Developer Meeting Notes: November 2, 2014
Ton Roosendaal shares the notes the developers meeting in irc.freenode.net, #blendercoders.
Hi all,
Here are the notes from today’s meeting in irc.freenode.net, #blendercoders. Wintertime has settled on the Northern Hemisphere, time for meeting is on 1500 UTC again.
1) Targets for 2.73
- Release planning and targets were updated in this meeting, please check!
- Bastien Montagne has a patch to compress shapekeys. Needs reviews – mostly because it breaks reading new files with older versions.
- Split normal editing is back on review list, could be target still
- Where is Opensubdiv now? We still prefer to wait for Pixar to release 3.0, which will make an integrated OpenSubdiv much more useful.
- Not on release targets, but still possible is to add some of the viewport OpenGL project? We’ll hear more from Antony Ryakiotakis tomorrow.
- Chinese and other Asian complex character input feature deserves serious review for 2.73. Follow the conversation here.
2) Other projects
- Blender Development Fund update.
- The NPR (‘cartoon render’) discussion is ongoing – we all would love to see improvements here, but can we do it in smaller steps? Join the mailing list.
- Reports on progress from developers in the Gooseberry project will be done separately.
Thanks,
-Ton-
I went to the opensubdiv website and I’m sure that you already know that the release version 3.0 alpha is out. With that being said, the alpha release do have problems often. I hope that the Beta release is soon to follow.
realflow?
“a patch to compress shapekeys. Needs reviews – mostly because it breaks reading new files with older versions.”
There
is no point to care if some old bersion of Blender can’t read file of
the new one. Blender is the only program i know that cares about that
for no real reason. If old version can read the new file – ok, if not –
it shouldn’t become show stopper.
Unfortunately, I have six different versions of Blender installed on my computer right now, including the latest release. Do you know why?
Because some rather useful addons stop working (or see some hiccups) between the new releases, and I have each version set up around using them.
Until this issue disappears, and perhaps Blender features an auto-update feature to make the process seamless, it’s not a bad idea to have some support for older versions of Blender reading newer files.
But yeah, I wouldn’t hope it’d be a showstopper. It seems pretty second-priority. Then again, I didn’t check to see what kind of priority they placed on this development.
I am too using a few versions because some addons don’t always work as they should on they newer versions but this don’t justify this feature in the slightest. Depending on many Blender versions is workaround, the solution is to fix the addons. And since now Blendermarket rules the addon territory they will HAVE to support newer versions anyway. And many addons including Motion Trail will soon appear there.
If your work depends on the old unsupported addon solution is easy – don’t use the latest Blender version for the project at all.
And who decides how many versions back this feature should work? If it doesn’t work for 2.49 100% or lower than there is no point in this feature or atleast there must be specification on versions supported. But again this is lazy workaround.
Besides new file format brings nice feature to the list. Taking down a file/memory size significantly. Blender takes significantly more memory for the same file that Maya does. Even one step in right direction is far better than putting things on hold because some old unsupported addons don’t work. If addon is useful and for Blender devs it can be justified as show stopper than its far better to make support for it in the new version.
I wish one of the items listed for 2.73 was “Create a built-in library of basic materials to get new users started more quickly.” I’ve used Blender for years, and always wondered why I couldn’t just choose “Chrome”, “Plastic” or “Glass” from a built-in list and then just customize the material. Same for textures. Having to build materials from first principles must scare away many new (potential) users.
Any news about ? Quote “Not on release targets, but still possible is to add some of the viewport OpenGL project? We’ll hear more from Antony Ryakiotakis tomorrow”
I would like to ask if it is possible to add a “Morph Modifier”, but before this can anyone tell me how do you manage to deform areas like the jaw, like switching between “chewing” and “opening the mouth”, I used (in other software packages) to setting up another mesh as morph target. And I can’t figure it out without this kind of modifier. Thanks!