Migrated Texture Not Working

Development Asset Creation
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1

Hello! I’m not quite sure where to post this, so I hope this is ok!

I recently purchased an Asset Pack on Fab. When I got it, I realized that you could only create a new project from it - Not a huge deal, I figured I could just migrate the meshes and textures over to the project I was working in. However, when I did so, the textures appear to have gotten messed up, resulting in this weird cloudy black texture instead. This only occurs when the object is placed in the level. In any previews, in Blueprints, etc- all of the textures work correctly.

I’ve tried re-migrating, checking to ensure the versions are correct, checking the material itself, and checking the project settings, but haven’t been able to find what could be causing this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

BadStaticMesh
BadStaticMesh500×608 177 KB

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Are you using 5.5 by chance? I had a similar issue that was only (permanently) resolved by moving to 5.6. My temporary workaround was to load the offending textures themselves (just opening them was enough) and then they’d work for the rest of the editor session.

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Hey there @NSgamingFTW! Welcome to the community! When looking at the material/material instance itself, is anything broken? Do those materials work on anything else in scene? Are you using substrate, as this can occur when using non-substrate materials (or vice versa)?

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Hello!

@Ken.Brueck I am using 5.6 - both the project I am working in and the project that contained the files originally are both 5.6 projects, unfortunately!

@SupportiveEntity Hello! Thanks for the welcome! It doesn’t appear like the Material/Material Instance itself is broken - all of the textures and whatnot appear to be in there. The only noticable difference I can see is that in the migrated version, it appears to have extra depedencies in reference viewer like HeatmapGradient, TilingNoiseHightFrequency, and Cheap_ContrastRGB which don’t exist in the original project. I was not using substrate - I did try tweaking the settings but to no avail.

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  1. Check Material Texture Paths

When migrating assets, texture references sometimes break.

  • Open the Material Editor → Check each Texture Sample node.
  • If it says “Texture Missing” or has a default checker icon, reassign the correct texture from your migrated folder.
  • Use “Fix Up Redirectors” (Right-click on the Content folder → Fix Up Redirectors in Folder).

**2. Verify Texture Compression Settings

Sometimes texture format changes cause black output.

  • Open your texture → In Details Panel, ensure:
    • Compression Settings = Default (e.g., DXT1/5 or BC7 for color)
    • sRGB = On (for color textures)
    • Virtual Texture Streaming = Off (temporarily disable to test)
  1. Check Material Domain and Shading Model

In Material Editor:

  • Material Domain → Should be Surface
  • Shading Model → Default Lit or relevant to the asset
    If it’s set to “Unlit” or “Post Process,” textures can appear black.
  1. Rebuild Shaders

After migration, shaders often need recompiling.

  • Go to Build → Build All Shaders or restart the editor.
  • Wait for the Shader Compile process to complete — partial compilations often show black preview meshes.
  1. Version or Engine Difference

If you migrated from a newer/older engine:

  • Reopen the original project, right-click the asset → Asset Actions → Export → .FBX or .TGA (for meshes/textures).
  • Then import manually into the target project — this ensures compatibility.
  1. Check Material Instances

If the pack uses Material Instances, ensure the Parent Material is correctly referenced (not missing or renamed).

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That’s interesting, upon migration there definitely shouldn’t be new dependencies, is it possible that they just weren’t being detected as a dependency? Alternatively it’s possible these are built in material nodes that could be different between the versions.

If migration is causing the issue, I’d personally recommend rebuilding the materials if they aren’t too complex manually using the textures and referencing the originals.