Link to Blender 2.5 build

Henry Blewer · August 21, 2009, 12:25:00 PM

A pre-release version. It's XP 32. I have only downloaded it. Here's the link.

http://www.virtualrealm.com.au/blogs/blender-2-50-early-build-18150/

FrankB · August 21, 2009, 01:05:10 PM

hm... the new feature list... sounds fairly unspectacular, no?
I don't think I should judge this as I am not a modeler, but I gave blender a shot once and ran through a few tutorial. I found the interface so ridiculously unintuitive, that I got upset and abandoned it.. Maybe, and IF, Blender in a future version will have a state of the art user interface, I may be tempted to spend some time learning it. In the end, it's a free of charge application and it deserves a lot of credit for how much one can do with it..... theoretically.

Frank

Tangled-Universe · August 21, 2009, 01:13:05 PM

I bought "Blender for Dummies" and also saw some tutorials etc.
ALWAYS the first thing being mentioned is that the interface sucks

lol

Henry Blewer · August 21, 2009, 01:17:48 PM

I just ran it, played around a little. Everything looks different. I had trouble finding things when I knew where they were. Cool new feature I did discover, everything multi-threads. Material/texture previews are much faster and more useful. I was rendering a test and changing the model at the same time, without interface lag.

Verdict: I'm psyched. It will take a little time to get used to, but the real release might be much better. The new buttons make it look more professional.

EDIT: I think the interface can now be configured to mimic other 3D apps. I hate the current interface, with 'feature wanted, buried under eight layers of unwanted.' When I have more time with it, I'll post more about it.

old_blaggard · August 21, 2009, 05:03:24 PM

With my internship wrapping up this week, I'm definitely looking forward to having more time to play with the new build.

matrix2003 · August 21, 2009, 05:17:39 PM

"When I have more time with it, I'll post more about it." Please do! I just tried a quick run and my first take is it still sucks!

neuspadrin · August 21, 2009, 06:07:41 PM

yeh i only was able to use the blender ui after spending like a good day or two tweaking and learning just the ui. Not a good way to get beginners. And since its free its a great way to start as a beginner without shelling out a billion dollars, but it really needs to be easier.

rcallicotte · August 22, 2009, 12:26:49 PM

What is this I'm hearing about Blender's next October release might have some cool animation controls, among other cool additions?

Henry Blewer · August 22, 2009, 02:58:40 PM

I think they are revamping the animation controls to something more intuitive. (I can hear you!) Something to do with multiple instancing with a better non-linear interface. I am hoping this will also work with the physics, fluid, and bullet methods. Now they are quite linear. Only the fluid solver has repeat/reverse. (2.49a build)

It's going to be a few days before I can get to do much with this. Two twelve hour shifts, and it's much too hot and humid for me to sleep.

reck · August 24, 2009, 04:09:09 AM

Quote from: calico on August 22, 2009, 12:26:49 PM
What is this I'm hearing about Blender's next October release might have some cool animation controls, among other cool additions?

Yes the animation system in Blender 2.5 has had an upgrade and it's called animato. The idea is that in 2.5 absolutely everything can be animated.

Probably the big news about the 2.5 release is the new UI though. Long has Blenders interface been a stumbling block for new users trying to get to grips with the software and the new release should help with this. Also for the first time a customizable keymap has been added so it's now possible to customize the screen and now the keyboard as well to your liking.

Here are a few other things that are being worked on and may or may not make it in the 2.5 release.

Bmesh - improves the modeling process from previous versions and allows for ngons.
Raytrace / viewport optimization - raytracing has been vastly sped up with a lot of scenes rendering in twice the speed. Viewport rendering has also been improved.
Smoke simulation - Now possible to render and animate smoke effects.
Freestlye integration
Volumetric rendering
BOIDS 2 - New version of the "intelligent particles", allows for things such as predator - prey simulations.
Improved particles support - Non hair particle editing
Photon mapping/unbiased renderer
New file browser with bookmarking and integrated previews.

There's not a final list yet and more stuff will get added partly due to the Durian project that's going to use a version of 2.5.

scott8933 · August 24, 2009, 05:20:34 AM

Hopefully we'll have some enterprising Blender folk make some UI presets that mimic your app of choice, the way Vue does when you first start running it (though that mostly takes the form of colors and icons... but any little help is good when learning a new app).

That would do Blender a world of good. I've heard people say, despite having some really great tools like dynamics and fluid solvers, "I'd still rather use the interface of a CNC machine."

I saw the new UI at siggraph and was impressed - but then, the previous incarnation of it was so completely opaque to me, that basically anything would have been an improvement. Though it looked a little better, I didn't actually have the chance to sit down and use it. For all I know, it was a new coat of paint on the same old CNC machine. Which is too bad. There are some apps that are hard or weird to learn... but Blender is really out there.

Maybe if there were the promise of really well-paying jobs for those with high level knowledge of the program. But that is destined to be its Achilles heel - Just too damn hard to learn, and not widely used enough to make it worth it. I hope that changes, because I've always really liked the idea of using the Blender, and its open-source architecture that really brings out some great tools and bug fixes very quickly. I've just never been able to translate that into real-world practice. And right now why bother. When was the last gig you saw that said "Blender TD needed for feature film"

Quote from: njeneb on August 21, 2009, 01:17:48 PM
...

EDIT: I think the interface can now be configured to mimic other 3D apps. I hate the current interface, with 'feature wanted, buried under eight layers of unwanted.' When I have more time with it, I'll post more about it.

rcallicotte · August 24, 2009, 03:46:41 PM

Should I bring up the silo word? What might happen with Nevercenter, if Blender takes off?

reck · August 24, 2009, 07:29:22 PM

Quote from: calico on August 24, 2009, 03:46:41 PM
Should I bring up the silo word? What might happen with Nevercenter, if Blender takes off?

The sculpting tools in Blender have been improved and continue to get better, but Silo is still better in this area than Blender.

Mr_Lamppost · August 24, 2009, 09:00:37 PM

Blender is not the most accessible modeler but everything I have taken the time to figure out is well worth the trouble. I used to use 3DS Max 5 and people say Blender has a crap interface.

Looking at this latest version is one of the things I had penciled in for this week.

latego · August 25, 2009, 04:50:03 PM

A few days ago I tried Blender 2.5 and I can report that now it is usable (e.g. to set user options you open a dialog using File|Preferences

). I played a little with it and for the first time in my Blender experience I managed to do something. It is light years away from being user friendly but now at least it looks something a normal human being can understand.

This is surely a great news for the 3D arena, because after recent AutoDesk actions, there was/is a TREMENDOUS need for some competition.

Nevercenter? they have stopped working on Silo: a few days ago there was a post from somebody who was asking about Collada import/export and he was referred to a news update post dating back to the END of 2008...

Bye!!!