New Blender Released

An anonymous reader writes "Blender, the cross-platform, open source 3d suite, has released version 2.43 along with a website redesign. This version brings powerful new features within reach of every person. These features include sculpt modeling, retopologizing tools, render passes, render baking, support for multi-uvs, enhanced fluid simulator with particles, new rigid body engine, numerous new compositing modes including defocus (DOF) node and much more. Feature videos are also available."

Comments

Goof Stuff!

[guysmilee]

Blender is absolutely amazing software ... i've used it since 2.39 (I believe thats the release) ... and it's came a long way. It's helped me learn opengl and appreciate the difference between what an artist and a programmer can do. It's a great tool and a definite "must play with" for all developers. I only hope the skeleton & mesh export examples have been tightened up to include more documentation.

Meh.

[gardyloo]

I won't believe it until someone releases a series of videos in which a lab-coated dude asks "Will it Render?".

oh no!

[hrm]

Blender, the cross-platform, open source 3d suite, has released version 2.43

So Blender has become self-aware and is now rapidly releasing updates of itself, no doubt gaining strength and influence with each new version, until it is powerful enough to control the world's nuclear arsenal, so it can wipe out humanity and jumpstart the era of software...

Man, that sucks!

Re:Mod parent up. Blenders UI sucks balls.

[deathguppie]

I use both Blender and Maya and I can't help but laugh about what people like you say. By the time you have actually learned all of the concepts and methods the UI is about the last thing you'll be concerned with. No matter how good a UI is it cannot teach you how to use 3d modeling software.

Besides Blender is built around hot key usage which makes it much faster to model in, IMHO than Maya, but yes you have to learn how to use it.

want to learn blender?

[spiderworm]

If you want to learn Blender, check out my book on wikibooks.org:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_P ro

Thanks!
spidey

I still dont..

[nrgy]

like the ui and a whole bunch of other things. Granted I will never say they haven't put together alot more then any other open source project out their when it comes to a 3d package. That being said I find that they do certain things assbackwards compared to whats been done over the years with 3d packages. On top of this they've implemented object D while completely leaving out A,B,and C which is why you'd even put feature D in. Every new release I still find myself messing around with it and all the while still not understanding how or why people likes its work flow.

Creating an object while having it placed where some 3d cursor is without having a option to tell it "No create it a the center of the scene like every other peice of 3d software known to man" is just crazy to me. Even more crazy then that is not being able to select an object and have a window show its properties. When I say that please don't point me to the crude layouts to see a objects properties all over the place, instead go use Autodesks Maya, Softimage XSI, or 3DS Max and thats what I'm looking for. On top of that the floating property windows which are in blender have very small text and the input values are a pain in the ass to edit. Most of all though they way you select objects, polygons, vertices etc are just wtf. I don't know how many times I have accidentaly hit a mouse button on a high res mesh which moved a vertex without me even knowing it.

These are just personal opinions and obviously some people like it the way its currently done, why though I have no damn clue. Blenders a piece of software I'd truely like to see go far, hell it already has in many aspects. Mabye this is why I tend to bitch so much, because I'd realy like to see them succeed. I just don't like how many of the open source projects that end up geting past the crash every 2 mins phase, always end up reinventing the wheel when it comes to how things are done and have been done. Why can't they see "Hey every other 3d app has done it this way since the beginning of time. Maybe theirs something good about that method" instead of saying "No this is open source freedom of choice roxors so lets do it the opposite regardless if it helps you with work or not". It's sad they do things so far from the norm with certain interactions and presenting data to the user, because all it means to me is Softimage and Autodesk will continue to get my money next year and the year after and etc etc.

Re:How about some user interface?

[djcapelis]

Actually the next version of the manual is still being developed, the wiki is part of that.

And you still can get the paper version, albeit the slightly off-colored first printing run edition: http://www.blender3d.org/e-shop/product_info.php?p roducts_id=79. You can also get a PDF of the manual as well. It's old and again we're working on the new one, but for most things it's quite fine as a reference.

The manual will continue, after all, it's part of how the blender foundation is financed. (Clue the conspiracy theorists that say we make the software hard to use on purpose in 3... 2...)

~D.J. Capelis
Blender Dev

Oh, just great. Thanks.

[Qbertino]

For the last 2.5 years I've been anouncing every major release of Blender on /. (this is more of a minor one) and no one cared. Now it's posted before I even noticed that 2.43 is up - and I've checked every day the last 2 weeks. Now the site is overrun and I can't get my copy. .. Wonderfull.
BTW:
1.) The new website (a new template for Typo3, their CMS, looks cool but it's way to wide and/or inflexible.
2.) Blender seriously rocks and is closing in on the big players in 3D quickly in terms of usability and featureset. Amonst the new ones: The integrated compositor now has alpha blending and pass rendering which has me ditching my video tools. No need for Final Cut Pro for Renders anymore.

Support the team. And thanks to them for yet another great Blender release. Can't wait to lay my hands on the 2.43 final.

Re:How about some user interface?

[Max Littlemore]

I've heard this critisism from people before, but usually because it is different to what they're used too rather than because it is actually bad.

I've sat and watched my brother, who is a professional 3D animator, using Max do do some relatively simple task with a path and was amazed at how long it took him. I'd been learning Blender and could accompish exactly the same result in at least a third of the time, and I'm a newb. I just happen to be uncorrupted by Max's UI.

He had tried Blender and found it difficult to use. I strongly recommended going through the tutorials, he took the time and now raves about how quick and easy it is to do complex tasks that used to take for ever.

I'd rate Blender up with Apache and Firefox as showcasing excellent OSS