Blender 2.48
polycounter lvl 8
I know there arnt a huge number of Blender heads here, but on the off chance someone is interested...
Blender 2.48 has been released. This version is largely the result of the Apricot Project to increase Blenders viability as video game asset creation tool. It includes new features such as realtime GLSL shaders, Grease Pencil 3d sketching, sculpting improvements, new modifiers, some improved importers/exporters, and many more major and minor improvements and bug fixes.
This will probably be the final feature release of the 2.4x series.
Download Blender
Full release notes
Blender 2.48 has been released. This version is largely the result of the Apricot Project to increase Blenders viability as video game asset creation tool. It includes new features such as realtime GLSL shaders, Grease Pencil 3d sketching, sculpting improvements, new modifiers, some improved importers/exporters, and many more major and minor improvements and bug fixes.
This will probably be the final feature release of the 2.4x series.
Download Blender
Full release notes
Replies
The Grease Pencil is cool but doesn't add much to game character modeling with the exception of helping to story board animation.
The realtime shaders are cool but most major apps max, maya, xsi have all had this for a while. I do like the fact that that you can texture paint on top of the normal map in the view port.
Sculpting works well enough in Blender but you really have to know how to break up your high poly models to get the most out of it. I can't seem to get more than 1.5 million polys per mesh. That means you have to get pretty creative about splitting your character up into sections to get what you want out of it.
Note: you can have multiple 1.5 mil poly mesh in the same render and the normal mapping does not need a closed mesh. So normal mapping a multimesh character is easy.
All in all Blender is up to par with most major apps for game creation purposes. The only thing I would have to say that it is lacking in is proper export utils. Currently blender can export animations in .md2/.md3/.md5 .. .smd export for Hl2 is broken. Other than that there are exporters made for open source game engines but no comercial engines outside the ones mentioned above. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=137038
http://www.responsibilityproject.com/films/lighthouse/
http://www.blender.org/index.php?eID=tx_cms_showpic&file=uploads%2Fpics%2Fgreenfrog.jpg&width=800m&height=600m&bodyTag=%3Cbody%20style%3D%22margin%3A0%3B%20background%3A%23fff%3B%22%3E&wrap=%3Ca%20href%3D%22javascript%3Aclose()%3B%22%3E%20|%20%3C%2Fa%3E&md5=c43dedae667ce346c514d83d841e5dfa
http://www.blender.org/index.php?eID=tx_cms_showpic&file=uploads%2Fpics%2FMoonman_Andy-Goralczyk_May2007.jpg&width=800m&height=600m&bodyTag=%3Cbody%20style%3D%22margin%3A0%3B%20background%3A%23fff%3B%22%3E&wrap=%3Ca%20href%3D%22javascript%3Aclose()%3B%22%3E%20|%20%3C%2Fa%3E&md5=4971d2785bd4c4f321b59edfa1517d90
http://www.blender.org/index.php?eID=tx_cms_showpic&file=uploads%2Fpics%2FSign-of-the-Juggernaught_Derek-Watts_January2006.jpg&width=800m&height=600m&bodyTag=%3Cbody%20style%3D%22margin%3A0%3B%20background%3A%23fff%3B%22%3E&wrap=%3Ca%20href%3D%22javascript%3Aclose()%3B%22%3E%20|%20%3C%2Fa%3E&md5=fdd41009e40f6b3bf8975f1e4a1515f7
http://vimeo.com/1473204
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=110160
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=133471
http://img217.imageshack.us/my.php?image=oldeg3.jpg
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/6925/screen9mr2.jpg
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/5890/alienheadaaagtesthn0.jpg
http://krum-game.com/images/forest1.jpg
http://martinsh.awardspace.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10007/long_back.jpg
http://martinsh.awardspace.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10007/short_back1.jpg
http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/5034/sidesa0.jpg
For some reason(s), the latest few releases are actually usable to me. I used to quickly uninstall them, but I have to stuck to it now, and there are some things about it that I am starting to like, and get used to.
Also note that there is an interface update planned for 2.50, and there are some demo videos of interface tests up on youtube if you go look for them.
I hope once they will add a switch so that the camera is similar to nearly any other package (alt+ mouse drag)
Unfortunately that's because everyone in Source-land only cares about XSI mod tool and other commercial apps. No one's really stepped up to the plate to write working SMD import/export plugins. Ever. And anyone on the Blender dev side of things would say 'code it yourself'. Meh
guess i won't be using this one anytime soon.
back to max...
QWERTY. it might not be the best keyboard layout, but it damn well works fine.
don't reinvent the wheel and all that.
The options window has a few options for how the camera rotates (with middle mouse button) and whether you have to hold down the shift key to rotate or not.
You can also use the arrows keys on the numpad. Up,Down,Left, and Right rotate the camera, 5 toggles ortho, and 7,9,1,2 toggles preset angles, like front, top, side, etc...
'wow!' you must think to yourself. 'Options!'
Somewhere in there you can turn off the trackball rotation. You can also switch the left and right mouse-buttons so you can select using the LMB.
They're even adding custom shortcuts in the next version, can you imagine? It truly is the miracle of the 20th century.
I am interested to see in how they will further develop the node editor,- maybe a parametric modeling direction with that, it could be similar to the wire parameters in 3dsmax but less buggy and easier to grasp and with the neat node editor interface.
I also like the recent game-engine/ tools direction they have taken - because its what blender was lacking at- some good viewport, material, normal map,... support.
The fully integrated python editor is also very neat. This should allow even artists to get into scripting and develop tools & setups for common tasks- a script listener similar to 3dsmax or Modo (tool pipe) would also be nice so starters can copy/ paste generated code from there.
see.. i already did that the previous time i threw my brain at blender. and forgot.
its just too much hassle trying to remember how the damn thing worked.
think i'll give it another try in a couple of releases. if it's that easy to get the thing to crash, i'd rather not invest serious time into fiddling with it.
http://www.blendernation.com/2008/10/22/yo-frankie-delay/
http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/
Development of new features for trunk has been frozen so that existing functions can be ported over to the new core. Next stop, 2.5!
Maybe if they could add a neat system like Silo has where you can push any key- commando on mouseOver over a icon you could click otherwise that would be awesome. That way one would hopefully also see always the shortcuts behind icons or other triggered commands.