Blender to Unreal FBX + T3D exporter with instancing

Blender: these objects share linked mesh data
Unreal: import one FBX, paste T3D as instances

I wrote a very simple Blender to Unreal exporter because I couldn’t find one that exported scenes to FBX and T3D at the same time. The purpose is to export only unique data to FBX, instead of all object data, this way duplicates (with linked data in blender) are preserved and objects can be pasted in to Unreal after placement was done in Blender. Now I can export a whole scene at once and still benefit from the efficiency of linked data, without needing to reconstruct object placement manually in Unreal.

It’s no Datasmith, but this is all I need for testing and it works with Blender.

Usage:

  1. In Blender:
    1. Select objects to export, run script. (FBX names are based on mesh data names)
    2. Copy (T3D) text from console output to clipboard (Placed instance/object names will be the same in Unreal and Blender)
  2. In Unreal:
    1. Import FBX files
    2. paste (T3D) clipboard

To Do:

  • Convert to exporter addon
  • Options for file output destination, and content path in Unreal
  • Optionally skip either FBX or T3D output
  • Send T3D to clipboard or text file instead of console
  • Optional scale conversion
  • Instanced Static Mesh Component for Array modifier instances.
  • More features for iterative workflow?

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Linear Workflow Tool v2

Almost exactly a year after publishing my MEL linear workflow tool, the Python version is ready. I am sad that 1 year later there is still a need for this tool (in Maya), but until Autodesk properly handles color management it makes life as a lighter much easier. With new Pre/Post-Render scripts it allows working in Maya in a WYSIWYG manner, hardware/viewports and color swatches provide reasonable previews without hindrance.

***update*** I’ve finally made this available for download:
Download wLinearWorkflow here Contains 1 directory (the python module) with readme, license, python code, and icons)

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Maya LightLink Tool

Light Linking in Maya may appear at times to be black magic, this tool aims to
demystify it and make fixing problems effortless for any user.
Unfortunately, some light linking tools/scripts actually create more problems.
This tool is designed to safely clean scenes anytime, and additionally provide
tools for efficiently light linking. For more info, read the full help docs.

Download MayaLightLinkTool here (contains 1 directory with readme, and 2 python scripts)

Example of before and after cleaning:

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