I am currently using Blender for modelling and every time when I finish modelling objects, I leave the .blend file there and let the Unity Blender support to do the job. However, I have seen many people trying to export the file to .fbx first after modelling. So, do I have to convert the files every time I edit it? Or can I just leave it there? What are the pros and cons of converting and not converting?
Pros:
Blender artists can quickly see the changes they have made in Unity.
Cons:
Everyone working on the Unity Project needs to have Blender Installed or the auto Blend to FBX will fail.
The Blend file requires more space than an FBX file.
Since Blender is free, there are no downsides.
Pro Auto-Conversion: Very quick workflow because you can double-click right on the model in Unity and it opens Blender, save your changes in Blender and Unity updates its own model.
Contra Auto-Conversion: If you have a complex Blender model (using Rigify, for example), you lose control over what gets exported. All bone shapes and all Armatures end up in Unity where you have to manually delete or disable them from your prefab.
Tip: You can put .blend files in a directory named ‘~’ which will be ignored by Unity if you want to manually export some of them to .fbx yet keep them as source assets in your Assets folder + repository.
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It’s all good if there’s a short workflow just Blender - > unity, but if using for example substance painter for texturing you need to export to fbx anyway.
I’m on this side - export and keep in Unity project only files that Unity uses.
As I said in different thread - there can be many other files that game needs, reference photos, music projects, photos used for texturing, substance painter and designer files and other.
For example - simple project I’m currently working on - Unity Project folder is 1.5 GB, and folder with all source files (Houdini scenes, some old .blend’s, Painter project files, psd files) with no music yet it’s about another 1 GB of space.
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