I have the following FBX file which contains multiple characters sharing the same skeleton:
Note: Characters from Synty POLYGON Dungeon from Unity - as I bought it there, I want to try to re-use for UE.
Any way to split them into separate Skeletal Meshes when importing?
When importing into UE, there’s no option to Combine/Split Skeletal Meshes, as opposed to when importing Static Meshes where I can just uncheck “Combine Meshes”. They are all stacked on top of each other:
When importing an FBX file with multiple characters sharing the same skeleton into Unreal Engine 5, there is no built-in option to split them into separate Skeletal Meshes during the import process as far as I am aware. However, there are a few ways to achieve this somewhat.
One way is to use the Unreal Engine’s “Animation Retargeting” feature. This feature allows you to retarget animations from one Skeletal Mesh to another.
You can import your FBX file into Unreal Engine 5 and then create separate Skeletal Meshes for each character by duplicating the original Skeletal Mesh and retargeting the animations to the new Skeletal Mesh. Then, you can assign different materials to each Skeletal Mesh to achieve the desired character skins.
Another way is to use the “Import LOD” feature. After importing the FBX file, you can select the Skeletal Mesh in the Unreal Engine’s Content Browser and then go to the “LOD” section in the “Details” panel. Here, you can create new LODs (Level of Detail) of your Skeletal Mesh. You can then edit each LOD and assign different materials to them. This way, you can toggle different character skins by changing the LOD level.
Finally, you can use a third-party tool like “Maya” or “Blender” to split the characters into different Skeletal Meshes, and then import them separately into Unreal Engine 5.
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.
if you are trying to use the unity versions of those assets I suggest just buying them again from unreal if they are available. But check if the assets support unreal 5 first.
Big chances you may want to use the static meshes in your game and that will create a lot of issues as the assets from unity have bad UVs and will not work correctly with lumen. Especially if you want to build for mobile at some point.
For splitting skeletal meshes, you want to try the glTF Importer for UE5.1. It allows you to split skeletal meshes similarly to Static Meshes and keeps all textures applied. It’s a file format available in Blender. The plugin for UE5.1 has more options than UE5.0
Here is a preview of the import dialog box:
Interesting way of working around the limitation! Thanks for sharing this.
Yes, I already have the IKRigs and retargeting set, what I’m trying to accomplish is just toggling on and off the different skins that are under this unified FBX.
Yes, this would be the ideal solution, but I don’t understand why UE do not let me toggle the geometry as I need.
Hehe not an option considering the amount of money I spent there.
Awesome! This is the perfect solution, I’ll check it out, as gLTF is my preferred format too. I’ll report back here as soon as I test it.
I managed to make a retarget rig that uses yet another Unity asset pack (Basic Motions) work in UE. I had to create the IKRigs manually for both assets, but it wasn’t that difficult.
So both the Synty pack and the animation pack come from Unity and now work in UE, and I can reuse animations.
