Unable to import LODs (Maya 2018.3)

Hey there!

I’ve been having an issue with importing LODs into UE4 from Maya (and 3DS Max for that matter) despite following the static mesh FBX pipeline page very carefully and looking up similar issues online to try their solutions (such as making sure the “Export Animations” checkbox is checked, which the documentation didn’t seem to mention).

However, despite multiple attempts, I remain unable to successfully import my LODs.

I have tried FBX version 2016/2017 as recommended in the documentation, and 2018 just to be sure. The only change is in UE4’s generated LODs (the v2018 ones are super wonky).

I must obviously be missing something, but can’t seem to figure it out…

Here are GIFs of the desired LODs in Maya, the “imported” LODs in UE4, and screencaps of the export settings in Maya and import settings in UE4.

Thank you in advance for any help!

EDIT:

After further googling and “lucky” finds, I found a thread where someone has the same issue than me and simply fixes it by ungrouping the sub-groups that Maya generates automatically to organize the LODs in the main LOD Group in order to achieve the exact same hierarchy shown in the documentation.

By default, when creating an LOD Group, Maya generates a main LOD Group (LOD_Group_1) then n many groups under that LOD Group based on how many meshes you have selected (in my case 4, which gives LOD_0, LOD_1, LOD_2, LOD_4), and finally it places the meshes in each group respectively based on the vertex count.

While the documentation requires that LODs be organized skipping the middle man (lodGroup1, and the meshes inside of it. No sub-groups).

Either way, it doesn’t seem to matter: I just tried it without success. If anything, it only breaks the LOD system in Maya and breaks the new auto-generated LODs.