Houdini to Unreal Import issue: "No smoothing goup found"

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Hello,

I modeled a model in houdini 16.0.671 and exported it as fbx then I imported the mesh into Unreal 4.18 and I got a Waring error that says “ No smoothing group found ” but unreal still imports it and when I bake lightmaps no issue found on the model but with that does it mean that everything is fine consigning the import process? if not please what is the solution to remove that error ?.

Thank you for your reply.

Chiaka Chima.
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Hi Chiaka,

Smoothing groups don't exist in Houdini, and thus cant be exported to FBX files from Houdini, so the warning is legit.
If you modeled your mesh in houdini, you can safely ignore that warning.

One way to remove the warning, is by adding normals to the mesh in Houdini or having Unreal recompute them in the FBX import options.
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you can use smoothing groups (I know it works for digital assets, have not tried it with fbx). Here is an example where I am applying smoothing group to all primitives but you can apply a group filter at the top…

Here is link to docs about it.

http://www.sidefx.com/docs/unreal/_attributes.html#AttributesInput [www.sidefx.com]
Edited by Aladin Sane - 2018年1月4日 04:48:27

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Wow Thank you guyz all your contributions really helps. As for Aladin Sane I will try your suggestions on Fbx export. Thanks guyz you are the BEST.
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Hi,

Just a quick note, the unreal_face_smoothing_mask attribute mentioned by Aladin are meant to be used with the Houdini Engine Plugin for UE4, and won't work with regular FBX export.
But if you're using the plugin, they will get the smoothing info.
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Hi dpernuit,

One way to remove the warning, is by adding normals to the mesh in Houdini
I don't think this solution works (at least anymore).
I tested it with my custom geo and testgeo (pighead and rubbertoy). Both with and without normals node (normals on vertices).
UE 4.24, Houdini 18.0.327
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To my befuddlement, I was getting the same behavior in UE4.25 with assets from 18.0.

A non-metallic surface becomes dark after light baking. I found that not only do you need to create normals but you also need texture coordinates. Who knew?
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Is there a solution to this guys. In 2021 with houdini 18.5 i'm still having issues when exporting/importing fbx files from houdini to UE4. It actually says file import failed, no smoothing groups found!

I've tried the normals set to 180 cusp angle in houdini, and it doesn't work. I've also tried both fbx export options on houdini, the node and the file>export options, same deal.

Any solutions to this guys?

Thanks
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I always get the message in ue4 but it will import normals if you've got them on the object.

I added them to vertices on this thing and you can see even tho I got the message about smoothing groups the object looks ok.
Edited by Aten - 2021年2月23日 18:45:41

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I know this topic is old, but I'm posting the newest process for this, since it took me hours to figure out.


1.
-Open the Houdini Launcher
-In the Install the Labs/Packages tab, install the LabFX "Production" version that matches your version of Houdini.



2.
-Open Houdini
-Inside your geometry node, add the Soften Normals node

My nodes



3.
-Export your object as .fbx (not available in Houdini Apprentice), or you can save your geometry as .obj

For fbx: File > Export > Filmbox FBX
My fbx export options


For obj: Inside your geometry node > right click the node you want to export from > Save > Geometry
-Be sure to add the .obj at the end or it will not save as obj
-There are no save settings for obj (that I could find)


4.
-Import your File into Unreal
-You should get an FBX import window. I don't know what is important here for the smoothed normals, but here are my import settings:




Note: For obj import into Unreal, the same FBX import window will show, but I changed the rotation and uniform scale to be this:

-It also doesn't have much info in the "Fbx file information" section of the import window.

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Providing an update to this. As of Houdini 19.5/20, the ROP FBX node now features a "Compute Smoothing Groups" toggle parameter. Ensuring your geometry has vertex normals present (e.g. using the Normal SOP node), enabling this toggle parameter will save smoothing group data to your FBX. Importing the same FBX to UE5 should no longer cause the "No smoothing group information was found in this FBX scene!" warning.

This toggle can also be found in the FBX Character Output and FBX Animation Output nodes.
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rajatg@sidefx.com
Providing an update to this. As of Houdini 19.5/20, the ROP FBX node now features a "Compute Smoothing Groups" toggle parameter. Ensuring your geometry has vertex normals present (e.g. using the Normal SOP node), enabling this toggle parameter will save smoothing group data to your FBX. Importing the same FBX to UE5 should no longer cause the "No smoothing group information was found in this FBX scene!" warning.

This toggle can also be found in the FBX Character Output and FBX Animation Output nodes.
Thank you very much rajatg
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