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Blender and FBX (might become relevant in the future)


Gaia Clary
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Hi;

In the huge thread about Linden's new world there was one particular topic about what data format will be used to import items. Ebbe Linden mentioned that it will probably be FBX. Although it is far too early to start a discussion on this and although it is not at all important for SL in general, it still might be of interest for some ..:

Mentioned today in today's (6-july-2014) Blender developer meeting:

Ton Roosendaal confirms that Epic Games became a big sponsor for the Development Fund. Their main interest is in getting Blender to read/write FBX better. Bastien Montagne will look at writing out a good description for a project - so we can do a call for a developer.

So Blender has obviously/officially taken the route to FBX... Consequently Collada has been set into a long winter sleep (which means: it will be kept working, but won't be further developed)

As a sidenote: This news does NOT affect our own tools ( Avastar / Primstar / Sparkles ) at all.

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I've been seeing a ton of videos on YouTube showing mesh and rigged characters being exported from Blender into Unreal Engine 4, I think that's great. :D

The moment I saw this happening I new Blender had found its perfect companion software. A free copy of Blender and a $20 subscription to UE4 any Indie developer has the tools they need to create what ever they want. The visual fidelity of UE4 makes it a perfect substitute for expensive rendering farms, making it perfect for aspiring animated film creators.

I was telling my coworker the other day that if I had the opportunities for realizing my dreams and aspirations at a young age like kids have available to them today, I would be a millionaire by now. lol

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Yes. My worry would be what might happen if Autodesk decided it didn't want people using Blender instead of its products to develop for the game engines. What little I havr found on legalities of recerse engineering formats is all uncertain, but if not legal action, control of the format gives them other blocking options. I hope and expect the Blender guys have that all under control.

The other thing that makes me feel bad is the thought of having to learn to read fbx files (maybe from binary!). It's too horrible. I think I would have to give up detective work.

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Ohooo, thats right FBX is owned by Autodesk I hadn't thought of that. I can't imagine Autodesk is happy about developers using a free app like Blender instead of Max or Maya to develop for Unreal Engine 4. 

If Autodesk decided to cut effective access to FBX for Blender because it competes with Max and Maya it would not only be unwise where PR is concerned, it would also cut ALOT of potential future Max and Maya customers that currently use Blender. 

A scenario I can think of is developers starting with Blender and learning how to 3D Model and Animate while developing for UE4 and then they decide to move on to Max or Maya because they need to for the company they just got hired for. They learn to use Max or Maya and find they are comfortable with the workflow and decide to stick with it thanks to the skills they managed to learn from a free app like Blender. And as a plus they are already used to the FBX workflow. 

Providing full access to FBX or atleast useful access to FBX for Blender would be smart for Autodesk. Blender users might have a need for other Autodesk software, not necessarily Max or Maya and having FBX availiable to them would make Blender users pontential Autodesk customers too. Its a win win. 

 

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