Unreal Engine Vehicle Rigging Addon for Blender

Add-on Changelog for 0.6.967

• Updated to work with Blender 5.0

Add-on Changelog for 0.6.9

• General UI layout updates.
• Added FBX and GLTF export buttons.
• If using the FBX export button, there's no need to set the scene unit scale to 0.01. If the scale is unchanged, it will set the rig scale to 0.01 so it will get the right scale in the Unreal Engine when imported. If the unit scale is set to 0.01, it will make sure that the rig scale is set back to 1.
• The GLTF export button automatically updates the root bone and wheel bones of the rig to correct rig orientation in the Unreal Engine, and if the scene unit scale is set to 0.01, it will reset it to 1. GLTF format doesn't have the unit scale issue that FBX format has.
• Added Rig Calipers/Mudguards functionality.
• Added ability to have a Separate Bone for the Vehicle Body.
• Edit mode set bone head/tail can now move the 3D cursor to positions.
• Added Object Mode Rigging functionality. Now in the object mode you can add a separate mesh object to the rig and have it rigged to an existing bone or make a new bone for it
• Ability to choose in which mode to end from the object mode rigging..
• Added a Mesh Weight Troubleshooting panel where you can see and adjust whole mesh weights.
• Fixed the issue where the Set Unit Scale button would not change the clip start value, which caused shading issues in the viewport.
• Added a button to reset the unit scale back to 1.
• Added a button to downscale objects 100x.
• Downscale and upscale buttons will adjust the view to fit the model in the viewport.
• Added the ability to change the default names of bones in the add-on’s preferences.
• Minor bug fixes, and I maybe forgot to mention some features.

Below for v.0.6.2

How to install

1. Download the addon.
2. In the Blender open Edit -> Preferences.
3. In the Preferences window open Add-ons section.
4. Click the Install button and locate downloaded .zip file, select it and click Install Add-on from File... button.
5. In add-on list enable add-on by checking Generic: Unreal Engine 4 Vehicle Rigger.

How to use it

1. You can open the addon menu by pressing N key and then selecting UE Vehicle tab in the properties menu.
2. When you have your vehicle model made in the Blender (make sure that the vehicle front is pointed to positive X-axis), use object pickers to select vehicle parts and then click Rig Vehicle.
   • If after selecting all parts Rig Vehicle button is still disabled, it means, that you haven't set Unit Scale for your project.
   • You can set the correct Unit Scale for Unreal Engine 4, by pressing Set Unit Scale button.
   • Now you will see that your vehicle size shrank after Unit Scale change, you can upscale it to the previous size by pressing Upscale Objects button.
3. Export your vehicle model from the blender using the settings shown below.

v0.5 update changes

• Added Bone Length setting in which you can change bone size when creating a vehicle base rig.
• Added feature to add new bones to armature while in mesh edit mode:
  1. Select a part in the mesh where you want your bone head located and click Set Head Location button. It will set location to selection median point. Or you can set the location manually.
  2. Select a part in the mesh where you want your bone tail located and click Set Tail Location button. It will set location to selection median point. Or you can set the location manually.
  3. In Bone armature select armature to which you want to add bone.
  4. In Parent bone select which will be parent bone to new bone.
  5. In New bone name enter your chosen bone name.
  6. Select mesh parts that you want to weigh to the bone.
  7. Click Add Bone to add new bone.
     • Check End in Pose Mode to automatically enter in armature pose mode after adding the bone.
     • Uncheck Auto Weight Selected to add bone without weighing it to the mesh.

v0.6 update changes