Now it`s for real! Blender 2.45 release candidate 2 is available to download. This release has more bug fixes for the upcoming Blender 2.45, it`s time to test it before final release.
The release of Blender 2.45 is scheduled for next week, according to the official announcement. If you want to check all fixes and improvements for this release, visit this link. To download Blender 2.45 RC2, go here.
If you speak Portuguese, there is a small translation of the list with the principal bug fixes and improvements here.
32 Comments
Hooray!!!
YAY! Cant wait for the final version... But I guess im just going to have to!
doubleplusgood! Are the SoC projects finished yet?
lol I thought we were on RC3 like a month ago? oh well!
Since 2.45 seems to be bugfixes-only I doubt SoC stuff even if finished will get into it - would be pretty cool though ;)
See for example: http://lists.blender.org/pipermail/bf-committers/2007-September/019269.html
SoC (and Blender itself) status:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/BlenderDev/SundayMeetingAgenda (especially the last 2-3 sundays)
whats RC2?
Hey George, it means Release Candidate - it's like the very nearly finished version before releasing it 'officially'. You can use it, and test it, and post any bugs you find so they can get ironed out before the final release.
Wow... A lot of bug fixes!
What's SoC?
Anyway, great on the release, but I'm just gonna wait for the final thing ;) At least I know progress is being made!
@mpan3
NewSpeak needs to catch on.
@Dion Moult
I believe it stands for Googles summer of code
I had no idea there were so many things to fix, but the bugs listed seems to be pretty obscure and hard to pin down.
Seems like the dev team spent months trying to make blender crash in the most immaginative and creative ways possible. It'll all be worth it in the end. Roll on 2.50
The runtime for the gameengine is still broken..i hope they will fix this for the final release :|
Now, I understand what is the function of Susanne !
She helps for the "monkey tests" ;o)
So, thank you to the developpers and Suzanne for the great work done one more time on this release !
Philippe.
well- I got my ass wip by one of autodeck sale rep. in a debate about which softwares is more reliable to use,so get ready... At autodeck company Blender it seen as a toy program for armature to use,a bone yard software, nerding programmers.even animation Master from Hash company beat blender Ten to one in features OHHH! Maya and 3D max had won mayor awards in the films and science world wide. The blender foundation is view as a
wealth fare subsidize for dead end artists and developers. They even threaten animation schools if any of their students show any support for bone yard 3d software;they will pull
from magazines, and etc. It was a horror 35 min debate and I had noting to back blender thats really hurt.So brothers and sisters if any female artist is using blender let keep supporting blender development.
RNS
always grateful for a new release, keep 'em coming and thanks for the hard work and bug fixes!
I think you mean autodesk as in 3dsmax autodesk?
And sales rep are trained to do so and the word sales says enough about what the biggest pro is for blender ;)
When can we submit the welcome screen renders? I have one up in the works.
Release notes said something about fixed boolean function crashing. Hope I can get my guitar modeled. It keeps keeps crashing after doing some boolean function on the guitar neck. I started that thing when Blender was on version 2.42a.
I concur with pyrosever, that's a shitload of bugfixes for bugs which must each have taken a lot of figuring out. It's probably an indicator that the final release will be real stable.
holy changelog!
Quite an impressive list of fixes. O_o
GREAT a new release!!!
@ MrPerlishells:
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=28414&highlight=MegaBool
try out that script :) - it might help you ;)
Thank,Haas for your support It's true about those telemarketing sales rep.sorry about the miss spell I was too upset to think right.
RNS
Hehehe... that's right, don't let a nasty, horrible, sales person convince you that blender is a load of rubbish. Just use it and find out for yourself Muahahaha... ;)
Go BLENDERHEADS!!
~epat. :P
I hope they include the space navigator code into this release, so I do not have to wait for the independate build to be made to keep it working.
Personally I think Blender has the potential to be one of the most influential comprehensive digital content creation packages. I mean think about it, no feature in a software package can replace creativity, get the right person using the toolset and their going to make something simply amazing. I'd hope Max and Maya have features Blender doesn't, cause if they didn't thats a major black eye for them, charging up to 7K for something thats "in" Blender. I've used Maya for awhile, and its got a lot of quality things going for it... Some, not so.. *Cough* *Cough* Polygon Modeling *Cough* Weak toolset.... Silo runs circles around it..... As for threatening schools, I can't say if thats true, wasn't there... But I wouldn't doubt it, takes their software out of schools and you literally have a dead man walking... I finished school and the only software I knew was a package that meant taking out a loan to afford... BUT.... It was all I knew, what option did I have.... Every student that goes to school for this stuff is the same way... Unless you have a job right out of school, then you don't have access to the software, but you need it, its what you know... And businesses don't want to train you, they want you to know a good portion of it already... Meaning the Autodesk package you learned in school.... Imagine if Blender had a major influence in just education alone you would start to put a dent in autodesk..... Imagine and after school program for high school students, local at first, then statewide, nationwide, international... etc... Blender might not have every toolset Autodesk can offer, or even support from major 3rd party applications. But what it does have is a passionate group of people developing it, a devoted user community who supports each other and isn't just searching for a new and updated tool, although always appreciated... And free flowing information which when put into a young persons hands will pay off in the future... We just need to get in there . . .
~One last things, Autodesk can kiss it... Thats sales rep attacked ya because Blender is more of a threat to their coffer each year.. But its always been the smaller companies who truly innovate...
@ RNS: I knew what I would have told the nice gentleman from autodesk... After starting with blender/3D a little over a year ago I am currently taking a 3D Studio Max course (I only do this because I was offered it and there is no blender course) and I can tell you already that I would never trade in blender for 3D Studio Max - even it it was for free.
Yes, at first one might think that the interface is easier to get started with, but this is an illusion as you soon realise. While I'm sure 3D Studio Max is a good tool and all, for me working with it (and of course on a Window$ PC) feels a bit like a punishment: the interface (and the feedback it gives you) simply can not compete with blender - it's cluttered with non-self-explaining icons and the software has in my opinion a few real basic design mistakes which makes working much harder and slower than in blender. You constantly have to scroll down long menus (no shortcuts are shown in the menus or the tool-tips!), click check-boxes, ok stupid Window$ warning messages, sometimes find basic infos about an object in one window, at other times (after the object has been created) this info is in another window, there is no 3D cursor (big mistake), insides of objects are not shown/rendered by default or you e.g. don't see the vertex on the backside of a cube when in the (not so impressive) equivalent of blender's edit mode, the Max grid sometimes covers important parts of what you are working with (!) etc. etc.
So I guess I am one of those "dead end artists" this autodesk sales person was talking about... Would be interesting to meet him in two or three years time and discuss blender and 3D software once more - I would not use 3D Studio Max as my tool of choice even it it was for free. Really. This software just can not compete with blender: features can be like special effects - used to hide the fact that there is no real story, not much else to see.
The 2.45 of intel mac is just a 2.44 version (with newer built day) after decompress. The app start up with double click on the it's icon, but give an error message for opening blender saved files.
Hang on. Autodesk has telemarketers that call people up and argue about Blender? Why do I find this a bit hard to believe?
After signing up for a trial version of TurboCAD I got a call from a sales rep. Although they were quite polite. I wouldn't doubt Autodesk does something like that too, but I doubt they encourage debates over software packages when they call someone.... Who knows though . . .
Muahahaha, I have a plan! How about we get a team of Blenderheads who know both 3DS Max AND Blender VERY well, and we contact a sales rep, telling them we're a small business that is thinking of switching from Blender to 3DS Max. Now, we don't tell the sales rep that we know both software packages, and make it look like we're amatures. As he's describing the benifits of 3DS Max, we (seemingly) randomly point out that a certain feature is also in Blender, and we inquire about the 3DS Max version. Now, what we really did was wait for him to mention a feature in 3DS Max that is definitely inferior (like the interface setup) to Blender's version of the same thing, and we say the thing we like about Blender's version, and ask if its like that in 3DS Max (For instance, ask if the interface is non-overlapping). They stammer a bit, and say no, not exactly, and we say something that was rather stupid, but might be worth it. We carry on doing that for a while, and in the end, completely embarrass the sales rep, and he probably will get fired because he won't want to talk to a blenderhead about 3DS Max again.
I know I rambled a bit, and might be a bit rough, but I think that would be effective against that problem.
One thing I HATE about 3DS Max is that features are often duplicated. For instance, the "Mesh Smooth" and the "Turbo Smooth" modifiers do the EXACT same thing as each other, and they do the same as the NURMS subdivision that isn't a modifier, but built into the polygon system. I also hate all the scrolling, and the fact that the UI doesn't follow the mouse, so you can't just move the mouse to change veiwports or scroll through the menus, you actually have to click, which can cause you to do something you don't want to.
FINALLY - a release version that actually performs an non XML dump render (the one where you can see the squares as the render progresses) in yafray without the gcc incompatibility crash!!! Looks like they have finally updated the blender gcc to match with the yafray version. I have been waiting a long time for this! Well done finally, and I sure hope it happens with the final release because then I won't have to wait for distro specific packages.
Where can I post more bugs?
There an error miscompiled DLL at the start of rendering with ffmpeg VCD quality.
"Only shodows" materials don't get antialiased.
The fact of the matter is that companies like Autodesk cannot compete with the Blender Foundation business model and as long as the community stays strong they never will. The gap between their premium software package and Blender is closing fast. What's more, in many situations there is no gap. A well thought out model or animation in Blender is indistinguishable from one made with software 1000 times more expensive. Oh wait... what's free multiplied by 1000...
Unfortunately for them code is code is code and while these companies may have a lot of well paid programmers, Blender's extended community is a force to be reckoned with. What's more Blender's theoretic "market" audience is many times larger than any of these companies... Think about it. How many artists can afford a $5,000 software package + the compositing software as needed... how many high school students... for that matter how many freelancers. Not to mention how many small businesses, whose use of a 3D graphics program is secondary to their main source of income, are going to pony up hard earned dough for software that will be a recurrent expense with every new release if they knew the power of Blender.
Blender is a truly special creation from people that seem to have understood how to make a diverse community (the world) focus towards a common goal. Now what software company can say that.
As for its shortcomings, I just look at the graphic design I come in contact with and I ask myself... could I do that in Blender? More often than not the answer is yes.
PS
I'd love to see a "Peach" / Essential Blender gift set. Gift it to an artistic teenager with access to a computer... It's the gift that keeps on giving. What about a Ton tour? Get him on Oprah, the Daily Show, the Colbert Report (sorry, my references are from this side of the Atlantic) and see what happens. The Blender story is interesting, inspirational and an eye opener for those whose idea of Open Source is skewed by their experiences with not-ready for prime time software.