Geometry nodes keep instances separate
I would like a way for "apply" the geo nodes modifier so that it maintains instances as separate (but ideally still instanced) objects.
This is so we can export the useful geo node creations for using in other apps, for example via an Alembic export.
You can see in the spreadsheet there are "4" instances. They each have transform values, I would like to extract these 4 instances (with their transform values) as individual objects (after applying the geo nodes modifier) so I can export these individual objects as an Alembic file.
Currently my only options are to "bake" the geo nodes using the "realize instance" node, but this gives you MERGED geo. In other words, a single geo objects with 4 separate cubes inside of it.
This is a huge missed opportunity.
If we could "bake" geo nodes into a bunch of separate instances, then Geo Nodes becomes a whole lot more useful!
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There's some solution now? I want to use geonode models on exports to Unity/Unreal, but is unviable to use "realize instances"
Apparently as of 4.5 there is a roundabout way of preserving instances generated by GN graph by using "Object:Apply:Visual Geometry to Objects". As it's a menu option and not a feature of GN itself, I suspect it has some limitations, among them in that it doesn't actually apply the modifier so niceties like apply on export and the like are lost.
I've traditionally done instancing with arrays but it was always a fairly messy process so I was excited to dig into Geometry Nodes as the presumably much more developed and capable solution. Sadly, it doesn't seem quite there for instance enjoyers.
I understand, there's a work arround Blender (and as you said, is a very messy process) to I change my geometry to a simple face to keep instances location (since if I try to convert the original mesh it will crash), then on Unity I change the source mesh to the original one (Unity can handle it fast)
This should honestly be the default behavior in Blender when applying a modifier with instances, instead of just loosing them. It has been a year since this post, I really hope to see it implemented soon!
Definetly a useful feature, especially the part were we could get linked instances instead of realized geometry