Well, this on its own is a problem then. If the Send to Unreal tool is dependent on some adjusted user I/O settings on either Blender end of Unreal end instead of completely overriding them by its own, then that’s the issue of the exporter, not the user. That should always be considered a bug. Seriously, having to check if I did not turn something on or off along the way to make sure the sending even works correctly is just not feasible workflow.
In that case they absolutely do not belong in the addon preferences part of the user interface. The user has no chance of knowing this very obscure behavior, which is not obvious from the UI in any way. This should belong somewhere in the .blend file itself, ideally in the right viewport sidebar where such tools and settings usually reside. Also, how do I then check what the path is currently set in the given .blend file?
You are right, not one button, 3 buttons actually. There are 3 unique workflows: Static Meshes as individual files, Static Meshes as as single file, and Skeletal Mesh.
That’s it. Everything else is a symptom, not cause. People usually want/need settings simply because it’s automatically assumed and expected the export result will be wrong and there will need to be some button pushing and knob turning to get the result right. But that simply does not apply if you have known, specific export software and known, specific import software. In that case, there’s very little excuse to offload this workload onto user.
That’s a fair point. Sorry, I did not know that. For some reason this toolset had “official Epic thing” aura around it I perceived. At least, I don’t remember ever directly hearing this is unofficial, community project. Especially since there were multiple official Epic livestreams just about the Send to Unreal tool.
Anyway, while I also do not have much time to spend on this and contribute significantly, for what it’s worth, I am attaching my script toolset in Blender I built for this purpose. I do not have enough time to separate just the Export to Unreal portion of it, but it’s quite simple script, and the function itself is called “Export Socketed Static Mesh FBXs”
Assuming the import settings on Unreal’s side are in order (I would have make sure it is always done so if I was making a complete Send to Unreal bride, not just Blender Export script), according to this picture:
The script will then, with a click of a single button, assuming the export path is set, export entire hierarchy of static meshes, creating socket for every child named after the child. Every static mesh will have correct size in unreal and will be correctly facing the front axis.
So it’s as simple as having a hierarchy of static meshes, no additional helper/dummy objects are needed, then specifying path once, which is saved with the .blend file, and then clicking one button.
Once in unreal, it’s super easy to reassemble the entire hierarchy as every mesh has correctly positioned, oriented and scaled sockets of their supposed child meshes. So all that’s needed is parenting a mesh component under its parent, resetting all transforms to zero, and choosing a socket of the exact same name as the imported mesh itself.
Now, the reason I am complaining when I fixed it myself is that I originally thought this was Epic’s official initiative. I would love have to drop maintaining my suboptimal solution in favor of something official, and much better done. I am aware of how incredibly bad Blender’s FBX exporter is, so I kind of understand why it’s so hard to get this right. But I was actually hoping this initiative was about some new, better exporter rather than one just relying on Blender’s broken FBX exporter.
Anyway, perhaps you can scavenge parts of the script I attached and use it to improve at least the static mesh portion of the Send to Unreal, as at least that one should be one click solution. I am aware that skeletal meshes are a whole different level of affair. Feel free to use it in any way you want. It’s not much more than just loop for creating the sockets, resizing the static mesh hierarchy to match Unreal’s transforms and then calling the FBX export operator with predefined settings. But it’s enough of a proof that it can be a one click solution.
In fact, this could be simplified further if Epic solved the limitation of FBX importer on their side, specifically this:
https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/…hes/index.html
If this limitation was fixed/removed, it would be possible to export entire static mesh hierarchies as a single, self contained FBX file, which would be imho much nicer and cleaner. Right now unfortunately, my tool exports the meshes as separate files just because of this limitation.