blendyard

A collection of tools to make it easier to create content for O3DE using Blender.

blendyard Converters

Converts .blend files directly into a .fbx format compatible with O3DE

blendyard Watchdog

Watches a specified folder for any .blend files to change, when they do, they are automatically exported.

Set the target folder to be within your active O3DE project and any time you save a .blend file in Blender, it will automatically be exported to .fbx and O3DE's Asset Processor will pick up the change and build it.

Note: O3DE may not display the change unless you make the select the application and put it on the foreground. Alt+Tab from Blender to O3DE to see your updated Blender file in O3DE.

See it in action!

Requirements

Python 3.8+

Install Watchdog (https://pythonhosted.org/watchdog)

pip install watchdog

Instructions

1. Open settings.json and configure the paths

{
    "general":
    {
        "comment": "Find and provide the path to your Blender executeable",
        "blender_exe": "C:\\Program Files\\Blender Foundation\\Blender 2.82\\blender.exe"
    },
    "models":
    {
        "comment_source": "Provide the folder in which your source .blend files are stored, the ones you intend to export into .fbx for use in O3DE",
        "source_folder": "C:\\Example\\MyBlenderFiles",
        "comment_target": "Provide the folder into which the exporter .fbx files need to be saved, this is usually an O3DE project or gem (gem recommended)",
        "target_folder": "C:\\Example\\O3DE\\Gems\\MyGem\\Assets\\Models"
    },
    "watchdog":
    {
        "comment": "Provide the folder in which your source .blend files are stored, the ones you intend to export into .fbx for use in O3DE",
        "watched_folder": "C:\\Example\\MyBlenderFiles",
        "verbose": 1,
        "delta_throttle": 200
    }
}

blender_exe Path to the Blender executable source_folder Path to the folder that will hold your source .blend files (do not put this within the O3DE folders) target_folder Path to the folder to which the .fbx files will be exported to, usually a O3DE project or gem, gem recommended (see O3DE's instructions for Asset gems) watched_folder Path to the folder the watchdog will watch, usually this is the same as the source_folder

2. Run the watchdog from the root of blendyard, this window will need to remain open as long as you want the Watchdog to automatically convert your .blend files into .fbx files

• Open a new console window (WinKey+R, cmd, enter)
• Navigate to the blendyard folder
• Run the watchdog: python src\blender\watchdog\blendyard_watchdog.py

3. In Blender, open a file within your specified source_folder, modify it and save it

4. Alt+Tab into O3DE, if you have not yet setup an entity with a Mesh component set to your FBX file see step 5, otherwise you will see your model update

5. If you have not yet created an entity in O3DE, add an Entity, Add a Mesh Component, set the Asset to your desired .FBX file

Best Practices

1. In O3DE you can use these CVar to improve the experience:

ed_KeepEditorAlive: Setting this to 1 will always update the O3DE editor even if it's not in focus.