Hello Creators!
Welcome to the June -July 2023 recap for the 3D Importer! Since our first update in June, we have several announcements, exciting features, and important news we’d like to share. As always, we’re working hard to make your workflows with 3D content easier, faster, and more stable.
Let’s take a look at what’s new!
New Features
Saved Settings from Last Import
We have introduced a few quality-of-life features related to how you use the importer’s various settings.
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Changed settings on the root of your scene are saved across import sessions and can be reapplied by selecting “Last Import” through the new dropdown at the top of the importer. This allows you to make several changes and then reapply them in one click on subsequent imports!
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After changing the settings of a node of a specific type (for example, a mesh in the scene), you can right-click the node in the tree and apply the changes to all nodes of that type. This removes the need to manually change the same setting for many nodes!
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A reset button at the top also allows you to revert changes or modifications made to the root node’s settings, which causes it to revert to the currently used preset (shown in the top dropdown).
Let’s go through these in a quick example:
Here, we have the basic import window. Note the new UI at the top: a dropdown showing your current settings configuration, and a reset button. We’ll check Anchored for this import session and set Scale to CM and import it.
Now we’ll open something else in the importer. By going to the top dropdown and choosing Last Import, we can now apply all the changes from before in one click!
Let’s look at the individual mesh nodes now. Let’s say I want to make them all double-sided. I’ll toggle on Double Sided and then right-click the node in the treeview to apply this setting to all other nodes.
Note: We are aware this behavior may currently overwrite the names of all the nodes as well. This will be fixed within the next Studio release.
We are actively working on making this a more powerful feature that would allow you to customize and save your own import configurations, as well as choose which one is loaded by default. We hope these presets you can save will help speed up import time and allow you to use our various settings more freely.
Insert Context Model
The importer preview will now render a preview of where your model will be placed in the workspace upon import. This will show up when Insert into Workspace is toggled on, and you can show/hide the preview using the workspace icon in the preview window.
Please note that this preview may not be a completely accurate representation of what’s in your workspace; it’s focused on rendering the main models and parts around the insert location to give you a sense of how your imported model will look in context!
We hope this additional context helps you get a better sense of the scale and positioning of your incoming models!
Note: We are aware of a bug where toggling Insert Using Scene Position may preview the imported model directly above where it would be inserted. This will be fixed in the next Studio release.
Gltf Avatar and Animation Support (In Beta)
We have added support for avatars, animation, and skinning to the Gltf beta for the importer. Now you should be able to import any rigged model, R15 or Custom, gltf or fbx, skinned or rigid, to Roblox. In a future release, we will add support for dynamic heads. We will be consistently improving this beta over the next few weeks as we get feedback from you all.
To enable this beta, go to File > Beta Features and select 3D Import glTF Support. Please restart Studio to enable these changes.
Known Issues:
Selection of Rest Pose for Animations will not work as expected for Gltfs
Other Features
We also recently released Better Rig Visualizations in 3D Importer!
Fixed Bugs
- An issue where scrolling on the settings panel would not work has been fixed.
- Removed automatic application of face decal when PBR textures are applied to the head of an R15.
- Various fixes to glTF beta import functionality.
- An issue where a warning icon was shown when nothing was wrong was fixed.
- Fixed an issue where certain imported Layered Clothing-compatible rigs would deform incorrectly with Layered Clothing accessories applied.
- Fixed a bug with the Reset Camera button in the importer preview.
Other News
Goal for Multi-file Support
Saving your last import is our latest step towards a world where you can save your own presets of settings and apply them to multiple file types all in one import, similar to the current Bulk Importer.
We are investigating ways to improve your workflows to make it as easy as possible to import assets. Long term, we will be working to unify all importers under a single UI, sunsetting Avatar Importer and Bulk Import from the Asset Manager. Before we do, we will be collecting your comments, questions, feedback, and bug reports and ensuring that we have addressed your concerns and suggestions. This goal is still pretty far out, so we’re excited to share our progress as we work towards a simpler, more powerful import solution!
Import Plugin Lua API
We are creating a Lua plugin API providing access to the service that enables the new importer. This is early in the process and we probably won’t see the API until sometime next year. However, if you have suggestions for what you would like to see in such an API, please let us know!
Thanks for reading! If you made it this far, here’s a challenge: show us a screenshot of something you imported using the glTF beta feature. We’re excited to bring support for this modern file format and would love to see the various things it’ll help you bring into Roblox.
All assets used in the above demos are licensed under CC BY 4.0. Original assets can be found here:
unfortunately our team currently is focused working towards multi-file support and getting glTF ready for a full release, so no hard timelines yet on export. We’ll certainly revisit the idea again once we have some more bandwidth!