Great news! Ton posted an update about Blender 2.5 and it's sounding great! (Thanks to Tim Suess for the head's up!) Here's a little snippet of the report:
To summarize; here's the highlights what Blender 2.5x will bring you:
- New window-manager, allowing multi-window setups.
- New area-manager, allowing flexible division in sub-regions with each a distinctive task (like toolbars, button list views, channel views, etc).
- The new area-manager will allow much easier custom editors (via python or C api)
- New event system, based on 'handlers' with dynamic (= user definable) keymaps. Events will much better support other devices, or multi-touch even.
- The new event system will also allow Macros, basic construction history, and since events are hanled centrally (separated from drawing) the UI will remain fully responsive (updated) while editing.
- Generic "data api", giving uniform access to data properties for Blender's UI, for Python, but especially for animation curves or drivers. This will enable the "get everything animated" feature.
- Generic "tools api", which gives uniform access to every tool (option) Blender has. Together with the "data api" this will make scripting in Python much easier. Customizable UIs (toolbars, headers, menus, buttons) are simply possible this way
Go ahead and read the whole update now!
And make sure to check out the Blender 2.5 TaskForce, where you can see indepth how the progress is coming on Blender 2.5
16 Comments
Looks good. Can't wait for 2.5 to be released.
I hope it remains lightweight.
about 1/3 already.. - great! well done guys/Ton... and have a good holiday yourself!
certainly seems like a lot of good stuff got incorporated into the big picture.
@bane I use Solidworks (3d mechanical CAD)- think of 850mb service pack downloads every 2-3 months...
Bane: Why wouldnt it remain lightweight? They're cleaning messy code.
Well, they are adding another layer between the gui and the core, that complicates things a bit, correct? I'm not a programmer so don't take my opinion for granted.
Can't wait for some semi-working builds and screenshots/screencasts!
An intermediate layer between the engine and the front end is likely to make things easier (more abstract, but also very useful). The engine can do its thing, the graphical front end can do its thing, and a middle layer tying the two together. It can make for an easier to manage back end (a smaller set of core functions that really perform well), as well as a richer front end (more flexibility, richer command set, etc.) and a middle layer removing burdens from both. Its a bit like having a writable control store in a microprocessor -- richer command set without the need for a bulkier engine. It could also lead to a much richer set of Python tags for scripting (and yet more functionality). I haven't seen any builds for 2.50 on Linux at GraphicAll (so I may do a build myself), but I'm pretty pumped about 2.50. Even with the just the architectural changes it sounds very exciting. Big kudos to the developers (and don't forget to relax during the holiday season).
Bob
MVC!!! Woooot!!
Hooray!
I can't wait for the macro recorder. My programmer bosses are gonna teach me some Python once I have that, as it's the easiest way to pick up syntax fast...
Just knowing that Blender 2.5 is that mature, is Christmas present enough for my studio... I am so thankful to all the people who have contributed to Blender all these years. Thank you Ton for making all of this possible...
Rock on! This sounds exciting!
!yay_cool_``~...
Looks crappy with not any usable features. :(
..just tried a build from graphical..
The UI seems pretty slick but I have to say the icons are just too small, detailed and washed out for my eyesight.
Sorry to say that after all the work going on but I think this is not the standard set we should have for Blender.
In case this is to be I hope we can still use other sets.
@Big Fan:
I'm assuming you can still use custom UI right? So you can have larger icons or whatever you want to make your version of Blender to look like.
Which ... I think is a great thing in Blender. Being able to make your program work any way you like. I currently use a Max/Maya style layout (not a duplicate, just where the icons lay) and I love it. I've gotten further in Blender than I ever did in the Default.
Keep up the great work Blender peoples!
http://www.blender.org/development/current-projects/changes-since-248/
There are a lot of things to be excited about with every release of Blender!! It just keeps getting better and better. One of my most recent favorites is the ability to draw and make notes in 3d with the grease pencil. It serves much more of a purpose that just a director making notes. You can use it as part of your pre-modeling process. (Shrinkwrap modifier is awesome too, and solves a few different problems I had.)
I'm excited about the npr rendering capabilities, improved UI and several things that should result from the new UI... like the ability to save presets on all sorts of settings...