Rocketbox Import Fix
Automatic Post-processor
What this is
Some assets included with Ambient City originate from legacy 3ds Max export pipelines. While these assets are fully usable in Unity, default import behavior can result in subtle visual issues such as:
Materials appearing darker than expected
Hair or transparent materials looking overly glossy or “glass-like”
Normal maps importing as regular textures
To avoid forcing users to manually tweak dozens of import settings, Ambient City includes a Safe Import Fix: a lightweight, scoped import post-processor that applies a small number of low-risk, visual-only corrections at import time.
This system is designed to be:
automatic
narrowly scoped
reversible
safe for production projects
What the Safe Import Fix does
When enabled, the Safe Import Fix applies the following adjustments only to Ambient City assets during import or reimport:
Material fixes
Forces base color to white Unity multiplies texture color by material color. Some Max-exported materials rely on the texture alone, which can cause unintended darkening. Resetting the color to white preserves the intended look.
Adjusts certain transparency modes Reduces harsh specular highlights on hair and other transparent materials, avoiding the “glass sheet” effect common with legacy exports.
Texture import fixes
Automatically imports textures containing “normal” in the filename as Normal Maps Prevents normal maps from being treated as regular color textures.
Import behavior
All fixes are applied only on import or reimport
Original source files are never modified
No runtime logic is involved
What it does not do
The Safe Import Fix intentionally avoids high-risk or destructive changes. It does not:
Modify skeletons or bone hierarchies
Rename bones or alter animation rigs
Change animation import modes (Humanoid / Generic)
Enable or disable LODs
Affect meshes or geometry
Touch any assets outside Ambient City
Those types of changes are deliberately excluded to keep the system predictable and safe.
Safety & scope
The Safe Import Fix is heavily constrained:
It only runs if an Ambient City root marker asset is present
It only affects assets located under detected Ambient City roots
It does nothing if no marker is found
It never affects assets outside Ambient City
It can be disabled at any time
This ensures the fix cannot accidentally interfere with other characters, environments, or third-party packages in your project.
Enabling / disabling the fix
By default, the Safe Import Fix is enabled once an Ambient City root marker exists.
You can toggle it at any time via:
Tools → MegaCrush → Ambient City → Toggle Safe Import Fix
When toggled, you’ll see:
a clear explanation of what the fix affects
the exact folders it applies to
an option to reimport Ambient City assets now, later, or cancel the toggle
Important: Changes only take effect on import or reimport. If you enable the fix after assets are already imported, reimporting is recommended.
Manually reimporting Ambient City assets
You can reapply the fix at any time via:
Tools → MegaCrush → Ambient City → Reimport Ambient City Assets
This will:
detect all Ambient City roots
reimport assets under those folders only
show progress and allow cancellation
Debugging / advanced use
To see exactly which folders the Safe Import Fix applies to, enable debug logging:
Tools → MegaCrush → Ambient City → Toggle Safe Import Fix Debug Logs
This prints the detected Ambient City root paths to the Console once per domain reload.
Why this exists
Unity and legacy 3ds Max pipelines make different assumptions about:
material color multiplication
transparency handling
texture type detection
Because original source files are not always available, these corrections are applied inside Unity to ensure:
consistent visuals
demo scenes work out of the box
users don’t have to manually fix dozens of materials and textures
This approach is common for legacy or third-party character libraries and is intentionally conservative.
Summary
The Ambient City Safe Import Fix exists to quietly handle legacy import quirks so you don’t have to.
It is:
automatic
scoped
reversible
safe for production
If you don’t need it, you can turn it off. If you do need it, it saves hours of manual cleanup.
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