Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Blender 2.33 Re-enables Game Engine

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the back-in-business dept.

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."

11 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. Some Blender Games by c_oflynn · · Score: 4, Informative

    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...)

    1. Re:Some Blender Games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Done the right way:

      http://www.spinheaddev.com/?id=crescentd
      http://www.shadeless.dk/3d/?site=darksquad.htm
      http://project-blender.onlinehome.de/
      http://www.brainstorm-studios.net
      http://zerooneentertainment.org/blengine/sachi
      http://project-blender.onlinehome.de/
      http://www.tudbzd.com/

  2. Great F/OSS by mastergoon · · Score: 5, Informative
    Blender has got to be right up there among the best of the F/OSS software. It may not have all the features of 3d studio max, but for beginner and intermediate modellers, or people with no artistic talent, it kicks ass!

    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.

    1. Re:Great F/OSS by dcuny · · Score: 4, Informative
      I agree. However, there's been a lot of work to redo the Blender interface, and that work is continuing. For example, the Blender Funboard newsgroup was put together for this purpose.

      Unfortunately, this newsgroup hasn't proved entirely successful. One problem is that long-time users are loathe to have their beloved interface changed, since they feel that it's just "dumbing it down", and any changes will also slow them down.

      Another issue is that coders would rather add new features (ambiant occlusion, new texture models, etc.) than work on the UI. Ton (the primary architect) has been working on the Blender Book, and the other major coder has been off on vacation.

      I recently tried to learn RVKs. What's an RVK you might ask? They are Relative Vertex Keys, but the rest of the world calls them Morph Targets. And where the rest of the world allows you to actually select a named morph target and drag a slider, Blender insists that you create IPO curves (interpolation, not initial price offering) - somehow remembering that RVK curve #7 was a left blink, and RVK curve #8 was the phoneme "o" - and then ctrl+click on the IPO curve and drag to create a spline for the RVK ...

      It's a freaking UI nightmare!

      The refusal to use common nomenclature and standard UI tools here pretty wells sums up the problems with the Blender UI.

      Still, William Reynish (aka Monkeyboi) has put together a great set of proposals to fix the UI, and many of his prior suggestions have been incorporated. So I'm hoping that Ton and others concentrate on getting the remainder of Blender UI out of the "dark ages" so the rest of us can use it.

  3. Re:and another thing for newbies to learn by zaphod_bee4 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Their is complete documentation for the 2.3x release available in several formats: http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Using_Blender.80.0.ht ml

  4. Re:what about Undo? by DavidLeblond · · Score: 4, Informative
    This is great news but when is UNDO gonna be implemented, if ever? This is a major feature for a software like that to be missing.


    Its been there for awhile now. Press U in edit mode.
  5. Re:and another thing for newbies to learn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  6. Just plug in a Python script by ReyTFox · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://bane.servebeer.com/programming/blender/

  7. Re:and another thing for newbies to learn by Curtman · · Score: 3, Informative

    I haven't found a complete listing of all keyboard shortcuts yet

    This list looks pretty good.

  8. Re:Collision detection by fforw · · Score: 3, Informative
    It would be nice to see ODE integrated into Blender instead of SOLID. ODE is a complete dynamics simulator, not just a collision detector.
    ODE is mainly a rigid body physics engine. ODE offers built-in collision detection based on the geometric primitives (Ground, Cube, Sphere, Cylinder etc.) out of which the rigid bodies consist. Triangle collision is only avaible via plugin mechanisms. Currently there is an OPCODE plugin. It may be possible to write a plugin which drives SOLID.

    Maybe SOLID should be replaced by a ODE/OPCODE combination - but that would be incompatible with the existing blender games.

    --
    while (!asleep()) sheep++
  9. Re:and another thing for newbies to learn by Curtman · · Score: 3, Informative
    Okay, this is exactly the kind of thing that I would consider constructive criticism. Thank you.

    • Mesh editing is cumbersome and utterly counter-intuitive. This is caused mostly by the focus on hotkeys rather than menus, and also by the lack of a manipulator of any kind. Once you learn the hotkeys, it's STILL a chore to model because the way that most of the tools work is so far from the way they work in nearly every other package.


    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?

    • I, like a lot of people, prefer to model in one large window as opposed to several smaller ones


    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.

    • No real undo


    There is an undo. It works, and its real.
    • What the hell is that stupid bullseye thing? It is completely useless/Why aren't object created at either the origin or where I click and drag, like every other package ever made ever? Just to be different?


    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?
    • why the hell would I want to create an obect that's aligned with the screen? I don't want to have to change my damn screen position every time I need a new object


    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.