the last step is necessary! export and import everything with scale 1.0

[@brunodcl5201]

Huge thanks, @Nuno Rebelo! I was gonna crazy with this issue and you saved my day with your solution!

[@LoRdPMN]

You man are a hero, thank you so much.

[@emeraldBarrels]

Hope this saves someone the time it took me to work through the issue I ran into. Following the video and setting everything up with basic shapes worked perfectly. However when I switched to using a custom mesh everything was fine until checking the mesh weights at 7:07. My wheels were always red but the body was always blue, and so wheels would rotate correctly but the body would not. I'm new to Blender and had to learn what these colors mean. Basically a red color is a max weight of 1 and blue is a min weight of 0. With the body mesh being blue it has zero weight and so no influence on rotation and won't match the video. Manually painting the body mesh until it was all red fixed this (the video "weight painting/skinning | tutorial | Blender | Quick" explains how to do this). Thank you for the great video!

[@AICineVerseStudios]

As always, you are my guru of UE4 Tutorials. I can already see I want to do this for fun little game on mountain terrain. Just wanted to get sometime to do it. Thanks again Marco!

[@naptalky]

That's great you make deaf tutorials so we can still listen to our music! Your channel definately stands out with this. Good job!

[@marcoghislanzoni]

adamcromwell thanks! Exactly. And you can pause when you need to do, quickly re-read the on screen instructions, and don't lose any part of the explanation.

[@marcoseliasmep]

The most complete tutorial so far! Thank you so much! I had the same problem related by Nei Konstantinos. I fixed it scalling everything to 100 in Blender, then exporting with scale 0.01. I hate those kind of things with 3D, but it worked :D

[@surtmcgert5087]

no it does not work

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Scaling in Blender may be an issue. You need to apply Rotation and Scale before exporting. You also need to take into account that UE4 uses cm as base unit while Blender uses meters by default.

[@Drahoslav_Lysak]

Marco is No.1 Another Amazing Tutorial.

[@adri4739]

The only good tutorial... Finally i get it

[@kacprzyk3589]

Broo AWESOME tutorial thanks soo much :))))

[@gamesndev7741]

Thanks awesome tut got the same results! to me that is a winner tut!

[@SoDaPrice1998]

Awesome video.... Can you tell how to set this up on flanged wheels like train wheels.........??? I actually tried to make a train movement in UE4 but didn't get it.........

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Tnx! Never thought about it, but at first sight I don't think the stock vehicle is suited for train simulation. Unless you set a very high lateral stiffness, but you would probably also need to add some extra conditions/code. You can give it a try and mess with the settings of the tires to see what you get out if it.

[@darrelljones6005]

PLEASE - PLEASE do a tutorial to setup the Oculus Go head set and controller in Unreal. I have poured over the Quickstart guide and anything else I can find. No luck. You are the only one I can find who has done it.

[@R1C4RD0R3D15]

Hey, I have set the Go up for myself. If you haven't got it shoot me a message and I'll see if I can help you through it.

[@TyLianti]

One last issue I had was the wheel collider doesn't collider with the ground, it doesn't detect it at all. I checked the other comments but can't find a solution?

[@anomalocaris3343]

I had problem with wheel collision on center too. This workaround solved it: - Select the rig and scale by 100. - Do Apply Object Transform, selecting scale. - Select the mesh and do Apply Object Transform, selecting location, rotation and scale Source: forums.unrealengine.com/development-discussion/animation/1360544-standard-epic-skeleton-in-blender-without-scale-to-0-01 Two more useful tips: - In Scene menu in blender set units to metric centimeters. That is default unit used in UE4. - Front of the vehicle must head along X (red) axis of Blender grid

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Forgetting to Apply Rotation and Scale is a common issue that causes the wheel colliders to end up in the center of the car once imported and configured in UE4. I never had troubles with the scaling factor honestly, but it may also depend on how the model is setup in Blender. Thanks for the tip!

[@dangerouskoin4874]

This worked really well for me thank you!

[@tamilwarriors9267]

My wheel colliders are not colliding the ground. I made everything as the same as in the video. Can you let me know how to solve this problem.

[@marcoghislanzoni]

First of all check the scale of the skeleton once imported to Unreal. All the bones have to have scale 1,1,1 for it to work properly. If the scale is different your vehicle won’t work correctly.

[@tamilwarriors9267]

The scales are correct but I am not getting the output. Can you please help me

[@marcoghislanzoni]

@@tamilwarriors9267 is the body simulating physics? Did you map the wheel bones correctly in the Vehicle Movement Component?

[@Grimswoden]

This channel is underatted and needs more people to see these clean tutorials u make. consider me a new sub and publiciter ima send ur channel to every place i know with flying colors

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Thank you very much!

[@berkut_24]

Hello! Made the car the same as in the video, but for some reason I don’t have wheel collisions, only the body has them. And if at repeated attempts a collision appears on the wheels, then they behave inadequately ... for example, the car jumps in place, or it may just fly into the stratosphere, but none of them responded to the wheel control commands, the car did not accelerate, did not brake, did not turned the wheels. I do not know how to deal with it, could you tell me how to solve such a joint.

[@marcoghislanzoni]

You may have collisions going on between the wheel colliders and the body of your car. Issue the command "pxvis collision 1" at the UE4 console to visualize the collision volumes (in purple) and the wheel colliders (in black). Check that they don't overlap.

[@berkut_24]

@@marcoghislanzoni I entered this command, that's what I received: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYbapoeeqrZlfNE For some reason, the entire wheel collision is transferred to the body bone, instead of being on the wheels.

[@VincentGnawl]

so at 2:40 "check that the bone axis has z up...." my x is forward but my z starts up already and if i flip it to the side like you did.. my y is now up.. I keep watching it, i feel like there's something wrong with my scene settings or something, everything i export to unreal starts out turned 90 degrees on its side also and i have to correct it when i bring it into the scene. any ideas? edit: ok so I figured I can use the transform on the armatures "edit mode" to make it long in the y axis instead of the z axis, so now I have the y to the left, z up and x forwards, does it matter if those coords are coming off the tail or the head of the armature?

[@marcoghislanzoni]

The bone position is where the largest part is, what you are probably calling the tail. The coords are showing up on the head.

[@carlherner9458]

i did this in 2.8 and had the same issue, for me I just applied the rotation and scale before parenting to the armature, because if the armature is not yet binded to the models you can apply rot and scale without any issues, so apply first, then parent to armature

[@bentleydavis1219]

This is a brilliant video Marco! I just subscribed because all of your content looks great! I have a question, though. I followed your tutorial exactly as you have it, but when I put in the bone names for the wheels they are all spawned on the root bone for some reason? In my skeleton I can see that the bones for the four wheels are in the right spot, and I copied and pasted all of the names exactly as they appear into the "Wheel Setups" section. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

[@marcoghislanzoni]

The most common cause for this kind of issue is not having applied scale and rotation before exporting your model to FBX. You may want to double check that. Also make sure you are not applying any scale when importing to UE4, that is also known to cause issues. Other people reported having to scale the armature differently than the mesh in Blender, but I couldn't double check that.

[@Badguy292]

@@marcoghislanzoni I've tried figuring this out too, I can't for the life of me find a solution and it's bothering me. I've both gone to apply location, rotation, scale and everything before saving and exporting. I just don't get it.

[@marcoghislanzoni]

@@Badguy292 Make sure you are not applying any scale when importing in UE4 either. This affects the car skeleton and causes issues. Also make sure you are not scaling the car body inside UE4.

[@Badguy292]

@@marcoghislanzoni I didn't apply any scaling anywhere, but I will try again from the beginning, thank you for responding!

[@remi_triadii]

Hi, I've follow the exact same way, but I have some issues where the wheelcollider always appear in center of car body even I have target the FR,FL,RR,RL bone and specify wheel class.

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Remi Triadi it's a skeleton scaling issue. Please watch my latest tutorial. It shows a much easier method and how to avoid this issue. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eHzFfJl8Zc-Hgrs

[@remi_triadii]

@@marcoghislanzoni Okay thank you very much! I've managed to fix it :))

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Remi Triadi great! What was it? The scaling?

[@remi_triadii]

@@marcoghislanzoni I just check the "apply transform" when exporting FBX from blender and problem solved.

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Remi Triadi yes, applying rotation and scaling is needed to avoid the scaling issue with the skeleton. This is clearly explained in my tutorial.

[@danushmadhushanka2466]

Its working...i was struggling for a long time to do this...

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Glad to have helped. You should check out my most recent video which shows an even easier way to do the rigging.

[@Thundrstrm]

hello thanks for this great tutorial Marco. I have one problem. The black circles are not at the weels. All 4 circles are in the middle of the body. How can i fix that? I tried this tutorial two times but everytime it is in the middle. i knew i forgot something but i didn't know what? can you help me

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Thund3rst0rm89 the most typical cause for that is having forgotten to apply Rotation and Scale to your mesh and rig in Blender before exporting to FBX

[@Thundrstrm]

Thanks i think this was the problem. i click rotation and scale but i don't do this for every part. now i'm looking wich part i have forgotten. The now two tires are right und two tires are in the middle.

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Thund3rst0rm89 double check the names of the bones, make sure they are named correctly when linking the wheels

[@marcoghislanzoni]

@@vadimparfenov6821 Did you read my suggestion about applying Rotation and Scale before exporting the model to FBX?

[@marcoghislanzoni]

@@vadimparfenov6821 Are you using the right names for the bones in the wheel setup?

[@tamilwarriors9267]

Will the output be correct if we don't align the skeletonal axes correctly?

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Check out my other tutorial about Blender 2.80 to UE4 vehicles. That one uses a method which does not require creating the rig inside Blender. Much simpler and helps to avoid many potential mistakes.

[@tamilwarriors9267]

Thanks bro. After a lot of debugging I fixed the error.

[@pavelchatterjee4424]

I have a wheel collision problem. After importing to Unreal, and after all the procedures that you have mentioned, I have not been able to run the vehicle. It just stays at the same place and the wheel rotates. It would be really helpful if someone can help me out in the same

[@marcoghislanzoni]

You need to check where your wheel colliders are positioned. Go to the Log Window and in the Console type "pxvis collision 1". This will show the wheel colliders in black. You may need to switch to wireframe to see them because they may be inside your car body.

[@Speedychan]

you are aware you can just put the wheels under the body mesh in the hirachal structure. then upon importing ue4 recognises that as a skeleton.

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Yes, you can import a hierarchy as skeletal mesh and UE will create the skeleton on the fly. However in this way you cannot really control the orientation of the bones, which is crucial to have the vehicle work correctly. Did it work properly for you?

[@Speedychan]

yes. there was issues with rotations originally but i then set the wheel transforms to 0,0,0 and the origin point to the center of the wheel (while still being in the correct place). the rotation and position was correctly recognised by ue4 and everything was correct. i think the issue is that the parent and the wheel rotations are added and cause the wrong bone orientation in engine

[@naptalky]

So when I want to make a bike with this method do I just specify only two wheels instead of four?

[@marcoghislanzoni]

adamcromwell PhysX vehicle class does not support 2-wheeled vehicles. People have tried that before but got into all kind of issues. You need to implement it from scratch.

[@sergeyzhukov5693]

That's works.Thanks a lot! (I finally did it! =))

[@JavierBarrera1981]

Muy bueno Marco!!

[@onlybooleans]

Hello sir, I am also having the same problem, the collider appears in the center of the car. Tried adjusting the scale like the other user suggested but it isn't working. Here is a screenshot imgur.com/a/QmW7S4U I just cant figure out what went wrong, i repeated every step you did.

[@onlybooleans]

Nevermind sir solved it by tweaking the wheel offset!

[@Video-by6lp]

Please. Need tutorial about Drone system !)

[@jamesblond6433]

How to remove blur from wheels? During movement wheels are blurring.(sorry for my English))

[@marcoghislanzoni]

James Blond all answers to your problem are here: answers.unrealengine.com/questions/196657/wheels-of-vehicles-have-wierd-motion-blur.html

[@SuperCinema4d]

Hello)) i creat motobike with SimpleWheeledVehicleMovement, but i dont know how balance?

[@marcoghislanzoni]

To balance the bike you need to have some lateral forces. Not sure how this is supposed to work with a PhysX vehicle though, as it is not designed for bikes. I have seen people trying bikes with PhysX and then creating their implementation from scratch because it wasn't working.

[@SuperCinema4d]

@@marcoghislanzoni the tilt of the body in turns turns in the other direction

[@marcoghislanzoni]

@@SuperCinema4d The problem is the the vehicle implementation has been thought for 4 wheels (or more) vehicles, not for 2 wheels vehicles. I am afraid there is no solution to it except writing your own implementation of the bike physics.

[@Jack-hv1hw]

Follow this tutorial,I found own car's wheel colliders aren't on the wheel mesh ,so how should I solve it？

[@marcoghislanzoni]

That typically happens when you do not apply scale and rotation to your wheel meshes inside Blender before exporting, or scale the model upon import into Unreal. Paying attention to these aspects should solve your issue.

[@Jack-hv1hw]

Thank you very much for your reply.I pay attention to these aspects,but own car's wheel colliders still aren't on the wheel mesh,I can send this file(.blender) to you, can you help me?

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Sure. Upload it somewhere and send me the link. Or contact me on UE4 discord.

[@Jack-hv1hw]

Thanks!After repeated inspections, I solved this problem.

[@Jack-hv1hw]

Hello. when own car is running in the UE4,appearing that when car stop,there is forward trend,what is the reason for this? Look at the video.(kzbin.info/www/bejne/a3bYYZqqa7KDbs0)

[@surtmcgert5087]

so i fixed most of the issues but my wheel colliders spawn WAYYYYY.... below the car and i don't know why. plz help (i don't want to have to change the z axis values)

[@surtmcgert5087]

okay ignore the comment im replying 2 i fixed that issue, the only problem now is that when i simulate it the wheel colliders hit the floor and stop but mesh keeps dropoing through the floor until the hitbox that you set up after u delete the capsule for the main body hits the floor. in other words my wheels on the mesh sink into the ground

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Looks like the suspension forces don't get applied to the body of the vehicle. Can you confirm all the wheels are referencing the right bones?

[@surtmcgert5087]

@@marcoghislanzoni all the bones in blender are matched to the correct wheel.

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Surt McGert did you properly set the wheel radius inside the wheel_BP?

[@surtmcgert5087]

@@marcoghislanzoni when u say properly, wat do u mean?? I just kept changing the wheel radius till it fit round the wheels in the mesh. Im sry 2 keep bothering u. Lol. But thank u

[@Video-by6lp]

You are the best !!! Thank you !)

[@brunnersamuel4615]

EDIT: Im using offset and it work.. My wheels are correct linked in blender but the wheels collider are all in the center

[@marcoghislanzoni]

brunner samuel to do it without using the offset you have to apply Rotation and Scale in Blender before exporting to fbx. Also make sure scaling is 1.0 in unreal. Last but not least double check the bone names.

[@brunnersamuel4615]

@@marcoghislanzoni Okay thx !

[@toysinjammies1613]

@@brunnersamuel4615, did you happen to get this fixed? i'm having the same issue. I have exported with rotation and scale & checked the bone names, but all of my wheel collision is centered on the root bone.

[@brunnersamuel4615]

@@toysinjammies1613Yeah i guess is an issue with the importer, just look at your bone location and copy pasta to offset it will work

[@carlherner9458]

have exactly same issue this is so frustrating

[@surtmcgert5087]

oooh and i tried again but instead of using wheel colliders like u, i used capsual hitboxes in the physics options 4 my car then i go 2 run it and the wheels all drop off my car

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Please read my answer to your first comment.

[@carlherner9458]

hey my wheels collision boxes spawn at root instead of the given positions, i linked my wheel bp and my car bp and bones have correct names and rot and scale is applied, any ideas?

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Are you applying any scaling factor when exporting from Blender? Or when importing into UE4? Or in the level?

[@carlherner9458]

@@marcoghislanzoni I set the scale to centimeter in blender and exported leaving the fbx scale settings at 1. Not sure what is going on with unreal and how it import things. Anyways like others I managed to offset the wheels and correctly position the collision boxes. It seems really buggy to record the vehicle while driving using the sequence recorder, do you have any experience with this type of things? Thanks for the tutorial by the way its great and I really appreciate it!

[@caspice]

Love your tutorial.....but no voice?!

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Damoce kay exactly, no voice ;-)

[@raivorogoss5940]

Why does my car fly way when i hit a tree?

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Typically this is due to the collision handling system adding a very large depenetration impulse. It is difficult to suggest a solution without seeing what happens.

[@idonotknow1058]

very good very useful

[@NEYTZIS]

The wheel colliders appear at the center of the vehicle no matter what. Offset doesn't work.Btw, very good tutorial but i don't know what i am missing. Upbge was easier but they killed it.

[@marcoghislanzoni]

NEYTZIS did you setup the right bones for the wheels?

[@NEYTZIS]

Yes. On the skeleton tree of the physics asset though it shows the armature name, then the root as a child and then the wheels. That's the only difference i have spotted from your setup...

[@marcoghislanzoni]

NEYTZIS the topmost bone should be the root bone, not the Armature. That's probably the reason why your wheel colliders end up in the middle.

[@NEYTZIS]

I fixed it but the wheels are still in the middle... Offset still doesn't work.

[@marcoghislanzoni]

There is something wrong with your setup, but I cannot pinpoint what without seeing more of your project. One recommendation would be to try to reproduce the tutorial as is, to make sure everything is fine and that you have a working project, then port it to your vehicle as second step.

[@surtmcgert5087]

did i forget to mension that the animation does not work either, 2 keep it simple..... nothing in ur tutorial about UE4 worked at all plz help also my wheel collision BP always spawns at the center of my car and theres only one

[@marcoghislanzoni]

The tutorial works if you follow it as is. If you make variations, either you understand what you are doing or it is very likely that you will break something. Please read my answer to your first comment. Follow the tutorial once as is. Make sure you understand all the steps. Then go back and start applying your variations.

[@eazilyunreal2701]

you fucking idiot you cant just say animation not work ppelaslzlzl help. show screenshots or something. BE CONSTRUCTIVE.

[@surtmcgert5087]

the wheel collider does not work, the input does not work, there is another way to do inputs by going to edit -> project settings -> inputs and adding the input axis things..... suprise suprise, it does not work. My materials did no go over into UE4 either, in blender my car was red and in UE4 my car is white

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Surt, I see you are facing many issues. First of all, as any tutorials out there, the final result is guaranteed only if you follow exactly all the steps as is. If you start applying variations without really knowing what you are doing, there are high chances that it will not work as expected, which is what is happening to you. I would recommend to follow the tutorial as is at least once, check that everything is working as expected, then go back and start applying one variation at a time. You may use a different car body for example. Then different wheels etc. Your inputs do not work? Probably you forgot to possess the car pawn. Your materials don't transfer properly from Blender to UE? Did you assign the material slots properly in Blender? Did you UV unwrap your model? Did you check the import Material/import Texture options in UE4? Did you check the materials in UE4? As you see, there are many potential issues you should pay attention to.

[@surtmcgert5087]

oki dokes thx man, i have followed ur tutorial like 5 times now doing exactually wat u have done, i'm honestly not sure what is happening its very strange, i have tried again with multiple different empty UE4 projects but the same thing is happening over and over, then i tried again jsut a second ago and my wheels fell of n start spinning all over the place lmao

[@surtmcgert5087]

also what do u mean by prossess the car pawn??

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Probably they are not properly parented to the bones. You can send me your project to check if you like. Upload it to WeTransfer and send me a private message with the link.

[@marcoghislanzoni]

Possessing the pawn it means indicating to UE4 that your Pawn is now controlled by Player 0 (the first player) and that it should receive the input from that player's controller. It's a setting in the properties of the Pawn, under Auto Possess Player.

[@RedRowGT]

so hard

[@crossmr]

This tutorial has no voice over - that isn't a selling point.

[@marcoghislanzoni]

This is my style of tutorials and they are without audio so you can watch them while listening to your own music. I fully understand they are not for everyone, but thanks anyway for visiting!

[@DeusCode]

Hello how can i hide the wheels ? i want to simulate a hover vehicle =( but i dont know how

[@marcoghislanzoni]

DeusCode - Noticias Overwatch I guess you can always apply a null material to your wheel meshes so they don't render.

[@DeusCode]

@@marcoghislanzoni D= okay thank you ! i will try

[@DeusCode]

​@@marcoghislanzoni sorry for being annoying but the last question, how can i separate the wheels meshes from the root for apply materials to each wheel Thanks this tuto is helping me a lot