Blender 2.81, FBX, LOD groups and extra root bone (Armature) - how to fix

Since this info is scattered all over the place and hard to find, posting about it here for posterity.

This “fixed” FBX add-on allows exporting FBX from Blender 2.81/a with LOD groups and without extra root bone: # ##### BEGIN GPL LICENSE BLOCK ####### This program is free software; you - Pastebin.com

Enjoy!

P.S. According to this post Prevent Blender FBX Exporter adding extra root bone – Kris Redbeard if your Armature is named “armature” (apparently starting with lower case “a”), UE4 should delete it on import. However, last time I tried it with UE 4.23.x that didn’t work. Maybe because my Armature was called “Armature” (starting with capital “A”) :rolleyes:

I modified my script to detect LOD_ in the empty name. Never had issued even with characters - other then naming issues anyway.
_LOD01 is a good starting point for the first lod.