There seems to be something wrong with the import process where face normals or smoothing groups are being affected by importing a mesh as a skeleton. Is there any way this can be corrected and solved?
Shows the mesh imported as a static mesh and the face normal/smoothing work correctly with the normal map
Shows the mesh imported as a skeletal mesh with no skeleton exported with the mesh from 3ds max
Shows the mesh imported as a skeletal mesh with a skeleton and morph targets applied from 3ds max
Anything? Anyone?
I imported one model, both, as a static mesh, and as a rigged skeletal mesh. Skeletal mesh seems to have some weird problems. The issue is well described above in the question and no answer for such a long time? Whatās the workaround?
Guys, I probably found out whatās the case! Itās easy to fix!
I always ignored the error message when importing any FBX file, because it was always there and it didnāt do anything. Here is the message:
No smoothing group information was
found in this FBX scene. Please make
sure to enable the āExport Smoothing
Groupsā option in the FBX Exporter
plug-in before exporting the file.
Even for tools that donāt support
smoothing groups, the FBX Exporter
will generate appropriate smoothing
data at export-time so that correct
vertex normals can be inferred while
importing.
Well, it tells the exact problem we have.
Iām using Blender so Iām sorry for not delivering the answer for 3d Max. I believe you will find it in your program too!
So, if you use Blender, when exporting FBX file, there are settings which looks like that:
Just change āSmoothingā from āNormals onlyā, to āFaceā (or āEdgeā if you need).
Hey thank you very much! I was using maya but tried this in blender and it worked. Now have to figure out how to do it in Maya. Iāll keep here posted.
Hey, Ive looked into the FBX exporter in 3ds max and the only option for controlling smoothing is to export with āsmoothing groupsā. Its worth noting that do not get these import messages saying āNo smoothing group information was foundā.
Did it help you then? Btw. you can always export to FBX/obj and generate smoothing groups in Blender! Blender is a free tool. I know it would be annoying as a workflow but thatās a working solution for now. Better if you find how to generate smoothing groups in 3D Max, for sure. Good luck.
Thanks for the reply. The setting export with smoothing groups has always been set on as thats always how you should export from max (so made no change for me). That is an option (blender), but to switch at this stage would be very difficult, we have morph targets set up and i think it would be a massive pain.
Iām running into this same issue in Maya2016 and UE4.2.1. No matter what we do any custom normals are blown and recalculated whenever the mesh is a skeletal mesh. If we unbind skin and export it as a static mesh with custom normals it works fine.
It seems like a bug, but Iām not sure if itās in the FBX exporter or if itās the Importer in Unreal!?
It would be great to have some devs look into this and get it working.
Iāve done some more research into this issue and have found that this problem seems to be on unreals end. Please look at my images. When importing a box as a static mesh vertex normals look correct and normal. In a flat side view you can see that the vert normals on each vert line up and look consistent. When importing as a skeletal mesh the vert normals visibly shift direction and no longer line up and donāt look consistent. The vert normals on the skeletal mesh should look the same as static mesh but they donāt. If I import the skeletal mesh but un tick the skeletal mesh option the mesh imports correctly, this makes me think this is not an issue with 3dsmax.
Using import normals on both meshes - Using anything else for a normal workflow does not work
I run into the same issue in Maya and Max, even with the smoothing group option checked on in the FBX export settings.
Weāve tried it with newer and older versions of FBX and we get the same results each time.
Using blender isnāt an option for us, I really wish we could get this fixed we have some very ugly seams that donāt need to be there.
Hello Folks, checking smoothing groups and triangulate mesh works for me. Reason for that is, that the triangulation (and with that the smoothing) differ in unreal to other aplications.
Ive had the same problem for a while now BUT i think iāve found a fix.
Im a Maya user, so when im Exporting an FBX for a skinned asset, be sure to have triangulated on and smoothing groups. ( as mentioned above posts ) but in Unreal when the import Box comes up look for " Normal Import Method " - change it to " Import Normals" ( which will read the normals from the imported FBX )
I think by default its set to " Compute Normals " which will let Unreal make its own Normals up ( which is why they look ā ā ā ā on import )
This has sorted my problems, hopefully it will help you too.
GoodLuck!
