It seems hardware SPI could not be set up on the ESP32 for the Fast LED Library. This was a FastLED library compatibility issue and not an ESP32 Arduino IDE issue. We're waiting on an update from FastLED for this to be possible. It is always better to use hardware peripherals versus software emulation and bit banging.
Solution: Use software serial until update. There seems to be no significant timing issues or lag.
It seems hardware SPI could not be set up on the ESP32 for the Fast LED Library. This was a FastLED library compatibility issue and not an ESP32 Arduino IDE issue. We're waiting on an update from FastLED for this to be possible. It is always better to use hardware peripherals versus software emulation and bit banging. Solution: Use software serial until update. There seems to be no significant timing issues or lag.