Preparing Dinosaur 3D Models for Unreal Engine Exhibits

The DCC file is not the deliverable

A model that looks correct in a modelling package can still be wrong for a real-time exhibit. Unreal Engine cares about units, pivots, material complexity and draw calls. Agreeing on those before export saves a week of rework.

Scale and units first

Decide whether the project works in centimetres or metres and keep it consistent from skeleton to animation. A life-size dinosaur that arrives at the wrong scale breaks camera framing, collision and every animation that was tuned on the original.

LODs are a design decision

Visitors see exhibits from a fixed set of distances. Build LODs around those distances rather than around arbitrary percentages. A distant silhouette can lose most of its polygons and still read correctly if the normal and colour maps carry the detail.

Materials need to be cheap and honest

Every extra material and texture sampler costs frame time. Consolidate where possible, keep texture sizes proportional to screen area, and test on the actual exhibit hardware rather than a workstation. A model that only runs on a high-end card is not an exhibit asset.

Lighting is part of the asset

Real-time exhibits live or die by lighting. Bake what can be baked, keep dynamic lights limited, and check the model under the colour temperature of the venue. Skin and bone both look wrong under the wrong light, no matter how good the texture is.

A short handover checklist

Confirm units, pivots, LOD distances, material count, texture budget, animation frame rate and the target GPU. Six numbers prevent most integration arguments.

DinoCG delivers engine-ready dinosaur assets with documented budgets, so exhibition teams can integrate without guessing.

Chinese Version

DCC 文件不是交付物

在建模软件里好看的模型，放进实时展厅仍可能不合格。Unreal Engine 关心单位、轴心、材质复杂度和绘制调用。导出前把这些约定好，能省下一周返工。

先定比例和单位

确定项目用厘米还是米，并从骨架到动画保持一致。等身恐龙比例错了，会同时破坏镜头构图、碰撞和所有按原尺寸调过的动画。

LOD 是设计决策

观众只在固定的几段距离看展项。按这些距离设计 LOD，而不是按固定百分比。远处的剪影可以大幅减面，只要法线和颜色贴图承载了细节，观感依然成立。

材质要便宜且诚实

每多一个材质和贴图采样都消耗帧时间。能合并就合并，贴图尺寸按屏幕占比分配，并在真实展项硬件上测试，而不是在工作站上。只能在高端显卡跑的模型，不算展项资产。

灯光属于资产的一部分

实时展项成败在灯光。能烘焙的就烘焙，动态光要克制，并在场馆实际色温下检查模型。皮肤和骨骼在错误光线下都会失真，贴图再好也没用。

一份简短的交接清单

确认单位、轴心、LOD 距离、材质数量、贴图预算、动画帧率和目标显卡。六个数字能避免大部分集成争议。

DinoCG 交付带预算说明的引擎可用恐龙资产，展览团队可以直接集成，不必靠猜。