I’m not sure if anyone else has thought of asking this (or even has, i tried a search, got nothing), and after watching the recorded Dev twitch stream last night, i noticed that they mentioned FBX, but only how some have been having difficulty importing it (mainly blender users), and why; The people behind Blender didn’t use AD’s SDK, they kitbashed their own, which is why some are apparently having issues.
So, what is the feasibility of implementing “on-the-fly” conversion to FBX when a model file is imported? Lets say someone brings in an OBJ or .blend file, or even a .max/.ma/.lxo (modo)/.lwo file, or any other native file from a 3d authoring package, and the engine handles the FBX conversion as the model is brought into the editor, with no interaction from the user other than dragging and dropping the model.
This would solve the problems that some users are having with importing skeletal meshes, and would ensure that the FBX files are the right version.
Unity does it exactly the same way as i’ve described here, so it can’t be that difficult to do.
What you are asking for sounds like an independent file format that would support every single modeling software in the end. I agree that Blender users would use a bit more help on export side but i wouldn’t expect Epic to spend time on something as vast as you describe while FBX works just fine for the majority. :\
What i’m suggesting, is that Epic implement a system that enables the engine/editor to automatically convert files TO .FBX when they’re imported, which would save the content creators some time converting to .fbx on their own, and would make sure it’s the right version, ON TOP of supporting FBX files that have already been exported.
Unity already does this.
For example, if you import/drag and drop a static or skeletal mesh created in 3ds max and saved as a .max file into into the Unreal editor, it’s automatically converted to FBX by the engine on import, so by the time it’s displayed in the viewport and the folder structure, it’s been converted to .FBX, which is exactly how Unity does it.
Unfortunately, i don’t have access to the Unity Source code to see how they implement this, but even if i did, my programming skills are terrible so…
