I’m reading several other posts going back several years about issues with importing certain FBX meshes. I was directed to read ArtistQuickStart about FBX export options in Autodesk product and how to import into UE4, only see one thing to question, the support being only for FBX 2014 version. I don’t know if any of this has changed in the meanwhile, am running 3DS Max 2017 and also looping in the most recent version of Autodesk Remake, which appears to introduce the problem with FBX imports to UE4.
If I simply run an FBX from RealityCapture through 3DS Max for adding a Smoothing Group, I can import to UE4 14.4.0 no problem. If I first run through Remake to clean and decimate, export FBX, it opens fine in 3DS Max, add smoothing, that FBX export then imported to UE4 gets stuck at 75%, have to End Process.
One post suggests deleting history, where is that done? It’s also suggested have two roots can cause issues, not clear what produces two roots, but how would work in Remake add a root? I’ve read about deleting the Config folder, but understand that might only work if the problem doesn’t apply across different projects, which in my case it does. I’ve read about reinstalling Windows and UE4, but as I’m able to import FBX from 3DS Max when I don’t first go through Remake, this wouldn’t seem necessary. Here’s a download link to the problem child FBX. Thanks for advising.
Before you work with anything with FBX and 3ds max 2017, check that you can import/export morph targets using 3ds max 2017 via FBX, last i checked it wasn’t working and FBX wasn’t registering morphs. thats one issue i’m aware of with FBX in max 2017. And would def break workflow if you are using morphs, and If that obvious bug hasn’t been fixed yet i wont have my hopes high for the other ones.
Thanks, . I don’t even know what a morph target is, don’t believe I’ve inadvertently been using them. Clearly, Remake is generating the issue, as 3DS Max alone produces an FBX that imports just fine. I’ll check with Autodesk techs about morph targets in Remake and ask about any other possible reason why their FBX exports might be polluted with something UE4 doesn’t like.
There shouldn’t be anything related to making something in Remake that would cause an FBX issue when exporting the mesh from 3ds Max to UE4. If it’s hanging, then it might be the case that your mesh has too many polygons, there’s some processing done on import that can make importing files much slower in UE4 compared to importing into 3ds Max.
I’m not seeing how it can be polycount, as the same FBX coming only through 3DS Max loads quickly into UE4, 1M polys, but only if I use Remake to first clean the mesh before adding a smoothing group in 3DS Max, does that FBX, which actually features fewer polys after cleaning, not import into UE4, freezes Editor and freezes out most anything else I try to do in Windows in fact. It just doesn’t make sense. Are you able to export FBX from Remake and import into UE4, and if so, what version of Remake? Many thanks for your input.
I don’t use Remake, but it would just end up as geometry, perhaps it’s something to do with normals. Try applying an Edit Normals modifier and reseting the normals and then apply the smoothing. Also, 1 million polygons is actually a lot to import and should definitely have an impact on how quickly it imports into UE4.
I looked up how to reset normals, not finding that so easily, thanks for directing a newb. I’m good with bringing up the Edit Normals modifier, what’s next?
BTW, I’m aware 1M is way high for an asset, am looking at quality of photogrammetry-derived meshes before optimizing. Thanks.
Guys I don’t know if this is related, but whenever normals come up with FBX and UE it just is cause for trouble, at least from what we are experiencing recently, I mean not to hijack this thread but you can check this to know what i mean.
UE has trouble importing correct normals or at all, so tweaking normals in max and exporting them may not do any difference at all.
Still waiting someone from Epic or otherwise to come up with an answer for us related to this issue… Hopefully soonest they can.
Your hijack is welcome, but can you say how I reset them in 3DS Max? Tweaked normals that allow me to import the FBX at all is a step in the right direction.
Sometimes meshes can end up with Explicit normals which are permanent changes to the vertex normals, in the Edit Normals modifier any explicit normals will show as green rather than blue. To fix it, select them all in the modifier (just like you would select vertices or edges) and then click Reset in the modifier which will change them to blue, then you can apply smoothing correctly. I think the default setting for UE4 import will use the normals that the file contains. When you import though, you can improve speed by making sure to turn off the auto-generate collision and auto-generate lightmap UV’s.
What darthviper suggests about how to work with normals in max is what you need to know, basically everything can be manipulated with “edit normals” modifier, be careful though you have to do this before skinning.
As for UE this is where the problem is, no matter what changes you make in max for the normals it seems to be useless based on our recent tests, as UE completely seems to neglect those changes and computes them automatically even if you tell it to import normals, and as you can assume letting the engine compute the normals especially on moving meshes is usually a bad idea. I hope some more people can confirm this problem.
About 3Ds Max 2017 not exporting morphs, I was having that problem. The fix is to apply the Skin as the last modifier (not just changing the modifiers order, but skin has to be applied after Morpher). More info on the video.
