Here are the notes from today's meeting in irc.freenode.net #blendercoders.
Ton writes:
Here are the notes from today's 14 UTC meeting in irc.freenode.net #blendercoders.
1) 2.78 release
- Projects and planning overview.
- Call: we need another OS X platform maintainer, to help building releases. The main issue is to have someone who can sign the binaries (using Foundation account) and to do basic minimal tests with the binary before releasing it.
- Everyone: check on if the logs are complete?
- The 2D stabilization patch is nearly ready, we give it two more days to get in master. That means that the testbuild "Ahoy" will be done Tuesday again.
- Joshua Leung proposes to add another Screen layout in the default Blender startup .blend, for Grease Pencil users. Meeting is OK, but it should be done by a Linux user, and very carefully to prevent it gets polluted by personal startup settings. Undefined yet who will help with it.
2) Other projects and 2.8 project
- Bastien Montagne reports he worked on previews for the new asset engine.
- Ton reports: Clement Foucault (PBR branch) is very happy to align his work well with what 2.8 viewport is going to be, and will be in close contact with Mike Erwin.
- Lukas asks for feedback on his Node system proposal. Not many people read it yet. Ton suggests to have a meeting about this in Blender Institute instead, and invite Bastien and Mike Erwin as well. Invitations/planning will follow.
- Antonio Vazquez (Grease Pencil) would like to know if a 2.79 would happen, and what the policy is for (bigger) new projects. Meeting confirms we should put all efforts on getting the 2.8 project started up instead. New features go to 2.8. A 2.79 release is well possible though, for ongoing current development and for some of the Google Summer of Code projects.
3) Google Summer of Code
- A couple of students are almost done and checked on whether the work would go to current git master (potential 2.79) or to 2.8 for later. At least for the Cycles projects and the UV project we should aim for adding it in the 2.7x code base.
- Tomorrow is 'soft pencils down'. In 9 days is the final deadline. All students are being reminded to make sure their presentations are update and inviting for users and developers to check on their work. Talk to mentors if in doubt.
7 Comments
"Ton reports: Clement Foucault (PBR branch) is very happy to align his work well with what 2.8 viewport is going to be, and will be in close contact with Mike Erwin."
Wait, does this mean Clement's work is in the master now?
i don't think it means now but it will be for sure in the future.
Can't wait, the next two updates are going to be game changers for Blender.
2.78 is probably going to provide the biggest update of the entire 2.7+ range of updates, a quick glance through the feature list is really eye opening. Stuff like Grease Pencil v2, Alembic support, a heap of speed improvements for Cycles, big improvements in the viewport for Cycles material view which fill fix really long held problems (bump mapping, texture mapping, procedural textures, etc), the option of pausing renders and resuming from a sample offset, distance based subsurf, Bendy bones.. the list goes on.
For someone like me who works for a commercial company and does renders with Blender every day, I can tell you that this stuff is really going to make a difference for my everyday workflow and greatly speed things up.
Then after that we got 2.8, which is going to be the biggest thing since 2.5, and will no doubt really dramatically improve Blender even more. The future is looking very bright for Blender.
"Ton reports: Clement Foucault (PBR branch) is very happy to align his work well with what 2.8 viewport is going to be, and will be in close contact with Mike Erwin."
Yes, yes, YES!
Since having started using the PBR-branch, I can't switch back to normal Blender.
Just the one little feature of supporting cube-mapped textures in the viewport makes it much more valuable in everyday work.
I hope all the great work Clement has done will get into trunk.
Finally, an Alembic import-export support!! This brings a manly tears up to my eyes...
Good god, we are spoiled. Look at all these features!
Not just the huge stuff likeGPv2, microdisplacement, Bendy Bones, Alembic, but also the smaller stuff - CTRL+D to add a driver, procedural viewport textures + bump mapping, ID remapping, Decimate improvements, fluid sim motion blur, and on, and on and on. Let's not even mention the mouth-watering GSOC stuff, the allusions to PBR greatness, and what looks promises to be a special kind of node-based, luscious linking system inclusive, heaven, as the 2.8 design proposals describe. The future is very bright!!!
It think Blender's strength is not only its ability to consistently pump out significant features, but also to go refactor old systems when it's clearly needed (it happened with 2.5, now it's happening with 2.8).
Yeah, thanks dude... we can read release notes. But thanks for reminder anyway :)