This quick tutorial will walk you through the process of exporting 3D models and more importantly textures from the Unreal game engine for use in other engines or in content creation tools such as Blender. There is a complete step by step video included below.
The first part is identifying the model to export. In the Content Browser, find the mesh object you want to export, then right click and in the menu select Asset Actions->Export…
A dialog will pop up, first asking where you want to export the asset to. Pick an appropriate directory. You will then be prompted for export details.
The default settings should be fine in most cases. If you have trouble opening the generated file you may want to try a different compatibility mode. You will get a low polygon “cage” mesh if you select Collision for the Static Mesh, uncheck that option if you do not want this collision mesh generate. Finally click export.
And done…
Well, unfortunately not quite. We still need to get textures out. The easiest way I have found to to this is via baking. In the Asset viewer window, with the mesh open look for the Bake Out Materials button
First let’s set the texture size for our baked textures:
Next click the + icon in Properties for each texture channel you want to export. In this case we will do color, normal and roughness.
Now define each channel you want baked.
Once complete click Confirm and your textures will be baked. The textures will appear in the same folder as the Mesh (as will new materials). You will have 3 textures for each material channel on the object ( 2x materials x 3 textures in this case for a total of 6 generated textures ). Unfortunately CONTENT BROWSER DOES NOT REFRESH automatically, so navigate to a different directory and back to see the generated textures.
Now right click each new texture and export it exactly the same way you did the FBX file earlier on. You are now ready to use your model and textures in your application of choice. In the video below we continue to show how to recreate the materials in Blender.