Blender Developer Notes: July 12, 2015

10 Comments

1. 

   Tom Haines on July 12, 2015 20:16 PM

   We finally have a text effect in the video editor:-) (in the partial release notes, before someone asks) That is going to save making so many images! Could do with more options though, particularly regarding size and font. Also, given the subtitle output ability, a 'hide all text strips' operator would prove handy (and that is before we even consider a multilingual work flow). Regardless, I am glad to see a first version:-)

   Reply
   • 

     Felix on July 12, 2015 20:25 PM

     Same here, I'm really glad to see that feature. Still waiting for a better multi core/GPU support for video editing, but that text feature is a big step forward. :)

     Reply
   • 

     Bintang senja on July 12, 2015 23:36 PM

     Where do you see the part that tell about text effect strip ?

     Reply
     • 

       Felix on July 13, 2015 00:02 AM

       It's in the release notes for 2.76 http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.76/Sequencer

       Reply
2. 

   Marc Driftmeyer on July 12, 2015 21:55 PM

   I'd like to know why I can run a pre-compiled archive of Blender 2.75a with an old Nvidia 8600GTS GPU but cannot compile without CUDA from Trunk due to the following error:

   /home/mdriftmeyer/Projects/Blender/amd-kernel-split/blender/intern/cycles/device/device_opencl.cpp: In member function ‘std::__cxx11::string ccl::OpenCLDeviceBase::kernel_build_options(const string*)’:
   /home/mdriftmeyer/Projects/Blender/amd-kernel-split/blender/intern/cycles/device/device_opencl.cpp:1254:30: error: ‘CL_DEVICE_COMPUTE_CAPABILITY_MAJOR_NV’ was not declared in this scope
   clGetDeviceInfo(cdDevice, CL_DEVICE_COMPUTE_CAPABILITY_MAJOR_NV,
   ^
   /home/mdriftmeyer/Projects/Blender/amd-kernel-split/blender/intern/cycles/device/device_opencl.cpp:1256:30: error: ‘CL_DEVICE_COMPUTE_CAPABILITY_MINOR_NV’ was not declared in this scope
   clGetDeviceInfo(cdDevice, CL_DEVICE_COMPUTE_CAPABILITY_MINOR_NV,
   ^
   [ 9%] Building CXX object extern/libmv/third_party/ceres/CMakeFiles/extern_ceres.dir/internal/ceres/conjugate_gradients_solver.cc.o
   intern/cycles/device/CMakeFiles/cycles_device.dir/build.make:146: recipe for target 'intern/cycles/device/CMakeFiles/cycles_device.dir/device_opencl.cpp.o' failed
   make[2]: *** [intern/cycles/device/CMakeFiles/cycles_device.dir/device_opencl.cpp.o] Error 1
   CMakeFiles/Makefile2:1061: recipe for target 'intern/cycles/device/CMakeFiles/cycles_device.dir/all' failed
   make[1]: *** [intern/cycles/device/CMakeFiles/cycles_device.dir/all] Error 2
   make[1]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....

   I'm planning on upgrading to the Radeon Fury Nano but that's dependent upon the release.

   Explain the discrepancy.

   Reply
3. 

   Marc Driftmeyer on July 12, 2015 22:23 PM

   For reference:

   CPU: 8 Core FX-8350
   RAM: 32GB DDR3 1866

   Would really like to know if the OpenCL split kernel recognizes the FX processor as clinfo does and leverages it properly:

   driftmeyer@horus:~/Projects/Blender/amd-kernel-split/gcc-blender$ clinfo
   Number of platforms: 1
   Platform Profile: FULL_PROFILE
   Platform Version: OpenCL 2.0 AMD-APP (1642.5)
   Platform Name: AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing
   Platform Vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
   Platform Extensions: cl_khr_icd cl_amd_event_callback cl_amd_offline_devices

   Platform Name: AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing
   Number of devices: 1
   Device Type: CL_DEVICE_TYPE_CPU
   Vendor ID: 1002h
   Board name:
   Max compute units: 8
   Max work items dimensions: 3
   Max work items[0]: 1024
   Max work items[1]: 1024
   Max work items[2]: 1024
   Max work group size: 1024
   Preferred vector width char: 16
   Preferred vector width short: 8
   Preferred vector width int: 4
   Preferred vector width long: 2
   Preferred vector width float: 8
   Preferred vector width double: 4
   Native vector width char: 16
   Native vector width short: 8
   Native vector width int: 4
   Native vector width long: 2
   Native vector width float: 8
   Native vector width double: 4
   Max clock frequency: 1400Mhz
   Address bits: 64
   Max memory allocation: 8427588608
   Image support: Yes
   Max number of images read arguments: 128
   Max number of images write arguments: 64
   Max image 2D width: 8192
   Max image 2D height: 8192
   Max image 3D width: 2048
   Max image 3D height: 2048
   Max image 3D depth: 2048
   Max samplers within kernel: 16
   Max size of kernel argument: 4096
   Alignment (bits) of base address: 1024
   Minimum alignment (bytes) for any datatype: 128
   Single precision floating point capability
   Denorms: Yes
   Quiet NaNs: Yes
   Round to nearest even: Yes
   Round to zero: Yes
   Round to +ve and infinity: Yes
   IEEE754-2008 fused multiply-add: Yes
   Cache type: Read/Write
   Cache line size: 64
   Cache size: 16384
   Global memory size: 33710354432
   Constant buffer size: 65536
   Max number of constant args: 8
   Local memory type: Global
   Local memory size: 32768
   Max pipe arguments: 16
   Max pipe active reservations: 16
   Max pipe packet size: 4132621312
   Max global variable size: 1879048192
   Max global variable preferred total size: 1879048192
   Max read/write image args: 64
   Max on device events: 0
   Queue on device max size: 0
   Max on device queues: 0
   Queue on device preferred size: 0
   SVM capabilities:
   Coarse grain buffer: Yes
   Fine grain buffer: Yes
   Fine grain system: Yes
   Atomics: Yes
   Preferred platform atomic alignment: 0
   Preferred global atomic alignment: 0
   Preferred local atomic alignment: 0
   Kernel Preferred work group size multiple: 1
   Error correction support: 0
   Unified memory for Host and Device: 1
   Profiling timer resolution: 1
   Device endianess: Little
   Available: Yes
   Compiler available: Yes
   Execution capabilities:
   Execute OpenCL kernels: Yes
   Execute native function: Yes
   Queue on Host properties:
   Out-of-Order: No
   Profiling : Yes
   Queue on Device properties:
   Out-of-Order: No
   Profiling : No
   Platform ID: 0x7f6cef05a830
   Name: AMD FX(tm)-8350 Eight-Core Processor
   Vendor: AuthenticAMD
   Device OpenCL C version: OpenCL C 1.2
   Driver version: 1642.5 (sse2,avx,fma4)
   Profile: FULL_PROFILE
   Version: OpenCL 1.2 AMD-APP (1642.5)
   Extensions: cl_khr_fp64 cl_amd_fp64 cl_khr_global_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_global_int32_extended_atomics cl_khr_local_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_local_int32_extended_atomics cl_khr_int64_base_atomics cl_khr_int64_extended_atomics cl_khr_3d_image_writes cl_khr_byte_addressable_store cl_khr_gl_sharing cl_ext_device_fission cl_amd_device_attribute_query cl_amd_vec3 cl_amd_printf cl_amd_media_ops cl_amd_media_ops2 cl_amd_popcnt cl_khr_spir cl_khr_gl_event

   I see no reference to OpenCL AMD being able to recognize the FX directly.

   I would think that should be there as a way to disable any hang on the old NVidia card.

   Reply
4. 

   Tenebrael on July 13, 2015 05:27 AM

   Hmmm, I have a suggestion for PTex and OpenSubdiv - please just remove it temporarily from the release plans. It looks quite bad and unprofessional when it appears in plans for months now, while it seems no real chances to release anytime soon. I don't want to say that no great features are added every new release, but keeping PTex and OpenSubdiv in all an every release plans month by month feels just... bad. It'd be better to simply remove it and return when there are a REAL chances to implement in the particular release.

   Reply
   • 

     BillDStrong on July 13, 2015 10:46 AM

     It sounds like OpenSubDiv is going in, just not available on every platform. Which is fine, not every feature needs to be on every platform, and the more users testing the implementation faster, the better the final implementation will be.

     Reply
5. 

   Reaction on July 13, 2015 10:08 AM

   Wonderful, as ever, to see the pace of Blender development never slows down! Video editing captions is a very good addition; let's see that grow. Amusing to see that Grease Pencil is being expanded - it's something I have never ever needed to use, yet it appears like a plague all over the UI ;-)

   Reply
6. 

   Anony on July 13, 2015 12:31 PM

   I really like how Grease Pencil is progressing, waiting to see great works made with it :)

   Reply