Linux - Portable installation of Blender not recognized for Blender import with error: Blender Path does not contain a Blender installation

[hsandt]

Tested versions

• Reproducible in: v4.3.dev.custom_build [f2045ba82]

System information

Godot v4.3.dev (f2045ba82) - SteamOS holo - X11 - GLES3 (Compatibility) - AMD Custom GPU 0405 (vangogh, LLVM 15.0.7, DRM 3.54, 6.1.52-valve9-1-neptune-61) () - AMD Custom APU 0405 (8 Threads)

Issue description

I'm running ArchLinux on a SteamDeck and trying to make .blend import work.

I have first installed Blender via Flatpak as recommended, but it is known not to be supported (see https://www.reddit.com/r/godot/comments/16571z1/how_to_set_blender_3_path/)

So I did a classic portable install from https://www.blender.org/download/ > Linux (not Snap Store) and extracted archive into a folder and set that folder path in Godot when prompted from Blender path.

However the popup still complained about the path with the error message:

Blender Path does not contain a Blender installation

So I don't know what to do, and I don't know the exact criterion for a Blender Path to be valid.

Apparently the only supported way is to install via some package manager (I do see a package extra-3.5/blender 17:3.5.1-8 when typing yay blender but that's Blender 3 not latest 4.0.2 so quite old - maybe some "ppa" can do the trick, but I'm not familiar with ArchLinux so not sure about the equivalent for 3rd-party repositories). But then what's the point of having a popup to prompt for a custom path?

Steps to reproduce

1. Install Blender via portable Linux install (download and extract archive somewhere). Make sure not to also have a package install.
2. Open a project and add some .blend file to the assets
3. On the prompt window for Blender path, select path where you extracted Blender archive

Minimal reproduction project (MRP)

N/A

[rsubtil]

What does the path look like? You need to specify the path to the blender executable itself (e.g. ~/Downloads/blender-3.6.5-linux-x64/blender), and not to the residing folder (e.g. ~/Downloads/blender-3.6.5-linux-x64)

If the path looks correct, try running Godot from the command line (godot -e --path /path/to/project) to check for any additional error info. Also check if the downloaded blender file is marked as executable.

[Norrox]

@hsandt i got this to. you'll have to manually write /blender in the end after you choose the filepath for eg. "~/Downloads/blender-3.6.5-linux-x64/" so it should look like @rsubtil pointed out. godot does not automatically add /blender even if you double click it in the file browser. so that is a bug i think

[hsandt]

OK, I tested again on 4.2.1.stable but it's quite different:

Project settings:

• filesystem/import/blender/enabled: true

Editor settings:

• filesystem/import/blender/blender3_path: /home/deck/Applications/3D/blender-4.0.2-linux-x64
• filesystem/import/blender/blender_path: empty

Note that "blender3_path" may designate Blender 3 or a later version like Blender 4. I filled the path with the folder only, not the binary.

The second one, blender_path, doesn't seem used, not sure what it does.

With this configuration, it works!

I'll again with Godot 4.3.dev later.

EDIT: tested Godot 4.2.1 again today and now the unused "Blender Path" setting has disappeared!

Maybe a leftover setting if you try to open the project with 4.3 then 4.2.1 again? (but how could I not notice a downgrade?)