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Blender 2.33 Re-enables Game Engine
fforw writes "One and a half year after becoming free software, the Blender Foundation has released
a new version of
Blender which finally enables the game engine again.
When Blender became free software. the game engine had to be disabled because SOLID, the collision library was not free software. After SOLID's author Gino van den Bergen changed his mind, Blender has now restored all functionality from the closed-source period."
A quick Google revealed a few examples of some games that use this engine, see http://www.spinheaddev.com/gameexpose0.html (NOT HTML clicking to help reduce load on server a tad...)
The controls are a bit hard to learn, though the interface has been getting better recently. In the end, once you read through the tutorials and learn all the keyboard commands you will find them to be great.
For those who are interested here are six games that use the blender game engine:
Crescent Dawn
Dark Squad
Dracolith
Sachi Soup
Twilight Quest
Vertigo
Their is complete documentation for the 2.3x release available in several formats: http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Using_Blender.80.0.ht ml
Its been there for awhile now. Press U in edit mode.
That is not true, the 2.3 manual has been uploaded in html and pdf forms. I do find a paper manual (+- 800 pages and 1 kg) easier to use in most cases, but for quick searching the pdf is nice.
http://bane.servebeer.com/programming/blender/
[troll food]
Ever heard of a plug-in?
Blender has excellent support for import/export scripts written in python. If you do a little digging around on the blender sites I'm sure you'd find a variety of 3ds importer/exporters available.
[/troll food]
ODE is still at version 0.039, and not improving much.
I wouldn't agree at all. There's an ongoing debate on the ODE list about what features to add, and the consensus is towards improving stability and collision quality rather than adding unnecessary frills. This is exactly the right approach, and Russ Smith, the original ODE author, is behind it one hundred percent.
ODE actually is undergoing substantial improvement and debugging, even if the feature list doesn't seem to be growing at its prior pace.
I haven't found a complete listing of all keyboard shortcuts yet
This list looks pretty good.
Maybe SOLID should be replaced by a ODE/OPCODE combination - but that would be incompatible with the existing blender games.
while (!asleep()) sheep++
Another thing, and this is a huge one. PROGRAMMABLE HOTKEYS! Even in 3ds max (my package of choice, in case you couldn't tell) there are some hotkeys that I set up different than standard. Having the ability to map the keyboard and mouse the way I want would make most of my problems go away. As it stands, I'm about to dig through the Blender source hoping I can manage to redo the hotkeys. I can't program for shit, but modifying programs is simple enough.
'Standards' in computing only impress those who are impressed by things like 'standards'.
Hmmm...
o ar d
Your hostility seems a bit undeserved. However, I'd like to respond if I may.
Have you worked through the tutorials in the standard manual (either the new one by Ton for 3.32 or the older one that is now free - [I think much of Tons newest has mostly been released under a free license as well])?
Doing all of your modeling in one big window is relatively straight forward. What particular 'manipulators' do you feel are missing? Are you familiar of the usage of the right and middle mouse button for manipulation? (Ie scaling, zooming, rotation, etc.)
I also desire full undo. It is non trivial, otherwise it would be done already. I recall seeing some work on enabling multi-level undo for everything but I'm not sure how far it has progressed.
[QUOTE] Blender is trying too hard to be different, and it's hurting itself in the process.[/QUOTE]
It isn't 'trying to be different'. The one hand on the mouse and the other on the keyboard is an extremely efficient method. Something being discussed is migrating all of the key and mousebindings to a user configureable method.(Yes should probably have been done from the beginning). Then you can set them up exactly as you like them from other environments.
"Give users the choice of either creating objects through click and drag, or at the origin."
That is a worthwhile suggestion, have you considered emailing the blender funboard (blender functionality board)
http://www.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-funb
discusses feature suggestions.
This is probably one of those things I don't find confusing mostly because I've never worked with the 'other pacakage's. What impovements do you think could be made? Any specific criticism of the tools?
This one, I'm not too sure about. I like the ability to split windows, and arrange them in almost any conceivable fashion. The other packages I've seen, have a much more static view. I can't imagine how this might be improved.
There is an undo. It works, and its real.
That would be your cursor, I believe. You can pivot around it, it sets the insertion point for new objects. LMB does other things besides set the 3D-Cursor position, its probably the keyboard shortcuts again that you're not familiar with. Again, I'm not familiar with the other packages, but are you complaining here that you can actually choose where new objects are created?
I'm not sure what else you would align it to initially. You could always just create the object then align it however you like. Personally, I usually have 3 windows on my screen, besides the large one that I do most of my editing in, and I create the object on the one with the alignment I want. Like this It works very well.
As for the rest of it, you seem pretty preocupied with making Blender like the other software. I don't think that is a good motive for UI redesign, but I see your point that it definetly adds to the learning curve for people transitioning from them. I came across an excellent document with proposals for UI enhancements, perhaps some of its suggestions would placate you? Anything you'd like to expand, or expound?
The blender documentation addresses everything you've said here. I suppose I could be mistaken, but it seems pretty clear you haven't even skimmed it, lead alone read the thing.
I'm about to do so, but remember that I've been using Blender for over 4 years. I've read DOZENS of tutorials. It's not a question of just learning hotkeys. The interface feels like it was programmed as they went along instead of designed THEN programmed.
Yes, and it's unbelievably counterintuitive. It's much easier to just grab a manipulator and move something. In case you're not familiar with them, a manipulator is basically a three axis arrow looking thing that allows you to restrict movements to one or two directions. Look at some 3ds max or Maya screenshots for the best examples. This isn't to say that a manipulator is the only way to work, Lightwave for example doesn't use them, but I think it would be perfect for Blender.
It's not trivial, but it can't be that difficult. Every graphics program I've ever used has one, EXCEPT for Blender. This is something I find completely inexcusable. The mesh editing undo is a good start, but even that is a horrible kludge. We'll see how it progresses.
They might not try to be different but they're certainly not trying to do anything the way anyone else does. In some ways this is good. I LOVE the way the interface looks. It's by far the best looking interface out there, IMO, and other programs would do well to learn from it. Blender feels like it's trying to replicate Lightwave's mouse/keyboard setup more than 3ds max's, and that's fine. I like Lightwave, it works very well and has some damn fine modeling tools. But whereas Lightwave's tools get progressively easier to use, Blenders just get progressively frustrating to DEAL WITH. User configurable mouse/keyboard setups would be optimal and would go a LONG way towards helping Blender be a better program.
I'll check out the mailing list you linked to. Thanks for pointing me there.
'Standards' in computing only impress those who are impressed by things like 'standards'.