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  • Published 14 May 2025

Integration of Blender addons into Steam Workshop

Hello, Blender developers!

I have an idea about addons. But what if we make it so that they can be installed directly from the Steam Workshop?

I think it would be very convenient. Now, to install the addon, you need to search for it on the Internet, download it, and then dig into the Blender settings. And so I logged into Steam, clicked "subscribe" - and that's it.

It would also be safer. Steam keeps track of files, there's less stuff there. And updates would come by themselves, there would be no need to worry.

It would be easier to find new addons. Everything is visible in the Workshop: pictures, descriptions, ratings.

In general, I think this is a good idea that will make Blender even better. Please think about it.

Thanks! 6d0e9a9332e2f4cfaa77a5bd6ad1f52f.jpg

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Development Status: Open

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openbor
14 May 2025

4 Comments

Lauloque

I think the current platform is overall much better than what the Steam Workshop could offer. And more options isn't really a good thing in that case imho:

  • You don't need a steam account
  • You don't need to access steam at all
  • You don't need to open another software to browse addons, they are already listed in Blender
  • It's already there and functional, no need for more development from the BF to add another solution that does sensibly the same thing with other caveats;
  • Addon devs don't need to post they addons on yet another platform
  • People doing professional work with Blender often want addons to NOT auto-update: uppdates can lead to breaking changes or data loss, which can make you lose money. A lot. If not clients entirely.

It would also be safer. Steam keeps track of files, there's less stuff there

How would it be safer? As far as I know:

The extensions platform is closely moderated a priori: addons need the approbation from the BF devs before being available to the wide audience. So there's a very low likeliness to have any shady or non-functional addons, or even functional but sub-par ones.

Steam Workshop moderates "a posteriori", and by the community: stuff just gets posted "as-is" by any random user and made available to the wide audience right away with no safety net. You have no warranty as a user that any content on the Steam Workshop was checked or approved by anyone. It's up to the community to then download and try things up. Meaning that malware can harm lots of people before the moderation is even warned about it.

3
thorn

So in addition to uploading addons to extensions (and/or blender market, gumroad, etc), they would all have to also install Steam and upload them there? Sounds like a plan for fragmentation.

2
Lauloque

As an addon developer, I consider it's already enough of work to publish on the extensions platform + my official repository because there will always be people who prefer to get things from there.

2