Unreal I/O — Export

Module: Core · Category: I/O · Tool ID: UnrealIOExport

The output half of Unreal I/O. Select assets in the Content Browser, choose a format and destination, and export them through a validated pipeline — pre-export checks, a cooked-data guard, explicit data-loss warnings, and a JSON report of what happened.

The reason it exists rather than using the engine’s right-click Export: engine export is silent about what it drops. Exporting a Nanite mesh to OBJ loses a great deal, and nothing tells you. This tool tells you before it writes the file.

The import half is Unreal I/O.

Unreal I/O Export after exporting a static mesh to FBX, with Results listing each EXP rule including round-trip verification of 12 triangles and 1 material slot, and the persisted export report path.

When to use it

• Round-tripping assets back to a DCC for edits
• Handing geometry to an external vendor or another department
• Exporting a whole level or a set of actors with transforms preserved
• Any export where you need a record of what was written and what was lost
• Producing glTF/GLB for viewers, web, or engines outside Unreal

What it isn’t for

• Don’t use it to migrate between Unreal projects. That is a job for asset migration, which preserves everything. Mesh formats do not.
• Don’t expect a lossless round trip. FBX, OBJ and glTF each drop different things; the tool’s job is to be honest about which.

Opening the tool

1. Open the EQLabs Hub and search for export (or browse to Core → I/O).
2. Click the tool card.
3. Select assets in the Content Browser, then work down the numbered sections.

The selection lives in the Content Browser, not in the panel — the tool acts on whatever is selected when you press the button.

1. Output folder

Control	Notes
Export to	Filesystem folder to export into
Browse…	Folder picker

This is a filesystem path, not a content path — the output leaves the project.

2. Format (meshes)

Format	Notes
FBX	The general-purpose interchange format; best fidelity for skeletal data
OBJ	Geometry and basic materials only. No skinning, no animation
glTF	.gltf loose files — geometry plus external resources
GLB	glTF binary — a single self-contained file

Supporting settings exposed by the pipeline include FBX version (2011 through current), texture format (TGA, PNG, BMP, EXR for float/HDR, HDR), and glTF-specific options:

glTF option	Values
Material baking	Disabled (expression match only) · Simple (bake to a quad) · Use mesh data
Texture encoding	None · PNG (lossless) · JPEG (if no alpha)

glTF material baking is the setting that surprises people. glTF cannot express an Unreal material graph, so by default only directly-matching expressions survive. Baking approximates the rest — Simple bakes to a quad, Use mesh data bakes against the actual mesh. Leaving it Disabled and expecting your material to arrive intact is the common mistake.

3. Profile & target (optional)

Control	Notes
Export profile	A saved profile governing the export
Target DCC	Generic / Unknown, Houdini, Maya, Blender, 3ds Max, ZBrush, Substance

Setting the Target DCC applies that application’s expected unit, up-axis and handedness conventions:

Property	Values
Unit	Centimeter, Meter, Inch, Foot
Up axis	Z-up (Unreal, 3ds Max) · Y-up (Maya, Houdini)
Handedness	Left-handed (Unreal) · Right-handed (Houdini, Maya)

This is the export-side mirror of the import tool’s Source app setting, and it prevents the same class of bug — geometry that arrives in Maya rotated and mis-scaled.

Actions

Button	Effect
Preview (dry run)	Runs the pre-export checks on the selection without writing any files
Export Selected	Exports the assets currently selected in the Content Browser
Export Selected Actors	Exports the actors selected in the level
Export Whole Level	Exports the entire level — FBX, transforms preserved
Open Reports Folder	Opens Saved/EQLabsIO/Reports

Preview first. It surfaces data-loss warnings and blockers against the real selection at no cost — which for a large export is the difference between finding out now and finding out after twenty minutes of writing.

Level and actor export use FBX with transforms preserved, which is what makes the result usable as a scene layout rather than a pile of meshes at the origin.

Results

Per-rule results using the same vocabulary as the import pipeline:

Status	Meaning
Passed	Check satisfied
Failed	Check violated
Skipped	Not applicable
Auto-Fixed	Adjusted automatically

Severity	Meaning
Info	Recorded, no action needed
Warning	Usually a data-loss notice — the export proceeds
Blocker	Stops the export
Exception Required	Blocked unless an exception is granted

The Export tab after a run: the results block lists what was written and where.

The cooked-data guard

The pipeline refuses to export from cooked data. Cooked assets have had editor-only data stripped, so an export from them silently produces a degraded result — the guard turns that silent degradation into an explicit stop.

Reports

Every export writes a JSON report to Saved/EQLabsIO/Reports, recording the selection, format, settings, and every check result. Together with the import side’s provenance, that gives a round trip you can actually audit: what left, in what form, and what came back.

Tips and gotchas

• Nothing selected in the Content Browser means nothing to export. The tool tells you rather than exporting silently.
• OBJ loses skinning and animation entirely. For anything rigged, use FBX.
• glTF materials need baking configured or only directly-matching expressions survive.
• Set Target DCC before debugging orientation. A Maya-bound export left as Generic arrives rotated.
• Export Whole Level is FBX-only because it is the only listed format that carries scene transforms properly.
• A Warning is usually data loss, not a failure. Read them — that is the whole point of routing exports through this tool.
• Export is not migration. To move assets between Unreal projects, migrate; don’t round-trip through a mesh format.

Related tools

• Unreal I/O — the import half of the same pipeline
• Ship Lab — packaging and release readiness
• Mesh Intelligence Dashboard — inspect a mesh before sending it out
• LOD & Nanite Studio — Nanite meshes need particular care on export