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Blender Releases Linux 3D Web Plugin
Qbertino writes: "Not a Number, producer of Blender, the Linux community's favorite professional 3D Package (get it for free) has released the beta of their 3D Web Plugin for Netscape 6.1 / Mozilla on Linux/Unix. It offers full integration of Blender's realtime 3D enviroment based applications into the browser's enviroment. Including OpenGL acceleration and all. Check out the Demos. Feedback on the beta-release is welcome and kindly requested on the Blender Community Discussion Board."
When has 3d environments *ever* been something useful on the web?
What didn't get noted is that one can go to the same demos running Wintel and IE and get a working plugin automagically installed. This isn't just Linux/Mozilla but reasonably cross-platform. Next gotta check with MacOS & MacOS X.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
This sounds great, but are there any "real world" sites using or planning on using this plugin? Or is it just another VRML experiment?
There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
Sheesh. Take 3 seconds, click a link, you find their explorer install page
Or you can just post to Slashdot.
The Blender plugin for Internet Explorer has been available for some time. Here is the link to the Blender 3D plugin download page.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
It's not completely free. You can't get the source.
Read http://freshmeat.net/projects/blender/
--mycr0ft
Me physicist. Me make rockets.
Blender is a win32 package too, the gui is horrible, but ok, that seems common with 3D packages. What seems to be so odd is the Unix only releases of plugins for the web.
How many users do they think there are with Unix browsers? So how many people will produce 3D content for their format? If there isn't a market, there are not suppliers. It's a simple as that.
Never underestimate the relief of true separation of Religion and State.
Haven't we tried this before?
Unless you're lucky enough to say "first post!" forget about hitting their site. Slashdotting is evil.
Take a look at the learning path. It helped me get a good grasp on the interface. I haven't used other editors, so I can't say it's better or worse than any.
"a quote" -me
Oh, wait, it said "plugin"... damn. Gotta get these eyes fixed.
--
perl -e'$_=shift;die eval' '"$^X $0\047\$_=shift;die eval\047 \047$_\047"' at -e line 1.
Seeing how the site is slashdotted, I might as well reply.
I see the market for this not being "VRML" like things, like someone said, but remote viewing of blender files (and other supported formats?) without having to have blender installed. The same reason many companies use PDF for "print" documents. You don't have to have the DTP tool used to create the document, you just have to have a common web based viewer (Acrobat.)
I know companies charge thousands for web plug-ins that let people view ProE models and the like without having ProE installed. Is this much different?
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
That's wild, i've never used any of those products and I mastered Blender enough to build - this - after about three days of running through the tuts and messing around with it.
"Do not be swept up in the momentum of mediocrity." - anon
Hi, I have used Blender for a couple of years, and I have some comments on the user interface that would probably shed some light here.
The interface is not obvious at first, but it seems to follow a *nix like trend, in that it is:
1) Confusing, and difficult to pick up.
2) Way faster than the more widely known packages, once you get the hang of it.
3) High degree of customizability in workflow and layout of the screen.
It takes time to understand the interface (and the manual helps a lot), but it does boast a very direct feel in the workflow, there are few cumbersome elements in the interface.
-Adrian
- Community's (instead of communitys)
- Browser's (instead of browsers)
Simple enough, we're talking possessive, not plural. Just doing the job the Grammar Nazi's not awake to do right now....Tom.
Oh arse
The tool is different from just about everything out there and once you get used to the method of interaction is seems very easy to get things done. I'm sure that there are plenty of people out there that bitch about the Linux interfaces and how hard they are to use, while many more people find them quick and efficient... give blender a try and see if it falls into this same scenario.
Stop griping about how it works/doesn't work or comparing it to other products like VRML until you've at least taken a look at what it can do. The user galleries and demos on the site are excellent examples of what can be done by an artist.
"Do not be swept up in the momentum of mediocrity." - anon
read up. The IE plugin was released months ago, they are playing catch up in releasing the Linux plugin.
"Do not be swept up in the momentum of mediocrity." - anon
Yes both Maya and Softimage XSI are on Linux. Houdini was actually first. There is also PRMan and the RAT tools, Rayz, Shake, rastrack, and few others here and there.
Yes I guess it depends on the perspective about favorite 3D package. Even Michael Tiemann of RedHat said once that long ago he wanted Maya running on Linux after experiencing it some time ago. But Blender is good for it's target audience/niche.
It's quite powerful. It has some interface annoyances (despite what the Blender groupies say), but if you're willing to put up with it, you CAN produce some kick-a** stuff. Get out your wallet though, if you want the latest release of Blender Creator (the plugin, of course, is free).
And the player file format is proprietary.
There are other 3D players. Shockwave 3D, for example. VRML, despite lack of interest, actually works quite well now, if you have a 3D accelerator board and DSL or better. There's X3D, which is just VRML text expressed as XML, but nobody uses that.
X3D would be a useful format if it was used, because it's one of the very few non-proprietary, documented 3D scene formats out there. Consider it if you're doing open-source 3D tools.
I'd like to see X3D import and export for Blender. VRML 2 export has been done as a Python script, so it's possible. Blender itself only does VRML 1.
Ok, so where's the source so that this won't be just another proprietary standard that nobody uses?
Blender in general still is free ('beer'). For everything classical 3D packages are actually used (stills, videos, sfx, etc.).
:-) , Blender's most outstanding feature is - believe it or not - it's user interface and workspace management. Unmatched speed, usability, versatility and customizability. No shit. The first two weeks I thought their GUI designers had smoked some really bad stuff (everybody does!) - then I caught on.
Only if you want to produce stand alone realtime 3D applications or web content without the blender logo displayed in a corner at the bottem do you have to buy a license.
Which is, on top of that, somewhat resonable in pricing (around 300$, single license) for such a package.
Notice that the other thing in this game is NeMo/Virtools for something like 5000$. And that's a windows-only gadget.
Oh, and btw, just for the book
Once you've grasped what they were up to when they programed this, you'll NEVER ever touch any other 3D Modeller again. I actually consider Blenders interface on of the most remarkable feats in interface design in general.
I honestly thought cinema4d was king in this area. It actually is just another also-ran.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
What didn't get noted is that one can go to the same demos running Wintel and IE and get a working plugin automagically installed. This isn't just Linux/Mozilla but reasonably cross-platform.
This auto-installing MSIE plug-in did work on my box with the slightly jacked-up AMD K6-2/366MHz CPU (overclocked to 400MHz), 256M SDRAM and generic Trident 4M AGP video card, but it was agonizingly slow. They're not kidding about needing at least a 450MHz CPU (something) and a modern TNT AGP video card. I'd suggest an Athlon 800MHz CPU for bearable performance.
A truly excellent pizza parlor is a delight unto the heavens. Treasure the sauce and the toppings!
Just tried it, but can't get it to go at all in Konqueror. In Mozilla I can't figure out how to load it, and netscape crashes my X server when I run the radiosity demo. Anyone else having problems? Thanks,
David
My understanding is that the blender plug-in is sandboxed by design. You could probably find out more from the site, but I'm relatively certain that it's sandboxed because some people had wanted to use it for active desktop interface but couldn't do much with it because of the sandboxing.
"Do not be swept up in the momentum of mediocrity." - anon
I think this page gives some good insight into their business model. Basically, Publisher (not free) pays for developement, and thus gets all the new features first. Once development is paid for the features get rolled into Creator (free). I think this sort of model is an excellent way to run a project like this, as long as no one gets greedy. The developers are paid, and therefore more motivated to do the "less sexy" jobs, and all the hardware and software necessary to develope a truely cross-platform package are acquired without relying on donations.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
Absolutely no way I'm installing any software on my computers that comes with the conditions below:
Why should NaN be willing to accept anything LESS profit than it can actually make? I think NaN should be able to profit as much as they can - obscenely, even - PROVIDED they produce a product that people want, and price at a point they're willing to pay. There has been a great deal of discussion in the chat forums on NaN's server regarding this topic.
Only if you want to produce stand alone realtime 3D applications or web content without the blender logo displayed in a corner at the bottem do you have to buy a license.
OR if you want the most current release of Blender Creator OR Blender Publisher.
Which is, on top of that, somewhat resonable in pricing (around 300$, single license) for such a package.
Personally, I'd like to see my $300 buy more modeling-related tools, interface polish, and reliability, than the ability to create and distribute 3D web content. But, as long as users know that their $300 is for the purchase of a Publisher license (which may include functionality they simply don't need or want), the price is fine.