Haha, I did a gilesruscoe and figured it out 20 seconds after I posted Triangulate doesn't work only these polys but as soon as I try and turn edges on them the hidden edges appear.
I did spend ages trying to work it out before posting, honest
The blend1, blend2, etc files are just your previous saves that have been renamed slightly. So everytime to save, your previous file is renamed blend1 so it stays. The next time you save, it is renamed blend2, and the more recent save file is renamed blend1, etc. So you always have your last 3 saves available to you. You can change this number if you'd like as well, but I'd recommend you save iteratively in addition to Blender's default saving. Blender also saves periodic files to the temp directory (like max's autoback), as well as a quit.blend that is automatically saved any time you quit properly.
Ahh. I always save in incremental numbering (i.e. 741.blend for my 741th revision), those blend1 files really build up on the disk usage after a while. I just simply find them all and then nuke them to eternity when i'm short on space.
Ahh. I always save in incremental numbering (i.e. 741.blend for my 741th revision), those blend1 files really build up on the disk usage after a while. I just simply find them all and then nuke them to eternity when i'm short on space.
You can set it to not make those files. Also, BLender has an incremental save button in 2.5. At the end of the box to enter the file name there's a + and - that you can click to increment.
Mostly a ton of bug fixes, but some features as well:
Support for 3D mice
A large improvement to user keymaps
An ivy generator (that actually looks really impressive)
A tree generator
Scatter brushes for scattering lots of objects around
Some UV tools
Improvements to seam bleeding for baking and painting
A bunch of node editor improvements
I have just modified the Seams from UV isles script so it now marks edges as sharp, rather than making seams, and i thought that some people may find it useful for adding quick smoothing groups etc.
So where are we at with Blender these days? What plug-ins and tools do you chaps find indispensable and recommend?
I'm just getting back into it and man, there's some huge improvements since the 2.4 series, colour me impressed! I'm wondering however, are we now at a stage to compete with the autodesk chaps?
How long has it been since you have used Blender?
If it is the 2.4x series then just everything has been re-written and improved.
Most of the awesome "must have" tools/plugins are now integrated (Loop tools, Inset/Extrude etc.) with 2.59 getting some awesome additions (Ivy Gen, Sapling, Grease Scatter etc.) a few days ago. bsurfaces 1.5 is an awesome commercial script for mesh generation/retopo http://vimeo.com/26339130
There are some amazing tools being developed as we speak and GSoC is almost finished, which include:-
Mesh Editing/Retopology Dan Walters was selected to implemented a number of new retopology tools and to polish existing mesh tools he will be mentored by Joe Eager (joeedh).
Sculpt/Paint Jason Wilkins who worked on Blenders sculpt tools last year is returning to both further improve the sculpt tools as well as port many of the brushes and tools to our other paint modes, he will be mentored by Tom Musgrove (LetterRip).
UV Unwrapping Shuvro Sarker was selected to implement some improvements to our uv tools. This was perhaps the toughest of the decisions since we had 5 excellent UV tool proposals this year. Andrea Weikert (elubie) will be mentoring Shuvro.
Weighting Tools Jason Hays was selected to implement skin weighting tool improvements. He will be mentored by Campbell Barton.
UV/Paint Tools Riakiotakis Antonis was selected to implement additional uv tool and painting tool improvements as well as possibly some additional weighting tools. He will also be mentored by Tom Musgrove.
Animation System Polish Joshua Leung will be doing animation tool polishing addressing a number of issues to our star animators have identified as issues with Blender. He will be comentored by Bassam Kurdali (one of our talented animators) and Ton Roosendaal.
Motion Capture Tools -Benjamin Cook will implement a number of tools necessary for working with motion capture data including things like footskate cleanup. Campbell Barton (ideasman_42) will be mentoring.
Fluid Simulation Improvements Christopher Neal will be working to implement some of Nils recent papers into our fluid simulator. He will be mentored by Daniel Genrich (Genscher)
Camera Tracker Integration Sergey Sharybin will design interfaces and other tools for integrating the camera tracking library libmv for 2D and 3D matchmoving, camera tracking, and camera stabilization. Ton Roosendaal will be mentoring.
Camera Tracker library improvements Matthias Fauconneau will work on additional features for the libmv library so that it can fully meet Blenders camera tracking needs. Julien Michot, one of the main developers of libmv will be mentoring.
Improved Internationalization and Localization Xiao Xiangquan will be working to improve Blenders abilities to work with translated text for our tools so that they can be better used by an international audience. Xiao will be mentored by Kent Mein (sirdude)
Nodes for the GE logic Sven von Brand will work on nodifying our game logic system. This project will be mentored by Benoit Bolsee (ben2610)
BGE Animation improvements Mitchell Stokes will improve the game engines handling of blender animation data for character animation and will be comentored by Dalai Felinto (dfelinto) and Benoit Bolsee (benoit)
BGE bugfixing and polishing Daniel Stokes will work on bug fixing and assorted minor tools and polishing for the game engine. He will be mentored by Dalai Felinto (dfelinto)
Collada Prabhath Jayathilake will improve Blenders Collada support for animation and will be mentored by Nathan Letwory (jesterking)
3D Audio Joerg Mueller will bring 3D audio tools for our animators and will be mentored by Martin Porier (theeth)
Dynamic Paint Miika Hämäläinen will work on improving his dynamic paint tool work-flow and will be mentored by Janne Karhu (jahka)
Anyone get decent results out of the ivy system? I followed their 4 step 'tutorial' (lol) and the best result I got were some planes all bunched up together.
The tree system is quite cool though, if a little poly heavy for games use. I wonder if theres a way to use less segments on the branches than the trunk, that's whats causing most of the triangles. Would love to see the tree system developed further, will see where it goes.
So do you guys think that Blender's the way to go if one is looking for a low-cost animation software?
I've had enough of Messiah Studio after all of the various issues that it threw at me, topping it off just now by crashing as I was saving and wiping out my save file, setting me back two or three days(How they could even CONSIDER selling that shit for more than ten bucks is beyond me).
I would definitely recommend looking into it. Animation is actually probably the most robust side of Blender, so I think it would probably be appropriate. That said, everyone has their own workflow and pipeline, so, as I said, I would recommend that you try it out and see how it fits.
You know when you make an item, and the property sliders appear on the left under Object tools? When you deselect the object, the options dissapear, and I can never seem to get back to them. Is there a way to pin the property sliders so I can go back to editing the basic functions of the object?
Oh and Andy, did that bevel script you posted a while back break in 2.59? I can't access it anymore. :poly142:
Yeah... why did they develop it this way? Surely it makes no sense and is completely counter-productive... Even 3D Max saves the settings of an object until you collapse it into an editable state...
You know when you make an item, and the property sliders appear on the left under Object tools? When you deselect the object, the options dissapear, and I can never seem to get back to them. Is there a way to pin the property sliders so I can go back to editing the basic functions of the object?
AFAIK, there isn't a way to save the settings, but you can go directly into edit mode immediately upon an objects creation by selecting in the preferences >Editing> New Objects> Enter Edit Mode. It would be great to have the settings saved, but it wasnt part of the mandate when the overhaul was done.
Oh and Andy, did that bevel script you posted a while back break in 2.59? I can't access it anymore. :poly142:
I'm not sure tbh. I'm currently using 2.58a as 2.59 broke the custom keymaps and I'm waiting for it to be fixed. (its a confirmed bug that is being fixed)
Yeah... why did they develop it this way? Surely it makes no sense and is completely counter-productive... Even 3D Max saves the settings of an object until you collapse it into an editable state...
I don't think I'd want that in Blender. 3DS Max keep many things in your modifier panel that should be collapsed because it can crash if you edit a lower level modifier (i.e. modifying the primitive after adding edit mesh, etc.). By committing you to your settings the first time, it makes it more stable.
I don't think I'd want that in Blender. 3DS Max keep many things in your modifier panel that should be collapsed because it can crash if you edit a lower level modifier (i.e. modifying the primitive after adding edit mesh, etc.). By committing you to your settings the first time, it makes it more stable.
Say you make a sphere, but it has too many segments. You DON'T want to be able to go back and edit the amount of segments without deleting the current sphere and making a whole new one? :poly142:
Have you tried using the new masonry add-on? Its a pain in the ass because I have to set all the settings before deselecting it.
it's also consistent with how other tools work with this setup, doing a other operation or deseleciton is like applying the changes and dropping the tool.
just consider it showing you the sphere as first as a preview of what it will be like when the operation is complete.
and really is is only Max and Maya that really allow you to change all of that stuff after you apply changes to a object, and in max you can make things unstable by editing things lower down on the modifier stack, and the same goes with maya with editing the history of a object after other operation have been applied.
most other apps wont let you do that in the first place because it is unstable.
xsi, modo, silo, blender, lightwave all dont allow that.
Say you make a sphere, but it has too many segments. You DON'T want to be able to go back and edit the amount of segments without deleting the current sphere and making a whole new one? :poly142:
Have you tried using the new masonry add-on? Its a pain in the ass because I have to set all the settings before deselecting it.
Having access to the menu after deselecting I can understand, but after you've edited the object, you're committed to what you have and you'll need to start it over if you want to make serious changes.
Having access to the menu after deselecting I can understand, but after you've edited the object, you're committed to what you have and you'll need to start it over if you want to make serious changes.
I think it would be nice to have a limited history for each object so that the number or sides would be changed, but i dont think it should be permanent. I would be happy with the ability to change the sides etc. up to the point where I add another object or edit the object itself (vert pushing and tweaking etc.)
On a cool personal note, I just found out that my Add PolySphere script has been merged into trunk for the next Blender release w00t!
I think it would be nice to have a limited history for each object so that the number or sides would be changed, but i dont think it should be permanent. I would be happy with the ability to change the sides etc. up to the point where I add another object or edit the object itself (vert pushing and tweaking etc.)
Yeah, there should be a 'commit' button at the top of the stack or something...
One of the oddest things I never understood about blenders 2.5x version is why so many of the optional features you get from Preferences>AddOns are so blatantly superior to what is default.
Like the Dynamic Spacebar menu. Why one earth would anyone not want this?
Search for it in Addons and turn it on yourself to see what I mean.
By default all you get is a search bar. Somewhat useful if you know what to look for. Pretty useless to a beginner as they will not know any of Blenders terminology. And then you turn on Dynamic spacebar menu. Suddenly, you can access all the tools through pressing space and they are presented in a well organized fashion. It still includes search so you didn't lose any functionality by turning it on.
It would be like if Mayas radial menu was disabled by default and instead clicking for it brought up a glossary. :poly142:
The annoying part of Blender 2.5x is the EXE title string is now just "Blender". Back in the pre-2.5x days I used to rename my Blender.exe's to Blender249.exe and the like and have Open With... associated with all the old versions I had installed for compatibility. These 2.5x came and called itself "Blender" internally so now I can't clearly see my renamed EXE names in the open with for version identifying, and in addition to that issue there's the fact it's still called blender.exe in releases which causes any changed associations to still execute the older blender.exe after you picked the newer version. For a while I was actually using 2.58 when after I had installed 2.59. Argh
One of the oddest things I never understood about blenders 2.5x version is why so many of the optional features you get from Preferences>AddOns are so blatantly superior to what is default.
Like the Dynamic Spacebar menu. Why one earth would anyone not want this?
Search for it in Addons and turn it on yourself to see what I mean.
By default all you get is a search bar. Somewhat useful if you know what to look for. Pretty useless to a beginner as they will not know any of Blenders terminology. And then you turn on Dynamic spacebar menu. Suddenly, you can access all the tools through pressing space and they are presented in a well organized fashion. It still includes search so you didn't lose any functionality by turning it on.
It would be like if Mayas radial menu was disabled by default and instead clicking for it brought up a glossary. :poly142:
Yea, when they reassigned space to be the search menu, it got on quite a few nerves
I couldn't work out why they assigned such an odd key combo to a function that is used so often. It seems silly that default the add mesh menu is set to Shift+A, rather than the largest key on the keyboard :P
As soon as the dynamic space bar add on was developed, i jumped right on that beauty.
It would be great if they added a way to enable all the addons with one click, as i enable them all any way.
The annoying part of Blender 2.5x is the EXE title string is now just "Blender". Back in the pre-2.5x days I used to rename my Blender.exe's to Blender249.exe and the like and have Open With... associated with all the old versions I had installed for compatibility. These 2.5x came and called itself "Blender" internally so now I can't clearly see my renamed EXE names in the open with for version identifying, and in addition to that issue there's the fact it's still called blender.exe in releases which causes any changed associations to still execute the older blender.exe after you picked the newer version. For a while I was actually using 2.58 when after I had installed 2.59. Argh
(Windows problem with my silly habits)
Yea, I can see what you mean.
You know that the Blender version is displayed right in the centre of the top header, right? I'm sure you do, but its worth checking
I'm happy that they decided to hide the console by default though...that always bugged me.
thank you and you are right !
many important addOns should be integrated right away as default.
just for saying, the "Texture paint layers addOn" is something which is so great that it deserves to be set to to default.
the "Paint Palettes" addOn is also really handy and i ask myself why it is not activated by default.
Anybody else using a 3Dconnexions 3D mouse and finding the blender script for it completely crap? It's nothing like how it works inside of maya/max maybe there are some better un-official scripts about?
I hate how they present updates Its very user-unfriendly. Maybe programmers can digest information that way but why can't they make a quick video and pop it on Vimeo for those who glean information more effectively through visuals?
What is so difficult about it? You download it, you unzip it, and extract the files to your install folder. It's not intended to be a user-friendly update, it's a rough draft for public review.
What is so user-unfriendly about it? It sounds like you want there to be a "one-click" solution. It's not so hard as you're exaggerating it to be. Download>extract>run. Is that really any less user-friendly than run>find update button>install>restart blender? You get an uncomplicated install without the registry bloat.
Are you seriously implying that it's too hard to download a zip file and extract it to your blender install folder? Let me describe user-unfriendly to you. You get the source code to blender, now you have to get the right compiler, code libraries, and install them. Now you can't compile yet, you have to check all your dependencies to make sure you didn't miss anything, because if you did, it will either not compile, or it does nothing but crash at runtime. Once you've got it compiled, you can finally install it to a permanent folder on your hard drive. Try doing that for every update! By comparison, asking for a simple download and extract is nothing.
To be fair this is just a RC with a change log. When they choose the RC and put it on oficially the release logs updates on the main page are quite good http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/
edit: whoops somehow I missed the last few posts already saying this!
Replies
Got any pics?
I did spend ages trying to work it out before posting, honest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icqPZnD_3lA
lot of new features there, moved blender to my favorite retopo package over 3d coat. hope it's useful
Have you tried bsurfaces 1.5?
Ahh. I always save in incremental numbering (i.e. 741.blend for my 741th revision), those blend1 files really build up on the disk usage after a while. I just simply find them all and then nuke them to eternity when i'm short on space.
You can set it to not make those files. Also, BLender has an incremental save button in 2.5. At the end of the box to enter the file name there's a + and - that you can click to increment.
Mostly a ton of bug fixes, but some features as well:
Support for 3D mice
A large improvement to user keymaps
An ivy generator (that actually looks really impressive)
A tree generator
Scatter brushes for scattering lots of objects around
Some UV tools
Improvements to seam bleeding for baking and painting
A bunch of node editor improvements
cross post from HERE
I have just modified the Seams from UV isles script so it now marks edges as sharp, rather than making seams, and i thought that some people may find it useful for adding quick smoothing groups etc.
You can get the script from HERE
I'm just getting back into it and man, there's some huge improvements since the 2.4 series, colour me impressed! I'm wondering however, are we now at a stage to compete with the autodesk chaps?
If it is the 2.4x series then just everything has been re-written and improved.
Most of the awesome "must have" tools/plugins are now integrated (Loop tools, Inset/Extrude etc.) with 2.59 getting some awesome additions (Ivy Gen, Sapling, Grease Scatter etc.) a few days ago.
bsurfaces 1.5 is an awesome commercial script for mesh generation/retopo
http://vimeo.com/26339130
There are some amazing tools being developed as we speak and GSoC is almost finished, which include:-
http://code.blender.org/index.php/2011/07/google-summer-of-code-midterm-videos/
BMesh still isn't finished but Campbell is going to start helping out with its development soon and it's penciled in for a 2.6x release.
Blender is having a new GPU/CPU internal rendering engine, which is currently in development.
[ame]
I'm pretty sure i have missed a bunch of stuff :P
The tree system is quite cool though, if a little poly heavy for games use. I wonder if theres a way to use less segments on the branches than the trunk, that's whats causing most of the triangles. Would love to see the tree system developed further, will see where it goes.
I've had enough of Messiah Studio after all of the various issues that it threw at me, topping it off just now by crashing as I was saving and wiping out my save file, setting me back two or three days(How they could even CONSIDER selling that shit for more than ten bucks is beyond me).
Oh and Andy, did that bevel script you posted a while back break in 2.59? I can't access it anymore. :poly142:
it's not like maya where it always in the history so you can edit it later or max where the object stays intact and jsut gets edited via modifiers.
[ame]
I still use 2.49 since i'm still used to the old bottom panel, and there's no latency when painting.
And you can burn stuff with this: http://www.youtube.com/user/miikahweb#p/u/18/jL1KluUE-gU
Would it be difficult to implement in your opinion?
I don't think I'd want that in Blender. 3DS Max keep many things in your modifier panel that should be collapsed because it can crash if you edit a lower level modifier (i.e. modifying the primitive after adding edit mesh, etc.). By committing you to your settings the first time, it makes it more stable.
Say you make a sphere, but it has too many segments. You DON'T want to be able to go back and edit the amount of segments without deleting the current sphere and making a whole new one? :poly142:
Have you tried using the new masonry add-on? Its a pain in the ass because I have to set all the settings before deselecting it.
just consider it showing you the sphere as first as a preview of what it will be like when the operation is complete.
and really is is only Max and Maya that really allow you to change all of that stuff after you apply changes to a object, and in max you can make things unstable by editing things lower down on the modifier stack, and the same goes with maya with editing the history of a object after other operation have been applied.
most other apps wont let you do that in the first place because it is unstable.
xsi, modo, silo, blender, lightwave all dont allow that.
Having access to the menu after deselecting I can understand, but after you've edited the object, you're committed to what you have and you'll need to start it over if you want to make serious changes.
Yeah, we were talking about pre-edit access.
On a cool personal note, I just found out that my Add PolySphere script has been merged into trunk for the next Blender release
Yeah, there should be a 'commit' button at the top of the stack or something...
Congrats
64bit build
32bit Build
I found that really interesting, thought I would share it.
Found a really nice resource for matcaps in blender.
One of the oddest things I never understood about blenders 2.5x version is why so many of the optional features you get from Preferences>AddOns are so blatantly superior to what is default.
Like the Dynamic Spacebar menu. Why one earth would anyone not want this?
Search for it in Addons and turn it on yourself to see what I mean.
By default all you get is a search bar. Somewhat useful if you know what to look for. Pretty useless to a beginner as they will not know any of Blenders terminology. And then you turn on Dynamic spacebar menu. Suddenly, you can access all the tools through pressing space and they are presented in a well organized fashion. It still includes search so you didn't lose any functionality by turning it on.
It would be like if Mayas radial menu was disabled by default and instead clicking for it brought up a glossary. :poly142:
(Windows problem with my silly habits)
Yea, when they reassigned space to be the search menu, it got on quite a few nerves
I couldn't work out why they assigned such an odd key combo to a function that is used so often. It seems silly that default the add mesh menu is set to Shift+A, rather than the largest key on the keyboard :P
As soon as the dynamic space bar add on was developed, i jumped right on that beauty.
It would be great if they added a way to enable all the addons with one click, as i enable them all any way.
Yea, I can see what you mean.
You know that the Blender version is displayed right in the centre of the top header, right? I'm sure you do, but its worth checking
I'm happy that they decided to hide the console by default though...that always bugged me.
oh my ... o0
thank you and you are right !
many important addOns should be integrated right away as default.
just for saying, the "Texture paint layers addOn" is something which is so great that it deserves to be set to to default.
the "Paint Palettes" addOn is also really handy and i ask myself why it is not activated by default.
http://download.blender.org/release/Blender2.60/
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/changelog_260
Are you seriously implying that it's too hard to download a zip file and extract it to your blender install folder? Let me describe user-unfriendly to you. You get the source code to blender, now you have to get the right compiler, code libraries, and install them. Now you can't compile yet, you have to check all your dependencies to make sure you didn't miss anything, because if you did, it will either not compile, or it does nothing but crash at runtime. Once you've got it compiled, you can finally install it to a permanent folder on your hard drive. Try doing that for every update! By comparison, asking for a simple download and extract is nothing.
http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/
edit: whoops somehow I missed the last few posts already saying this!