Setting Up a Workflow
Getting your custom models into the game has a few steps along the way. This process will guide those who already know how to use Blender and already have a modding environment setup. It may help to read about the different material setups to get some context.
Configuring Blender FBX Export
This is focused on setting up export for Blender 2.8 or later, but it may assist the right settings in other programs.
This portion of the documentation was written back when Satisfactory was on UE 4.22. Now that Satisfactory has updated to UE 4.25, we are able to make use of the new Unreal Blender addons, which require UE 4.23 or newer to function. You can find out more about them here if you’re interested, but know that this section of the docs is not yet updated with them in mind. |
-
Open up Blender
-
Open up your
Properties Panel > Scene Properties > Units
-
Ensure the
Unit System
is set toMetric
(Unreal uses centimeters as its unit) -
Ensure the
Unit Scale
is set to0.01
(1/100) so that animation data saves correctly. -
If you had to adjust these you will need to scale your mesh and apply it. Your animations will also have to be redone.
-
You may also have issues viewing your model, press
n
in a 3D viewport and adjust yourView > View > Clip Start/End
values.
-
-
Select the objects you wish to export
-
Open
File > Export > FBX
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On the export options on the right, set the following.
-
In the topmost dropdown pick
Restore Operator Defaults
or your UE4 preset if you have one -
Change
Include > Selected Objects
to true -
For Object types only
Armature
andMesh
should be on (blue) -
Change
Geometry > Smoothing
toFace
-
Check
Bake Animation
, and there’s a decision to make-
Only one of
All Actions
orNLA Strips
should be checked to prevent duplicates. -
Its personal preference but NLA strips are more complex so I recommend unchecking them.
-
-
Back in the topmost dropdown click the plus
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Save this as your default UE4 export and reuse it in the future
-
-
Make sure your filename and path are correct
-
Click
Export FBX
and you’re done
Every time you export you should re-select the preset from the dropdown. Blender will revert to default export options without warning or obvious changes often, it’s safest to develop the habit of re-applying the preset every export. |
Importing meshes and using material instances
The last step of the process is bringing a mesh into unreal and swapping it to correct materials/material instances. While you can probably import just fine without any changes there’s several things to look out for:
-
Make sure the
Mesh
section has these settings beyond the obvious like LODs or vertex colours if you have them-
Only check
Skeletal Mesh
if you have animation data or need a skeleton -
Remove Degenerates
is checked -
Only check
Generate Lightmap UVs
if you haven’t made a custom AO bake -
Normal Import Method
isImport Normals
-
-
Ensure that
Miscellaneous > Convert Scene
is checked -
Make sure
Material
section has these settings-
Search Location
set toAll Assets
-
Material Import Method
set toDo Not Create Materials
-
-
If importing a skeletal mesh there’s a couple more
-
Make sure
Mesh > Use T0 as Ref Pose
is checked -
If your mesh has animations make sure
Import Animations
is checked
-
Hopefully it will of found the correct materials, but if it hasn’t those should be easy enough to hook up. Track down the correct materials and set them on your mesh.
The import menu for a static mesh and a skeletal mesh are different menus with many similar options. E.G. Setting import normals for a static mesh will not be remembered for a skeletal mesh despite being remembered between different static meshes. |
Best final in-game quality results will be achieved with custom lightmap uvs and a AO bake onto that UV set. If you don’t know how to do that there’s many tutorials/tools for AO baking and lightmap UVs online.
Once you have all your new materials made or existing materials assigned you’re good to go. Remember the new meshes and materials have to be in your mod’s folder, but the existing game materials should not be in your mod folder.