Blendkit for Godot

A simple yet effective add-on that lets you import models from the Blendkit library to Godot Engine.

About

Browse the Blendkit.com gallery, click Send to Godot on any asset, and let it land directly in your Godot project - organized and ready to use.

You can process assets as you see fit, possibly building your own workflow / pipeline on top of this simple mechanism.

See User Guide for an overview, screenshots, and getting started guide.

This project is Free and Open Source Software under GPLv2.

Contributions are highly encouraged and welcome 🤝

⭐ Star this repo to show support and interest in continued development, thanks!

Status

alpha

Blendkit Godot plugin is in active early development focusing on polishing fundamentals (building, testing, integration) in order to provide a robust user and developer experience, including distribution and installation.

As of now, please consider this software experimental 🧪

It's a great time to test and contribute so that the plugin is useful for you and everyone else.

IMPORTANT: Godot Blender imports are relatively young and many .blend files can import incorrectly or not import at all with ample amount of warnings and errors printed to Godot Output. As of Godot 4.5.1, Blender 3 is required while Blender 5 has been out for some time.

This plugin will get increasingly useful as native Blender -> Godot import improves.

Experimental GLTF support was introduced in 0.4.0 - there is now an option to prefer GLTF (*.glb, *.gltf) over original Blender (*.blend) file. GLTF auto-exports are by no means perfect, but they might occassionally work.

Requirements

Blendkit Godot Plugin requires:

• Godot Engine: 4.X
• OS: Linux, Windows
  • MacOS doesn't work yet due to security (work in progress)
• Architectures: x86_64, arm64
• Web browser: permission to access local network (to connect to Blendkit Client)

Installation

See User Guide for a visual overview of installation and usage.

The Plugin needs to be installed for each Godot project.

From the Godot Asset Store (recommended)

In Godot 4.7 and newer, use the built-in Asset Store tab:

1. Search for Blendkit, click the plugin and press Download.
2. Go to Project → Project Settings... → Plugins tab.
3. Check Enabled for Blendkit.

You can also browse the plugin on the Godot Asset Store website.

From a ZIP archive

Download the blendkit-godot_vX.Y.Z.zip archive from the Godot Asset Store or GitHub Releases (or build your own from sources), then:

1. Extract the ZIP into your Godot project root directory (where project.godot is located)
   • DO NOT copy addons/ or addons/blendkit/ from this repo without building Client binaries first.
2. Open your project in Godot Editor, go to Project → Project Settings... → Plugins tab
3. Check Enabled for Blendkit

If installation succeeded, you should see a new Blendkit tab in the right panel dock (next to Inspector) as well as Blendkit: messages in editor Output.

Upgrading

Always do a clean install when upgrading to a new version:

1. Delete the addons/blendkit/ directory from your Godot project.
2. Install the new version as usual (see above).

This avoids stale files left over from the previous version.

Usage

After Blendkit Godot plugin is installed and enabled in your Godot project, you should see a new Blendkit tab in the right panel dock (next to Inspector) of the Godot Editor.

You can now browse assets from Blendkit.com in your browser and download them into your Godot project with a single click on the Send to Godot button on any Get asset page.

For example, after downloading two models and one material:

bk_assets
├── materials
│   └── stylized-wooden-_42daf872-0c07-4f9f-bd51-2d741043096b
│       └── stylized-wooden-floor_2K_724059e9-51b8-4d19-8088-3a11745347a2.blend
└── models
    ├── 19th-century-pap_6c28bfad-6678-4e85-abbc-41b36c436c96
    │   └── 19th-century-paper-clutter-waste_2K_2e96ac1b-aae0-4c49-b352-6553f693f841.blend
    └── wooden-lamp_84286bab-7077-4bb8-a83f-f035c71e9885
        └── wooden-lamp_e6458d96-fe9f-4b4d-a164-c7d61974be86.blend

You don't need a credit card to get free assets, but you can access paid assets should you decide to support artists with a Blendkit.com Full Plan.

You can create empty .gdignore file in bk_assets/ to prevent Godot auto-import.

Architecture

     local machine                                          internet

┌──────────────────────┐
│    Blendkit Godot    │
│      (GDScript)      │
└──────────────────────┘
           ▲
           │
     HTTP  │  connects to existing Blendkit Client
           │  or spawns a new one
           │
           ▼
┌──────────────────────┐            HTTPS             ┌────────────────────┐
│   Blendkit Client    │◄────────────────────────────►│    blendkit.com    │
│        (Go)          │     search/download/auth     │       server       |
└──────────────────────┘                              └────────────────────┘
           ▲
           │
     HTTP  │  initiate download
           │
           ▼
┌─────────────────────────┐
│   Browser / bkclientjs  │
│       (JavaScript)      │
└─────────────────────────┘

Weak points

• Browser ↔ Client connection may be blocked by browser policy / firewall / OS settings
• Godot ↔ Client connection may be lost if Godot doesn't send heartbeat for too long, this leads to Client auto (re)start

Directory Structure

• addons/blendkit/ - Godot plugin sources (standard Godot addon path)
• BlenderKit/ - Blendkit Client sources (cloned from upstream repo)
• tests/ - pytest test suite
• out/ - Build output directory (generated)
• project.godot - Godot project file for development and testing

Building

You need the following requirements:

• Python 3 for running the dev.py build script

Clone the repo and do a full build:

git clone https://github.com/BlenderKit/bk_godot.git
cd bk_godot
python dev.py build

By default this builds from a published client release:

• downloads the latest stable Blendkit Client release (the signed binaries) into client-dist/ and verifies its sha256 (./dev.py get-client-release)
• copies the client binaries into the plugin directory
• creates a distributable ZIP archive (./dev.py build-archive)

Pin a specific release with ./dev.py build --tag vX.Y.Z.

The distributable ZIP will be at out/blendkit-godot_vX.Y.Z.zip.

Building the client from source

To compile the client yourself instead of using a release (requires Go and git):

./dev.py build --from-source

This clones Blendkit Client into BlenderKit/, builds it with Go, and assembles the plugin.

Development

This repository is set up as a Godot project, so you can open it directly in Godot Editor for development and testing.

1. Clone this repository
2. Build (downloads the client release and assembles the plugin):

   ./dev.py build

3. Open the project in Godot Editor
4. Make changes to the plugin in addons/blendkit/
5. Test your changes directly in the editor

Run python dev.py for a list of all available commands.

Command	Description
build	Full build from a published client release: download + plugin + archive
get-client-release	Download a published client release and install its binaries
get-client-src	Clone/update Blendkit Client repository
build-client	Build only the Go client
build-plugin	Copy client binaries into plugin directory
build-archive	Create filtered ZIP archive of the plugin
clean	Remove build artifacts (out/ and client binaries)
set-version	Set plugin version in plugin.cfg
test	Run pytest tests

Run ./dev.py <command> --help for command-specific options.

Testing

Run the test suite with:

./dev.py test

Tests use pytest with fixtures for running Godot in headless editor mode. Use -v for verbose output or -k <pattern> to filter tests.

Releasing

Releases are automated via GitHub Actions. To create a new release:

git tag v1.0.0
git push origin v1.0.0

This will:

1. Update the version in plugin.cfg to match the tag
2. Build the plugin with the Blendkit Client
3. Create a GitHub release with the ZIP attached

Contributing

This project is Free and Open Source Software under GPLv2.

Contributions are highly encouraged and welcome 🤝

If you hit a bug or you wish something worked better, simply open a GitHub Issue.

The better you describe the problem, the easier it will be to fix.