Import 3D Model

Manual / Content Creation / Import 3D Model

Import 3D Model

Contents

1 Overview
2 Supported formats
3 Import settings
4 Level of detail settings
5 Placing a 3D model in the scene
6 All import settings
7 See also

Overview

To import a 3D model, you need to copy it to the Assets folder. You can also download a lot of 3D models and other content from the Stores Window.

The best import formats are GLTF, GLB, FBX, and OBJ. Almost all other formats are supported, but for animated meshes, only FBX is supported at the moment.

If you are using Blender, the best format is "GLTF + separate." Read more about importing from Useful Tools.

Supported formats

3D, 3DS, AC, AC3D, ACC, ASE, ASSXML, B3D, BVH, COB, CSM, DAE, DXF, ENFF, FBX, GLB, GLTF, HMP, IFC, IRR, IRRMESH, LWO, LWS, LXO, MD2, MD3, MD5ANIM, MD5CAMERA, MD5MESH, MDC, MDL, MOT, MS3D, NDO, NFF, OBJ, OFF, PK3, PLY, Q3D, Q3S, X.

Import settings

Double-click on the 3D model file to open it for editing. Click the "Re-import" button at the bottom right under properties.

Copy

In the usual case, well-tuned source models will be imported without additional calibration.

You can configure the import; for example, if your file contains several separate meshes, then use the "Meshes" mode. It is usually a good idea to calibrate the imported transform of the resulting meshes to achieve the needed scaling and position of the mesh. After importing, you can select the "Mesh Editor" tab in the Ribbon to visualize data and make modifications.

In the example below, a 3D model from the "Assets\Samples\Starter Content\Models\Spaceship" folder is used.

At the second level of the document, several objects are opened with the intention of configuring the imported model.

The first one "Root object" is a root object of the opened document. This object contains all import settings. At the bottom of the Settings Window section, the Re-import button is located.

The second "Mesh" is a mesh of the 3D model. With the tools in the ribbon, you can customize the display of mesh data and make changes. You can read more about the Mesh Editor.

The third and fourth objects are materials of the 3D model. In this particular case, there are two materials. Read more about the Material Editor.

Usually, you need to change some import settings. When this is done, click the 'Re-import' button. After clicking it, the 'Re-import Settings' window will appear, which is useful when you want to re-import only specific data.

After re-importing and customizing the materials, the model looks like this:

Now is the perfect time to save the file. The document can be saved via the "Save" button in the ribbon or by pressing Ctrl+S.

Level of detail settings

You can generate levels of detail on import; there are many settings to configure. Read more about LODs.

Use the LOD button in the Ribbon to show levels.

Placing a 3D model in the scene

In order to place a 3D model, one needs to drag and drop the resource in the scene.

All import settings

Name	Description
Mode	The mode of the import. You can import into one mesh or to make a set of separated meshes.
Position	Specifies a result position offset of imported 3D models.
Rotation	Specifies a result rotation of imported 3D models. Expand the property to specify rotation by euler angles.
Scale	Specifies a result scale of imported 3D models.
Fix Axes	Whether to rotate models to engine's coordinate system. X axis is forward, Z axis is up.
Center By Size	Whether to move models to center by result bounding box.
Simplify	The factor to simplify initial geometry. The reduction makes less amount of triangles with some quality decreasing.
Merge Geometries	Whether to merge mesh geometries. The mesh with one geometry will be rendered most effectively, it can be done by using Multi Material setting.
LODs	Whether to generate level of detail meshes.
LODLevels	The result amount of levels of detail.
LODReduction	The quality factor for next level of detail, depending on the previous one. Set 0 to use auto mode.
LODDistance	The distance from the previous to the next level of detail. In the default scheme with the one voxel lod, this parameter has sense only when want to move the start distance of the voxel lod. Regardless of the settings, the voxel lod will not turn on while the quality is too small.
LODScale	The distance multiplier when determining the level of detail.
LODScale Shadows	The distance multiplier when determining the level of detail for shadows.
LODVoxels	Whether to generate a voxel grid for a last LOD. In auto mode voxel LOD is disabled when imported mesh has a skeleton.
LODVoxel Grid	The size of a voxel grid of a last LOD.
LODVoxel Thin Factor	The factor to changing the visibility of thin objects. It is also useful when your model has holes in its shape, the algorithm thinks your model is empty inside.
LODVoxel Bake Opacity	Whether to apply the material opacity during the voxel calculation.
LODVoxel Optimize Materials	Whether to modify materials of the voxels to work with maximal performance (deferred rendering support).
LODVoxel Fill Holes Distance	The maximal distance to fill holes, which happens when ray matching can't find the result because reach max steps limitations.
Transparent Material Blending	The blend mode of transparent materials.
Flip UVs	Whether to flip UV coordinates by vertical axis.
Delete Unused Materials	Whether to delete unused materials.
Material Displacement	Whether to import Displacement channel for materials.
Optimize	Whether to optimize the mesh without losing quality. The optimization includes the merging of almost identical vertices, optimizing for vertex cache, for overdraw and for vertex fetch.
Optimize Threshold	The threshold value when optimizes the mesh without losing quality. The parameter affects merging of almost identical vertices.
Compress	Whether to compress normals, tangents, colors, texture coordinates and blend weights from Float32 to Half16.
Normalize Skeleton	Whether to reset rotation and scale of bones and apply to key frames.