Broken Arrow Workbench

A standalone Windows authoring application with Blender model round trips, a top-down terrain/road/building editor, package exports and a local-game companion.

Release status: Compiled development preview. This new application, Blender jobs and companion have not undergone end-to-end gameplay acceptance. The existing Rimal importer is reused; its behaviour with newly authored projects still requires a playtest. Do not advertise this build as a finished SDK.

What this build actually does

Workflow	Implemented	Boundary
FBX / blend → GLB	Background Blender conversion; embedded textures; geometry, rigs and sampled animation; validation report	Requires installed Blender. Unsupported glTF features are rejected.
Blender round trip	Editable blend creation, Open in Blender, saved-blend re-import, FBX export, optional Blender sidebar	Save the blend before re-importing. Blender is the 3D preview.
Models in game	Scenario-scoped visual placement with scale, yaw, ground alignment and looping/nonlooping clips	No native selection, health, AI, weapons, collisions or destruction added to arbitrary GLB objects.
Terrain	513² F32, RAW16 and grayscale PNG16 import; raise/lower/flatten/smooth; RAW16 export	One kilometre square, 0–255 m vertical range. Not a GIS reprojection tool.
Roads / native buildings	Polyline roads; widths; native family placement; masks, minimap and Rimal navigation rebuild	Rimal and Rimal Assault templates only. Native building models come from the installed donor map.
Map ↔ Blender	Editable terrain grid, building proxy boxes and road curves; return terrain heights and layouts	Proxy boxes are not extracted game buildings. Do not change terrain XY topology.
Unity tools	Optional FBX-to-AssetBundle batch worker	Requires activated Unity 2022.3.62f3. Bundle output is an advanced artifact; this adapter loads GLB, not bundles.
Delivery	Checksum manifest, game deployment, file backups, rollback	Copies our DLLs/project data only. No automatic mod-loader or BARO installer.

Before starting

Run the Thunder Buddies package installer and keep Install Broken Arrow Workbench checked. Open Workbench from its desktop shortcut or the Tools/BrokenArrowWorkbench folder in your game installation. Keep Bridge, Docs and Runtime next to the EXE.
Use Windows x64. The application includes its .NET 8 runtime. Blender and Unity are not bundled.
Own Broken Arrow through Steam. Current companion target: game 1.2.0.3, Unity 2022.3.62f3, MelonLoader 0.7.3. Your current BARO is 5.9.5; Workbench does not modify it.
For native-map work, install the TBS Rimal map/scenario separately. Workbench does not include the game or a full native scenario foundation.
Open BrokenArrowWorkbench.exe, then follow the exact workflows.

The project lifecycle

Project folder → Import → Blender edit → Save blend → Re-import → Validate

       ↓

Terrain / roads / native buildings → Export game package → Deploy

       ↓

Steam “Play - Anti-Cheat Disabled” → selected LOCAL scenario

Game installation is detected through Steam's registry and library configuration; there is no assumption that it is on C:. No button starts Easy Anti-Cheat, replaces BrokenArrow.exe, joins a server or chooses a Steam launch mode.

Source and redistribution

The separate Source, RuntimeSource, Bridge and Build.ps1 files are available in the development folder. Workbench, its original TBS companion DLLs, Blender bridge, documentation and geographic example project are included in the Thunder Buddies package installer. Keep Install Broken Arrow Workbench checked during setup. B.A.R.O. and MelonLoader are installed by the same EXE. Game assemblies, Blender and Unity are not redistributed with these tools.