BlenderNation

Advertisement

You're blocking ads, which pay for BlenderNation. Read about other ways to support us.

Developer Meeting Notes, March 11, 2012

34
By on Blender Development

An impressive list of activities, including a LOT of work on BMesh.

Ton Roosendaal writes:

Hi all,

Here's the summary of today's meeting.

1) Blender 2.63 progress

  • Full report of Campbell's work last week (on BMesh). In short: he fixed tools like Edge rotate, Rip, Edge-split. Made export to OBJ and FBX working.
  • Bmesh API update. Mesh bevel still needs work. The singular bevel case works (1 new face on edges) but for a smooth bevel (higher subdivision, rounded bevel) we need good code still. *Help wanted!*
  • Nicholas Bishop: added improvements for sculpt drawing.
  • Lukas Toenne: Groups node patch is still pending review, custom nodes are half way there. Lukas is making himself familiar with the OpenCL & tiling code for more complex composite nodes.
  • We're still on track for a release, in 3-4 weeks time.

2) Other projects

  • Mike Erwin has been working on tablet code (the pen/tablet input device, not iPad :). It could be ready for this release, making things work a better in general and fixing ~14 bugs in the tracker.
  • Brecht will be meeting with the Mango team tomorrow, going over production-readiness targets. Or in other words: "the shortest path to make something like last week's workshop possible in cycles".
  • Review reminder: Bastien Montagne worked on new/better definition for "Hinge" bone.

3) GSoC

  • The application has been done, this friday we know if we're in!
  • Starting 26 march students can apply, so let's make sure the wiki page is correct.

That's it. Thanks!

-Ton-

About the Author

Avatar image for Bart Veldhuizen
Bart Veldhuizen

I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Head of Community at Sketchfab.

34 Comments

  1. Lawrence D’Oliveiro on

    Ho yus! I’ve been seeing all the BMesh stuff flowing into the commit stream. Damn, so the API docs pages have been bumped to 2_62_1, have they? Time to update my bookmarks—again...

    Reply
  2. Fred c. on

    singular bevel case doesn't works, depsite what is stated in the meeting notes. Take the default cube and select the three edges that meet at a point and bevel them, the bevel comes out skewed with the outer edges longer than the inner ones and the faces not at 45degrees. 

    This bug has been commented on by several people and is probably in the tracker as its pretty old. Plain put bevel doesn't work in any instance either with a singular edge or with multiple recursion.  

    It should be disabled if there is no one to fix it. Rather than ship a tool that doesn't work and than get 100 of bug reports about it.

    Reply
    • 8-bit on

      I too would be interested in seeing presets in blender, (perhaps in a separate download?)  Presets bundles and the option to create your own and categories when it makes sense  

      Materials - 
      PLASTICS-blue, red, yellow, etc.
      METALS-silver, gold, brushed chrome...

      Hair-
      Fuzzy short, Fuzzy scared, Fuzzy wuz he?
      Animals - Bear, mouse, cat,...
      Long brown, Short brown, etc...
      Of course length is relative to scene setup.

      Fire - 
      Camp, Raging, etc...

      I sure  this has been discussed before and it's probably a matter of someone(s) taking this on who has the knowledge and time.  Presets are the one thing I really like when taking up a new 3d app. Eventually some learn how to use the inner working of those apps, but it's definitely a time saver at times! 

      In regards to 2.63, thanks devs for all the hard work and time spent making Blender an amazing 3d app that the whole world can use which brings professional level results in almost every way!  Truly an amazing app - looking forward to bmesh and other cool things you guys do!

      Cheers!

      Reply
      • Dinokaiser on

        I wrote a proposal on the subject a while back here; http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?239738-Proposal-for-a-better-use-of-presets&highlight=
        It even was listed in the official wishlist. Personally the ability to create and share presets is just as (if not more so) useful for professional as it is for new users than some people make it out to be. Currently there is no way to share nodes between blend files which is very annoying. There are some people trying to develop add-ons that use presets, but I think only shadertools (the material library add-on) has the ability to export and share the materials you have in an easy script form. 

        Reply
        • 8-bit on

          I think you're right. As a semi-professional, it would be a pretty big boost for me as far as time saved especially in early production and of course as you pointed out, the ability to share is probably.
           hmmmm. perhaps in a 2.7 release they'll include these feature or those other people who are working on these? I feel it's been a crucial part missing from blender for a while now, so perhaps sooner then later! you happen to have off-hand  a link or names of people working on the preset add-ons? Even if it's limited to shadertools, I'd definitely make use of that.  I'd like to check out there progress. Thanks!

          Reply
          • Michael120 on

            Yes, but I think he's talking about an Asset-browser-type-thing. Like a side bar that showed you all of the light presets, backgrounds, characters, props, etc. that you have/or can use in your scene.

            I thought I saw something like that somewhere on some wish list or dev thing. In someplace. ~_~

          • Michael120 on

            Here it is:

            "
            _____Summary of GSoC Wishlist thread_____

            ...

            ___Asset Management___

            ---General improvements in asset management *****
            -Better linking/appending
            '-GoZ' like functionality for Maya/3DSMax/XSI/ZBrush?

             |  |  |   |  |   |  |   |  |   |  |   |  |   |  |   |  |  |   |  |   |  |   |  |
            V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V
            ---Presets *****
            -material

            -mesh - common base mesh - people, animals, etc

            -texture

            -matcaps

            -simulations (smoke, fluids, etc.)

            -game engine 2d filters

            -hair, particles, logic bricks
            ^  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^ ^  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^
            |   |   |   |   |  |   |   |  |   |   |   |  |   |  |   |   |   |   |  |   |   |  |
            ..."

          • Anon on

             There would be a need for asset templates over the network, easy integration with other asset management systems, version control for the assets and all the related production thingies eventually, I would think.
             Preview functionality needs a boots to better preview the properties of the objects to be imported. That alone sounds like a start of an asset browser, with the OpenCL library accelerating the previews of course! ;)
             Then again, I'm not a developer and there are probably a lots of other interesting work as well.

  7. PhysicsGuy on

    I have two questions.
    First, what kind of code is being written for tablets? Isn't a tablet handled just like a mouse?
    Second, if Lukas is working on "OpenCL & tiling" for 2.63, does that mean the new compositor is now planned for the 2.63 release?
    I thought 2.63 was going to be purely BMesh and related topics...

    Reply
  8. Michael on

    Hello Blender Team

    Concerning the Tablet input: Does this mean pressure sensitivity was not supportet unti soon? I thougt it was because of my Trust TB 6300 (Aiptek...)Tablet that was cheap but until the recent Ubntu release a pain to install..I am really a big fan of Blender and other (gimp, mypaint) Open Source Software!

    Thanks a lot
    Michael aka thakubism

    Reply
    • 8-bit on

      The little bit I use a drawing tablet with pressure sensitivity has worked for me at least in 2.6 and up. I believe no issues in 2.5 either. I'm on win7 - 64bit. Tablet is an inexpensive monoprice, 6x9 I think.

      Reply
    • Mike Erwin on

      Blender has been pressure sensitive for several years thanks to other devs. I'm just fixing the situations where it stops working or doesn't work as well as it should.

      Reply
      • Michael on

         ..so that my tablet was not working is really a bug? I remember old 2.49 days where I still worked with a smaller wacom device discovering the abilities of Blender (and getting addicted) pressure sensitivity was working. Well thanks for your effort, I just never made a bug report (still wondering if I did something wrong installing the "aiptek" even gimp and mypaint seem to accept the tablet) Really a big thanks you (all) Developpers for making Blender so organized and smooth.

        Reply
  9. MacroManJr on

    Thanks again for all the development you do, guys.  It's really awesome what you do for the Blender community.  And hey, I wish you guys all the best luck with the GSoC application!

    Reply
  11. PhysicsGuy on

    Ok , now I get the point. One could for instance control te size of the influence of the proportional editing tool by pressure, or something like that. I hadn't thought about that.

    Reply
    • Nicholas Bishop on

      Sure, although for the most part it's the paint systems (sculpt, vertex paint, weight paint, and texture paint) that use special tablet data.

      Reply
    • Mike Erwin on

      Not yet! From what I've read, the multitouch and pen inputs don't mesh perfectly in real time. But until I get my fingertips on the Intuos5, I can't say for sure. Still using the *ancient* Intuos4.

      Reply

Leave A Reply

To add a profile picture to your message, register your email address with Gravatar.com. To protect your email address, create an account on BlenderNation and log in when posting a message.

Advertisement

×