Blender 2.40 Released

LetterRip writes "Googles Summer of Code has born fruit with the Blender 2.40 release. Thanks to their support and the hard work of the coders they supported Blender has fluid dynamics simulation done by Nils Thuerey, a powerful inverse kinematics system done by Brecht Van Lommel, and much improved boolean tools done by Marc Freixas. Of course Blender has had a huge number of improvements aside from the work supported by Google. The animation system got a complete rewrite by Ton Roosendaal, as well as other major improvements like flive UV unwrapping LSCM, and a Modifier stack system. It also has seen greatly improved ease of use since the last Slashdot announcement addressing all of the complaints raised- things like 3d manipulators, full undo system, etc. There is also a quick start guide for new users, and nice video and written tutorials on new features and a fairly up to date manual."

free sculpting tool also

[LetterRip]

There is also a way cool zbrush like sculpting available as an add on script, see this post for details.

http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=56101 [elysiun.com]

LetterRip

Re:Great...

[LetterRip]

There were interface improvements, a quickstart guide, and 3d manipulator - so yes interface improvements.

LetterRIp

Awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

I simply love this program. It's open source, and it is as versatile as a professional capitalist program like Maya, Lightwave, or 3DS Max. It has a great renderer, with support for external renderers built right in. It's perfect for people who want to express their creativity in modeling but don't want to shovel out the cash to pay for a capitalist program. Though, I prefer Wings 3D for the actual modeling. I use Blender for setting up textures, animations, scenes, and all that kind of stuff mostly. The only real problem with it is that the interface is intimidating to new users of it.

There's Blender meeting in March (also for gimp...

[H4x0r Jim Duggan]

Anyone interested in Blender should be aware of the Libre Graphic Meeting [libregraphicsmeeting.org]. The plan is to get developers of Blender in one place, plus get developers of other free software [compsoc.com] packages like GIMP, Inkscape, and Scribus together too.

19 March 2006 in Lyon, France

Re:Great...

[Xzzy]

You can't "pick it up and use it" because the original creators elected to head out in their own direction and explore different interface methods. Part of that involved eschewing more orthodox philosophies.. an act which will always provoke complaints such as yours.

Once you force feed it to yourself, after a while you'll start to enjoy it and even respect it. I wouldn't call it better than 3dmax or any other modeller you can name, but it's definetly a damn good interface.

I've been using the 2.40 release candidates for the past month, and it's a splendid update to an already splendid program. I've watched people produce things equal in quality to the products of extremely expensive modelling programs with it. I've also seen a lot of newbies create complete crap but that's part of the risk of free software. ;)

Re:Release notes and cool pics

[Xzzy]

The animation and fluid simulator is nice and all but I think my favorite enhancement ended up being the particle system changes.

The particle guides made setting up effects I'd waste days trying to accomplish in 2.37 something that could be done in 15 minutes.

So amazing that its hard to realize its free.

[MindPrison]

I have been using Blender since version 1.8. And I realize that a lot find the user-interface hard to use when you are a beginner.

The truth is however - even if it is harder to grasp as a beginner, most 3d applications are hard to learn - in fact ...all 3D is hard to learn when youre new to 3d in general.

Blender isnt that hard compared to 3dstudio Max or Maya because of its better and more efficient workflow. I have bought 3dstudio max (a license) for over 4 years - but switched to Blender because I found that the modeling workflow was faster and more efficient. You can export/import .3ds if you want to - and now with the new Collada protocol you can import/export even more information so virtually nothing gets lost in the pipeline - of course, theres still some improvements to be made here. But hey - thats what the community is all about - you want it? Participate - and Well come up with something great for us all to use - together!

The main advantage That I think Blender has - in comparison to eg. 3Dstudio max is that once you get started it all becomes easier ...while in 3dstudio max...you get a lot of "boxes and cylinders" to draw-off straight away ...without learning anything at all...so yeah...3dstudio max is more "pleasing-straight-away". Maya is more professional and can handle bigger more complex jobs but is harder to work on smaller projects. Blender is sort of the "middle way"... I am not saying that Blender is better or worse than 3Dstudio max or Maya...but they all have their advantages - and you will all definetively do yourselves a HUGE FAVOR trying this application. Its a killer app!

It has - fluids (a really good one), Softbody, Some of the best rigging tools around and support that simply cant be beat. What do I mean by that? I mean - when I used 3dstudio max...I was an unsignificant "flea"... and when I complained about bugs in the software...It was always "my-fault" or "Windows fault"...but never Discreets fault.. And months later when the bugs finally got acknowledged and fixed - I had to purchase 1000 dollars in upgrades just to fix the bugs.

When I switched to Blender and had problems - guess what? 2 days after "mentioning" possible bugs - they got fixed. And it kept going that way. Blender rarely chrashes and its a dream to work with the passionate developers.

Re:Can someone translate for me?

[LetterRip]

Sorry for the technobabble, UVs are a way to map an image/texture to a 3d model. LSCM is a way to create your mapping to the model in a way that it is of good quality - live means that you can tweak it as you go instead of tweak recalculate, tweak recalculat. A modifier stack - is changes that are modifiers are 'virtual' ie can easily be done and undone at any point in the models life.

LetterRip

and it's completely useless on OS X because...

[SuperBanana]

...none of the menus work in 10.4.3! [blender.org]* Looks like we'll have to wait for 10.4.4 to be released by Apple, as developer previews of 10.4.4 apparently resolve the issue.

While some people would point the finger at Apple, I find it highly curious that Blender broke so severely (if you read the thread, lots of other things don't work) and far as I know, nothing else did...

Yes, I verified the bug- on my 17" Powerbook (with an NVidia card) none of the menus or popup listboxes appear. If you have a machine with 10.4.3 and an nvidia card, don't bother...yet.

Re:and it's completely useless on OS X because...

[lancelet]

Blender broke on OSX so severely because its entire user interface is built using OpenGL. Most applications you're familiar with probably use OpenGL only for the 3D displays, not for buttons, list-boxes, etc. Blender is notorious for pushing the OpenGL implementation much further and requiring a much more complete coverage of The Standard than other applications (games, for example). Don't point fingers unless you've looked at the code!

Mirror links

[LetterRip]

Here are mirrors please use them

http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/blender/release /Blender2.40/ [planetmirror.com]

Re:Works with ATI

[Eideewt]

Actually, yes, they are. They use OpenGL for all the 2d parts of the interface as well as the 3d display. So if your driver has broken 2d OpenGL rendering (many do, since it's not commonly used), Blender's menus will be broken to some degree.

Re:Volunteerism and private enterprise win again

[Ksisanth]

Socialism and capitalism are about who owns/controls capital goods, not who benefits from their use, and supporters of either system claim to benefit the public. Corporate sponsorships and charitable giving benefit the public, too, but are not "socialist" -- good PR opportunities are worth a lot.

Re:bloated?

[djcapelis]

We're working on it!

No, seriously, we're working on it.

Linux Platform Manager
Blender Project

Re:and it's completely useless on OS X because...

[LetterRip]

[QUOTE]The fact that Blender uses OpenGL for it's GUI basically means that unless your video card is relatively new, and your drivers implement the spec perfectly, you will have problems, either with performance or graphical bugs. Of the five Win boxes in my house, Blender runs usably on none of them; it's either too slow, or the interface is corrupted.[/QUOTE]

You can put a software only driver in your blender folder that will fix pretty much any card. For ATIs that are buggy turn off 'full hardware accelleration'. S3 and Intel on board graphics also have issues. Pretty much all other cards in the past 10 years should be okay, but NVidia tends to work best on Windows.

LetterRip

Warning: Blender may cause you to be violent!!

[protocoldroid]

...If you participate in 'Blender Battles [mudpuddle.co.nz]', which you should if you're interested in blender.

And don't forget the elysiun forums [elysiun.com], which are in invaluable source of blender knowledge, and... Also another place where you can put up your dukes in some friendly blender competition.

While I'm at it, don't forget #smc (stands for "speed modeling competitions") on freenode.

Re:Yay!

[3dr]

Please do try it. Undo does work, and Blender has really improved during the 2.3x releases. I've not tried 2.40 yet.

To other Slashdotters who've mentioned UI difficulty:
The interface in blender is designed around having the right hand on the mouse, and the left hand on the keyboard. UI actions are very terse, and therefore slow to learn and easy to forget. Find, read, and do the available tutorials! There is plenty of info to get going, and once you get over the initial hump you'll find Blender *fast* to use.

Lots of goodies awaits....

[MindPrison]

Then youll be happy to know that - not only do we have full undo functionality , but theres even an UNDO-HISTORY function with a menu to go (Alt + U) so you can go anywhere in the history and redo from wherever you wish...heck...you can even browse through the various changes you made and go forward again if you still change your mind :)

Blender even has different undos for different systems. Example: Global Undo and Local Undo - Meaning if you change stuff in you scene...you can just do the normal Ctrl + Z to undo there...or if you where editing your mesh you can undo/redo stuff with U in meshedit mode (Tab).

Blenders all about safety and workflow these days, if all above wasnt enough security for you - you can adjust your preferences to save "xxx-number-of-versions-back". Theres even a separate "Reopen last" and "Recover last session" system so if you for some reason stopped in the middle of it all..can continue your work where you left it - or select the last file you worked on. Hows that for total paranoia? :)

Want more? I could go on an on...but Ill leave that to you.

Re:and it's completely useless on OS X because...

[BoldAndBusted]

Isn't building the interface on OpenGL exactly what Apple says Mac OS X can do? Apple itself uses OpenGL for many of its core technologies, like Expose, Core Video, Core Image, etc. Check it: http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/opengl/ [apple.com]

As far as the "finger-pointing" goes... I'm not going to look at the code, and I'm not a Blender user, but I have to ask: If Apple says Mac OS X can support an OpenGL API (which is a standard), and hasn't set some arbitrary limit on the support the OS gives to that standard, then any application that subsequently breaks _by actually following the standard_ is blameless, and the supporting OS and OS libraries are to blame, no? How can one "push the limits" with a standard? An application either follows them, or it does not, right?

Now, I'll give you that if the standard itself is *incomplete*, the blame falls on the standards team. Of course, Blender may not be using the OpenGL API correctly, and the blame would then fall squarely on the Blender devs for the error. But, Apple is to blame if their implementation of OpenGL is busted and can't perform what Blender expects of a standards-compliant OpenGL implementation.

I just want to make sure that we kick off the finger-pointing on a firm foundation. ;)

Re:Mirror links

[Anonymous Coward]

another mirror:
http://ftp.iasi.roedu.net/pub/mirrors/blender.org/ releases/Blender2.40/ [roedu.net]

Re:Still no smoothing groups?

[Fireflymantis]

Yes there are smoothing groups, although as per the blender philosphy, it is hard to figure out how to do it. One has to select the verts (or side, or faces) of the group and turn it into a material group. From there, you can assign in a unique texture, have it be automatically be made into a seam group for LCMS unwrap and UV texturing, and set it as a smothed group, amongst other different nifty things.

Re:Can someone translate for me?

[CarpetShark]

Basically, LSCM unwrapping lets you "skin" a model (not in the 3D skinning sense, but in the animal skinning sense) so you end up with a flat covering. Actually, the method is similar too -- just mark the "seems" where you would cut with a knife to remove the skin in one piece. Then, you can export that covering to a paint program, draw on it, and put it back on your model :)

Re:Ouch, CrystalSpace not 64-bit clean like blende

[Jorrit]

That's absolutely not true! I'm the project manager of Crystal Space and my main computer is a 64-bit AMD on which I run 64-bit Linux. Crystal Space is 100% 64-bit clean (at least the latest CVS, the latest stable 0.98 has problems).

Greetings,