Developer Meeting Notes, March 18, 2012
Blender 2.63 development is in BCon3 now and we’ve been accepted by the Google Summer of Code.
Here’s the notes from today’s developer meeting in irc.freenode.net #blendercoders.
1) Blender 2.63
- Campbell worked on BMesh last week. Weekly report. Or in short: X3D is working, BMesh python api has customdata access (UVs, vcolors, shapes), old trunk bevel modifier back (was todo we talked of a while back).
- Bevel tool for modeling: we have permission to use the method and code from the Google Sketchup RoundCorner Plugin. Howard Trickey works on porting it, first in Python to validate it though.
- Brecht: I am working on ramps, motion vectors for cycles, shadow pass, background images view with cycles, and separate control for AA samples vs. other samples to make rendering simple passes/layers quicker. Should go to svn next week.
- Ton: bug tracker has 210 open reports, everyone is invited to check and fix!
- As planned, we now move to BCon3 status (polishing and fixing period).
- BMesh docs can use upgrade. Howard Trickey volunteers to get Knife tool page upgraded.
2) Other projects
- Most of the meeting time went to troll hunting. Some kiddie thinks it’s fun to spoil our irc and the mango blog. For now (hopefully temporary) the #blendercoders channel will only voice people with a registered freenode nick. That’s common anyway.
3) Google Summer of Code (GSoC)
- Blender has been accepted again! Mentors can sign up now.
- This week we can still tweak our ideas page. Tom Musgrove does a call for everyone to advertise our gsoc opportunity at your university computer science and CG departments.
Laters,
-Ton-
Wooh! The RoundCorner Plugin (Bevel) are super powerful! Can’t wait!
soooo cool.
Totally true .. the round corner tool looks like an real useful feature. WANT!
Can’t wait for this bevel tool. If it would work the same as in SketchUp – that would be pure awesome.
Post wat they seid..
What do you mean?
He probably means everything they said in Blendercoders, the entire conversation…I think.
Could actually be fun if we had a complete log.
Nah!
”
The Web Troll
If one encounters a troll in the wild pages of the internet, the best thing one
can is to go about your business as if he/she/it were not there.
If one makes eye contact (hard through anonymity I know, but regrettably it
happens) then one should expect said troll to suddenly bound over and start
making unpleasant and mostly unintelligible noises.
There are a number of steps, my good fellow, one can take to disengage from
this hideous example of evolution gone sadly wrong (Sadly a loud gun or large
stick is not one of them):
1) DON’T LISTEN!
I know this may be hard as the thing makes just so much racket! However, the
common web troll is mostly all noise and very little more than mildly annoying.
Ignore him/her/it and it will likely get bored and find something shiny to
smear its own dung on
2) DON’T RESPOND!
They normally have no idea or any interest in what you are saying, and are
likely to never be able to arise to your level of intelligence to be able to
engage with you properly.
One must remember the common web troll normally has no idea where he/she/it is,
let alone what the actual subject matter is, so it’s best to not waste ones
breath, lest it talks to you back and you smell it’s….. erm…. breath…..
3) … and probably the most important… DON’T FEED THE TROLL!!
This bad, bad, BAD!! Trolls have no idea what constitutes good manners or
etiquette, and one should expect anything fed to a troll to be promptly thrown
back up and left at your feet as only so much smelly nonsensical excrement.
Remember, most trolls actually excrete from their mouths, and have no idea that
sanitation is the road to good etiquette.
4) …. and this one is just a reminder…. FIND A TROLL HUNTER……
quietly…….
There are many fine fellows out there who just love a good troll hunt and are
always keen to castrate and skin said troll (not that the skin is useful for
much, having hardly ever been washed, but we all need toilet paper from time to
time, eh chaps?)
Quietly and without making eye contact, move away from the Web Troll and find
one of these fine moderator fellows (they normally are the ones with fine
moustaches and shiny buttons) and very discreetly inform him/her/it of the
filthy, three year old, spotty, pot-bellied, greasy, hairy disaster that has
mindlessly wondered into your web path.
They will deal with the blighter promptly, and more importantly, discreetly.
5) DO NOT point the troll out to your fellow gentleman and ladies who are frequenting
the web page with you. The more people that acknowledge said troll, the more
people will scream and gasp and shout things like “Hey you! You filthy
blighter! Be gone from here and sully these fine pages no more!” This will
serve to only make the Troll blab its mouth with its filthy yellow teeth and
spurt yet more unintelligible drivel. Not to mention doing ridiculous dances that,
to say the least, are pity for anyone to behold.
In short ignore said troll, report to the authorities, and get on with your web
life.
Thank you for your attentions, Dusty”
:) Can you tell I am bored today?
I miss Reactor Particles… and a lot of other particle functionality that has gone missing ever since the first 2.5 beta.
Sorry to hear that you guys had to waste your time on dealing with that little troll.
To end on a positive note: Congratulations about GSoC! Very good news indeed.
Seconded on both points! :)
“Great!” and “Woo-hoo!” and all around “Thanks!”
Another summer of code! Yeah!
I tried BMesh allready and cant wait for the final result. Especially the knife tool has impressed me. Thanks for the hard work guys.
I look forward to supporting Cycles+OpenCL.
One question: When will we focus on the BGE updates?
Might be some movement on that. Looks like the 12.3 experimental drivers from ATI finally fixes OpenCL: http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?247314-Brilliant-news-for-Cycles-ATI-AMD!
@d11cb595d1c4ffa570ea7efe19d54fe3:disqus – I’d really love to see some BGE updates, too. I think it’s fair to say that right now though, with the ramp up for Mango, that they’re going to be focusing elsewhere like rendering, masking and tracking. Still the guys who usually do the BGE work (Kupoman, Moguri et al) are fairly independent of the Blender Institute, so who knows.
I have to say, I tried the BGE again recently after a pretty long haiatus and was impressed. Back in 2.4.9 days I could usually only squeeze about 12,000 polys out of it before the fps started going down. This time I was able to get over 100,000. There’s definitely been some optimization along the way!
PS I noticed that nodification of the BGE logic is listed as an idea on the GSoC page… Really hoping some student picks this up and FINISHES it!
So much great news! :D Round bevel, new Cycles improvements and GSoC. I hope for Knife Tool improvements too! :)
Thank you Devs, as always!
“motion vectors for cycles”That’s great, I can finally start using it for animation.
If Blender can get permission to use the bevel library, is it possible to get a file loader written for Blender so we can import Sketch up files directly into Blender?
I really like the work that’s going into this release! I also realized I would love to see some of this guys ideas wrapped into the Script editor for GSOC: http://vimeo.com/36579366, truly amazing. Just saying :)
Thank you for that link, I’ve been wanting to see the rest of that video!
Frankly I think those ideas could vastly improve or even completely overhaul a lot of aspects in blender. This idea of immediate feedback of what you are doing is in large what has made Cycles so exciting, and is the core concept behind why nodes/noodles are helpful as well.
I’d personally like to see the idea presented strongly in animation, as it aligns with and strongly recommends pipe dreams I’ve had for real time and iterative puppet like input methods and also (maybe real time) assisting character simulation. Frankly, I think key framing should be a relic/relegated to 2D animation where frame by frame is just how it works.
…like I said, it’s a long standing dream that I get excited about and quickly start to display my own ignorance on far to many matters of importance to the subject. regardless thanks for all the work everybody!