[SOLVED] Asset Import Pipeline Issues

Suggestions & Feedback
1

Hi,

My team and I have been using Playcanvas now for a couple of months and it is really fantastic.

The only thing that is really bothering us at the moment is the somewhat erratic FBX importer.

Today the imported FBX files will not create the usual related assets (textures + materials + model) on import.

We have tried toggling the auto-run and other asset task options but still no luck.

We have also tried re-importing assets that were working fine a few days ago to make sure it is not a problem with our new FBX files (or FBX exporter/version) but they too are unable to import fully.

By the way, our FBX files are typically pretty simple/light and always under 10mb although usually closer to 1-2mb or less.

Is there something else we can try?

Thanks!
Varun

Also on a related note, sometimes the importer will create the related assets but mess up texture assignments. As a workaround, we usually enable Settings>Asset Tasks>Overwrite Material and then re-import the FBX a couple of times until all the textures are assigned correctly. Hopefully this will be helpful to anyone else facing this problem.

2

Will you be able to share the troubling FBX files so we can run tests on our end?

3

Hi Max,

Thanks for your reply.
Unfortunately we are under NDA so I will not be able to share the troubling FBX files but I will try and put together something we can share as soon as we have a little time to do so.

The strange thing is that files that we uploaded a few days ago are now not importing correctly and I am sure they were working just fine earlier.

In the meantime we are exporting each asset as a separate FBX file. This is not ideal but at least we are able to continue working this way. The import fails as soon as we package more than 4-5 assets together in the FBX.

Also I don’t know if this will help, but this is the error that shows up in the browser console:

editor.js:8038 assets:jobs:convert (editor.method error)
editor.js:8039 TypeError: Cannot read property 'format' of null
    at editor.js:32436
    at Editor.call (editor.js:8036)
    at convertAuto (editor.js:32597)

Thanks again.
Varun

4

It could be some racing condition. If you have some FBX that you will be able to share to replicate an issue, please let us know.

It seems related to calculating import options from FBX meta data for textures to extract from FBX.

UPD:
I’ve managed to replicate an issue on our end, looking into solution. Thank you for reporting.

5

I’ve deployed a fix, please verify it works well on your end.

Our apologies for inconvenience, and thank you for swift report of an issue.

Kind Regards,
Max

6

Just checked and seems to be working now.
Thanks so much for that quick fix!
:kissing_heart:

1 Like
7

Had the same issues, it’s fixed on our projects for the most part, had one glitch, but that might have been a mis read of the FBX file, only happened once.
The FBX file needs to contain all the same meshes or it will mess up, but going back to the older FBX will fix it in most cases.