Has the FBX importer changed? I’m trying to import a skinned mesh into 5.5 using steps I’ve used over a hundred times before, but all I get is two materials and no error messages. I assume I’m doing something wrong - but it seems strange that something which has worked so many times before suddenly does not? Any suggestions much appreciated (I’ve unistalled and re-installed 5.5).
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Greetings @201010! Glad to help you with this issue!
First of all, please share screens of your current import settings in UE5, to check what we are working with, as well as how many elements are contained in your FBX (mesh, skeleton, materials, animations, etc.).
Additionaly, try resetting your settings to default from the menu, as you recently re-installed the engine, lingering settings may remain. If that doesn’t work, you can also delete the config folder in your project files.
Thank you! This may well be simple finger-trouble / snow-blindness on my part, but here’s SGs:
FBX: it’s an animation imported via Terabilis from Mixamo and works in 5.4 (my interest is primarily in facial animation at this stage, I’m trying to see if there are any options for blending livelink face capture with the new lip-synch tool, which seems to work pretty well for dialogue but of course leaves the upper part of the face seeming somewhat uninhabited). I’ll also look at your suggestions re: resetting, as this feels as though it’s in the ‘should just work’ category of problem. Thanks again!
Small update - I deleted the config folder, re-imported plugins etc. but still the same issue.
@brs-sebascova Many thanks for your help on this but I now seem to have resolved it. A combination of a minor change between versions and complete stupidity on my part 
I compared the process with 5.4, where it works, and of course noticed the import dialogue was not the same (I had assumed this was just a layout / sizing change and not paid it much attention). However, whereas in 5.4 on drag-and-drop the FBX was immediately recognised as an animated skeletal mesh, in 5.5 this seems not to be the case. In 5.5 I need to use the import option in the content draw and specify the file type. This seems to work fine so it’s just a minor inconvenience, but I’m curious as to whether this is a change in the version or just in my configuration ? In any event, this now works. Thanks for the prompts!
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This isn’t really an answer, but sort of seconding your complaints. So far I LOATHE the new 5.5 import changes. It’s forced me to dramatically alter my workflow when importing .fbx files. I’ve started importing into a 5.4 project, then migrating things over to my 5.5 version. Seems they’ve really changed the overall workflow, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it has something to do with the shift to FAB, and more USDz pipeline options.
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The import framework has been reworked since a few version of the engine and in 5.5 the FBX format is now using the new Interchange Framework.
The UI did change as well as some overall structure but the team tried to keep default behaviour aligned with the legacy FBX import.
The new framework should detect you have a skeletal mesh with animation. Do you mind sharing your model so we investigate?
Which part of the workflow was disrupted: did you use scripts, custom options?
My root motions also not working in UE5.5, they used to be working in UE5.3. The new importing procedure is indeed quite confusing.
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Hey Flavien- for me, the materials is the biggest issue - no longer being able to set the material properties for instanced materials (I made a post about this the other day and got no responses) – not having the option to create new material instances and connect textures / colors being imported to properties of the material. Basically, I have to recreate all materials from scratch rather than being able to create a Master with parameters that get linked on import.
But it’s also a bit glitchy. It’s constantly trying to connect to an existing skeletal mesh vs importing a new one, unless I manually go into the dropdown and select None – if I click the “reset” arrow next to the SK when importing, it still tries to connect to a (seemingly random) skeletal mesh. I kept killing old skeletons, not realizing it was overwriting elements on import despite my “clearing” the skeletal mesh connection.
There was one other thing that made me poke my eyes out but I will have to think what it was
I’m moving from 5.4.4 to 5.5.0 using the same file. In 5.4 the file type is recognised and the appropriate dialogue appears, in 5.5 the (not sure how to describe it - top-level? Generic?) import dialogue appears. Happy to share, the file has come from the Terabilis Mixamo to Metahuman converter.
OffensiveIdle.UE.fbx (4.4 MB)
We are reaching out to request assistance with a configuration or setup that allows us to process FBX imports in Unreal Engine 5.5, while maintaining compatibility and workflows similar to 5.4 and earlier versions.
We are eager to transition into UE 5.5 while preserving established workflows. We greatly value Epic’s efforts in continuous innovation and hope Epic Games can improve this process even further in future versions.
If you mean make things worse, you can always count on that 
If you mean actually improve stuff so it works, I suggest you stick to non-compromised versions of the engine or even stuff that just isn’t epic managed (nvidia brances for one).
You see, when all you care about is Fortnite, you cannot possibly get good results on anything (arguably else, but apparently not even that!).
And when you achieve the proven track record of compromising core engine features by constantly doing so for over 6 years… well, yea. No one should believe you when you say that something you broke will get fixed.
Sure you can start a new thread describing what is your current setup and I can give some comments on a way forward.
are your workflow based on blueprints? You can start reading there then Importing Assets Using Interchange in Unreal Engine | Unreal Engine 5.5 Documentation | Epic Developer Community
That should be fixed in 5.5.2
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Better to toggle off per file format using the CVar:
Interchange.FeatureFlags.Import.FBX False
Interchange is also used to import textures or exclusively used to import MaterialX and gltf files and you might not want to go back to legacy importers or even just lose the import feature altogether for those other formats.
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Thanks for this. I’m finding the new importer crashes the editor quite often while the old importer does not (just dealing with pretty basic static meshes).
The reality is that the old importer works. And works better than the new one which is even having trouble re-importing things exported out of the engine itself.
Look, I been there with modding Blender’s FBX export/import. The FBX format particulalry is a huge mess, and it’s absolutely normal entry level coders end up causing crashes.
Realistically, it should have never been touched.
You should have given people the option to use the new stuff by manually enabling it, as opposed to forcing everyone (including people who arent Epic’s clients) to be your free beta testers…
Then again, I guess epic learns nothing, not even after having to settle class action suits, so I think we all understand why things are always done the wrong way around 
FYI, the Interchange FBX importer has a couple deal-breaking issues for me:
- If I import an animation FBX containing morph target animation, it will split it into 2 sequence files. This should be a toggle-able option, and it should not do this by default.
- When importing an FBX with a skeletal mesh and at least 1 animation, the skeletal mesh’s bind pose will become the first frame of the animation.
And since I’ve got someone’s ear, there are existing issues:
- In UE 5.4, the FBX importer appeared to fix unit-conversion issues (bones now appear the correct scale), but local bone transforms are still wrong. This means that Blender FBX exports (including those from Epic’s official addon) will import with incorrect local bone transforms. This causes Physics Assets to not generate correctly, and any Anim Graph logic working with local transforms will not compute correctly. More info here
- Morph Target normals are calculated incorrectly, as in the math is subtly wrong. I filed a bug about this forever ago but it didn’t get noticed. More info here
- The FBX importer needs an option to toggle whether morph targets modify a model’s normals or not. This is something Unity supports, and is a key feature for NPR (non photo real) assets.
I hope the FBX importer will get more love soon. Fixing these issues will make it much easier to work with Unreal.