Godot 4.0 *.blend export workflow questions/suggestions

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Godot 4.0 *.blend export workflow questions/suggestions

_rbx775

Hey there guys!
I just started looking into Godot again thanks to its new awesome *.blend import feature. 🙂
That left me with some questions for the direction this is heading.
As much as I understood, Godot doesnt read the blend file directly but rather converts all the objects in there to gltf
and from there on godot picks it up.

So my question would be:
Is there a non-destructive workflow planned?
i.e.: ignoring boolean meshes, ignoring curves used to instance points.
They could be placed inside folders where the folder name could be the actual model name.
And a 'meta' folder inside that, to store all the parts to be ignored. i.e. boolean meshes, curves...

Also for a 'convenient' mapping workflow, instanced groups would be great.
Those instanced groups could ideally then be converted into mesh instance inside godot.
Those instanced groups are then used for mapping out your scene.
So the actual model only is exported once.

Datasmith for Unreal (Maya, 3dsmax), or Convexer for Source engine (Blender) do this very well.

Is there some sort of roadmap for iFierys awesome work on the blender i/o stuff?
Thanks for any hints!

Tomcat

_rbx775 As much as I understood, Godot doesnt read the blend file directly but rather converts all the objects in there to gltf and from there on godot picks it up.

Nope. Or not really. Importing via glTF, is more reliable than direct from Blender.

Godot 4 does not import .blend files correctly. It is recommended to import via glTF.

Tomcat

I checked again now. The humor is that if you import from Blender 3.3 LTS to the new Godot_v4.0-alpha16 version, everything looks fine in the preview… but it's an illusion.

_rbx775 They could be placed inside folders where the folder name could be the actual model name.

I've already suggested that:

Support importing collections from Blender, so that Blender collections open as nodes in Godot.

cybereality

I agree with you that a non destructive workflow would be nice. Seems like all the software that does this disappears. XSI (Softimage) did this. It was used on Virtua Fighter 3 and Resident Evil 4. It was completely non-destructive. You could add modifiers, tweak with mesh (including changing the geometry), even after texturing and skinning, without destroying anything. I never got to use it much, but it was amazing. Of course Autodesk bought it and killed it, typical.

BitSquid was also pretty cool. It was a 3D engine that had integration with DCC tools. I messed with it when it came out as Autodesk Stringray. Basically you could create a model in Maya, and then link it with Stingray. Then you could continue to work on the model, with both apps open, and the changes would automatically come into Stringray live, without any additional importing or problems. The engine itself wasn't all that great, but the asset pipeline was very good. Of course, Autodesk killed that too.