Daz Environments to Unity - Help! Transforms always get wonky

anewdreamlife · August 2021

I was hoping someone could help me with exporting environments from Daz in fbx format (not using the Bridge)

Whenever I export sets from Daz to use in Unity, once I bring them into unity, the placements of all the props are all over the place, never where they should be.

I've tried so many things in the export options trying to make this work, but no matter what, once it's imported to Unity, everything is scattered in the wrong places.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Melamkish · August 2021

If you still would like some help with this issue, I would be willing to try.

Last winter and early spring, after doing a bunch of Unity, Blender, etc updates, I was 
experimenting with environments, landscape and architectural exports from Daz to Unity. 
At the time I was using Unity v2019 since that is what the Daz to Unity Bridge was based 
on. When experimenting, I would export FBX files:

DAZ FBX Export
DAZ to Blender, then export FBX from Blender
DAZ to Unity Bridge.
DAZ to Hexagon and then to Modo and back

Depending on the product I was trying to export I would initially see the same issues you
 mentioned, and figure out how to fix them. I seem to remember some of this, but since 
then, I have upgraded to Unity v2020 3.14 because some of the Unity forum members have 
been using the v2019 bridge with v2020. I have been experimenting with animations. My 
modeling program (I use Modo) can animate, and though I have never tried to animate 
before last month using Modo, I have finally figured out what I need to do in order to 
send my own animations back and forth between various programs. Although I still need to 
work on some issues, I was ready to go back to creating my world spaces when I saw your 
post.

So, what are you trying to send to Unity? Your own, or a Daz product? I ask because I may 
have it. I have over 10,000 products installed and if I have one you are trying to use, 
would make it far easier to help.

Artini · August 2021

With Daz to Unity bridge, the environments from Daz 3D store works as expected for me.

The only problem is when instances are used in such environment.

You need to convert instances to objects, before exporting them.

I think groups does not export via bridge.

It would be nice to have some script in Unity to change objects back to instances there.

I also think, if you could provide a link to evironment from Daz, that you have problem with

it will be easier to find workaround.

Melamkish · August 2021

Artini is correct in that using the bridge can save a lot of headaches. I have seen the issues of groups and instances also.

One of the reasons I did a lot of experimenting is because some of the DAZ terrain based products were not done for gaming, so hilly, mountainous, or others, don't always have meshes on the edges that go all the way to "Ground Level". What I was experimenting with was the Unity Terrain Tools (preview version) to create ground at the edges of various landscapes to "fill any holes" in various meshes. I had a large area created and was importing various villages, ruins, etc, not necessarily at the origin, to see how everything would work together. Some times I would send things thru Blender, or to Modo to make changes and would have to use FBX export and import, instead of the using the bridge.

danielbui78 · August 2021

I think the DazToUnreal code branch has support for Lighting and Environments. I will try to back-port these features to the DazToUnity code branch when I have time.

Regarding instances, I'll try to automate conversion to objects + external metadata on the Daz side and back to instances on the Unity side.

One solution for terrain gaps and holes may be to use a "ground" or "terrain" tag in Daz, then automatically convert that tag(s) from Mesh Data to Terrain Data instead of running it through the FbxExporter plugin.

Helpful References: