Problem applying surfaces

Development Rendering
1

Slowly starting to figure out navigating unreal here, and have a weird problem.
I brought in a fbx model [finally!] and am trying to apply materials to it.
the model has many, many sub-mesh objects and each has their own surfacing requirements.
the problem i am running into is that if i select the one part of the mesh i want to surface, i am applying it to the entire model- all 100+ parts of it, instead of the one i want to apply a specific material onto.
in the details panel, the model’s full hierarchy can be seen, it is in fact made of multiple objects, but even when i select the one object to apply a material onto, in the view window it is easy to see that along with it is the entire object also being selected.
i cannot find a way to just select the one single object to apply the material onto.
even if i select it in the details panel, and it is clearly the only thing being selected; it still applies the material to the entire model and all its multiple parts instead of the one that was selected.
how do i avoid this?
:woman_shrugging:

edit: just to be clear, the imported model has each separate mesh getting its own material already but most of them are basic materials that require an update. the entire model does not have one single material applied to it when it has been imported.
so it makes no sense that i cannot simply select a single mesh object and replace its material without applying the new material on the entire model…

2

It does not work like you are expecting it. The asset is one mesh, which can have multiple layers of materials, previously defined in the 3d programm by UV maps and channels. You can assign materials to these UV channels, not to geometry.

It seems like your model is not game-ready like that. If you want to have parts of the asset have other materials then other parts of the same model, you need to prepare your geometry and UV maps before importing it as an asset. Keep in mind, best case is one material for each asset.

3

I accidentally found a solution for it myself. you’re reply is only partially correct :wink: in the properties view for a selected mesh object is the object’s surface settings with a thumbnail image- for that one specific mesh item. it can be changed there so the drag and drop into the view not working as expected is avoidable using this method.