Hello Nate,
We use Modo here at the Dave School and have recently come up with a pretty easy solution to this issue. With Modo you have to bake your vertex information before you export into Unreal 4. If you ever need to make any changes, delete the old vertex map and just create a new one before you create a new FBX. You only need to Split Normals if you want extra control over an edge. We create our groups based on Material assignments here at the school.
- Create your mesh as normal.
- Create a new material and assign the
smoothing angle you want for that
material under Shading tab >
Properties > Material Ref > Surface
Normal section > Smoothing Angle - Select all the Polygons on the mesh
- Go the main menu bar > Vertex Map >
Create… - Create a new Vertex Map for this mesh
and name it whatever you like - Go to System > Preferences…>FBX I/O > make sure Save Mesh Smoothness is checked. Close the window.
- Export your FBX
- Import into Unreal 4 and you should
see your smoothing information
Hope this helps.
Angel