Import assets

The importer in editor 0.4.0 converts models, textures, sounds, packages and scenes made with other tools. Formats and how far each goes, required license, limits, cancel and undo.

DescribesEditor 0.4.0 For creating without programming

On this page

How it opens
What you see
License and source
Adding to the project
Which formats are accepted
What the conversion does
Cancel
After importing
From the terminal
What the importer does not do
Next

The importer brings 3D models, textures and sounds made with other tools into your game. It converts them to the game format, fits them to its limits, says what it did with each file and records where each thing came from and under which license. It arrived with editor 0.4.0.

The importer only reads files that are already on your computer: it downloads nothing, opens no internet addresses and uses nobody's accounts. If a file names an address, it is reported and left out.

How it opens#

File › Import…, or Ctrl+I.
The Import… button at the bottom of the Content browser and in Place pieces › Project models.
Dropping files or folders on the editor window: the notice "Drop to import models, textures and sounds" appears and the importer opens with them.

The empty importer: at the top, Converted scenes as new scenes or added to the open scene, and Nothing is downloaded; on the left Input files with Drag files or a folder here, Choose files and Choose folder; in the middle the preview with Bring your models, textures and sounds; on the right the conversion options; at the bottom License and source with the notice, the Who made it, License you got it under and Where it came from fields, the I have the right to use these files in my game checkbox and Add to the project — The importer, before choosing anything.

The editor window dimmed, with a dotted green border and in the middle the notice Drop to import models, textures and sounds — Dropping files on the window.

Choose files and Choose folder open your system's dialog. There are caps: up to 100 MB per file, 300 MB at a time and 5000 files, and symbolic links are not followed. Whatever goes over a cap is not read, and the importer says so below the buttons.

What you see#

Input files: how many files were loaded and Accepted formats.
Converted items: one row per model, texture or sound, with its size and a checkbox to choose what to add.
Preview of the selected one: the model with the game's own drawing, the avatar's silhouette next to it (Avatar) and the shape it collides with (Collision). Below, its triangles, measures, bones, textures and size.
Report for the selection, General report and Source of the selection, with what was done to each file: converted, simplified, left out, notice or error.
Conversion options on the right. Convert again applies them.

A model with its license file next to it.

If the model has clips, Animation appears above the preview, to watch each one.

The importer with an animated model, explorador.glb: the preview with the cube character and the Animation dropdown on quieto; 178 triangles, animations: 4; in the report, the converted model with 4 clips, quieto, caminar, saltar and saludar; at the bottom, the author Green Fox and the license propia, because it is a model you made yourself — A model with its clips, recorded as your own.

License and source#

Having downloaded or bought a file does not always allow you to use it anywhere. The importer always reminds you, in the License and source strip: there are stores and platforms whose content can only be used inside their own engine or their own platform.

That is why author and license are required. Add to the project stays disabled, with its reason written below it, until there is:

Who made it.
License you got it under.
The I have the right to use these files in my game checkbox, checked.

Where it came from is optional. If there is a license file next to the files, the importer reads it and proposes the author and the license (it recognizes CC0, the CC BY licenses, MIT, Apache, BSD and the public domain), and says which file it read: what it detects is a help, check it. What you made yourself is recorded with the license propia (your own).

Where the file comes from	What to look at
The asset store of another engine	The store's license and the product page. If it says it can only be used with that engine, it cannot be taken to another one.
A closed platform, where games are published and played inside it	Its terms. That the file can be saved on your computer does not mean it can be used outside.
A free resources site	The exact license of that file. CC0 asks for nothing; CC BY asks you to credit the author; NC and ND limit what you can do, and converting a file is modifying it.
Something another person gave you	Who made it and under which conditions they shared it. If you do not know, do not use it in a game you will share.
Something you made	License propia.

This is not legal advice: when in doubt, the file's license or whoever made it decides.

The importer with a texture and a sound converted, each with the label license missing; the author and license fields empty, the I have the right to use these files in my game checkbox checked and, below it, in amber, It is missing who made 2 selected asset(s); the Add to the project button disabled — Without author or license, nothing is added.

Adding to the project#

Add to the project writes what you selected into the game:

What	Where
Models	`modelos/<id>.glb` and `modelos/<id>.json` (how it collides)
Textures	`texturas/<id>.png` (or `.jpg`, `.webp`)
Sounds	`sonidos/<id>.wav` or `.mp3`
Credits	One entry per asset in `creditos.json`, with author, license, origin and what was changed

Everything added at once is a single undo step. Ctrl+Z removes all those files and their credits together, and Ctrl+Y brings them back.
The id comes from the file name, in lowercase, without accents and with hyphens. If there is already one with that id, the new one is renamed with -2.
Converted scenes (from packages and scenes of other engines) come in, depending on what you choose at the top, as new scenes or adding their pieces to the open scene.

The importer after adding the shed: at the top, Added to the project: 2 file(s); the What was added tab with 2 file(s) were added to the project, creditos.json of 166 B and modelos/caseta.glb of 1.4 KB; at the bottom right, the notice that the model was added, where it is, and that Ctrl+Z removes everything imported at once — What was added, in a single undo step.

Which formats are accepted#

The level is the one the importer itself declares, according to what has been tested.

Format	Level	What is converted and what is not
glTF 2.0: `.glb`, `.gltf`	Complete within the format	Meshes, materials, textures, hierarchy, skeleton and clips. Not: Draco compression or KTX2 textures (you are asked to export again), morph targets, cameras, lights and extensions outside the list (they are reported and removed).
`.fbx`	Complete in what was tested	Meshes, materials, textures, skeleton and clips; the measures become world units. Tested with binary files. Not: morph targets.
`.obj` with `.mtl`	Complete	Mesh, materials and their textures.
`.dae`	Partial	Tested with a static mesh with two materials and Z up (it is straightened by itself). Skeletons and animations go the same way as `.fbx`, with no test file to confirm it.
`.3ds`, `.ply`, `.stl`, `.lwo`, `.ase`, `.x`, `.ms3d`, `.3mf` and others	Attempted	The same way as `.fbx`, with no tests of their own.
PNG, JPEG, WebP, TGA, BMP	Complete	Not: animated WebP or BMP with RLE4.
HDR	Complete	It is brought down to 8 bits and you are told.
EXR	Partial	Scanline, uncompressed or with RLE, ZIP and ZIPS. The rest give a clear error: save it as PNG.
PSD	Partial	Only the composite image, in gray or RGB of 8 or 16 bits.
GIF, TIFF, DDS, KTX	Detected only	It explains: save it as PNG.
WAV	Complete	It ends up as 16 bits. If it weighs more than 1 MB it becomes mono and drops quality, and says so.
MP3	Complete, untouched	It goes as is up to 1 MB; if it weighs more, you are asked to trim it.
OGG, FLAC, AIFF, M4A	Detected only	You are asked to convert it to WAV or MP3.
Packages from other engines, `.unitypackage`	Partial	Models, textures, sounds, materials, and their scenes and prefabs as scenes with placed models. Not: scripts, custom shaders or the source editor's animations; they are listed in the report. Tested with a package assembled for the tests, not with one exported by the real editor.
Text scenes from other engines, `.tscn`, `.tres`, `.escn`	Partial	Nodes with their positions, simple shapes as game pieces, placed `.glb` models, materials and lights. Not: scene animations, particles, 2D or interface.
Binary `.res`, `.scn` and `.import`	Detected only	You are asked to save as text or export to `.glb`.
`.uasset`, `.umap` and other engine-specific files	Detected only	A closed format: no attempt is made to read it. The report says how to export it to FBX or glTF from its source tool and reminds you to check the license.
`.rbxmx`, `.rbxlx`, `.rbxm`, `.rbxl`	Partial	The parts become game pieces with their size, position, rotation, color and material. Meshes and images the file names by a remote identifier are not inside it: a placeholder is left and reported. Scripts are not converted. Not tested with a real export.
USD, USDZ	Detected only	You are asked for the FBX or glTF variant of the same download.
`.blend` and projects of other modeling tools	Detected only	You are asked to export to `.glb`.
`.zip`	Complete	It is opened and its content imported.

Loose texture sets are recognized by the usual name suffixes (_diff, _albedo, _normal, _rough, _ao and others) and the material of the model they come with is put together.

The general report of a folder with several files: Left out 3, Notice 1, Error 1; heroe.uasset left out, with the explanation that it is a file belonging to a game engine in a closed format, how to export it as FBX or glTF and that its license should be checked; roto.dae with an error, the model could not be read; at the top left, in amber, 1 file(s) were not loaded: enorme.fbx (101 MB) over 100 MB per file; under Converted items, the texture pasto and the sound campanita. The lines of the report are in Spanish — What is converted, what is only detected and what is not read.

What the conversion does#

Scale and axes. One unit of the file is one unit of the world. Size changes it; the avatar is 1.8 tall. Vertical axis of the file (Y or Z) and Turn halfway around, for models that end up facing backwards.
Skeleton and clips. Up to 64 bones and 32 clips of up to 30 seconds. The clips idle, walk, run, jump and fall become quieto, caminar, correr, saltar and caer.
Meshes. If a model goes over Maximum triangles per model, it is simplified taking care of its shape.
Textures. They are shrunk to the Maximum texture side (512 by default).
Green Games style (optional): flat shading, pixelated textures and few colors.
Convert to cubes (optional): it rebuilds the model with cubes. Animations are not kept.
How it collides: Box (works almost always), Capsule (for characters), Hull (a tight shape with few points) or None. Never the whole mesh.

At the end, each model goes through the same checker the validator uses: if it does not meet the format, it is not delivered.

Cancel#

While it converts, a veil shows the progress file by file, for example "5 of 24: figura-05.fbx", and a Cancel button. Cancelling stops between one file and the next, not inside one, and leaves nothing half done. The importer then says the conversion was cancelled, that the files are still loaded and that "Convert again" runs it again.

The importer converting a batch of .fbx files: on the veil, Converting…, the file being converted and how many of how many, the note that a big file can leave the window still for a few seconds and that you can cancel between one file and the next, and the Cancel button — Cancelling stops between one file and the next.

After importing#

Models are in Place pieces › Project models and in Content, Models filter. How they are placed and animated: Models in the scene.
Textures are chosen in a piece's Details › Material › Texture.
Sounds are chosen in the "play sound" action of the rules, and in code with sonido.muestra(id).
The Game card shows the credits and the package limits.

From the terminal#

greengames importar does the same without the editor. See Command-line tool.

What the importer does not do#

It downloads nothing and enters no store.
The conversion runs in the editor window: a big model stops it for a moment, and cancelling acts between files.
The report only comes out in Spanish, also with the interface in English.
OGG, USD, Draco and KTX2 are only detected.
The converters for packages and scenes of other engines were not tested with files exported by those editors: they were tested with files written following their format.
Dropping a folder from the desktop was tested with drag events created inside the page, not with a real drag.

Next#

Models in the scene: placing, animating, limits and credits.
Asset workshop: making your own inside the editor.
Models, textures and sounds: the format, for those who write code.