Importing multiple FBX to same folder breaks materials

In theory you want all the meshes to use the same Master material where possible, and just change the diffuse/roughness/normal/etc in a material instance. this will be much more optimal.
So importing the material is in theory redundant anyways.

same thing still applies. if done well you can have one Master material for all the meshes you need. (besides a few exceptions ofcourse :slight_smile: )

Hi all,

I’ve noticed a couple of issues when importing multiple FBX files and I have a hard time understanding what’s going on and why. I assume it must be a UE4 import issue because the individual FBX files import perfectly on their own, so I don’t think it’s an issue with my export process. Here’s a few cases that I’ve noticed:

  1. When importing multiple files all at once, using “Import All”, and putting them in the same folder: Only the first texture of the first mesh is imported, the rest of the textures are ignored. The meshes are imported and materials are created that simply reference the first texture.
  2. When importing multiple files, one by one, into the same folder: The first mesh imports properly including all textures and materials, but the following meshes’ textures and materials are ignored altogether and are simply assigned one of the materials from the first mesh in the batch.
  3. The only case in which multiple meshes can be imported is by importing them one by one into separate folders. In this case each mesh works fine and imports all textures and materials, but obviously this is an extremely inconvenient way to work and it would be much nicer if I could just batch import my FBX files.

Does anybody have any clue what the issue could be? I really need to find a way around this. Thanks.

These are separate static mesh files, not individual mesh objects within the FBX, sorry if that was unclear.

I’m not entirely familiar with the optimal workflow for UE4 materials but nonetheless I still am not seeing a way for me to automatically import and apply textures/materials to multiple meshes?

Lets wait untill someone who has some discussion skills to explain in detail how and what :slight_smile:

Figured it out with help from another forum. For anyone having the same issue here’s the solution:

Make sure your different mesh files don’t internally use the same material names. My issue was that my materials within each file were “noname.001, noname.002” etc… So when Unreal tried importing the materials, it registered that they already existed, and thus never parsed for new textures or created unique materials. So just go in and rename your materials within each mesh file to be unique to that specific file, like “meshname.material.001”.