So I don't know, it doesn't seem like you can fix the model in Blender. I spent a few days looking into it. There were a few things that looked promising, but I was not able to get them to work.

One was baking the animation. If you select an object then go to the menu on top under object > animation > bake, then it can bake the animation into the object. This seems to be designed for rigged meshes maybe. I don't know, some people said they did it but it was messing up the animation for me. And even when I sort of got it working (with a few pieces missing like the bullet and clutch) there were still 2 animation tracks (one for the arms and one for the gun) in which case it still wouldn't work.

The other option I saw was to combine all the objects together, and then copy and paste all the keyframes onto the same track. I didn't try this, cause it seems like a hack and too much work anyhow. And there is a high chance of messing something up, and it's a manual process you'll have to do each time you export the model (like if you update anything). So I don't consider this a viable option.

But one thing I did think about was doing it in Godot. I think I found one trick that might work. Leave the glb file as-is, the same one you sent me, and just create the animation frames in code. The AnimationPlayer works based on seconds, not frames, so you have to do some math to convert the clips. But the idea is that you would have a script running on _process() that will check the AnimationPlayer timecode and then either loop or stop based on what you want. However, I think you will lose the ability to blend animations like this, so it may not be the best solution either. This code just has the gun firing non-stop like a machine gun.

onready var gun = get_node("Gun")
onready var anim = gun.get_node("AnimationPlayer")

func _ready():
	anim.get_animation("Animation").set_loop(true)
	anim.play("Animation")

func _process(delta):
	if anim.current_animation_position > 0.3:
		anim.seek(0.0)

I also tried messing with the AnimationTree and StateMachine but they seem to be for mixing distinct animations (like run and jump) not for pieces of the same animation, so that wasn't working either. So I don't know. I think I've done enough research and there is not a simple solution. Most likely it will have to be a modification to the original source animation so that it will work better with Godot.

Also, I think most games do not export the character and the weapons together. The character (arms in a shooter) would be one mesh, and each weapon would be another mesh with it's own animation. You can still create them together in your modeling app, but export as separate files. However, they would still need one track per model. This is easy for the arms, I did get that working. But the gun has many pieces and I'm not sure how that would work in C4D since I've never used it. But if you can find a way to combine all the gun pieces into one animation, then that might actually work.

@cybereality said: Also, I think most games do not export the character and the weapons together. The character (arms in a shooter) would be one mesh, and each weapon would be another mesh with it's own animation. You can still create them together in your modeling app, but export as separate files. However, they would still need one track per model. This is easy for the arms, I did get that working. But the gun has many pieces and I'm not sure how that would work in C4D since I've never used it. But if you can find a way to combine all the gun pieces into one animation, then that might actually work.

it actually works fine in other game egnines. i understand the autodesk problem. i dont really mind importing the fbx in blender and then exporting the gltf as one animation(i allready got that working). thats not much work. but the splitting animation clips should work on import regardless the name of the animation in the source file. splitting animations by code in script based on seconds isnt really ideal imo i dont need to use an animationtree, as the clips sync perfectly and i only need to play one animation once at a time

It says I don't have permission to download.

EDIT: Nevermind, I had to go to my account and accept the new terms of service.

2 months later

i cant work with godot, not in its current state if i cant easily import art into an engine i cant work with it honestly importing my 3d animated models are all screwed up, fbx and gltf/glb u cannot easily split animation clips on import i tried godot 4 and was hoping they would have worked on these issues instead of improving graphics quality maybe ill try the engine once again later, ill leave it as is now

after alot of trial and error, ive found that the c4d gltf exporter is completely broken for animated models(works fine for static objects) so its not a godot issue. ill contact maxon for this splitting the main animation clip into seperate ones in godot does remain an issue tho, this should be adressed

11 days later

so ive finally made the switch to linux, bought myself a nuc computer here is my result of 2 days in blender ive managed to make a custom rig, learning the interface, setup mats etc.
next is learning the animation tools. that evee renderer looks awesome. dont know why i waited so long to try learning blender, i just kept postponing it over and over. it just felt daunting to switch to a new 3d app as i had been using c4d for over 12 years. one thing i miss on linux is zbrush, love that program, ive bought 3dcoat but im not that familiar with it yet everything else ive found alterntives for, free, open source, and in many ways better than paid software, im baffled ;)

just wondering if my specs are good enough to run high end graphics. im getting fps drops in godot4 alpha

@DJM said:

one thing i miss on linux is zbrush, love that program, ive bought 3dcoat but im not that familiar with it yet everything else ive found alterntives for, free, open source, and in many ways better than paid software, im baffled ;)

You could always try running it via wine. Looking at wine AppDB indicates it might work well in newer versions of wine. https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=1152

@DJM said: just wondering if my specs are good enough to run high end graphics. im getting fps drops in godot4 alpha

2060 should be more than decent, but alpha is alpha. What driver are you running for the GPU tho? Nvidia proprietary?

never heard of wine, im new to linux, will check it out tnx ill check my gpu drivers

ive managed to export my fps animations from blender into godot using the NLA editor without issues. finally! now i can move forward

@DJM said: never heard of wine, im new to linux, will check it out tnx

It's perhaps worth mention that there is also Crossover which is a professionally oriented version of wine that comes with customer support, where as wine is the community edition mostly used to run windows games(not that it's only meant for that, just that most users use it for that) on linux.

Steams Proton is also forked from wine and Valve actually contracted Codeweavers(the Crossover developer) to help with Proton as well. So if you are willing to spend a bit for a license that might be the best solution for running windows software on linux in a professional environment.

That computer looks great. That is more than enough. It is quite similar to my Windows 11 test rig (which just died, I think my cat killed it) but I was able to run my demos at 4K, so you should be fine.

In terms of Blender, I had the same hesitations. I used Maya for a long time (since that was what I learned in art school like 20 years ago) so I was convinced it was the best. I actually went through my invoices and calculated how much I paid Autodesk over the years and it was close to $10,000 OMG. So after seeing that I cancelled my sub and downloaded Blender. It's actually much better. The interface is strange at first, and you basically need to use the keyboard a lot, but it's faster once you learn it. And the graphics are way better than Maya, particularly the real time viewport.

You can see this video I made of the real time ray tracing, it takes a few seconds and is better looking than pre-renders from like 20 years about (that would take 1 hour to render 1 frame).

And here you can see what a pro can do with sculpting in Blender. It is actually quite powerful.

I would say the sculpting tools in Blender as about as good as ZBrush, at least on a similar level. However, ZBrush does have better retopology that makes things easier. You can still do it in Blender, but it's more manual work. However, there are add-ons that bring it to the same level.

@cybereality said: That computer looks great. That is more than enough. It is quite similar to my Windows 11 test rig (which just died, I think my cat killed it) but I was able to run my demos at 4K, so you should be fine.

In terms of Blender, I had the same hesitations. I used Maya for a long time (since that was what I learned in art school like 20 years ago) so I was convinced it was the best. I actually went through my invoices and calculated how much I paid Autodesk over the years and it was close to $10,000 OMG. So after seeing that I cancelled my sub and downloaded Blender. It's actually much better. The interface is strange at first, and you basically need to use the keyboard a lot, but it's faster once you learn it. And the graphics are way better than Maya, particularly the real time viewport.

You can see this video I made of the real time ray tracing, it takes a few seconds and is better looking than pre-renders from like 20 years about (that would take 1 hour to render 1 frame).

And here you can see what a pro can do with sculpting in Blender. It is actually quite powerful.

I would say the sculpting tools in Blender as about as good as ZBrush, at least on a similar level. However, ZBrush does have better retopology that makes things easier. You can still do it in Blender, but it's more manual work. However, there are add-ons that bring it to the same level.

yeah the amount of money ive spend on c4d is also ridiculous. yes the interface of blender is a little confusing at first but im getting the hang of it, its just a matter of knowing where everything is and that usually takes some time. the realtime renderer looks amazing indeed. ive managed to rig ,skin and animate a set of first person arms with a weapon in 2days without any knowledge of blender. guess i could do it now in 1day. weight painting options in blender could be better tho. i havent touched the sculpting features yet, so im not shure if its as good as zbrush, im using 3dcoat now for sculpting, the retopo tools of that program are the best i have ever used.

really hope godot devs fix the viewports issue as it is rather important for a good looking fps game

7 days later

finished two weapon models the pistol and shotgun next is the bayonet and rifle im getting the hang of blender much quicker than i thought

https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/boomstick-v3-15a68d7c4efa4059a5d2cc4d08672201 https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/pistol-665d89c31f224ac1b3260452dc07dffb

ive also remade the fps arms , they look so cool, videos soon!

ive also decided the first two levels 1 u revive from a graveyard and need to find your way to a train station(completely ripped from blood lol ) 2 u ride the train to a town(every fps should have a train level ;) )

i also changed the title to "NORMORD" cause thats the name of the player

Train levels are always the best. The one in Condemned was pretty good.

@cybereality said: Train levels are always the best. The one in Condemned was pretty good.

the one from the first soldier of fortune stands out to me, too bad it was way to short

Actually, I just remembered Battlefield 3. This had the best train scene, maybe the best intro for a shooter ever as well. And this is what I'm talking about with graphics getting worse. This game still looks great and I would be happy if this had came out today.