BlenderBridge

A UE5 editor plugin for a clean, validated Blender to Unreal Engine 5 asset pipeline.

Drop your .glb/.fbx exports in one folder, click Import, and BlenderBridge mirrors them into /Game with the right naming, correct normal-map handling, and a pre-flight validation report — so a Blender export becomes game-ready content without the manual cleanup every Blender-to-UE workflow repeats by hand.

What it does in one line: turns the repetitive Blender→UE5 import checklist — prefix naming, normal-map green-channel flip, lightmap-UV generation, and scale + triangle-budget validation — into one click. An 82-line throwaway import script, rebuilt as a validated, reusable editor tool.

Built for Survival3D / Island Haven and extracted as a standalone tool. Hybrid design: a C++ editor module hosts the UI; a bundled Python package does the asset work.

Demo

Panel walkthrough GIF (Scan → Import → Validate) lands in the next commit, captured in-editor.

Why

Every Blender-to-UE5 import hits the same chores: prefix the assets (SM_/T_/…), flip the green channel on normal maps (Blender bakes OpenGL +Y, UE expects DirectX -Y), generate lightmap UVs, sanity-check scale (a 1 m crate must read as ~100 uu), and wire material instances from _BC/_N/_ORM texture sets. BlenderBridge does all of it from one panel.

Features

• One-panel import — scan the drop-zone, see what's pending, import into /Game mirroring your export subfolders.
• Smart normals — green-channel flip applied only to detected normal maps (_N), not blanket-applied to every texture.
• Naming enforcement — auto-prefixes by asset type; flags violations.
• Pre-flight validation — scale drift, triangle budget, missing lightmap UVs, mis-tagged normal maps.
• Material auto-wiring (v0.2) — _BC/_N/_ORM sets become MI_ instances off a master material.

How it works

A deliberate hybrid split keeps each side doing what it's best at:

• C++ editor module (BlenderBridgeEditor) — a thin Slate panel registered under the Tools menu. Kept intentionally minimal so it survives engine-API drift across UE versions.
• Python core (blender_bridge) — all the asset logic: scan, import, naming, validation. Uses Unreal's editor-scripting API, so the rules stay readable and runnable without recompiling.

The C++ buttons call the Python entry points via IPythonScriptPlugin. Those same entry points are scriptable from the editor's Python console for headless / CI runs.

Install

1. Copy this folder into your project's Plugins/ directory (YourProject/Plugins/BlenderBridge).
2. Enable Python Editor Script Plugin (Edit → Plugins → Scripting).
3. Regenerate project files and build (the editor module is C++).
4. Open the panel: Tools → BlenderBridge.

Requires Unreal Engine 5.7+.

Usage

By default the drop-zone is <project>/../blender-studio/exports. Override it from the editor's Python console:

import blender_bridge
blender_bridge.set_export_dir("/path/to/exports")
blender_bridge.scan()        # dry run
blender_bridge.run_import()  # import into /Game
blender_bridge.validate()    # pre-flight report

The panel buttons call these same entry points.

Status

v0.1 — the C++ editor module compiles clean against UE 5.7.4; the Python core is smoke-tested headless (scan() maps validated props correctly). In-editor panel click-through and a real /Game import are the next verification pass (and the demo GIF). Honest, current state — not a finished-v1.0 claim.

Roadmap

• v0.1 — import panel, smart normals, naming enforcement, validation report.
• v0.2 — material-instance auto-wiring + a config DataAsset for folder mapping.
• v0.3 — selectable per-asset import, captured results in-panel, Fab listing.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.