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Blender 2.5 Update Posted

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  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
  • Sandro
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    I see lotz ov wasted screen-space. Gimme tightly packed buttons! :)
  • Kraftwerk
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    Kraftwerk polycounter lvl 19
    Simply cool now if we get the Gimp devs todo such an clean appealing UI Autodesk and Adobe may get some serious competition. Blender was always pretty cool for a tool but the UI was always something that drove me nuts, that seriously looks like they get something done.
  • Lamoot
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    Lamoot polycounter lvl 7
    anyone know if improved collada support is in there from the get go?
    Collada improvements have been merged to trunk (= main development version) earlier this month, so they should be available in alpha 0 release.
    I see lotz ov wasted screen-space. Gimme tightly packed buttons!
    It is possible to resize (narrower-wider) all of the fields you see on that screenshot (apart from the welcome screen) so buttons can be squished together. In addition, elements of the properties window (the lower-right one) allign themselves into a single collumn once the window is narrow enough.
    Simply cool now if we get the Gimp devs todo such an clean appealing UI Autodesk and Adobe may get some serious competition. Blender was always pretty cool for a tool but the UI was always something that drove me nuts, that seriously looks like they get something done.
    I don't want to go too off-topic so I'll only briefly mention this: for the next official release GIMP 2.8 is planned to have an optional (but default) single-window UI. It'll be based mostly on this proposal http://www.mmiworks.net/eng/publications/2009/09/gimp-single-mode.html
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    kraftwerk, and its only the beginning really, it's the way they made the ui more flexible now, notice that the tooltip points the the script segment that is run when you click it,

    and I saw a console that feedsback the pythoncommand for everything you do, so simple macro scripts should be simple now I guess.
  • Zwebbie
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    Zwebbie polycounter lvl 18
    Sandro wrote: »
    I see lotz ov wasted screen-space. Gimme tightly packed buttons! :)

    Ctrl+MMB changes the size of the buttons. Is this enough space for you ;) ?

    BlenderScreenspace.jpg
  • Zwebbie
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    Zwebbie polycounter lvl 18
    Update: Blender 2.5 Alpha 0 is available for download. It doesn't have all the 2.49b features integrated yet and there are plenty of 2.5 targets not realised in it yet, but this is nonetheless a good opportunity to try Blender 2.5.
  • rooster
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    rooster mod
    can anyone figure out how to change collada export settings?
    I just say save as collada and it saves a file

    edit: don't know if its quest or blender, but in quest3d the mesh is scrambled to hell. vert order is messed, and the animation is bugged. shheit
  • Lamoot
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    Lamoot polycounter lvl 7
    can anyone figure out how to change collada export settings?
    I just say save as collada and it saves a file

    The same happens here. Seems like a bug. The lack of settings was already reported, but nothing about only saving a regular file. Will ask around and if nothing, report a bug.
    edit: don't know if its quest or blender, but in quest3d the mesh is scrambled to hell. vert order is messed, and the animation is bugged. shheit

    Blender 2.5 uses collada 1.5.0, perhaps quest3d uses an older version and this causes the problem?
  • HAL
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    HAL polycounter lvl 13
    I must say I really like it so far, though it took some time to work into the new UI.

    Regarding that... does anybody know what happened to that fancy menu that appeared when hitting the space bar?
  • Lamoot
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    Lamoot polycounter lvl 7
    Regarding that... does anybody know what happened to that fancy menu that appeared when hitting the space bar?

    If you're looking for "add object" functionality it's now shift+A. The rest of the stuff was reorganized to other menus in the 3d window's header and toolbar.
  • HAL
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    HAL polycounter lvl 13
    Ah that did it :D thank you very much
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
    Lamoot wrote: »
    If you're looking for "add object" functionality it's now shift+A. The rest of the stuff was reorganized to other menus in the 3d window's header and toolbar.

    Yeah I noticed...hm...not initially impressed with the changes but I guess they'll grow on me...personally the commands on the space key aren't something I would put on such an accesible key...

    Anyone else know where the menus that used to be at the top toolbar (once you it pulled down) have gone?
  • dyf
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    dyf
    Lamoot wrote: »
    If you're looking for "add object" functionality it's now shift+A. The rest of the stuff was reorganized to other menus in the 3d window's header and toolbar.
    shift+A has always been the key to add stuff.. i guess people historically found spacebar to be easier?
  • dyf
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    dyf
    Anyone else know where the menus that used to be at the top toolbar (once you it pulled down) have gone?
    File > User Preferences
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
    Hmmm...a lot has changed, not really feeling it at the moment. Im sure once there are some video tutorials about how to navigate the new blender it will get better, and that the changes are for the best in the long run, but after having used the program for so long to feeling like its a whole new tool I now have to learn, its kinda annoying. And I'm pretty sure all the documentation I've ever bought (books, dvds) is not essentially useless because so much has changed. (They've even moved the bevel tool for gods sake). Guess you can't please everybody.

    Have they made the cut tool practical in this release? (can't find it) Like so you can slice from one vertex to another? And how can I have the program start in full screen instead of windowed each time it opens? Thats a bit annoying.
  • dyf
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    dyf
    if you want videos, browse Michael Fox's blog: http://blenderlabrat.blogspot.com/

    if by "cut tool" you mean knife cut, hold k and LMB and drag.. to toggle full-screen click the right-most icon in the info header..

    use spacebar to search for tools and functions..
  • Daaark
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    Daaark polycounter lvl 17
    How do you get out of the render screen and back to your work space? I hit F12 and it takes me to a new place to see the render

    edit, f11, nevermind!
  • Spinks
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    Spinks polycounter lvl 18
    daaark: try hitting escape
  • Zwebbie
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    Zwebbie polycounter lvl 18
    The hotkey editor has 6 actions all called call_menu, for 6 different menus, and that's just in EditMesh... yeah, that's not really helping me there. Looks like you might be better off editing the Keymaps through the script editor?
  • Daaark
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    Daaark polycounter lvl 17
    Zwebbie, The UI stuff will not be 100% ready until the next alpha.
  • PolyHertz
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    PolyHertz polycount lvl 666
    Is Blender 2.5 supposed to include n-gon support for the final release, or is that not in the cards?
  • Daaark
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    Daaark polycounter lvl 17
    n-gons are coming when the b-mesh project is finished, and merged into the main program. If the author ever finishes it.

    Like lots of OSS stuff, bmesh has turned into alchemy. It was due to be finished 'any moment now', but now it's in an endless loop of stalling while the author demands more money from the community.

    On Nov 11, he was happy with the donations and they'd allow him time to work on bmesh and get ti done quickly.

    On Nov 12, the donations suddenly weren't enough, and he now needs 1000$ a month to keep working on the project.

    Richard Stallman has been pulling this with HURD for twenty years.
  • metalliandy
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    metalliandy interpolator
    Daaark wrote: »

    On Nov 11, he was happy with the donations and they'd allow him time to work on bmesh and get ti done quickly.

    On Nov 12, the donations suddenly weren't enough, and he now needs 1000$ a month to keep working on the project.

    Hmm...he actually says on the 11th that they are low but it is donations that have allowed the project to come this far.
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
    dyf wrote: »
    if you want videos, browse Michael Fox's blog: http://blenderlabrat.blogspot.com/

    if by "cut tool" you mean knife cut, hold k and LMB and drag.. to toggle full-screen click the right-most icon in the info header..

    That cut tool is handy, but it doesnt snap from vert to vert :(
  • renderhjs
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    renderhjs sublime tool
    meh I just tried the 2.5 alpha on my eeePC (atom 1.6 ghz processor) and it lags very unpleasent in the GUI.
    Damn here I wish they could do a better job as recently Autodesk (ribbon interface) and adobe (cs3+ gui).

    But I think I will have a closer look at my next RD project at the company to get familiar with the python scripting (exporting / importing assets) and writing tools.
  • Lamoot
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    Lamoot polycounter lvl 7
    meh I just tried the 2.5 alpha on my eeePC (atom 1.6 ghz processor) and it lags very unpleasent in the GUI.
    Damn here I wish they could do a better job as recently Autodesk (ribbon interface) and adobe (cs3+ gui).

    It also depend on your graphics card, as Blender uses OpenGL to draw all of the GUI stuff. In the user preferences, go to System, and on the right side Window Draw Method with 3 options to choose from. See if any of these works better.
  • Daaark
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    Daaark polycounter lvl 17
    Where did Bevel go? Hmm...
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    not in 2.5 yet I guess
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
    Daaark wrote: »
    Where did Bevel go? Hmm...

    Was thinking that myself. How the hell can you release a 3D program without a bevel tool...really. This thing isn't ready to be released, wonder why they did so.

    Anyone finding the way you split/collapse a window completely retarded compared to 2.4X? Bring back right clicking I say.
  • Daaark
  • Zwebbie
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    Zwebbie polycounter lvl 18
    Yeah, I couldn't find it either.

    I also seems the hotkey for the align/weld menu is gone in the UV Window, which makes UV'ing a pain, if you ask me. I'm still using 2.49b, because I think 2.5 needs customisation and it's a little too early spend time to recode half the UI.

    This is handy: Where'd that button go?

    Edit: Daaamn you Daaark!
  • renderhjs
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    renderhjs sublime tool
    its the right time to start for me though :)
    I noticed yesterday that panning on the middle mouse button (if configured so) is ignored and instead the camera is rotated.
    But I already like the customization, flipped mouse buttons and now I need to think less when navigating and moving objects.
  • Daaark
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    Daaark polycounter lvl 17
    I need to make a button that applies the real time texture to a rendering material.

    edit: I find it a bit hard to slice off a new viewport in the 3d views, either I hit the plus, or move the 3d cursor.
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    Daaark wrote: »
    I need to make a button that applies the real time texture to a rendering material.


    open up a window with the python console, it has realtime feedback of everything you do in blender now!

    some copypaste and anything you did becomes a script for re-use ;)
  • dyf
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    dyf
    renderhjs wrote: »
    I just tried the 2.5 alpha on my eeePC (atom 1.6 ghz processor) and it lags very unpleasent in the GUI.
    Damn here I wish they could do a better job as recently Autodesk (ribbon interface) and adobe (cs3+ gui).

    i'm experiencing a laggy interface on my craptop too.
    but since this is experimental and many features are not ported anyway, i'm still sticking with 2.49.. i will say that a netbook isn't an ideal machine to run any 3d program..

    as for the 'ribbon' interface, i remember reading news articles at the time office 2007 was released.. they were talking about the irony that MS was able to patent the interface even though it was already done in Blender. i remember Blender having context-sensitive controls probably since its beginning..
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
    Daaark wrote: »

    yep, read that before I posted...problems arise AFTER reading that article lol...god knows what else is missing...
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    Well, it's alpha :)
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    Everytime I want to give Blender a serious try it always seems like the Blender guys are shooting themselfves in the feet with a new, weird release hehe

    Still no 'modeling only' branch available?
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    pior wrote: »
    Everytime I want to give Blender a serious try it always seems like the Blender guys are shooting themselfves in the feet with a new, weird release hehe

    Still no 'modeling only' branch available?


    like this?

    piorone.jpg
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    its looking quite slick!
    does it support maya-style viewport navigation?
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    pior, that was only a few second drag and pulls in the interface, removed a few windows so that the main viewport took up most of the space, but kept the toolbar on the left, you can change it all you like.

    pior, I'm guessing yes, since you can add any kind of hotkeys, and replace older ones, give it a bit of time and someone will probably convert the input to maya style.

    but I'm not sure how far along 2.5 is yet, still stuff that hasn't been added over from 2.49.
  • Krypteia
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    Hey pior,

    Check out this thread - it's about getting Maya-ish navigation in Blender:

    http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?p=1013682

    It uses a program called AutoHotKey and a script that polycounter Rooster wrote and modified.
  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    yea pior blender is a bit strange and I was a big blender hater.. but they are getting better and better and with the new gui this could be the first version where I call this my 2nd modeling app (uv stuff is still bit zzZZZzz in v2.49)
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    Well yeah I definitely keep an eye on its development, as it seems extremely promising from a feature standpoint. No hate here, just genuine interest sometimes cooled down by some of the weird design choices I noticed in the past :P I mean I can see that autohotkey could be a nice hack ... but having user defined navigation would mean that the guys behind Blender really want to make their app less of a niche thing. 3DCoat is a great example for that, its viewport navigation customization options should be standard honestly....

    By the way Eld what version is that on that one screenhot? Is it available already?
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    pior, that is the 2.5 alpha version

    http://www.blender.org/download/get-25-alpha/

    as the name suggests it's still lacking some things, and has bugs, but you'll be able to feel how new and fresh blender feels in this version.


    the ui and message system in blender was rewritten for just this, everything should, and if it's not, can be connected to the system via python, so that it should in theory be keymappable.

    most functions are already in that system.


    so post 2.5, no more hacks :)
  • Lamoot
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    Lamoot polycounter lvl 7
    its looking quite slick!
    does it support maya-style viewport navigation?
    You have to set up this manually, but yes it is possible. Lots of things are:

    http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-250/custom-keyboard-shortcuts/

    Mind though, alt+RMB is already mapped in mesh edit mode as loop select. While alt+RMB might work in non-edit modes, you can experience problems in edit mode itself (that is if you don't change all the necessary things in the first place).
  • renderhjs
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    renderhjs sublime tool
    I hope someone starts the same for max stylish navigation without the need of extra tools to be installed.
  • metalliandy
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    metalliandy interpolator
    I have had a little mess about with the 2.5 Alpha 0 but until everything that is in 2.49 is ported over to 2.5 (next Alpha apparently) i wont be using it for anything other that to gain familiarity with the new GUI.
    The first thing i did was change the Add menu from Shift+A too Space bar.
    There are some bits missing such as baking, which i cant live without, but the next Alpha version should be great.
  • SpeCter
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    SpeCter polycounter lvl 14
    To be honest the 2.5 Alpha0 Version is the first Blender i like, with the older versions i couldn´t do a thing, but now its worth to try for me :)
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