No fbx textures on export

[Anonymous]

Exporting a large model from max 2014 to Unity 3d using the fbx exporter with the embed media option on.

When I import it in unity it produces a  materials folder...but with no textures.  

The original model came from revit.  When I render the model in max, it clearly has textures.  Read somewhere that in the slate material editor you have to be sure to hit material/get all scene materials.  I've done that.

So what's going on.  Must be overlooking something somewhere but I cant' figure out what it is.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Appears that it has something to do with the Autoddesk Materials specifically that's screwing it up.

Simplifying my scene down to a cube with a autodesk, slapping a random autodesk material on it, and exporting the fbx produces the same grey cube I'd been getting before.

However, if I try a standard material with a random bitmap assigned to the diffuse channel, unity opens it perrfectly.  Upon import unity automatically produces an fbm files with the texture.    Not getting this fbm file with autodesk materials.

[PROH · Accepted solution]

Hi. It's not just the Autodesk Materials that won't export/import correctly to other programs via FBX, 3ds, Obj etc. etc. The same goes for most non-standard materials incl. mr, Vray, Corona....

When preparing objects/scenes for export to Unity or any other game engine, it's common practice to use Standard materials to make sure the materials gets exported.

On Scriptspot.com you can find a commercial material converter, that converts Autodesk Materials (amongst other) to Standard Materials for precisely this purpose.

Hope it helps.

[Anonymous]

Got it.  Thanks alot.  Can stop beating my heading tyring to figure out why it won't work

[Anonymous]

Wound up picking up the autodesk material convertor.

Worked great for what I was trying to accomplish.

[Anonymous]

Hey there!

I hope you are doing well.

Could you provide me a link with the script that you are mentioning? (I am running into a similar problem here and I need a solution asap)

Best,

Adam.

[hagen.deloss]

Hi @Anonymous

Here is a link to scriptspot, and the results when I search Material converter, let me know if you need further help!

[Anonymous]

Hello @hagen.deloss !

Hope you are doing well! Thank you for the reply and the link. Unfortunately most of these convertors do not support the Arnold render engine.

Isn't there a build-in way in 3ds max to tackle this? Is it a general problem or is it something that just Arnold users are facing?

FYI the model is about to be dropped into Unity for further manipulation.

I am looking forward to hearing from you!

Cheers,

Adam.

[hagen.deloss]

Hi @Anonymous 

Thanks for the reply. I would refer back to @PROH 's comment where they say "When preparing objects/scenes for export to Unity or any other game engine, it's common practice to use Standard materials to make sure the materials gets exported."

Why use Arnold Materials over a standard material if your end goal is Unity? Or was this a project originally rendered in Arnold, that you are now bringing into Unity? 

I would say that to leverage Unity's built in material editing tools, converting Arnold Materials *may cause more cleanup work then if you just recreated the Standard Materials from scratch inside Unity.

Please keep me updated on this, I'm happy to help further 😄

[Anonymous]

Thanks @hagen.deloss !

Yes, that's exactly what the problem is. Unfortunately work schedule demands rendering stills through Arnold inside 3D Max and in the second phase, implementation of 3D walk-through scenes in Unity.

Last question. Is there a fast and safe way to translate Arnold materials to standard materials? Otherwise I will just have to create some new ones...

Have a great day and take care,

Adam.

[hagen.deloss]

@Anonymous 

I would say creating new materials in Unity would be the way to go, especially for more complex shading networks, a lot would likely be lost on the conversion/import process. I could see this changing in the future, but with current tools, I would think it better to work with the tools native to Unity for this. 

Best of luck on the project!