What am I doing wrong when importing free models?

Development Asset Creation
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1

I’ve been using a variety of websites that provide some free simple models for things like guns, buildings, fences, etc. Every time I try to import anything into UE4, I get issues.

  1. The object imports insanely small.
  2. I have no transform controls except scale for the mesh.
  3. I don’t get textures or materials despite them being in the same folder and the “import textures and materials” checkboxes being ticked. I just get blank white materials with a 3vector hooked up that is just white.
  4. When I actually put a mesh into the game it doesn’t spawn, or spawns so small I can’t see it.

I personally have only used Blender for about 20 minutes, so I know next to nothing about modeling. I’m not particularly interested in getting anything super high quality as far as artwork, I just want functional models that I can use for level design and testing gameplay, but everything I get has at least one of the issues I listed. Please help!

2

Can you provide any examples of assets you trying to make work? Not all models may work with UE4 out of the box, some of htem may require edits.

You might consider lurk in UE4 marketplace, there some free assets from Epic games there

3

My usual workflow:

  1. Import the model into Blender
  2. Make sure the model’s vertices are all joined into one mesh. (hit space bar and type Join. Might need to be in Edit mode instead of Object mode).
  3. Make sure the model is sitting on the origin 0,0,0 of the scene. If multiple meshes, put them all at 0,0,0. DO NOT DO THIS STEP if you are importing something like an archviz scene where each object needs to be in its own spot in the scene. DO this step if you’re importing a single prop, etc. If it’s an animated character then it depends on various things.
  4. Export the model to FBX
  5. In Unreal Import the FBX:
  6. Tick Combine Meshes if it’s supposed to be a single object like a prop.
  7. Drag the Mesh into your level. If it’s tiny, delete the asset, go back to Blender and export again, but change the Scale option in the export dialog to something bigger. Re-export and re-import into Unreal.
  8. Alternatively you can adjust the Scale option in the Import dialog in Unreal, though I have heard that sometimes messes with your texture resolution. You can even do this after the fact in the Static Mesh asset’s editor, which is helpful for figuring out what scale you need without having to cycle a bunch of imports/exports, and you can leave it at that or you can re-export at that scale you found, delete the asset, and import again.
4

https://free3d.com/3d-model/45-acp-smith-and-wesson-13999.html
https://free3d.com/3d-model/glock-88960.html
https://free3d.com/3d-model/fence-43609.html

These were the three I remember trying. Both of the guns had the super small issue and the no transform controls issue (though this may have just been me incorrectly trying to use them as the root of a blueprint, which apparently only has a scale control?), and all three had textures that wouldn’t load at all.

5

Just to add to this:

6

Also when it comes to Material imports, I have only seen a few FBXs that were set up in a way that Unreal knows how to get the materials. When this happens, you can just build the material yourself:

  1. Create new Material.
  2. Import diffuse color image.
  3. Import normal map if any.
  4. Add those images to the Material and connect them to their appropriate pins in the material final node.
  5. Add the material(s) to the imported Meshes at the appropriate Element slot(s).