Activate this option to include (or embed) all media associated with your scene in the FBX file itself. For example, texture images.
When you activate “Embed Media”, the FBX plug-in includes (embeds) associated media (textures, for example) within the FBX file. The plug-in then extracts the media to an .fbm folder at import. The plug-in copies the embedded media to a <fileName>.fbm folder in the same location as the FBX file and is named after the FBX file. Since this media is contained within the FBX file itself, this has an impact on file size. Therefore, it is good practice to use this option only when you transport an FBX file to a location where the original media source is no longer accessible by the receiver.
When you import an FBX file with embedded media, the embedded files extract to a folder in the same location as the FBX file. If you do not have write permission to create that new folder, the media files are Imported to the user's temp folder, such as C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temp.
If you disable the Embed Media option, the FBX plug-in stores the relative and absolute paths of the associated media files at export time. This causes problems if, for some reason, the path is no longer accessible. Make sure that the associated media is accessible to ensure the proper import of these media files.
If you export a file to FBX and do not activate the Embed Media option, no problems occur if you open the file on the same computer and all the images used in the scene are in the same locations that they were when the file was exported. However, if you move or delete any texture from that location, and use the FBX file afterwards, you will get an Importer message stating that you have missing texture files. This message also appears if you give this FBX file to someone using a different computer and who does not have that same texture in that same directory on the same computer drive.
It is a good practice to embed media when you are going to give the FBX file to another person. It is also a good practice to embed when you use FBX for storing assets, as you may eventually delete the reference images or move all the files to another drive or computer with different paths.
You can embed media with ASCII-formatted files, as long as they are exported to FBX 2011 and later. Versions FBX 2010 and earlier do not support embedded media in ASCII files.
