Blender 2.34 Released

Ratow writes "From Blender's site: 'Just in time for Siggraph 2004, the Blender 2.34 release! Packed with new features, from particle force fields and deflection, to advanced UV mapping, ramp shading and more. Read the full list of additions and changes in 2.34. Here you can download Blender 2.34 for all platforms.'"

Comments

Bleder UI is great.

[noselasd]

So, are we having flamewars again about the Blender UI ? Knock on wood
if it doesn't happen.

Anyway, before people start bitching about it, please download the manual here(Vol 1)
and go through the tutorial of creating your first animation.

Once you get to know how things works, its logical, and a breeze to use.
Sort of learning the power of vi or emacs, it's right there, you just
don't see it at first, and you have to learn a few basics to get started

Re:Bleder UI is great.

[Bluesman]

Well, vi I'll accept. But if Blender were really similar to Emacs, you'd have to quintuple click while holding both Ctrl keys to select an object.

Re:Bleder UI is great.

[Tumbleweed]

Don't forget to blink your right eye (only) while doing that. ;)

Re:Bleder UI is great.

[Dark Lord Seth]

Some people just aren't very good at creating 3D graphics. Instead of realizing things like this, most people yell and blame the tool, not their own inability. It's just like some people don't have any talent for drawing or are just poor drivers. Cooking would be a good example, too. Last time I tried to cook something I got yelled at by the FEMA. :(

Re:Bleder UI is great.

[black mariah]

It is *NOT* logical. It doesn't even have an internal logic that sort of makes sense if you forget everything you know about other programs (see Lightwave). The improvements that have been made are still a long way away from making Blender usable for anything but people that are new to 3d. The actual UI has improved dramatically, so much so that at least visually it's my absolute favorite of any package I've used (and I've used a lot). It's the way that the UI is layed out, and the way the things within the UI function, that keeps Blender down.

Re:Bleder UI is great.

[Dasaan]

Any specific examples of how and when it is illogical?

Re:Bleder UI is great.

[black mariah]

First and foremost is the inability to set your own hotkeys. I understand this is being worked on, but not fast enough. Next on the list would have to be mouse controls. I have been using Blender on and off for several years and I did not know until the LAST RELEASE (keep in mind I got into Blender around .9) that the left mouse button had gestures assigned to it. WHAT THE HELL? There's a reason mouse gestures haven't taken off, they're completely unintuitive. The parameter value boxes also make no sense. You can click and drag to change the value, but the sensitivity is fucked so you end up overshooting your target by about 30,000. You can manually type in the amount you want, but it requires a SHIFT-click to do so. Not once have I ever remembered I have to hold shift. Every damn time, I click on the field expecting it to just let me type the damn number in. Grah. The way most of the modeling tools works is illogical... and not having edge tools is just fucking stupid (same goes for Lightwave). There's more, but I'm tired of typing. A lot of these issues are being addressed, luckily, but most probably will never change.

Re:Bleder UI is great.

[Dasaan]

First and foremost is the inability to set your own hotkeys.

Not really an issue to do with the logic of te controls, something that could certainly be better and as you mention something that is being worked on.

Next on the list would have to be mouse controls. I have been using Blender on and off for several years and I did not know until the LAST RELEASE (keep in mind I got into Blender around .9) that the left mouse button had gestures assigned to it. WHAT THE HELL? There's a reason mouse gestures haven't taken off, they're completely unintuitive.

Again not really a logic problem.

The parameter value boxes also make no sense. You can click and drag to change the value, but the sensitivity is fucked so you end up overshooting your target by about 30,000.

Also not a logic problem, this seems more of a sensitivity problem, perhaps an option in the preferences to alter the mouse/button drag sensitivity would be useful.

You can manually type in the amount you want, but it requires a SHIFT-click to do so. Not once have I ever remembered I have to hold shift. Every damn time, I click on the field expecting it to just let me type the damn number in. Grah.

I don't really see this as illogical either. Maybe not the best choice, but not illogical.

The way most of the modeling tools works is illogical... and not having edge tools is just fucking stupid (same goes for Lightwave).

I guess I'm not the best person to try and defend the modeling tools of any 3d design package as I'm a tinkerer at best so I wont even try :)
I do mention the above points as they aren't really the tools themselves but the interface.
A lot of the issues you mention seem to be because the interface behaves differently to most of the other 3d packages around.
I'm not trying to be an annoying pedant, it comes naturally to me ;), it's just that you were complaining about illogical controls.

Re:Bleder UI is great.

[noselasd]

If you are into doing serious 3D graphics, you would probably
read the manual of that program, it's usually all there, Blender
beeing no exception. Put a newbie in front of Maya, he won't be getting
very far either. 3D modelling studios are advanced programs, it's not a
simple email/browser type of program.
For your examples, if you cannot remember to hold shift , well, god help you. For doing steps in smoother sizes, you hold CTRL. Same as doing small steps with anything else in blender.

Development speed

[Wuukie]

Have you noticed that Blender development speed is just absolutely amazing nowadays? It had the expectable slow start when new developers were making themselves familiar with the codebase, but lately we have had new, major updates regularly and IMHO quite frequently.

Amazing work guys!

Re:Development speed

[Anonymous Coward]

It's great for the app to keep moving at such a healthy pace, but it sucks for the printed docs. I wouldn't mind forking over cash for the nicely printed manual ... but I'd kick myself knowing that it will be out of date so quickly.

Their version numbering doesn't really do their releases justice. The changes they are making would at least justify a "0.5+ release" in any commercial app. The last few updates have increased the version number by 0.01, but have added major new features (and considerable UI revamp).

Kudos to the team, though. The software is a very nice piece of work.

Already slashdotted...

[Anonymous Coward]

... sigh. I feel like part of a mob of lemmings sometimes when I click these links. A mob of vicious, bandwidth smothering lemmings. From the page (once it finally loaded:)

Torrent link:
http://www.letwory.net/blendertorrent/downl oad.php ?id=15&name=blender-2.34-windows.exe.torrent

Anonymous because I'm not looking for Karma here, just faster server response times.

Re:Blender UI is great.

[shadowman99]

Yes it is a great interface. It takes practice, like anything worth learning. I have used blender to build two projects (works in progress) Superman and female mesh. Open source program open source docs open development comunity People need to stop bashing Blender. It's one of Open sources big success stories.

Povray

[lastninja]

I have always wondered about the difference between blender and povray. Are they competitors do they complement each other, what is the relation? It seems they are often mentioned together.

Re:Povray

[noselasd]

Blender is a modelling/animation studio. You point'n'click to make 3D models.
povray is a renderer, it reads a file that describes what to
render (all objects/camera/lightning/texturing etc.), and produces an
image for you. That file might very well be created with blender,and

a povray export script.
It should be noted that blender has its builtin renderer as well, and builtin support for rendering via yafray.
No builtin support for povray yet though.

Re:Povray

[noselasd]

Gee. Things screwd up there:

povray export script

yafray

Re:Povray

[Wuukie]

Also note that Blender's built-in renderer is not a raytracing one unlike Povray and Yafray.

Yafray in fact uses photon mapping, but I'm not really the one to compare "traditional" raytracing and photon mapping. Maybe someone else could describe them?

Re:Povray

[JohnFluxx]

Traditional raytracing you fire a ray from say the first pixel 0,0 in your image, follow it bouncing around the model and get the color that way. When you hit a diffuse surface, that one ray becomes lots of rays.

Photon mapping you fire lots of rays from the lights, and see where they hit. Then you write down the color, illumance, and direction the ray hit in some 3D memory array. Then you can do standard raytracing but use the photon map to get the colors..

Photon mapping lets you do soft shadows, and has the advantage that you don't have to split one ray into many rays when you hit a diffuse surface. This is why it is called photon mapping - you pretend it's a single packet. When it has a choice where to go (diffuse surfase) then you just pick a direction randomly.

Siggraph

[Anonymous Coward]

Through a series of odd circumstances, I will be attending, though I have no professional reason to do so. Knowing of nothing to look forward to, what will you other /.ers in attendance be doing? Which speeches or boothes are usually the most exciting?

Mod parent up!!!

[Picass0]

Holy crap!!! This guy kicks ass!!!

3D acceleration under linux?

[Poe]

Is it possible to recompile from source and get OpenGL hardware acceleration under linux? I don't mind hacking the makefiles (or even the source) a bit...

Re:3D acceleration under linux?

[noselasd]

Just download the dynamic binary, or simply compile it yourself.
No hacking needed. What you do need ofcourse, is accelerated OpenGL
drivers, e.g. the nvidia binary drivers installed and working.

Re:Blender UI is great.

[Anonymous Coward]

So when is Superman going to get around to getting a blow job from your female mesh?

What the hell is blender?

[dleifelohcs]

These posts have seriously been lacking details lately. As someone not currently in the 3d rendering field, I don't have a clue what it is. A short, one sentence description is a MUST for articles about new versions of software.

Re:What the hell is blender?

[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed. People never learn.
Nevertheless, for this case, visit www.blender3d.com and find
out.

Re:What the hell is blender?

[Jesterboy]

Well, you could just follow the link to the site and find out yourself, but since you're too lazy, and apparently not up on the open source scene, here you go:

Blender was originally a freeware 3D rendering program developed by NaN software, capable of modeling, animation, and even had a built in game engine. NaN fell on hard financial times and had to be shut down. Not wanting to see it go to waste, NaN release it under the GPL license for a payment of 100,000 (generated by an online fundraiser), where it has enjoyed a new life as an open source project.

Re:Blender UI is great.

[Anonymous Coward]

As soon as your mom is done.

"Rump Shaking"

[JeffHunt]

I just woke up and misread "Ramp Shading" as "Rump Shaking".

I was excited for one second.

Thats not all of them

[Curtman]

Here you can download Blender 2.34 for all platforms.

What about my Amiga you insensitive clod?

Re:Thats not all of them

[Anonymous Coward]

given that blender's UI is still a bad imitation of an old amiga app, you're not missing much if you stick to the copy of Imagine that was on the cover of Amiga Format years ago...

Torrent loading

[jesterkinky]

Best would be to share your bandwith and download Blender from the torrent tracker for Blender torrents, which is hosted at Blender Torrents

Re:Blender UI is great.

[jesterkinky]

"but it requires a SHIFT-click to do so." Not true since a while in CVS and now with 2.34. Direct click in middle area of button enables you to give manual input.