Blender is not so compatible with other apps?

I don’t know… blender itself is very good program.
But it gives me so much headache when I want to use it with other apps.

Especially its materials nearly always go wrong when imported into other apps, or when importing things made in other apps.

It’s like it is using its own style only, which is not compatible with other major apps out there.

I’m just beginner, I might be wrong.
but maybe I should stop learning blender when I’m still not so much into it. I’m not saying major softwares are better than blender, actually 3d max was pure pain when I tried to model something. Blender is very easy to model complicated things very fast.
but if I want to work professionally, not as a hobby, maybe I gotta learn one of major apps only for compatibility.

I can be wrong. I need advice.

I have no problem working with other software, maya, mari, substance painter, zbrush etc.

Blender is a living hell sometimes. I had a lot of trouble working back and forth with Unreal Engine.

How exactly are you importing/exporting materials?

For what it’s worth - yes, there are difficulties having Blender work with other applications. Without trying to stir up a hornet’s nest, it’s not really a priority for the developers. The powerless-that-be want Blender to be as much of the pipeline as possible. If you are looking to go back & forth between Blender & 3DS Max for assets more complex than static meshes - you are going to have some difficulties.

Materials go wrong? Huh? Materials are always renderer-specific. Of course they’re going to go wrong if you try to import/export them!

I wasn’t aware there was an interchange format that supported materials in any meaningful way in the first place?

Neither was I, Piotr. That’s why I asked how it was being done.

Materials will almost never translate into other apps unless you are using image maps with UVs, and even then you are only going to get what the map provides and each app handles those somewhat differently. The only direct translation that I have used that comes really close if not spot on is between 3D Coat and LightWave (haven’t tried and interchange with Blender yet, so I can’t comment). The reason why this works, is that the developer has setup the interchange to plug in all of the outputs to the correct nodes in the target app, which save a hell of a lot of time. Other than that, material setup is different in each app and rarely preserved. I use the practice of applying materials in the final app in the step, since this is where the rendering will happen, unless I’m using the Substance apps to generate maps to export to use at render, but the final step is always in the app I will render in.

All this aside, Blender is one of the most compatible apps that I use in my pipeline, and I rely on it in nearly every project I do. One would be almost foolish to abandon it because of what it offers in capability and interchange formats.

Yeah you are beginner … Meaningless thread…

That was unnecessary. :frowning:

I think he might mean that multi-material objects do not get preserved when importing to other software (I’m presuming 3ds Max).

3DS Max and Blender handles multi-material objects in different ways. In Max you need to assign a specific shader that handles the separation of other materials by polygon ID groups. In Blender you just assign materials to the polygons directly. This is not a Blender-specific problem though, generally multi-materials only export correctly between Autodesk apps via the “send to” command (and even then you can get some funky results). Every other software has problems defining multi-material objects the same way.

But you are right that data exchange between Blender and other 3D applications can be a major pain in the butt. 3DS Max has caused me some major headaches trying to import stuff from Blender over the years.

Strange, I don’t know whether it’s just me but I loved 3ds max for modelling.
But anyway back to the point,
Blender can import any file under the sun mostly without problems, mostly.
I don’t know what you are talking about

As has been stated there is really no standard compatibility between apps. Some things transfer OK, but other things are problematic. And some things simply not possible.

I would not consider this a huge factor in using Blender in general.

There are other things that might come as a more priority.

But you will learn these things as you move along. There is nothing lost by learning and even mastering Blender. It will always be a tool you can come back to regardless of where your software travels take you. And you can always take your skills and knowledge with you as a base for understanding other tools.

Keep plugging away at Blender and as you grow as an artist, keep your eyes open for other tools. Don’t limit yourself by sticking with one piece of software.

Perhaps you should try the FBX format only, since it’s quite fresh and it might be have been tested extensively with current game engines.
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Import-Export/Autodesk_FBX

However as I work with Unity, I use blend format directly since it is imported on the fly, what a joy!

Actually, Unity uses the Blender FBX exporter behind the scenes, even when you just use blend file directly. But it happens automatically which is hugely convenient.

I’ve had issues importing FBXs from PFTrack, though that was with an earlier 2.7x version and it appears to have been resolved. I still have problems with the alignment of the Z axis, but its more of an inconvenience than any kind of deal breaking bug.