"Blender to game engine: an export checklist for GLB and FBX"
Most "the model looks wrong in the engine" problems come from a handful of settings in Blender. Work through this list before every export and you'll avoid nearly all of them.
1. Scale and units
- Set Scene Properties -> Units -> Unit Scale to 1.0 with metres, and model at real size (a car is about 4.5 m long).
- Apply scale (Ctrl+A -> Scale) on every object. An object scaled to 0.01 in Blender exports with that scale baked into its transform, and physics, lighting and animation all behave oddly.
2. Rotation and axes
Blender is Z-up; most engines are Y-up. The GLB exporter converts this for you (Y up is on by default). For FBX, use Forward: -Z, Up: Y for most engines, and apply rotation before exporting so the object arrives with a clean (0, 0, 0) rotation.
3. Pivots (origins)
Put each object's origin where it should rotate: a door at its hinge, a wheel at its hub, a character at its feet. Origins set in Blender come through as the pivot in the engine. Getting this right in Blender is far easier than fixing it in a prefab.
4. Clean geometry
- Recalculate normals (Shift+N) so faces point outwards.
- Remove doubles (Merge by Distance).
- Triangulate if your engine's import triangulates differently from what you see.
- Check the triangle count matches what you budgeted (see the calculator).
5. Materials and textures
- Use the Principled BSDF with image textures plugged straight in; complex node set-ups don't export.
- GLB: embeds textures in one file - simplest to share.
- FBX: references texture files; ship them alongside with the same relative paths.
- Name materials sensibly; engines create one material per Blender material.
6. Names, collections and LODs
- Name objects clearly (
Sedan_01_Body,Sedan_01_Door_FL). - For LODs, use your engine's naming convention (for example
_LOD0,_LOD1,_LOD2) so they're grouped automatically on import. - Hide or exclude helper objects you don't want exported.
7. Test the round trip
Import the exported file into a new, empty Blender scene and into your engine. Check scale against a 1 m cube, pivot positions, normals and materials. Five minutes here is cheaper than finding the problem after 200 assets are placed in a level.
GLB or FBX?
GLB is an open standard, self-contained and well supported by web and modern engines. FBX is still the most common choice for Unity and Unreal pipelines and handles animation well. When selling or sharing assets, offering both is a kindness to buyers.