Harsh lighting on Meshes (Static and Skeletal) along UV seams

Development Asset Creation
1

Hello, I’m having issues importing meshes into ue4. Each import so far has had harsh lighting along the UV seams.

I figured this was a problem with my normal map for my mesh at first so I tried flipping Y and it yielded no fix. Then I went and created a standard white material with a constant 3 vector and a blank normal color to check and see if it was a different problem with my normal map. When I put the material onto the desired element in the sk mesh editor (also tried static mesh) it had the same harsh lighting.
I went further, I figured then it was a problem with the normals on my model so I tried averaging them/deleting/reimporting. No fix. I tried unlocking them so they were hard. No fix (to clarify, it didn’t even let me import it with hard edges, it auto smoothed it even though i selected import normals and preserve smoothing groups). I double checked my export settings against the docs. Was using proper fbx version. No fix. Thought maybe it was then a problem with lightmap UV’s so I created a second channel and copied uv’s over(just a note: they don’t overlap so I know that’s not an issue). No fix.

It looks just fine in everything else I’ve used to create the mesh/shaders.
I’ve added some screen shots below to show what I mean.

I would appreciate any feedback on this. I put up my fbx here if you need to take a look at it: --omitted–

Character crotch in unreal standard white material:

http://touu.ch/iQ93SgQ

Character crotch in unreal with textures:

http://touu.ch/iRlJkVa

Character butt in unreal with textures:

http://touu.ch/iRmEvSG

character butt in marmoset:

http://touu.ch/iQ7nEO2

character crotch in marmoset:

http://touu.ch/iQ87X3w

2

Looks like a problem either with your smoothing export settings or smoothing import settings. I know in 3ds Max sometimes you can end up with meshes with explicit normals that you need to reset.

3

that’s what I thought, but I completely reset normals and smoothing groups and he still has the problem.

http://touu.ch/iRpZsnf

4

What are your import settings? It’s definitely an issue in the mesh

5

That’s what confuses me:

http://touu.ch/iRq2ET6

I am testing it right now with static mesh because it does the same thing.
I tried it with both calculate normals and import normals. Same weird result.

6

Which program are you exporting it from?

7

I’m exporting it with Maya 2015, but I changed my fbx version to 2013 as the documentation suggested. ^^

8

Change the Calculate Normals option to Import Normals

9

I mentioned earlier that I tried both to no avail ^^

10

Something is wrong with your export settings then. I exported the mesh from 3ds Max both as a static mesh and a skeletal mesh and the normals imported just fine.

11

Also try FBX 2014. I dont know if it is specified as a Maya specific thing in the documentation but i use FBX 2014 with Max, and i had this kind of issues during 2013 > 2014 transition a couple of months ago.

12

I checked materials by copy pasting and using stock materials and I found it was a result of improper normal color. I was unaware I needed to change my value from Color to Normal for sampler type on the texture sample.
Thank you for helping though, I appreciate it ^^
I’ll just go sit in my cone of shame now.
xD

13

It’s all good since you found the problem. Happens to all of us sometimes!

14

Agreed! I can rest easy tonight knowing all our assets aren’t messed up :slight_smile: