Preserving Vertex Group information, which might not even be necessary immediately but I imagine will come in very handy when the mesh editing tools are more widely used. It’s just too beneficial to workflow with meshes in general to not include them, even if UE4 has to catch up a little 
Forethought and all that. Also, thanks for the plugin.
I’m very excited for this and it will make my life soooooo much easier. Thank you very much. My one huge request is a method to import blender hair as as a groom object. I’ve used blender hair for ages and would love to use it with the new groom system.
Game Import Paths
Do you have to change this for every object/file that you want in a certain folder? Will there be per object overrides?
Would it be possible to utilize Blender’s Custom Properties that are available.
Maybe have sub collections with UE4 path in mesh collection
Is there a rough ETA or a beta download to try this out? Super excited about this!
Hey,
Great to hear this is happening!
What would be super useful, would be a way to setup pivots for exported objects.
For instance, you could set pivots to center on each individual exported object.
Or you could set the pivot to the origin of the blender scene.
Usually artists are working in a blender scene with lots of props or building pieces, and want to have those pieces exported as separate meshes with the pivots intact.
Some kind of list of collections in the blender scene, along with a setting for how the pivots are handled would be extremely useful.
Cheers,
Joe
Work so far on the plugin looks pretty exciting! I have a few requests/notes as well:
- If the plugin utilized custom Blender types/attributes, then users would be able to “mark” objects for export/sync to Unreal. I think this would be a much better option than having to put objects in predetermined Collections. This is pretty easy to implement in Python (just add custom Object properties by extending bpy.types.Object.ue4 or whatever), and then the plugin can search through all of the objects which are “marked” for sync and handle them. The same idea could be done for custom names/locations on a per Object basis by sticking a custom UI panel under the Object Properties tab.
- Similar to above, it might be handy to expose things like FBX export parameters and default export path in the Scene Properties window (which would be stored by adding custom attributes to bpy.types.Scene.ue4 or whatever). That way any parameters would be saved on a per-file/project basis and not globally in the Preferences panel.
- I agree with others that having to set Blender’s Unit Scale to 0.01 is not ideal. I’m not sure how well the FBX exporter’s “scale transform” parameter works, but this might be an option. Otherwise I could see this being a pain to implement.
Looking forward to seeing the addon released!
If you’re not going to export a skeletal animated figure, it sounds as if you’re better off using the Datasmith Blender plug-in…
It converts any empty to a datasmith pivot point object.
hello everyone!,
sorry for that noobie question: Where can I download that addon for blender.
Thank you very much!
Florian
I’d like to test too, is there link available?
This is a great tool. Have been really really wanting something like this for a long while. If there is a beta release, I want in!
I need this add-on. Can we please have access to the beta?
I honestly think this will take blender to the next level in game development. Aside from artists, this will be a game changer for level designers too. Please keep us updated on a potential milestone release! So excited for this.
Desired features
- export PBR materials
- Keep a link between the UE4 scene and the Blender scene (so that you don’t have to re-import stuff into Blender if you’ve changed object location in UE4)
I highly appreciate this initiative. I would like to have access to an alpha/beta version as soon as possible.
Please don’t make us wait until the end of the year.
This pipeline addon is something I’ve been dreaming of since I started using Unreal! When can we get our hands on it to test things out?
The blender community is known for being able to provide good feedback
Hello,
Could it be possible to use the Mannequin skeleton with Blender without any problems? No re-targeting, but using the Mannequin skeleton in Blender. There are nice twist bones and other needed stuff to make custom characters working properly in UE4.
Part is free and the other is $40 ( UE4 plugin part ), whereas blender plugin is free as usual.,so for now IM OUT, we’re not all rich.
Can you link to, or explain, exactly where you got that information please?
I made an add-on that provides mannequin compatibility with all the rigging to go with it it’s called Mr Mannequins Tools, there is also Bonebreaker which has some great export scripts too
These things have been done, for many people mannequin stuff from Blender has been possible for years 
This i simply cannot believe, if they put a price tag on any part of it that defeats the whole point of a free open source workflow… $40 dollars is nothing for a smooth workflow from the company who gave HUGE grants to Blender… but on principal it’s wrong to charge for something that should already be supported.
Hi together, really good method per pipeline you have a nice view for your workflow and thanks at all for the hard work.
But what is with more news, we are waiting for?
Hi Jim,
Awesome work, buddy! I use your add-on. To make animations for UE4 only.
I meant to use the default Mannequin skeleton in Blender for custom characters. I need those twist bones that exist in the Epic skeleton. I have no idea of how to create such bones in Blender. Maybe, you show how to create such a skeleton that is exactly the same like the Mannequin one. Of course, the bone orientations should be according to the Blender rules.