Converting materials within 3dsMax via maxscript is easy. We have plenty of tools to do that sort of thing. But there is no material to which we can convert which exports all properties to UE4.
The only material properties that survive export are diffuse map/color and bump map.
We need a BP that looks at material names in the UE project and then modifies those materials *in the editor *according to external data.
For instance, simply reading the opacity value of a material; if it is less than 100%, then switch the UE material blend mode to Translucent, Lighting Mode to Surface Translucency Volume, and then set Metallic, Specular, Roughness, and Refraction according to data in a text file.