Incoming TLDR;
Hi @Wurlit, I think maybe we are talking about different work pipelines here. There are two distinct needs for 3D editor capability:
- 3D model and animation editing and asset generation.
- 3D object placement and scenario/scene management.
Blender is not really built for number 2. It however is very good at 1. 3DSMax, Maya and others may be artist preferred, but open source wise, there just isnt anything close to Blender. In fact, 3D asset gen wise, Blender is knocking on Autodesks door, which is a fascinating business prospect for them.
For managing and developing a scene, I would agree with others, Defold is not great for this at the moment - Im sure that will improve. However, Defold’s primary use case is still 2D and adding 3D capabilities can cause problems when working with 3D in the same editing space - this is why Unity3D has two ‘modes’ of operations - 2D or 3D. I also feel, that trying to make something “Unity3D” like is a really big job and very hard to get right - it took Unity3D over 5 yrs to get it half decent, and that was with a sizable team.
I have been architect on about 4 different 3D editor projects for commercial simulation projects, and this is no small task. And if you get to know the Defold system, it is important to understand how it works - it is not a Godot, or a Unity3D or an Unreal Engine or a Unigine. This is not their target market (as I understand it) and this means you need to temper your expectations with that in mind. There may be “nice 3D editing” down the development track, but its not something I think you will see tomorrow, or even within the next year. Hence, why using other scene generation tools make a great deal of sense to be able to asset manage 3D resources for Defold. Low impact to current dev.
As @britzl and @JCash have mentioned in the past, 3D editing will be improved but there are already many people doing good 3D work as it stands. If the pipeline is too messy/complex then I would highly recommend making some suggestions, or making some PR’s for the editor, or getting involved on some of the issues relating to these tasks.
Im a big proponent of Defold and 3D - because it surprised me. Ive made alot of 3D commercial projects (some 20+ over the last 20 years) and Defold has been one of the nicest frameworks I have used yet. Thats my own opinion, I dont expect people to agree, my experience with Lua and Luajit has made it much easier for me to “get on board” with the whole Defold system design. I think if people dig deep enough they will find the same gold I’m enjoying right now 