Blender 2.5 Alpha 1 released
The Blender Foundation have released the next Blender 2.5 Alpha 1, with ‘100s of essential fixes’ and lots of updates to missing and incomplete features. Check out the 2.50 Alpha 1 release log (updated version of the Alpha 0 log, from the looks of it). For a bit of historical fun, check out the release logs overview page since 2.30 and compare the length of the release log of 2.30 to this one ;-)
Awesome! Downloading now!
Wow, mega cool! I’m gonna be using it because I want to give feedback on modelling which I believe could use some improvements.
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!! :D awesomely awesome!!!
Thx:)
BTW, where is “Join as shapes”?
lovely :)
BEASTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Crashes every time I load a blend file done with the alpha0 version (on macbook pro 10.5). Useless. Very deceived. I have reloaded and reinstalled it but it is too bad.
That caught me off guard. I thought the first 2.5 Alpha was released. Had to rush to the website, to be reminded that the first Alpha was Alpha 0.
They forgot to mention the cool drag & drop feature in the release notes (I’ve checked: it also works to drop video and audio files into the sequencer timeline from the filebrowser),
and the new color correction nodes which I like very much. And atmospheric scattering for BGE….oh man, Blender has become so cool so fast recently!
OMG… I just started weeping with joy… :)
hmm… needs some optimizations I guess, because smoke simulation needs a lot time and only uses about 35% of my CPU and rendering uses about 50%, the older Blender versions used 100% of my CPU to render.
oh and blender 2.51 crashes when I want to render an 1280×1024(5:4) image with volumes
CGEX: many are gone to weep from the crashes.
I just noticed that smoke simulation in this build doesn’t bake an smoke animation, it says it bakes all frames but I can only see one single frame, the last one.
what could I’ve done wrong?
Great! Will test it
So I opened & tryed ctrl+1(2,3) It works!
Um, does anybody have a real changelog between alpha0 and alpha1? :) (apart from running svn2cl, that is :))
I grabbed this last night, and its my first playing around with 2.5x… I am very impressed!
This new Blender is a wonderful thing, and I can hardly wait for 2.6 now, but will have lotsa’ fun in the meantime.
And the interface runs smoothly and purrrfectly on Snow Leopard!
Cheers!
Yeah, zoom to mouse is back.
Man… I’ve been thinking about trying it for weeks now… Somehow I feel I’ll have to wait for the Ton-approved version. Though all new tutorials are already 2.5 based. I feel like a wuss, I need to trash my comfort zones! :-D
@Corniger: if you are a experienced Blender user, the UI change really isn’t something dramatic. It’s just sorted a bit more logical, the main buttons (Render, Materials etc.) are still there and bring up the related menus, like always, but sorted vertically. Some buttons like physics are now not hidden in the object menu, but are in a line with the Render etc. menu buttons. It’s really easy, go play with it. BlenderCookie published a nice Introduction Video to the interface yesterday.
in material settings, selecting “monkey” as the visualization of the material => crash
Am I the only one noticing the beautiful new splash screen here? Wow! I love the sense of how it’s somewhere ancient and beautiful. Textured and old.
Looking forward to seeing the software that comes with it! :)
Thank..all developers.
Wow awesome in
all handy tool near eyes
particle
drag & drop
bug fix from crash(but crash again :) in windows
blender animation player
I can play particle when render
other things but I don’t know
when I try drag & drop object I smile for drag & drop texture heheheh….
*****THX*****
Edit
Sorry can drag & drop texture too heheheh….
Noo..
I can’t save texture with this release
Please add support for Enemy Territory Quake Wars model format or other id tech 4 powered game
Please add command line switches support, like 2.4x…
* Using 2.49, I could use a batch file, including command line switches, to queue several animation jobs to run over the weekend.
* Using 2.49, I could use a command line switch in the shortcut to make Blender open as a single window over multiple monitors. (Don’t like 2.5’s click-and-click-again-every-bloody-time multiwindow system!)
Both are very useful but can’t do either in 2.5x.
Great news!
But judging from the comments, still “very alpha” :)
The one annoying thing is that it opens two browser tabs on start (Blender home and “Project Purple”) – what’s the aim?
How to setup fonts?
In 2.4x all text are smooth and sharp… in 2.5 they are blurred. (same in linux and windows)
Is there way to use anti-aliasing?
Great release, but it crashes almost every time I hit F12 or the render button with a smoke simulation. Also, I found no cache saved for my smoke simulation… I have to bake again after each crash. (Win 32 version).
This said, it’s very promising !o)
(2.5.1) when i try Bake AO on anything…. blender just Crash. i would like to tell that for developers, but i dont know how.
Another thing is…. i can’t move my Keyframes on NLA.
Sds!
Berk
p.s. i forgot to say: BLENDER RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow great! I’m going to use it in my new projects. Alpha 0 is really going down on me. I can barely work with it but alpha 1 is a lot much better.
Great and thank you!
Great!
Still waiting for the bmesh. There seem to be some problems when using “to sphere”
I like the new Blender a lot. One thing though – I don’t like the search for tool option (ad tool). All tools should be visible from a menu.
Blender 2.5 is looking very promising. I feel we’ll get blown away by Blender 2.6. just wow.
@ralmon: you should not use software in alpha state for production.
@michael: the tools are in their respective menus. The search option is just another way to find them faster.
@reaction:
If you are on Windows, use Ultramon to manage your dual or multiple screen setup. Works like a charm with Blender as well.
@developers & Ton:
All the best to you and words cannot express our gratitude for all your hard work and unfailing enthusiasm.
This is brilliant.
I am a registered 3ds max, Houdini and a few other programs.
Blender is reaching the point, where I think I will not be renewing my licence for 3ds. I was 50-50 on that until recently. Leaving aside the cost difference, blender is now competing in a lot of areas head on with 3ds.
Blender is now competing with the major players purely on features and ability in a number of areas.
I can see in the next year me no longer upgrading my license for Houdini, which I can no longer afford to anyway due to the recession.
I know Blender can be hard to learn and to be honest when I first encountered I gave up and only came back to it a few months later when I was bored and had some free time, then slowly figured out how to use it.
Having used another 3D program before using Blender actually is a bit of a hinderance to learning Blender. A lightwave user will find the switch easier. Also a lot of Lightwave users started out on the Amiga like myself, so are used to a bit of quirkyness and steep learning curves.
The 2.4 series of Blender has really caught my eye. 2.49b 64 bit I am using for design work for my uncle in the construction industry in Ireland. The economic crisis has hit him hard and he can no longer afford the upgrade cycle on autocad and is barely hanging on in business. The switch to Blender has actually speeded up workflow, from simple idea to printing plans for a new house. That has saved money and keeps my uncle in a job or at least for a bit longer with the way the depression is going in Ireland. He wishes he had listened to me last year when I first mentioned Blender as it would have saved money.
On saturday a friend who is at present at a games design course laughed when he realised that I was using Blender on a computer with a Quadro FX5600, i7 and 12GB. He stopped laughing when he saw the rendering speed of the full res of his new game model in the new 2.50, when I tried it out on saturday. It was about 6 times faster in Blender than 3DS, for the same file on the same computer. Another convert to Blender. He has a few things to say to his lecturer who told him Blender is terrible.
Because I lost the last of my jobs recently I thought I would have to move back to Ireland. I live in Sverige now and being from Northern Ireland I am not entitled to social benefits or anything else in Sweden. By using Blender I can earn a small living which keeps me in food, travel and clothing until the job situation gets better again. That will stay in my memory.
Also I am showing 5 women from my Swedish language class how to get started with Blender on there computers. One is from Lebanon, one Somali, one Polish, one Thai and one from Afghanistan. We have a lot of fun doing so as when in my apartment the Somali and Lebanese women can remove there headscarfs due to no men being there, which has led to a lot of politically incorrect jokes and good time all round. We really have a good laugh and I am learning so much about them, as well as teaching them how to use Blender and open office, so they can teach there children and possibly give them advantages.
One thing I would like to ask the people developing Blender.
My graphics machine is not connected to the internet. It is purely stand alone. I think there may be others like me.
Could you PLEASE consider making your Blender wiki online manual available as a PDF file?
It means I could just put in on pen drive and use on my graphics machine.
I make a point of keeping my graphics machine of the internet, as I have had to many problems with updates, virus’s and other distractions. It also removes the temption to surf when working.
Keep up the good work Blender people. It is really appreciated. If I ever meet you people at a conference I will buy some of you a beer. It would be the least I could do:)
“Also I am showing 5 women from my Swedish language class how to get started with Blender on there computers.”
This is the best pickup line I have ever heard.
funny that after all he said, thats all you saw@Barts
@ Barts.
Hardly a pick up line. I am a woman as well:)
You really need to get out more:)
There is a lot of female Blender users. The program is a free download and allows people who are at home with kids to dabble in 3D and learn.
A lot of Blender users have a vagina. A person does not need a penis to be a Blender user.
If you had actually read what I have written in my previous comment, you would have noticed that I mentioned the women from Somalia and Afghanistan taking there headscarfs. They don’t do that in a home when a man is there.
Blender is a leveller across borders.
Blender is a leveller across the sex’s.
Blender is a leveller across the ages as well. A lot of older people are using Blender i have noticed.
Blender allows all to learn on even a basic computer.
The days of rich kids with expensive computers being the only people in 3D have long ended. You just need to figure that out and watch out for the upcoming wave of women who will show you a thing or two:)
@Blendiac : I agree. I’ve seen it this week with a pre release build. I Like the Maya (people from Mexico ;) ) style of the pyramid.
Regarding the release it self, the Alpha 1 is suposed to have everything from the 2.49 version (compared to the Alpha 0 where lot of things were missing).
Knowing that, I hae a question : where is hidden the “edge lengh” button ???
In the 2.49 it was in the Mesh edition panel, but as everythings are moved, I didn’t found it :p
Nemesis there is a pdf version of the wiki for Blender 2.49: pdf.letworyinteractive.com There are some tips on how to make your own pdf or html backup on the first few pages so you could possibly make your own updated version.
@TiPi : I’m pretty sure that blender 2.50 alpha 0 has “edge length” button, its on… what… if we press “N” button in 3d port it will show/unshow (transform dock?). scroll down and you will get “numeric” tab. select “edge length” option
wow alpha one, it sounds cool! but alpha zero is cool too!
@ Flynnstone
Thank you. It is much appreciated. Just downloaded it.
I did not know about that site. I have not been on that Blog before. It is interesting and good link for me, which I have saved in my favourites.
I have all the books that have been published about Blender in English. However the program development moves so fast, that sometimes it is difficult to keep up with the changes.
I actually have musical note stands that I use for my Blender books due to lack of desk space and my desk being cluttered with graphics tablet, notes, notebook, sketch pads and various other stuff. I have a dual screeen set up, so having the PDF on one screen along with some Blender tool boxes and using Blender on the other screen will make things a lot easier for me and save a lot of needless searching.
Thanks again.
Andrea
@Mpu.Bater thanks ;) found it ^^
with the new interface, there is no contrast anymoe between buttons and backdrop interface (with the basics colors, I know we cans edit all interface stuff).
As for the Edge Lengh, it took time for me to find the Edge rendering switch (for cellshading style rendering)
I cant believe these Blender people.
They go to all the trouble of making a great interface, but dont put MAYA ALT-Navigation.
Do they want this to be successful….
@nemesis
The sad fact about internet is that if one does not put emoticon after a joke, some people assume it was a serious statement. It was not my intention to offend. So, my apologies if the above mediocre attempt at humour went amiss.
PS. I am neither sexist, nor rich, nor a kid and while I might need to get out more, my personal and private life are all in order, thanks for asking.
@ Barts
Humour accepted:)
This forum/blog is text. It is hard to tell humour from other comments. it is usually best to add an emotion, otherwise people can take it the exact opposite from what you intend, with obvious and unintended consequences. A perfect example, is the reply you got from me and the context I gave the reply in.
On a very serious point, an observation about a difference i have noticed with Blender from the 3D programs.
There appears to be a major difference between Blender and 3ds max in my experience. There does appear to be a few more women using blender than most realise, particularly in Eastern Europe and China. An email address hides a lot.
That is one of the many reasons I mention Blender as a leveller in society.
Nice site design and good information. Thanks, looking forward to your feed updates…
how do i download it???????????????????????? someone please tell mehhhhhh!
how to download?????????????? :(