I'm an experienced SceneKit developer and I want to begin work on a new project using RealityKit. So I appreciated as timely, the WWDC 2025 Session, "Bring your SceneKit project to RealityKit".
However, now I am finding that:
- Blender does not properly support exporting armatures in usdc files, and usdc is really the only file format that should be used for creating 3D assets for RealityKit.
- The option of exporting from Blender to fbx or some other intermediate format, and then converting that to usdc, is a challenge.
- Apple's Reality Converter App, which supposedly can support importing and converting fbx files to usdc, is no longer available from Apple's website. And an older copy of it I found at the Kodeco website requires Rosetta on Apple Silicon. As well, this older copy does not in fact import fbx or anything else - I find it doesn't work at all.
- Apple's Reality Composer Pro, at least as far as I can tell, only supports importing usdc - it is not a file conversion tool.
- Alternatively, I am under the impression that Maya supports producing usdc files with armatures, but Maya costs over $2000 per year and I am skilled with Blender, so I believe strongly that I should be able to continue with Blender. Maya's expense and skillset simply shouldn't be a requirement for building RealityKit applications.
What are my options then, if any, to produce assets with armatures and armature based animations using Blender, and then bring them into RealityKit?