Official Blender tools for Unreal Engine released

The “Send to Unreal” and “Rigify to UE” plugins were released today.

You will need to link your Unreal Engine account to GitHub in order to see the repo on github.

https://github.com/epicgames/blendertools

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Thanks for the heads up. Been looking forward to this release.

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:roll_eyes:

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Unfortunately it’s just a python script for automatization of FBX export, but it still uses Blender’s poor FBX exporter under the hood, so all the issues with wrong skeletal meshes scale and broken animations with hierarchies are still there :confused:

Have you tried it? Sure Epic wouldn’t release it if it were broken?

https://blender-tools-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/send-to-unreal/videos/scene_scale.mp4

They went the “we know it’s a problem but you have to deal with it yourself” way.

I created longer post about it here, where you can see details (mainly about how Blender isn’t really built to work in 0.01 scale, so many tools won’t work correctly):
https://forums.unrealengine.com/unreal-engine/events/1715661-blender-to-unreal-tools-part-1-february-6-live-from-hq?p=1788231#post1788231

All in all, creating content in Blender at 0.01 unit scale is difficult, sometimes even impossible, and rescaling already existing animated content to 0.01 scale is also difficult, and also sometimes impossible.

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Thanks for the info. Very, very disappointing. :frowning:

Sounds like the FBX Importer & Exporter is still the best way to transfer a rig.

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“Blender for Unreal” addon works great without needing a paid addon.

They should fix armature and bones orientation import issues first to get it right in Unreal instead.

Also they should work on some real time detect and auto import assets based on previous import settings. This would make a very big difference in workflow.

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They are probably not going to do anything seeing as they are releasing it with the same problems it had months ago. They said they were working on the animation and it’s still broken. You could say it’s an Epic fail.

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Like many things, i think they won’t push a lot further about Blender or supporting Blender native format until Blender becomes lot more used by big game companies.

Like Substance providing plugins for 3D engines, i think it should be Blender work to create better support for Unreal import export feature perhaps.

They got tons on feedback from the start on their own forum that they have seemed to ignore. Pretty disappointing indeed.

Well, I still think they are not to blame. Whoever is responsible for Blender’s FBX exporter is. Blender is literally only DCC with FBX export that has these issues. Max, Maya, Modo, C4D, etc… all got the scale right.

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Couldn’t they use glTF 2.0 ?

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I tried exporting glTF 2.0 from Blender to unreal once… About 1/3rd of everything needed to transfer got transferred and that 1/3rd was even more messed up than FBX.

I think whoever does Blender’s exporter (I think it’s Sybren) took the same exact approach as he did with FBX, e.g. “Let’s take this standardized 3D content transfer format and let’s mess up transforms conversion in the most Blender was possible.” :slight_smile:

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Hmm, I think I stick to Mr Mannequin Tools for skeleton exporting. It gets better with each update and doesn’t use 0.01 scale.

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The link seems to be down.

Needs to be linked to your Epic account.

Do you mean rigged models? I usually only transfer static objects where I need the hierarchy intact and I ususally don’t have problems.

Yes, skeletal (animated) models, obviously. For static model, the current FBX exporter works if you use “apply transform” checkbox, as that one fixes the scale but breaks animations.