UDK September (FBX Import Explicit Normals Option Removed)

OccultMonk · Sep 2011

Wwen importing a FBX Mesh into UDK There was an option under static mesh->advanced for enabling explicit Normals. This option is no longer available in the September release of UDK. Explicit Normals are used for foilage and for the technique described here: http://www.3dmotive.com/exportingqualifiednormals.

b1skit · Oct 2011

Hey, I also discovered this. The new "import tangents" checkbox seems to have no effect, my foliage mesh's import with default normals.

I found a (tiresome) solution using the 2008-11 Build installed on my PC:

- Open the 2008-11 build
- Import my foliage (and I can see the my custom normals are loaded from the .fbx file)
- Save the package as a new, temporary foliage package
- Close the 2008-11 build
- Move the package into my 2011-09 build content folder
- Load the 2011-09 build (and your current map/project)
- Fully load the temporary foliage package you created earlier
- Right click on your foliage in the temporary package and select 'create a copy', and copy the foliage into the package you want
- Save your package
- Close the udk
- Delete your temporary package

This process SUCKS. You can't open packages saved in future versions of UDK in your older builds. Hope this one gets fixed sooon!

ZacD · Oct 2011

I just noticed this too, hopefully October will have it back in

Ace-Angel · Oct 2011

I took a peek at the Notes for October and didn't see anything about this:

FBX
Fixed morph targets not importing when using "T0 as Ref Pose" option

Fixed Matinee cameras importing with wrong orientation

BSP surfaces can now be selectively exported

Added subtractive brush export support

Sean VanGorder · Oct 2011

I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure the explicit normals option was replaced with the "import tangents" option in the FBX import dialog.

o2_is_alright · Oct 2011

Don't mean to hijack this thread but I've encountered another issue with normals that never used to happen until I updated to the september version.
This is how it happened:
Created model in Maya -> .mb -> .fbx -> UDK editor = Normals looked good

Had to tweak the pivot so openeed the fbx file in Maya
.fbx -> Maya -> .fbx -> editor = Wierd normals. All edges are hard edges:(

In Maya everything looks normal but not in the editor. I had to unlock all normals in Maya and then fix the smoothing again and then re-export/import to make it work in the editor.

So whenever I make changes in an fbx file the normals gets wonky when re-importing to udk. This isn't a big problem, I just make sure to make any changes to the maya file instead of the fbx (which is better practice anyways). But out of curiosity, does anyone know why this is happening?

UDK September (FBX Import Explicit Normals Option Removed)

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