Hi. I was having an issue with importing animations in an FBX file. Not all the animations were importing correctly, so I tried exporting the file using FBX 6.1 ASCII and it fixed the problem. Is there a downside to using this over FBX 7.4 Binary?I’ve heard there is, but It seems to work fine for me. Any info is appreciated.
Looking around I found this
https://forums.unrealengine.com/development-discussion/content-creation/96731-fbx-ascii-vs-binary/
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Short answer: There’s exactly zero
difference once imported, as far as
UE4 is concerned. It doesn’t matter
whether you import an FBX ASCII file
or an FBX Binary file into Unreal
Engine. Unreal Engine stores FBX files
in its own format on import, so they
take up the same space on disk.
Shorter answer: Use binary.
Longer, slightly more technical
explanation of the answers: Once
Unreal Engine imports an FBX file, it
stores it as a .UASSET, which is a
file format specific to Unreal Engine.
Technically, it generates anywhere
between one and four .UASSET files
from a single FBX. How many files are
generated depends on whether you
choose to import a mesh, an animation,
a skeleton, and/or generate a physics
asset. The result is the same whether
the FBX file started as a binary or an
ASCII file. However, an ASCII file may
take slightly longer to import simply
because it’s larger. A .UASSET file
may also end up larger than the
original (binary) FBX file because it
stores additional metadata that is not
present in the original FBX file.You can verify this by exporting a
single character twice; once as an
ASCII, and then again as a binary with
no other parameters changed. Import
these into a project using the same
settings for each. When you examine
the .UASSET created within the content
folder of that project, you’ll notice
that both of them have the same size
on disk. If you export an FBX from a
.UASSET file, it will export in binary
format, even if that file was
originally an ASCII FBX. That’s
because it is not simply regurgitating
the original FBX file’s data. The
engine creates a new FBX file based
off the .UASSET data.If you do notice any file differences,
it’s because Unreal Engine stores the
file path of the original file. So if
you import a file named “Binary.fbx”,
it may technically take up less space
than a file in the same directory
named “ASCII.fbx”. This is because the
word “Binary” is larger than the word
“ASCII”, everything else being equal.
It has nothing to do with the format.
You should not optimize for this,
however. Someone who is that concerned
about space optimization can just
remove the source file reference
entirely.Nitpicking of the technical
explanation: Technically .UASSET isn’t
a “file format” at all. File formats
are more standardized, but .UASSETs
are not. Its just the extension given
to the serialized form of various
independent data types stored by UE4.
You could say that UE4 converts FBX
files to a binary format during the
import process; but it isn’t stored
the same as a binary FBX. Rather, it’s
stored as a serialized .UASSET. I only
used the term to make it clear that a
.UASSET file cannot be treated as if
it were an FBX, because it isn’t one.
You can’t just open up a .UASSET file
in 3ds Max or Maya. So, referring to
it as a separate file format will
suffice for the purposes of this post.
If you’re curious about the specifics
of how UE4 stores information, you’re
welcome to examine the ULinker code
for yourself.Which one is better? That depends on
what you’re doing with the file prior
to importing it into UE4. Binary FBX
files can only be read by programs.
However, ASCII is human-readable. You
can open it up in Notepad++ and edit
it like a text document. You can copy
and paste it. You can upload it to
PasteBin to share. You can search for
and replace strings, such as bone
names. If you don’t need
human-readability, it’s better to use
binary because it takes up less space
and is likely to import slightly
faster. If you’re storing the original
files (and you should!), then that
space can add up quickly! It is
trivial to convert back and forth
between the two, if your needs ever
change.
Hope this helps
Clarity
Thanks for the info!