Blender PDF Release Log

Blender PDF Release LogThis is an unofficial PDF version of the Blender Release Log pages you can find here:http://www.blender.org/development/release−logs/

About this PDF

I produced this PDF copy for a test: I thought a release log should be a single document, in order to showimprovements from the current release backwards in time. Related pages on Blender.org site are separated andso the timeline is not intuitive, i think. Being available as a single PDF, an thus much more readable, printableand shareable, it could be a better promoting material in some occasions.Who knows? I am sharing this just tosee what other people thinks of it. I've read that Blender documentation is released under the Open ContentLicense (http://opencontent.org/opl.shtml). This license is reported at the end of this pages, below. I am tryingto stick to this licence, but i'm no licence expert: if you feel something is wrong, just let me know why andpossibly how to fix.

I did not modify the content of the web pages except for removing the navigational parts typical of a webpage, which are not needed in a "book", since you don't have to browse through web link, but scroll pages. Inthe same way, I converted other sections of the wiki to PDF and you can find them in the same place wherethis PDF was (see below). The release log web pages are updated, i think, after each release shows up in theweb site, so it doesn't make much sense to update this PDF if there is no news.

My modifications to web pages

The "processing" I'm referring to is, basically, remove graphical page headers, footers, navigational menus,and other minor html tags that could alter the PDF page structure or distract the eye from the real docs textand pics. The basic principle I follow is: I want to keep only the documentation text and pics, and externallinks if needed, without anything else, and keep the readability as best as I can.

I hope to be able to be able to convert those web pages to pdf until there's a better alternative but, as webcontent can obviously change, something may go wrong. I can't double check all the pages any time. It willsurely improve my Blender knowledge :D but there are simply too many pages. If you note some weirdness orbroken section, let me know, i'll try to fix it.

Where to find this PDF

Up to now, you should be able to find it here: http://www.letworyinteractive.com/b/category/blender/. If anychange should happen, i'll post on major forums/blogs for everyone to know.

How to contact me

I do this in the spare time so i can't spend too much time on it but if you want to suggest me improvements orother ways to do this, or alternatives, please feel free to do so. Here's how: "m.ardito" is the username and thedomain is "libero.it". you know how to use them ;). Please don't post the "reconstructed" address, in no webpage, blog, mailing list or newsgroup, anywhere. I already have enough spam to deal with! Thanks.

Have fun! Marco Ardito

Open Content LicenseOpenContent License (OPL)

Open Content License Open Content License

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Version 1.0, July 14, 1998.

This document outlines the principles underlying the OpenContent (OC) movement and may be redistributed provided it remains unaltered. For legal purposes, this document is the license under which OpenContent is made available for use.

The original version of this document may be found at http://opencontent.org/opl.shtml

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These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the OC, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the OC, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it. Exceptions are made to this requirement to release modified works free of charge under this license only in compliance with Fair Use law where applicable.

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Download 2.48a

Feature videos

Contributors

Blender 2.48aBlender 2.48 includes all the work done on the Blender Game Engine and the Apricot Open Game "YoFrankie!", with much better functioning game logic editing, character animation, and Blender Material basedreal−time shaders. And as last minute surprise a Bullet physics update with Softbody support.

Also in this release; Windows 64 bits support, Grease Pencil for sketching annotations, Sun/Sky/Atmosphererendering, new modifiers, and an improved text editor with Python API support. And last but not least, anenormous list of open bug reports were handled.

Blender 2.48a update:

A couple of important bugfixes has been done in Blender since the release, especially for using the GameEngine and GLSL. Read more here.

October 2008The Blender.org team

Real−time GLSL MaterialsYou can get many of Blender's Materials also drawing in real−time in the 3D window and the game engine,including shadow buffers! It requires a more recent 3D card with good hardware shader support.

Real−time GLSL Materials Real−time GLSL Materials

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Game LogicGame logic and game level editing has been improved in many ways. Most notable are the Logic States,which allow to group logic bricks in simple"state engines" and activatate, deactivate, or smoothly maketransitions between them.

www.martinsh.co.nr

Bullet SoftBodyBlender's GE uses the Bullet physics library. The library has been updated to the latest version, supportingsoft body dynamics. Support has been added for flat cloth or volumetric soft bodies. Bullet allows interactionsbeween soft bodies as well as rigid bodies and static collision bounds of all types.

Game Engine notesThe Game Engine is back, and better than ever! In this section you can read some of the backgrounds, and acollection of other GE release notes.

Colored shadowsYou can assign an RGB color to any lamp's shadow now. Although this isn't a feature supported "in the realworld", it's a cool trick to allow artists to present a more realistic shading and lighting in their work (without

Colored shadows Colored shadows

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need for GI).

Shrinkwrap ModifierAs one of the Google summer projects, you can now allow an object to be "shrinked" to match/touch anotherobject's shape. The modifier works based on vertex groups allowing a part of a model to shrink or beprojected

Simple Deform ModifierThis new modifier has been added to provide simple deforms. It works on Meshes and Curve objects, andprovides twist, bend, taper and stretch.

More 2.48 features and fixes...

Virgilio Vasconcelos

More 2.48 features and fixes... More 2.48 features and fixes...

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Grease PencilThe Grease Pencil allows to sketch annotations, notes and even animated motion suggestions in Blender.Great for collaborated work, remarks from directors or to draw key frame poses for characters.

Bassam Kurdali

Animation toolsA lot of work has been done on better management for inserting keys. Further you can read notes here aboutrigging, bone locking and aligning. And there's a Mancandy reference rig update!

Daniel Salazar

Sun, Sky, AtmosphereThis new "sun/sky" feature allows to use Sun lamps to simulate sky color and atmosphere scattering. A lot ofoptions are available to achieve interesting artistic results, including blend modes and color space.

Giuseppe Canino

Sun, Sky, Atmosphere Sun, Sky, Atmosphere

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Sculpt mode improvementsA couple of new Sculpting options were added. Now brushes allow a custom falloff curve, and there are moreoptions available for textured brushes.

Python EditorOne of the included Google summer projects was to improve our texteditor with Python IDE features,allowing much more advanced editing and integrated API lookup support for scripters.

Fluid ControlFluid simulation can be controlled using particles which define local force fields and are generatedautomatically from either a physical simulation or a sequence of target shapes. At the same time, as much aspossible of the natural fluid motion is preserved.

Fluid Control Fluid Control

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Wind & DeflectorsThe Wind forcefield now has "noise" option. Force Deflectors now can also occlude or absorb forces.

Wind & Deflectors Wind & Deflectors

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Download 2.47

Feature videos

Blender 2.47

Continuing Blender 2.4x series, Blender 2.47 is a bugfix release to stabilize the "Bunny Release", seriouseffort has been put in tracking bugs and fixing them.

A complete list of bugfixes is available if you want to read all the nasty details. Or keep on reading for a quick"short" version:

New tools and improvement have been made to the Snapping tools.• Better Game Engine logic.• Revised alpha blending in the Game Engine.• PyConstraints and PyDrivers are not executed unless scriptlinks are enabled (for improved security)• Fixed an incorrect transformation for particle group visualization.• Fixed negative value in the Gamma node with negative input.• Tangent shading (which only affects specular) made bump mapping not work for diffuse.• Fixed Mesh Deform Modifier not working on extruded curves.• Fixed crash converting old particle system from a linked file.• Object instancing didn't restore matrices correct for Environment Map, this could give objectrendering in the wrong position.

•

Compositor nodes with use nodes disabled didn't properly redraw the node window on changes.•

Blender would crash if the user cancel the hair softbody bake.• The Disable Tex option didn't disable textures for the Texface material option.• Fixed data browse for image painting, which didn't work.• Action Editor Border Select Channels no longer selects bones.• Fix bug in X−Mirror for armatures. When a bone in a mirrored chain wasn't named propertly, it wouldleave the head or tail in an invalid state.

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Fixed baking AO with greater then 16 samples.• Fixed "Col" option for particle systems does not work correctly with Mat IPOs• Fixed Particle mirror could fail on some faces.• Bevel tool was hanging on certain geometry where the edge to be beveled was shared by two facesthat had more than one edge in common and caller was not checking return status of Bmesh eulers.

•

Fixed Game Engine corrupts Pose data• When your home directory is full, saving defaults would fail without raising an error.• Fixed crash on grab/move on axis when nothing selected.• Update−automatically option in IPO Editor now updates objects using the active IPO−block as theirObAction when transforming keyframes.

•

Shift+H would hide unselected objects on unseen layers.• Color picker didn't always redraw rgb/hsv/hex values.• Vertex parenting didn't work correct with multiple unconnected curves.• Fixed crash in fluid bake with large amount of small fluid objects.• Outliner doesn't update when changing parent in Transform Properties•

Blender 2.47 Blender 2.47

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Blender 2.47 Blender 2.47

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Blender 2.46The work of the past half year − also thanks to the open movie project "Big Buck Bunny" − has resulted in agreatly improved feature set, now released as Blender 2.46, the "Bunny release"!

This version supports a new particle system with hair and fur combing tools, fast and optimal fur rendering, amesh deformation system for advanced character rigging, cloth simulation, fast Ambient Occlusion, a newImage browser, and that's just the beginning. Check the extensive list of features in the log below... have fun!

May 17, 2008The blender.org team.

Hair and FurMany features have been added to make fur and grass rendering for Peach possible. Big improvements weremade in visual quality, rendering speed and memory usage.

Image BrowsingThe new Image Browser is blazingly fast and stable, and not only allows to browse for images in yourfilesystem, but can also show previews of materials, textures, world, lamp and image data.

Image Browsing Image Browsing

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Glossy ReflectionsReflections and refractions are now possible to be rendered with a glossiness factor, controlling the roughnessof material.

Render BakingGreat tools for making UV textures: you now can bake normal maps based on rendering a higher resolutionmesh, you can bake displacement (including 32 bits depth), and you can bake transparency.

Physics caching and bakingThe softbody, cloth and particle physics now use a unified system for caching and baking. For real−timetweaking, a new option "Continue Physics" will continue the simulation regardless of the current frame.

www.malefico3d.org

Physics caching and baking Physics caching and baking

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Armature DrawingArmatures now support Bone groups, custom Bone colors, automatic colors, more custom shape options, ...and many more goodies for our rigging department.

Armature ToolsMany new tools and improvements have been made to speed up the rigging and posing workflow. There arenow tools for more intuitive bone creation, various hotkeys to speedy batch−editing of bones, auto−ik andauto−keyframing tweaks, and many more goodies.

Skinning improvementsBone Heat Weighting is a new method to create vertex weights for bone deformation, it generates betterresults, and does not require setting a radius for bones. Also added was Quaternion−Interpolated Deformationfor superior blends.

Game Engine improvementsThe Blender GameEngine has seen a great deal of improvement with an increase in play−back speed, anumber of nice new features including 2D filter compositing, and of course attention to quality through bugfixes.

Game Engine improvements Game Engine improvements

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Soft ShadowsRaytraced soft shadows are now possible for all lamp types; including spot, sun and point lights.

Render PipelineFSA gives superior anti−aliasing for high dynamic range and compositing. Zmasks allow rendering ofcomposite masks. Instancing gives efficient memory re−use for duplicates.

Shading featuresCubic shading (to prevent discontinuity banding)• Higher level texture coordinates for duplicates (like feathers)• Lamp fall−off curves• Softer Halos, premul alpha, multisample shadowbuffers, ...•

Python Scripts and APIThere have been a large number of script additions and script updates, as well as API improvements since thelast release.

Python Scripts and API Python Scripts and API

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Particle system rewriteThe particle system has been rewritten from scratch. It now allows advanced hair grooming tools, but alsomuch better physics, boid animation and even explosions!

Cloth simulationCloth simulation is available in Blender via a modifier on Mesh objects. Cloth then realistically and inreal−time interacts with other objects, the wind or other forces, all of which is fully under your control.

Approximate AOAmbient Occlusion is a render option that darkens areas with less visibility, simulating the effect ofenvironment light. This new AO option is based on quick approximation, giving many factors of speedup.

Approximate AO Approximate AO

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Mesh Deform ModifierThis new method allows to use any random Mesh cage to become a deformation "lattice" for animatedcharacters. By layering − using both a MeshDeformer and an Armature, you can both achieve high level asprecise control.

Action Editor improvementsThe Action Editor has been rewritten to have a more flexible codebase that is more future−proof andextendable. This has enabled tools to be shared between the editing modes for Actions and ShapeKeys, andnow has many new features...

Constraint SystemConstraints are crucial for setting up good character rigs. A wealth of new features have been added toimprove and extend this system. Most notable is the addition of PyConstraints, allowing full control toanimators.

www.promotionstudios.com

Constraint System Constraint System

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QMC & Adaptive SamplingBlender now includes two new sampling methods, using a Halton sequence (Adaptive QMC) and aHammersley sequence (Constant QMC).Raytracing now also supports adaptive sampling.

SequencerMany many new goodies in our Video Sequence Editor:

UI made more accessible, new panels/views• Built−in strip blending• Color correction tools• Markers, NTSC support, preview, ...•

UV texture editingUV texture coordinates now are accessible via regular Mesh editmode. And many more features were addedsuch as:

UV draw types• Solid opengl view with textures• 2d cursor in Image window•

UV texture editing UV texture editing

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Compositing NodesNew compositing nodes have been added, including glare, lens distortion, directional blur, bilateral blur, tonemap, and more.

Shading NodesNew shading node developments include a front side/back side mask, and extended material node.

And more featuresNDOF devices support• Align to Transform Orientation• Pole target for IK chains• Pose Libraries• Weight Paint visualizationMulti−Modifier supportWeight−group selecting

•

Custom transform orientations• Distributed rendering options• External Paths Tools• Automerge• Recursive Dupli Groups• Developer Credits•

And more features And more features

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Download 2.45

Feature videos

Contributors

Blender 2.45

The 2.45 is a bugfix release, to stabilize the 2.4x series.No new feature have been added, but serious effort has been put in tracking bugs and fixing them. Someperformance issues have also been addressed.

September 18th, 2007

About this releaseContinuing Blender 2.4x series lets us do periodic bug fix releases while new features are focused on Blender2.50 (two point fifty, not five), allowing developers to perform radical changes that require a longerdevelopment cycle.

A complete list of bugfixes is avaliable if you want to read all the nasty details. Or keep on reading for a quick"short" version:

SSS now works with panorama render.• Removed artifacts with negative lights when using SSS• Disabled SSS for preview rendering, so it didn't slow down other preview render at all.• Fixed error in "Transform Constraint" with planar constraints when the plane was perpendicular to theviewport.

•

Fixed the vector blur error in "Ztransp" that produce black lines (on edges) appeared, which didn't getblurred away.

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Fixed an error in the Particle System that cause bad results for command line renders, especially whenrendering first frame of animation.

•

Fixed Verse crashing in 64 bits Linux.• Math node now has reflective behavior.•

Multires meshes with UV's and vertex colors would crash in many cases.• Importing 3DS files with lamps failed.• DXF Importer updated, includes stable support for 3d objects and blocks hierarchy.• FBX Exporter updated, includes fixes for better compatibility with other applications and support forexporting animation with armature deformed meshes and objects.

•

Collada support updated for better armature support.• Bundled python modules were not included in 2.44 by accident, making some scripts fail in 2.44 thatworked in 2.43 (Windows Only, when Python was not installed)

•

About this release About this release

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Fixed bug in the shadow calculation that cause errors where specularity would ignore shadows.• Changes to the insert keyframes method for determining when to replace existing keyframes with newones. Now, it shouldn't create so many keyframes stacked on top of each other.

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Blender would crash if boolean operations were done on objects wich resulted in an empty mesh. Thiswas due to accessing invalid memory.

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Remove the options "make local" in the Outliner. It didnt work properly and produced errors in thelinked data.

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Edgesplit crashes are fixed, the problem was that "bridge" vertices (which connect two or more facesthat don't share edges) were not being included in the maximum final vertex count calculation (usedfor memory allocation, hence the crashes).

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Fixed Multires Editmode memory leak. Typo in Multires Editmode integration meant that far toomuch memory was getting allocated for a pointer array (more than 10 times as much).

•

About this release About this release

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Feature videos

Contributors

Splash by @ndy

Blender 2.44Blender 2.44 was intended to be an upgrade release, mainly for plenty of bug fixes, but the developers tookthe effort adding at least a few interesting new features.

This version now is fully 64 bits compatible, new modifers were added, a couple of composite nodes wereadded, and a revamp of the old mesh primitives was done. But most relevant to mention is Blender 2.44's newlong−awaited but unexpected feature: subsurface scattering (SSS) support!

May 12th, 2007

Sculpt and MultiresThe previous release was the first Blender version to offer 3d sculpt and multi−res. Based on welcomefeedback and reporting, a lot of bug fixes and improvements were added.

Python Scripts and APIThere have been a large number of script additions and script updates, as well as API improvements since thelast release.

Python Scripts and API Python Scripts and API

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New ModifiersTwo new modifiers are available now; "Smooth" and "Cast".

64 bits migration notesBlender had been ported to 64 bits Dec Alpha in 1998 already, but since 2002 its 64 bits compliancy has beengathering dust mostly. Time for a cleanup!

More features and fixesPlenty of smaller features made it into this release.

Subsurface ScatteringSubsurface scattering is a new material option to render materials like skin, marble or milk. For thesematerials light scatters under the surface and leaves at another position. This leads to a softer appearance, aslight is blurred out over the surface.

Subsurface Scattering Subsurface Scattering

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New Composite NodesTwo new Composite nodes had been added, that can be accessed by the Add > Color menu, expanding furtherthe possibilities of the Composite node editor.

Character AnimationThe Action and NLA editors have now better control over visible channels. A new constraint was added, anda "preview range" option was added.

Physics EngineThe Bullet physics engine has had some changes which should give better reproducibility andprecision/quality for physics simulations.

Mesh primitives updateThe mesh primitives have been revisited, improving their usability and pushing them a little beyond theirprevious state.

Mesh primitives update Mesh primitives update

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Feature videos

Contributors

Mathias Pedersen

Blender 2.43The 2.43 release could be nicked the "Multi" version; with multi−resolution Meshes, multi−level UV,multi−layer images and multi−pass rendering, to name some highlights.

Much appreciated are the new Mesh Sculpt and Retopo painting tools. Artists using cvs versions have createdamazing models with it already. But seven months of development time have resulted in a giant list of features& improvement & fixes, as you can find below.

February 17th, 2007

Sculpt ModelingSculpt Mode is a new mode for editing Mesh objects. Unlike Edit Mode, the model's shape is manipulatedwith various brushes, rather than by editing individual vertices, edges, and faces. (Sculpted Mesh by Giuseppe Canino)

RetopoThe retopo tools make it easier to completely change the topology of a mesh while preserving the same basicshape. A typical usage of this tool is modifying a mesh to make it more suitable for animation.

Retopo Retopo

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Multi−res Mesh

Multires meshes store multiple levels of subdivision. In contrast to the Subsurf modifier, any level ofsubdivision can be edited. These changes are then propagated to all the other subdivision levels.

Modifier upgradesModifiers have quickly become a very useful and popular system in Blender. The code for Modifiers wasfully refreshed, better integrated and new modifiers were added: Edge Split or UV Project or DisplaceYou can also read the Tech Paper about the implementation.

Multi−UVMeshes can now have multiple UV and vertex color layers.

Multi−UV Multi−UV

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Mesh modelingMesh modeling was improved in many areas, worth mentioning here are:

Triange to quad conversions• Knife tool• Seperate by Material• Face creation tool•

Image PaintingThe image painting core has been rewritten, with a number of new options, a dramatic speed improvement,and the ability to save brushes.

Face DuplicatorsBlender now has four efficient ways to procedurally duplicate objects. Face duplicators allow to copy objectson faces, and scale according to face size.

Face Duplicators Face Duplicators

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Softbody enhancementsSoftbodies have seen a substantial improvement. Better collision and rigidity options allow for a muchgreater range of effects, even to the point of emulating cloth to some extent.

Fluid ParticlesThe fluid simulator now supports several features that produce much better looking simulations, especially forinteraction with other objects.

Rigid Body PhysicsRigid body physics − the Bullet library − was further improved this release. Now hinges and other constraintscan be added.Rigid body simulations can also be 'baked' to animation curves.

Python API and ScriptingThe python API and scripts have both received a lot of attention this release. Some highlights include bakedmotion data importing and exporting via the MDD format; a new DXF importer that has improved support forDXF features; and a new tool for UV projection.

Python API and Scripting Python API and Scripting

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More highlightsAnd a lot of more work has been done... check this page for a listing of all the other features, improvementsand fixes in Blender.

Render PassesIn 2.40 the Render Pipeline was improved, introducing tile−based rendering, render layers and an integratedcompositor. For true pass render, the code that handles shading itself had to be reconfigured.

Render BakingBlender's render pipeline supports rendering to UV texturemaps as well. Full Shaded information, AmbientOcclusion, Normals or Texture Colors are supported.

More Render FeaturesTwo point perspective rendering, normal map with tangent support, tangent shading, alphasub−sample−masked render, material node speedup, ....

More Render Features More Render Features

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Irregular Shadow buffersRecently several papers have been published on a succesful alternative method for Shadow Buffers, giving thesame crispy quality as ray−tracing shadows.

Imaging & Playback− MultiLayer image read/write− Flipbook playback for compositing sequences or movie files− Painting in Image Sequences, or while compositing− Procedural Images

Composite: Defocus blurThis node can be used to emulate depth of field using a post−processing method. It can also be used to blurthe image in other ways, not necessarily based on 'depth' by connecting something other than a zbuffer.

Composite: Defocus blur Composite: Defocus blur

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Composite: UVmap, Displace, IDmask, ZcombineFour wonderful new nodes for remapping, warping or masking images during compositing.

Composite: Matte, Key, DifferenceThis series of nodes is meant for special effect shots, when you need options to seperate images infore/background.

Check the documentation in Wiki or the tutorials.

Walk cyclesA new walkcycle system was added, allowing matching of forward walking characters. And to controlwalkcycles more precisely, the walk can be deformed using a curve path.

Walk cycles Walk cycles

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Proxy ObjectsProxy Objects allow to make (parts of) Library−referenced data local. This allows for example an animator tomake a local 'copy' of the handler bones of a character, without having the actual rig duplicated.

Animation SystemThere have been improvements in armature editing and the IPO, Action and NLA editors. Ghost and pathdrawing is now more customisable, and transform limiting constraints were added.

Transform SnappingWhile transforming (translate, rotate, scale) vertices, you now can precisely snap a selection to other vertices.

SequencerBlenders sequencer (non linear editor) has had a number of nice additions including new effect strips such as acolor generator, transform strips, and speed control for things like retiming. There have also been a number ofusability enhancements.

Sequencer Sequencer

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The realization of the Elephants Dream movie has resulted in a big Blender development boost, especially inareas required for 3D movie projects.

Impatient? Download Blender 2.42 here

Below you can find the highlights documented.

Array ModifierThe Array Modifier allows you create procedurally duplicated/merged Objects, to make chains, cogs, fractalsor even beautiful natural shapes.

It's all fully animatable, with control−Objects defining duplication methods. Check this 4 MB movie fromMatt Ebb and Campbell Barton.

Render PipelineThe new rendering pipeline offers a wealth of new features. It has become tile−based and fully threaded,supporting advanced preview renders, layer−rendering and pass render, with a tight integration to thecompositor.

Material (Shading) NodesCurrently most 3D suites have some kind of "shader editor", typically represented as Nodes or Trees. Toeasily allow current Materials to become layered or combined, but also to enable a Blender−compatiblemigration, a hybrid version has been implemented in Blender now.

Material (Shading) Nodes Material (Shading) Nodes

03/11/2008 19.42.31 36

Composite NodesWithout a doubt compositing is one of the hot topics in 3D computer graphics creation, especially to enableefficient management and creative control of complex scenes and images. Blender now offers a feature richand flexible compositing system.

Vector BlurOne of the results of the Render Pipeline recode was the possibility to add vector−based motion blur, as a postprocess available in the Compositor.

Blender uses for this a novel approach, based on turning the rendered image into a 3D model (with depth) andaccumulating all motion passes into a new image.

The Nodes UIDescription of the new Node Editor and all aspects of working with Nodes and linking them.

The Nodes UI The Nodes UI

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Generic Node editing systemTechnical notes about the implementation of Blender's node system. This is used now for Shading andCompositing, but allows future expansion in many different areas.

TransmissivityWhile ray−tracing transparent materials, Blender now computes the length of each ray chord as it passesthrough an object. This length of the ray chord can be used to measure how light gets filtered progressivelythrough the object.

Also solved was the 'total inner reflection' case, giving more realistic 'silvery−looking' appearance.

High Dynamic Range GraphicsSupport has been added for 16 bits or 32 bits per component graphics files. Blender now supports ILM'sOpenEXR, Kodak's DPX and Cineon, and Radiance HDR.

High Dynamic Range Graphics High Dynamic Range Graphics

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Video Sequence EditorA lot of work has been done to improve the non−linear video editor in Blender. The highlights include a muchbetter memory management (edit up to hours near−real time) and for Linux users, FFMPEG was added for awide range of video/audio codecs.

UV UnwrappingWith the new angle based flattening, complex meshes can be unwrapped with much better results. Seamcutting tools to mark seams with a single click make it easier to cut up a mesh into charts, and the minimizestretch tool allows to reduce area distortion.

Object GroupsObject Grouping allows to organize work much better. It is especially useful for duplicating entire animationsystems, creating custom primitive sets, or for more precise control over what light is used per Material.

Game engine and physicsThe game engine new physics engine − Bullet − has been improved the past 6 months a lot.

Also new is support for loading Collada files, including support for basic physics and textures.

Game engine and physics Game engine and physics

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New Mesh toolsNew Mesh modeling tools include; Merging & collapse options, better select mode conversions, Loopmulti−select, Path selecting, and improved Mirror modifier.

Material FeaturesApart from node materials, a few assorted material features have been added, including tangent shading (togive any shader an anisotropic effect), stress maps, and new layer blending modes.

Fluid SimulationBlender's fluid simulator has had numerous updates, including support for animated (and deforming)obstacles, integration with vector motion blur, improved smoothing and particles.

Fluid Simulation Fluid Simulation

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Curves UI ControlA new Blender UI control allows to create a mapping from any range to a new range. It is in use now for thenew Node Editor, but also as option available in the Image Window, to investigate or remap high dynamicrange images.

Character Animation ToolsSome features were in use during the Orange project that didn't make it in the 2.41 release. This includes"Custom Bones", to create useful 3d interfaces to manipulate Armatures, and support for "Bone Layers",allowing you to organize a rig much better.

Preview IconsMaterials, Images, Textures, Lamps and Worlds are now rendered as small icon to facilitate browsing themeasier.

Python ScriptingMany updates and additions in the API and available scripts, plus the introduction of Python button evaluationand PyDrivers.

Python scripting has been an important part of projects like Elephants Dream and Plumiferos, whosecontributions, feedback and requests have in turn helped improve the API. But the usage of scripting hasincreased in other fronts as well, adapting and expanding Blender to produce content for different needs and tointegrate it with other tools.

Python Scripting Python Scripting

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Library LinkingOne of the ancient but powerful Blender features, to be able to share data from Blender files with other files,has been gathering dust for a long while. Since it's a very important feature in a production environment, it hasbeen verified to work and fixed in many places.

More new features and fixesHere you can read the highlights extracted from the almost 3000 commits since last release, and the over 1000reports handled in the tracker.

CreditsDevelopers who contributed to this release:

Alberto Torres Ruiz (Python 'get roll' fix)• Alexander Ewering (3D Text improvements, bug fixes)• Alfredo de Greef (Yafray export upgrade and bug fixes)• Anders Gudmundson (Sequencer updates)• Andrea Weikert (Preview Icons, string library, Windows Platform maintenance, bug fixes)• Austin Benesh (OpenEXR, bug fixes)• Ben Batt (Array Modifier)• Brecht Van Lommel (UV unwrapping and UV Editing, bug fixes)• Campbell Barton (Import/Export scripts, Fly mode, BPython API)• Charlie Carley (Game Engine OpenGL Shader Language, and fixes)• Chris Want (Object Dimension buttons, Makefiles, bug fixes)• Davide Vercelli (Axis icon in 3D window)• DJ Capelis (Linux platform maintenance, bug fixes)• Douglas Bisschoff (Intel Mac endian fixes)• Ed Halley (Transparent raytracing features, Intel Mac platform maintenance)• Erwin Coumans (Bullet Physics, Game engine fixes)• Fabien Devaux (SDL Audio fixes)• Fred van Essen (New blending modes for materials)• Geoffrey Bantle (Mesh tools, bug fixes)• Gernot Ziegler (OpenEXR)• Hans Lambermont (FreeBSD platform maintenance)• Jean−Luc Peurriere (OSX platform maintenance, translation files, bug fixes)• Jean−Michel Soler (Python scripts)• Jens Ole Wundt (Softbody improvements, MSVC6 files, bug fixes)• Jiri Hnidek (Blender−Verse, MetaBall fixes, bug fixes)• Joe Eagar (port for Cineon/DPX, bug fixes)• Johnny Matthews (bug fixes)•

Credits Credits

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Joilnen Leite (bug fixes)• Joseph Gilbert (Python Armature API, Python Mathutils, bug fixes)• Ken Hughes (Python API, bug fixes)• Kent Mein (Solaris platform maintenance, Makefiles, bug fixes)• Levon Hudson (Missing Ipos for textures)• Matt Ebb (Sequence strip redesign, various UI controls and menu updates)• Martin Poirier (Transform tools, bug fixes)• Michael Reimpell (Python Shape Key fixes)• Mika Saari (Font Object fixes)• Nathan Letwory (SCons rewrite)• Nils Thuerey (Fluid Simulation)• Peter Schlaile (FFMPEG integration, Sequencer recode, bug fixes)• Pieter Visser (Collada import/export)• Ralf Hölzemer (Build fixes for Windows)• Ricki Myers (Text editor fix)• Roland Hess (Stride bone fix, Python Armature/Action scripts and fixes)• Simon Clitherow (Window platform maintenance, bug fixes)• Stefan Gartner (PPC Linux platform maintenance)• Stephan Kassemeyer (Armature stride bone scaling fix)• Stephen Swaney (Python API, bug fixes)• Stephane Soppera (Python API)• Tom Musgrove (Python import/export script maintenance, bug fixes)• Ton Roosendaal (Render Pipeline, Node editor, Compositor, bug fixes)• Toni Alatalo (Python API, bug fixes)• Willian P. Germano (Python API, bug fixes, docs)• Z: And the people we forgot to mention... sorry!•

A special thanks to everyone who helped us by:

Providing bug reports in our tracker• Providing patches• Helping testing in IRC• Making test builds on forums• Writing wiki and blender.org docs• Creating demo files• And... making stunning artwork and inspiring animations.•

I has been a pleasure to work with all of you, now enjoy the release, and then let's go for the next one!

−Ton−

Credits Credits

03/11/2008 19.42.31 43

With less than one month of development time, this has been a short and sweet release cycle. The focus of thisrelease is the Game Engine which has added a number of nice new features such as GLSL shaders, thecapability of using multiple materials and uv maps; multiple viewports; as well as a number of important fixessuch as the return of the armature system. Of course Blender's core tools also have been improved, withsubsurf aware UV mapping; the addition of a live sculpting tool; set chaining; a number of python scriptadditions and improvements; and the addition of the python Pose module along with other pythonimprovements and fixes.

Game EngineGLSL shaders, the ability to use Blender materials within the Game Engine, multiple UV sets, multipleviewports, the return of the armatures, double sided lighting, alpha test sorting, restoration of sound, alongwith work on the bullet rigidbody dynamics and collision system, and numerous game engine fixes, makesthis a great release for Game Engine aficionados.

See the demos for the eyecandy, and to see code examples in action

Game Engine Demos

GLSL Pixel and Vertex shadersYou can now program pixel and vertex shaders to be used in the game engine, allowing much moresophisticated and attractive effects.

GLSL Pixel and Vertex shaders GLSL Pixel and Vertex shaders

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Blender MaterialsPrevious game engine releases had to use a special materials system that offered only a small subset of theBlender Materials power. With this release users now have almost full access to Blenders material capabilitiesincluding multiple textures, multiple materials, material IPO curves. Additionally game engine users canutilize Multiple UV sets within the game engine.

Split Screen and multi−viewportsYou can now split the screen into simultaneous views from different cameras, also embedded viewports areallowed.

PhysicsFor this release a number of fixes were made to the physics system.

Restored Functionality and MiscTwo major improvements are the return of the armature capabilities (which were lost in the animation rewriteof 2.40), and the return of sound capabilities to all supported platforms. Users will also notice smootherinteraction, and a number of general quality improvements.

Restored Functionality and Misc Restored Functionality and Misc

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Core Tools

Subsurf UV MappingNow UV unwrapping can utilize subsurfed UV coordinates, which can give much more accurate uvunwrapping.

Set ChainingSet chaining allows a main scene to contain 'sub−scenes'. You can then easily make adjustment of the mainscene by varying the sub−scenes that are included.

PythonA great deal of improvements happen in the python arena. A number of additions to the python API especiallythe bringing back of the Pose module, and a number of other enhancements and fixes. Also there has beenadded a sculpting and mesh relaxation brush, a tri2quads script, and a number of nice i/o scripts, as well asmany script updates.

Python ToolsTwo great tools were added this cycle − mesh sculpting − that allows you to push, pull and stretch mesh as ifit were clay, as well as many other nice capabilities. There is also tri2quad which intelligently creates quadsfrom tris. Plus updates such as the texture baking script.

Python Tools Python Tools

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IO ScriptsDirect X script was updated to export animation, Collada also added some animation export, open−flight, andother scripts were added.

Pose_Module & API_MiscThere were quite a few improvements in the Python API. Script authors should have what they need now inorder to import and export animation, as well as make full use of the mesh module.

Bugs FixedDeath to all Bugz!

CreditsDevelopers who contributed to this release:

Alexander Ewering ( fix in Armature.c)• Bart ( vrml and x3d export updates)• Ben Omari ( direct x exporter update)• Brecht Van Lommel ( subsurf for UVs)• Bruce Merry ( ply import and export)• Campbell Barton ( Sculpt Tool, tri2quad, crash fix in python, misc python and script fixes, scriptsmanagement)

•

Charlie Carley ( Game Engine: return of Armatures, GLSL shaders, blender materials)• Chris Want ( misc bug fixes)• Dino Ghilardi ( xfig exporter)• Erwin Coumans ( GE management, crash fixes and numerous bug fixes in physics and GE)• Greg MacDonald ( openflight import/export)• Hans Lambermont ( FreeBSD makefile maintainance, gameplayer fixes)• jean−michel soler insertShapeKey and tex2ubaker, svg import, and hotkey script updates)• Jean−Baptiste Perin bvh to armatures script update)• Jens Ole Wund ( msvc6 build maintenance transform fix)• JLuc Peuriere ( OS X makefile maintenance and GE build fixes)• Joseph Gilbert ( crash fix in python, project file maintainance, Pose Module, misc python fixes)• Jonathan Merritt (primary work on libtiff and dynamic loading support for 2.40)• Ken Hughes ( large number of python fixes, many python API additions)• Kent Mein ( compiler warnings fix, make file maintenance)• Lagan ( Game Engine: Viewports / splitscreen, Alpha test (sorting), Double sided lighting)• Levon Hudson ( additional material ipos, and blend types for Halo and Radial)• Loic Berthe ( updated bevel center script)• Martin Poirier ( pupblock for python, python fixes)•

Credits Credits

03/11/2008 19.42.31 47

Michael Reimpell to get/set relative key)• Mika saari ( UI bug fix for unicode)• Mikael Lagré ( Collada import and export updates)• Nathan Letwory ( set chaining)• Nils Thuerey ( misc fluid fixes)• Njin Zu Chen ( gameplayer fixes)• P−Luc Auclair ( quickstart guide update)• Serhij Dubyk ( Ukranian tooltip translation)• Stephen Swaney ( python bug fixes)• s.a. ( bugfix get_constraint_target() )• Tom Musgrove ( release management, release documentation, scripts management)• Ton Roosendaal ( bump map fix, crash fix, misc fixes, Crazyspace fix)• Tron Thomas ( getVertexInflueces fix)• Willian Padovani Germano ( crash fix and script management)• Yann Vernier ( crash fix in gen_utils.c)•

Credits Credits

03/11/2008 19.42.31 48

Blender has had another long development cycle resulting in a release

packed with rewrites, new features and improvements. The major additions this release are the CharacterAnimation rewrite, the added Fluid Dynamics system, improved editing and rendering of Particle Based Hair,and the Modifier Stack.

Character AnimationThe vastly improved animation tools have taken character animation to an inspirational and competitive level.Improvements include fast and easy rigging with added bone types, new display methods, easier and

faster skin weighting methods, improved and easier to use deformation methods, completely rewritten InverseKinematics system, easier and faster posing, new IPO curves methods, and more robust Actions and NLAtools.

Technical background on how Armatures and Posing work in Blender

Note The changes in the animation system have not yet been incorporated in the game engine, so armaturesdon't work there. The Python API for Armature/Pose also has radical changes.

Dependency GraphThis is the first part of our Animation project, and although we cannot show cool images for it, work on thenew dependency graph system has proven to be extremely versatile, resulting in amazing speedup andlag−free interactive redraws while editing.

(Image by: Schuh)

Dependency Graph Dependency Graph

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RiggingRigging is now much easier with mirrored extrusion and auto−naming, additional selection methods workingwith bones such as loop and border select, and added bone types (Hinge, Bspline Bones).

All Armature Objects are immediate posable now, without mode changes.

Inverse KinematicsWith support from Googles Summer of Code ? Blender's IK system was fully reworked. Not only did itbecome much faster, but it now supports Rotation Limits and Degrees of Freedom, Tree−IK, and IK TargetRotation.

Options to use both (mixed) Forward and Inverse IK makes posing characters a pleasure!

Skin WeightingSkin weights can now be automatically created from envelope based definitions. You can then further refinethem by baking them to vertex

groups.

Weight Painting now supports very fast weight group selections and can be applied using X−axis mirroring.

Skin Weighting Skin Weighting

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Armature DisplayThere are a number of additional display modes for bones, all tweaked for specific editing purposes. InPoseMode, the bones draw color−coded now, to show constraint, actions or IK assigned.

Worth noting are the new "B−Bones" (B−spline bones), allowing control over flexible bones, like for spines.

Stride SupportUsing the NLA editor, you can tell an Action Strip to use a specific Bone in an Action to define the stridingoffsets. This enables characters to walk over a path without foot slipping.

Shape KeysMeshes, Curves, Lattices and Surfaces already could store multiple shapes, animated using animation curves.

Access to these Shapes now has become better integrated in the UI, allowing multiple Object instances to 'pin'individual Shapes and with use of Vertex Groups for blending Shapes.

DriversAll animation curves in Blender (aka Ipos) now can get a "Driver" assigned, This replaces the time input for aspecific animated channel with any value from another Object. This way you can control Shape Keys withcustom sliders or tie them to specific Bone rotations.

Drivers Drivers

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Animation Curve InterpolationNew handle and interpolation types have been added to interpolation

(IPO) curves. Includes Auto Handles which prevent undesired overshoot.

Actions and NLAAn "Action" is a collection of animation curves, which now not only can represent a full walk cycle for acharacter, but also include Shape keys or Object animation curves.

Using the "NLA" editor, you can layer and mix these actions with full control over timing.

Particles and Physics simulationThe 2.40 release offers support for physics based animation like an advanced Fluid Simulator, Particle basedhair with Particle guides, improved Softbody dynamics and Rigid body dynamics baking using the gameengine.

Fluid SimulationThe second of the Google Summer of Code projects that made it in our release is the exciting Fluid Simulator,allowing to animate a physical correct flow of any fluid type.

Fluid Simulation Fluid Simulation

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Particle Guides and distributionFor the 2.40 release the Particle System got a big make−over as well, especially for better control overmotion, forces and distribution.

You can now also use Curve Guides to determine the flow of particles, and use Vertex Groups to define whereParticles start, and how fast they move.

Hair strand renderingBy default, the "Static particles" in Blender now generates screen−aligned 1 pixel wide "strands", which canbe shaded in 3d as regular geometry, or when using the new anisotropic options, to achieve realistic lookinghair.

(Image by: YamYam)

Rigid BodyThe Blender game engine has a new physics part now, called "Bullet". This allows to simulate colliding andmoving rigid bodies, including baking them into Ipo curves for re−use in animation projects.

Rigid Body Rigid Body

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Tools, render, scripting, UI options

Modifier StackThe modifier stack allows you to quickly apply, remove and change the

order of modifier tools. Allowing you to visualize and interactively

change complex operations on your mesh. Of particular interest are the

mirror modifier, boolean modifier, and many of the animation tools

becoming modifiers such as hooks, armatures and lattice deformations.

Subdivide and Loop toolsBlender's Mesh subdivide code has been rebuilt from scratch. It now supports correct subdivision in allselection modes, arbitrary subdivision levels,

better support for the knife tool, loop cutting, edge loop deletion, edge ring selection, and edge sliding.

Subdivide and Loop tools Subdivide and Loop tools

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Boolean OperationsThis Google Summer of Code project delivered us a full new and much better library for intersecting Meshmodels. Main target was to generate new models with the least amount of new faces, with regular and pleasantsubdivisions.

Booleans are available as a tool (Wkey) or real−time using the Modifier stack.

Mesh RippingThe "Rip" tool can be used for tearing or ripping parts of a Mesh, in order to create seams to be filled in withnew faces.

UV & Image EditingUV editing has had an astounding improvement with the addition of Live LSCM. A number of features havealso been added to the image editing such as a clone brush and smudging tool and built−in generating ofstandard UV maps. Also there's support now for TIFF import and export, and for HDR Radiance export.

UV & Image Editing UV & Image Editing

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Revamped 3D Text ObjectThe 3D Text Object now supports Unicode (International Font types).

3D text now also allows to go over multiple collums, allows selecting parts of the text, custom kerning, andsetting styles per character such as Bold or Italic.

Radial Blend TextureThe existing "Blend" textures been suplemented by a blend type commonly found in digital imaging andgraphics applications: the radial blend type. This gradient allows an artist to fake anisotropic effects found onobjects like saw blades or CD's.

Sampling and FilteringThis article explains how Blender does sampling while rendering, for optimal anti−alialised images.

New in this release is menu to choose filter types: Box, Tent, Cubic, Quadratic, Gauss, Mitchel−Netravali andCatmull−Rom.

Sampling and Filtering Sampling and Filtering

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Python ScriptingNew or rewritten modules were added: Mesh, Armature, Key, and Mathutils.

The Python team has made sure new options in Blender are covered in the API too, resulting in a lot of workon the main interface.

New bundled scripts include: Collada, 3DS and MD2 import/export, XSI exporter; Lip Sync, Shape Widgets,Mirror Bone Weights and UV unwrapping tools.

User InterfaceImprovements in the UI include: New Lamp drawing types, new Object−center drawing, New Camera viewdrawing and Passepartout view, Easier window merging, new Toolbox layout, improved Text button, and soon... check the article linked above for a full overview!

And a lot more...wiki.blender.org

The Blender documentation project moved to a new wiki install (mediawiki). Here you find the entire Blendermanual, information about current projects and more extensive release notes and tutorials.

Wiki release logs

Organic (and quick) extrude

Transform tools

And a lot more... And a lot more...

03/11/2008 19.42.31 57

File Browser

Sequencer notes

Bug fix listing

Technical notes for developers>

Google Summer of Code projects

CreditsDevelopers who contributed to this release:

Adam Katz (Turn−table fix)• Alexander Ewering (3D Text improvements, bug fixes, color picker improvements)• Alfredo de Greef (Radiance file support, Yafray export fixes)• Andrea Weikert (string library, bug fixes)• Austin Benesh (Python Scripts)• Brecht Van Lommel (IK Engine, LSCM and UV Editing, bug fixes)• Bill Currie (Bug fix)• Campbell Barton (BVH I/O Update, Archimap unwrapper, BPython API)• Chris Burt (Radial Blend texture)• Chris Want (Tuhopuu cvs support, Makefiles, bug fixes)• Daniel Dunbar (Mesh drawing recode, Modifier stack)• DJ Capelis (Linux platform maintenance, bug fixes, 64 bits support)• Eckhard Jaeger (Modifier UI icons)• Erwin Coumans (Bullet Physics, Game engine fixes)• Frederic van der Essen (Quickstart sheet)• Jean−Luc Peurriere (Dependency Graph, OSX platform maintenance, bug fixes)• Jens Ole Wundt (Softbody improvements, Image paint, bug fixes)• Janne Karhu (Particles upgrade groundwork)• Jiri Hnidek (Window merging tool, Blender−Verse, bug fixes)• Johnny Matthews (Meshedit Subdivide Core, Edgeslide, Widgetmaker Script, Python api)• Joilnen Leite (Sort by extension on window file select)• Jonathan Merritt (Libtiff support and dynamic loading)• Jorge Bernal (Game engine compile fix)• Jospeph Gilbert (Python Armature API, Python Mathutils, bug fixes)• Ken Hughes (Python API Mesh module, bug fixes)• Kent Mein (libtiff support, various small fixes)• Matt Ebb (Lamps, Camera and Object center visualisations, sequence strip cutting, text UI controlsand menu updates)

•

Marc Freixas (Boolean recode)• Martin Poirier (Transform tools, bug fixes)• Matthew Plough (support for Swap−Copy OpenGL buffers)• Mika Saari (Unicode character support for Font Object)• Nathan Letwory (Bug fixes)• Nils Thuerey (Fluid Simulation)• Pontus Lidman (Python script)• Roland Hess (Floor Constraint)• Simon Clitherow (Bug fixes, Window platform maintenance)• Shaul Kedem (File compression,Sequencer frame reversal)•

Credits Credits

03/11/2008 19.42.31 58

Stephen Swaney (Python API, bug fixes)• Stephane Soppera (Python API)• Tom Musgrove (Python scripts, Button code cleanup, Release logs)• Ton Roosendaal (Animation recode project, particles, hair, bug fixes)• Toni Alatalo (Python API, bug fixes)• Vidar Madsen (Fix for animating static particles)• Willian P. Germano (Python API, bug fixes, docs)• Yehoshua Sapir (Python script)•

Credits Credits

03/11/2008 19.42.31 59

A lengthy 5 months development time... so a release packed with interesting new features and improvements!The most noteworthy additions are the Soft Body system, the new incremental Subdivision Surface code,and the full recode of the internal Transformation system, allowing much more control and flexibility.

2.37a updateEven with careful testing and uploading pre−release binaries, we got our share of bugs reported... with over100,000 downloads in the first week of release, nothing can beat testing on that level!

Fortunately only two issues could be noted as real bad bugs that absolutely required an update release. Mostof the other fixes are part of our standard maintenance anyway.

Transformation toolsNew Transformation options include; To Sphere, Push/Pull, TrackBall, advanced constraint options,Proportional editing with connection mode, ...

Transform WidgetsAs result of the Transformation Tools recode, we can now finally add widgets to have easy access to(constrainted) translation, rotation and scaling. Widgets can be aligned global, local to Objects and to normalsin Edit Mode as well.

Transform Widgets Transform Widgets

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Soft BodyEach Object in Blender now can get a "Soft Body" effect applied. Once applied, the softbody system convertsvertex locations to free moving particles... great for animating flexible objects, for wriggling skin and even forcloth simulations.

Force Fields and DeflectionEspecially for Soft Body a new force field, Wind, has been added. Also deflections (collisions) are possiblebetween soft objects and Meshes.

Incremental Subdivision SurfacesBest feature of Daniel Dunbar's new "CCG" SubSurf system is its tremendous speed improvement. Thismostly thanks to detecting incremental changes while editing. Also creases and UV texture support has beenimproved.

Transparent FilteringBlender now supports transparent rendering with filtering, by use of a new method which uses both Alpha andFilter combined. Ray−traced images now also deliver correct a alpha layer.

Transparent Filtering Transparent Filtering

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Render threads, true color & true orthoThree more options in the render core. Owners of dual CPU systems can now render twice as fast! Colordefinition internally is full 4x32 bits (was 4x16) and the ortho render code was refreshed.

TimelineThe new Timeline window allows access to all animation timing features, with non blocking animationplayback. Edit keys, materials or Soft Body while it moves!

Python ScriptingAnother long list of new features in the Python API, with new modules and advanced integration of scripts inthe Blender Window system using "Space Handlers".

With a special thanks to Jacques Guignot, we've dedicated this release to him.

Game EngineNew Python Armature options, Z−offset materials, and SDL support for Joysticks.

Game Engine Game Engine

03/11/2008 19.42.31 62

And what's more new!Creating full pages with logs per new feature would postpone the release another month. So check this pagefor a full listing of all new features in 2.37.

(Image from blender3d.org gallery, Sacha Goedegebure)

Bug FixesIn the past 5 months, over 600 reports were handled. Still, the total amount of open issues for Blender is lessthan thirty at the moment of release, quite impressive!

(Image from blender3d.org gallery, Alex Cope)

Important notesNew TimeLine window isn't upward compatible... that means that older Blender releases crash on readingfiles with a TimeLine window active. This crash has been fixed in 2.37 to not happen again when we add newwindow types, but that won't help older versions. :)

Yafray: Support was added for options for the upcoming release of Yafray. At this moment we're still waitingfor that... documents will be published later too.

Development notesOSX XCode project files added in cvs• BIG warning hunt with 100s of fixes.• Cleanup of ImBuf code• Added FTGL to extern/ modules• Added texture draw support for icons, not used yet• OpenEXR preparations were uncommitted and postponed to next release• Cleanup of wrong inclusion of BLI_winstuff.h in files. NOTE: BLI_winstuff.h was meant to be awrapper around windows.h to handle undefining various crap that windows.h defines.

•

Mesh drawing code now is abstracted with the DerivedMesh system. Check blenkernel/intern/.• Use the BLI_string functions! in blenlib/BLI_blenlib.h•

Development notes Development notes

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First implementation for dependency graph solving added. Now only used to sort the object list inScenes, for correct order of evaluation.

•

Makefile changes for future support of 64 bits compile, testing with SGI Prism.• Makefile fixes for Windows Cygwin compiling. Improved dependency checking.• Tests were done with adding the ZBlur option in render core. Results of this method are very limitedand too unsatisfying. Was commented out, and will be moved as built−in option in the Sequencer.

•

Hidden stuff

Code was added for testing the pickle matrix• Try (Button in Render Buttons, Animation panel) to set "rt" to 52 before entering EditMode onsubdivision subsurface

•

Try rt=2 or 3... rotate manipulator goodies.•

CreditsPeople who have contributed code for this release:

Alexander Ewering (Bug hunting & fixes)• Alfredo de Greef (Yafray export)• Andrea Weikert (Bug fixes)• Brecht van Lommel (UV editing)• Campbell Barton (Mesh stats drawing, Python fixes)• Chris Burt (Textures, bug fixes)• Chris Want (Makefiles, bug fixes, Irix, Tuhopuu sync)• Daniel Dunbar (CCG Subsurf, Mesh drawing recode)• DJCapelis (Linux release)• Gergely Erdelyi: (Python fixes)• Hans Lambermont (FreeBSD release)• Jean−Luc Peurriere (Dependency graph, code cleaning, OSX)• Jens Ole Wund (Soft Body, fields)• Joseph Gilbert (Python API)• Jiri Hnidek (Meta Objects, TimeLine)• John Aughey (Turn table)• Johnny Matthews (Mesh tools, Python)• Joilnen Leite (Python API)• Jorge Bernal and Jonathan Merritt (WardIso & Minneart shaders)• Ken Hughes (Python API)• Kent Mein (Imbuf, Sun Solaris)• Kester Maddock (Game engine)• Matt Ebb (TimeLine, menus)• Martin Poirier (Transform recode, constraints)• Nathan Letwory (Scons, bug fixes)• Ricki Myers (Text editor)• Rob Haarsma (UI Texture font, Quicktime)• Simon Clitherow (bug fixes, Windows)• Stefan Gartner (Linux PPC)• Stephen Swaney (Python API)• Tom Musgrove (Extrude menu)• Ton Roosendaal (Render, Soft Body, TimeLine, bug fixes)• Willian Padovani Germano (Python API)•

Credits Credits

03/11/2008 19.42.31 64

And of course thanks to those who helped with demos, testing, docs, bug hunting, webpages, bug reports,testing builds, and so on... great work all!

Credits Credits

03/11/2008 19.42.31 65

Normals and TexturesSignificant improvements have been added for control over how textures generate normals and get applied.

Normal Map SupportNormal Maps directly store normals in the RGB values of images. By using this as a normal−mapping textureyou can get an extremely realistic appearance of 3D reliefs.

2.36: Bugfix Release

Due to the amount of work done in the past year, we decided to keep CVS frozen for new projects, andinstead go over all pending and new reports that kept coming in.

Thanks to a lot of help of everyone providing tests and reports, we could handle over 200 issues in Blender,with many of them over 2 years old.

Even while "bug free" is impossible to achieve, we can proudly present a stable 2.36 now! Especially useful tohave this out with new projects already starting to review/redesign and improve many parts in Blender, so wecan start breaking things again!

For the upcoming release(s) work will be done on the entire animation system (especially armatures, actionsand NLA), a new dependency graph system, a recode of all transform tools (grab, rotate, scale), an update ofthe render system (full 4x32 support, threading support, lotsof cleanup), redesign of the Panels/button layout,softbody dynamics added, 64 bits versions,... and I bet I missed some.

The notes below illustrate the most relevant fixes since the 2.35 release, and include all fixes as wastemporally released with 2.35a/b and the 2.36 release candidates.

Release Notes:

New In This Release...• New Texture Features•

Normal Map Support Normal Map Support

03/11/2008 19.42.31 66

Game Engine• Python API• Platform Specific Fixes• Static Particles• 3D Window• Other Editor/Window Types• Tools• Mesh Edit Mode• Interface• Rendering• Import / Export• Yafray•

New In This Release...

Using CTRL+C or CTRL+V copy/paste on buttons now also works for the "color swatches" inBlender, copying and pasting the RGB values.

Note: on OSX you can use Apple Command key too♦

•

In RenderWindow, press AKEY to toggle 'alpha view'.• Fixed selection of Objects in Solid draw mode. Selection was just always not what you wanted, therules for wireframe (cycling) can't be used then. New rule is:

it always selects the frontmost visible item (wires too), unless:♦ frontmost is active/selected already, then it picks the 2nd♦ mouse didnt move 2 pixels while selecting, then it starts cycling♦

•

Mesh EditMode: Removed co−planar restriction for creating FGons. These now can span an entiretube.

•

AO Render: "Use sky" or "Use tex" now also take option "Use distances" into account, so you cancontrol shades of AO better

•

Render Static animated particle systems now allow to be animated with Material and Texture ipos.Only shows in render.

•

Render: Material option "Ztransp" now can be reflected in raytraced mirror.• Global Undo: Using number buttons gives better Undo push names (check ALT+U menu)• Game Engine: Objects without texture faces now render in their assigned Material colors, and withlighted faces. This shows with ALT+Z textured view mode too.

•

Added more cases to update "Shaded View" on changes with buttons or tools.• Lasso Select now works in UV FaceSelect and Edit Mode Curve, Surface, Lattice. Missing still:MBall and Armature Edit Mode.

•

New Texture Features

All textures (Material, Lamp, World) now have 10 channels. Exports to Yafray too.• Added: support for normal maps.• Textures now have a "nabla" slider to control sharpness (resulution) of calculated normals.• All procedural textures now accept "ColorBand", which gives much better control over how normalsare being calculated.

•

Stucci texture now accepts "ColorBand" too, to control the texture normal being calculated.• Magic texture also accepts "ColorBand".• New "Warp" channel for "Map to" added:

Use the slider next to the option to set amount of influence the texture will have on the coordinates ofthe next texture channel.

Warp uses for this the same values as for Normal or Displacement mapping and remains active for allchannels, until replaced (or zeroed).

•

Normal Map Support New In This Release...

03/11/2008 19.42.31 67

Note: this is not "parallax mapping", that's for another release.

Lamp texture mapping "View" now works on all Lamp types (not only Spot). Nice for projectedtextures.

•

For more information on these features see:

Normal Maps• Normal Maps and Textures•

Game Engine

Objects without image textures now use Material color and get lit by the available lights by default.Also works in Textured 3D View.

•

OpenAL was generating a signal that killed Blender when audio stopped. This caused issues withstarting Blender from desktop icons in Linux systems.

•

Update in the physics engine: interpolate between frames so track to/camera actuators work properly• Support added for Windows screen saver in Blender player: <indent>Any blenderplayer.exe (with thepatch applied) can be renamed into something.scr, and it will behave as a Windows screensaver.</indent><indent>(Right−click the .scr file, and select "Install". Then, it will appear in thescreen saver properties dialog part of the display settings, including small preview et al).</indent>

•

The screen saver functionality does not affect the executable when it is NOT named .scr• The screen saver automatically exits when the mouse/keyboard is moved/pressed. There is no moreneed to wrap blenderplayer.exe into a bat file and use python quit controllers, or whatever else issuggested at this page.

•

World option "Physics engine" now is set to Sumo by default on reading older files.• Fix for stereo window creation in Unix X11• Fix for forces with new timing system• Fix for using Python delattr() or 'del Obj.Attr'• Alpha sort now works for linked (ALT+D) objects• Uses Polytope collision now for faster mesh intersection tests• Mouse over sensor does work now for ortho cameras.•

Python API

World.setIpo() method now checks for OK Ipo type• Ipo_woIcuName() used CAM instead of WO constants• Removed obsolete getCurveBP() method (Bspline Ipo is not supported in Blender)• BOOL properties were returning True always, small mistake in logic.c's getData• Crash solved in Window.ViewLayer when no 3d window was visible or initialized.• Mathutils.Euler constructor failed to initialize class variables• Removed Object.get and .getSelected (deprecated long ago, we use .Get and .GetSelected)• Fix for wrong initialization with newQuaternionObject• Crash fixed with Meshes having edge data• Crash fixed with unlinking Text block being in use by ScriptLink•

Platform Specific Fixes

Windows

When starting an animation render, and the output directory doesn't exist, Blender now correctly•

Normal Map Support Game Engine

03/11/2008 19.42.31 68

creates the full directory path.Fixed crashes caused by trying to pop up Blender error menus while the render window is still active.It now prints errors in the DOS command window.

•

When saving to a Quicktime movie, and a drive letter is missing, Blender will assume it's on the drivewhere the Blender.exe resides.

•

Curve Deform, in Windows only, deformation was flat (2D) with default settings•

Linux

F11 to switch between render window / main window didn't work anymore in some windowmanagers (e.g. FluxBox), after fixing it to work in KDE.

•

Curve deform (after using CTRL+P) crashed in Linux•

OSX

DANGEROUS BUG! Errors in saving "runtime" game; the runtime.app was copied or deletedwithout keeping track of spaces in names, causing in potential loss of data when runtime.app namestarts with a space (rare occasion, but still!).

•

Hiding the Blender window (using Apple−H) caused this modifier key to hang in Blender.• Fixes for potential crashes in audio (OpenAL).• On some systems (like with ATI 9600), using "1000s of colors", the backbuffer selection methoddidn't work because of a different rounding of drawn color codes. This caused vertex−paint, faceselect mode or zbuffer−hidden selection in Mesh edit mode not to work.

•

Sun Solaris

Added support for audio (OpenAL)• Error in refreshing buttons in frontbuffer (on highlight) has been defined to be a bug in Sun OpenGL.Is reported, Sun engineers work on it.

•

Static Particles

Particles added to a Mesh, which was being deformed by Armature, crashed or caused extreme CPUtime. Bug introduced in 2.33 with collision code.<indent>Note: dynamic particles added whiledeforming a Mesh with Armatures will only shoot particles from original locations. What does workcorrectly are static particles though.</indent>

•

Static particles that are being deformed (curve/lattice/armature) now display correct in 3d window. Itonly updates animation when the particle system updates normally though.

•

On exit edit mode, static particles on SubSurf now display OK• Static particles without "animate" set didn't deform even• Static particles used as duplicators had errors with extreme low "life" value for particles. Also, stillcases could happen with unrotated duplicates at the end of a static particle line (with Vect option).

•

Normal Map Support Static Particles

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Static particles now are selectable in a 3d Window• After render particle system with Material Ipo, values for material were not restored correctly• Meshes with particles didn't draw axis (draw extra) on correct location or color•

3D Window

Options "Home" and "View selected" (numpad dot) now show identical• Using Border Select had a limit of maximum 500 objects. Now goes to 2500.• Playback and display of Mesh objects with "Wave" effect, and with other objects vertex−parented tothis Mesh, now shows animation correctly.

•

Objects being vertex−parented to a mesh, which in turn was being deformed by a curve or lattice, nowupdate correctly.

•

Option "Align active camera to view" in pulldown messed up modifier key state.• In PoseMode, selecting multiple bones and using transform (Grab, rotate, scale) crashed.• Join Meshes (CTRL+J) now accepts Vertex Groups to be joined properly• Lasso select on objects didnt work with multiple views, due to lack of calculation of screencoordinates.

•

3D Window: using SHIFT + hotkeys to set layers in Layer menu (MKEY) only accepted last hotkeywith using "OK" button.

•

3D Window: the "Render this view" option (OpenGL preview render) sometimes crashed in shadedmode and/or with Armatures.

•

MetaBalls: using particles to duplicate Metas caused crash on adding new Meta Object•

Other Editor/Window Types

DANGEROUS BUG! In FileWindow, when copying/deleting/renaming files (C, R, N hot keys), filesor directories with spaces in it didn't always get handled OK.

•

The image output window didn't update always correct on clicks in Sequencer.• Crash solved when using Scene strips in the sequencer, and deleting the scenes itself.• Combining "panorama" Scene strip and Sequencer effect on Scene (like glow) crashed.• IpoWindow (animation curves): NKEY panel "XMin" and "Xmax" buttons didn't work proper onlarge changes (>100 frames).

•

Outliner: AKey toggles open/close all items.• Outliner: crash fixed on Alt+D (linked duplicate) of Armature• Outliner: crash on selecting Script icon (Windows/Linux)• Oops Schematic Window: switching from Outliner gave wrong transformed view• Oops Schematic Window: (not Outliner) didn't show Lamp textures nor Material Ipos − correctly•

Tools

Calculation of vertex normals now gives correct draw and render results when mixing smooth andsolid faces. For example on a cylinder with the caps set to solid. Please note that vertex normals areonly recalculated all over after leaving Edit Mode. Using the button "Set Smooth" in Object Modemight require to do TAB−TAB in some occasions. This is an issue for 2.37.

•

3D Text edit mode: "Clear text" (SHIFT+BackSpace) + Undo caused text to become un−editable.• Objects with negative scale were drawing texture faces front/back inverted in UV Face Select mode.• Vertex Keys on 3D Bezier curves now support animating the "twist" value. This already worked forNurbs curves.

•

Unpacking a file with sounds now saves sample files correctly. This didn't work when the sampleswere not used yet (shown in UI or played in game).

•

Appending Objects with Constraints from another Blender file, now correctly loads other Objects too,when used by the Constraints.

•

Appending data from other files accidentally cleared current Scene ScriptLinks•

Normal Map Support 3D Window

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Appending data in PoseMode crashed Blender• When a font for 3d Text Object doesnt exist anymore, Blender could crash.• Global Undo: buttons sending redraw events gave extra undo push called "Make single user or local".• Global Undo: crash solved in large changes of Lattice resolution button.•

Mesh Edit Mode

Expand/shrink selection (CTRL + numpad−plus/minus) did not work with edge/face selection modescorrectly yet.

•

CTRL + H hook menu, the "select" option now works with all selection modes• Separate command (P) in new select mode 'face' still used selection as based on vertices, causingerrors or a crash.

•

"Add UV Sphere" now aligns with view, as for all other primitives• Face "dots" (in face select mode) didn't update on a "snap to" command.• Entering Mesh edit mode, skipped adding the Original situation to the undo stack, when editingmultiple vertex keys.

•

The "Rotate Edge" option on quads didn't give correct flag in edge for drawing it in Object Mode.• NKey (Transform properties) Panel: entering values for "Crease" now goes OK when multiple edgesare selected with different crease values. Was also missing an undo push.

•

Bevel tool sometimes failed to create new faces.• After "Extrude" pressing MiddleMouse will move to axis constraint as usual.• Edge select mode, now allows to (alternate) select edges that are overlapping or extremely close.• SHIFT + F "Fill" didnt set default vertex color (as in Paint Panel).• Selection buffer (zbuffered selection clip) now supports full 24 bits range (was 18 bits).• Edge Rotate didn't copy smooth or material flags• Loop Cut (ALT + T) now works with partially invisible (clipped outside window) vertices• "Separate loose parts", crash on empty mesh (with no verts)• ALT + B loop select could go haywire on certain cases• Hide/Reveil damaged FGon flags• EditMode Undo: converting Curve to Mesh, entering editmode, and invoke an "undo" crashed.•

Interface

Added several Undo "pushes" where it still missed.• With mouse cursor over a screen−edge (between windows) none of the hotkeys worked. Now itchecks for the global list of keys, including screen−switch,

•

quit, frame change, Fkeys, load/save, undo/redo, etc.• Opening submenu levels in Blender now uses different heuristics, keeping the sub−level open for aslong you move into the submenu direction.

•

Frame−sliding (using LMB) in Ipo, Action, Sound, NLA, Sequence windows now nicely idles CPU.It could cause a very tight loop using 100% CPU time.

•

Button used for Constraint names could cause crashes due to wrong string size assumption.• Using CTRL + Up/Down in Buttons Window now correctly re−scales and restores view.• Option "Erase all" (CTRL + X) didn't load UI when that option was used for loading files before.• User Settings menu (behind top "Info" header) now draws correctly on window sizes larger than 1280pixels.

•

Translation Error: text buttons or buttons showing names were accidentally translated too.• Texture Buttons: image blocks now can be unlinked with "X" button.• When new panels get created (like choosing "Yafray" in Render panel) the new panels align andrestore location as good as possible.

•

Option to switch left/right mouse didn't work for floating panels. It then still selected stuff behind thebutton.

•

Added code to disable "Emulate 3 button mouse" when "Left mouse select" option is chosen. Thiscan't work together unfortunately... because of 1 button mouse owners.

•

Normal Map Support Mesh Edit Mode

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Rendering

Critical bug! Deformed mesh didnt give correct 'orco' (original texture coordinates) anymore onrender.

•

"Unified" render uses different sampling method for OSA render now, going much faster when manyfaces cover each other (unified render stores full list of all faces/halos that cover a pixel).

•

Saving BMP images now adds correct extension on file save.• Using Quicktime movies as textures, now loads it in highest quality. Also added support for interlacedfields for DV movies.

•

Saving Quicktime movies without indicating output path, will now save it in the directory whereBlender itself resides. When a movie cannot be created, it will stop rendering and print an error in theDOS window.

•

Static particles, rendered with lighting, now checks for "Layer" Lamp option.• Halos (particles) with a texture map, but only mapping it to "Alpha" were rendered black, instead ofMaterial color.

•

Rendering a Movie file, using a "Border" and set "Crop" (for output in smaller picture size asindicated) crashed Blender.

•

Using "Dupli Frames" objects now render correctly with Motion Blur.• Rendering ray traced transparency ("glass") now sets face normals correctly on the fly, removing theneed to manually edit normals in the correct directions. Allows a camera to fly inside for example.

•

Nurbs surfaces now give correct normals for ray tracing too.• When rendering the inside part of "glass", specularity is being calculated now. Reflected rays insideof transparent models will keep bouncing inside now.

•

Stencil in World textures didn't work on RGB channel yet.• "Unified" Render: now supports "Edge" render on wire frames too. Also solved crash in "Edge"render.

•

"Unified" Render: now fills in zero alpha for sky.• Issue solved with using background images for render with Alpha, and adding over halos or lensflares.

•

With material slider "Ray Mir" set not zero, but with option "Ray Mirror" off, Blender accidentallyentered a part of ray tracing code, screwing up the alpha value of the result.

•

"Unified" Render: halos with Flare option didn't render correct, they were added twice. Also correctederrors in applying alpha for 'Premul' alpha.

•

"Unified" Render: now doesn't render Halos that are behind the 'far' clipping range correctly.• "Unified" Render: AO with option "Sky" could give black dots, caused by an overflow due to divisionby zero.

•

Render option "Gauss" now works for "Parts" rendering too.• Solved several cases of unitialized variables, causing black scanlines or other render errors. Windowsonly.

•

With multiple 3D windows in a Screen, with one having its own layers "unlocked" and set different,caused wrong render results. Now it only renders Local View or local layer settings with F12 hotkeyand mouse in the specific window.

•

Invoking render in Mesh EditMode gave wrong texture coordinates on Subdivision Surface• Transparent raytracing didn't make specular transparent• Crash fix on render cyclic Nurbs Surface with Cube mapping•

Import / Export

DXF Polyline import fix, for Cinema4D files (among others).• DXF import from 3DS files stored triangles with duplicate vertices in quads, corrupting the Mesh forediting.

•

Multiple errors fixed in .obj importer• Vertex normals now export in .obj format• VRML 1.0 and Inventor import now supports up to 750k faces or 1 M vertices per "node".•

Normal Map Support Rendering

03/11/2008 19.42.31 72

Fixes in .ai and .svg importing• Updates in blender2cal3d.py• Update to off_import: support for uv data•

Yafray

Rendering using plugin returns zbuffer info for post processing• Support added for Material UV TexFace option• Normal map support added• Crash fix caused by improper check if plugin was loaded• Closed Nurbs surface crashed on render• Added nearly full support for Blender's procedural textures, with the exception of 'envmap', 'magic',and 'plugin' modes. The stucci texture also is not exact match, since it cannot be fully emulated inyafray because of implementation issues. It will work best for low turbulence values.

•

Normal Map Support Yafray

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A new release, with loads of new features and documentation! Check the links below for in−depthdescriptions.

Below you also find the notes for the 2.35a upgrade.

New Feature Documentation and Notes:

Undo• Outliner• Mesh Editing• Object Hooks• Python API• Curve Deform• Taper Curves• Particle Duplicators• Rendering Updates• Stretch To Constraint• UI Drawing• Game Engine• Bug Fixes• But wait! There's more!• 2.35a Upgrade•

UndoA new global undo system has been added, giving full multiple level undo capabilities in all areas of Blender.The new global hotkey for undo is Ctrl Z, and Ctrl Shift Z for redo (Cmd Z and Cmd Shift Z also work onMac OS X).

OutlinerThe Outliner is a new hierarchical diagram displaying a list of data in Blender and its dependencies. It cancurrently be used to select and activate various parts of Blender data for editing and visualisation.

Outliner Outliner

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Mesh EditingBlender's mesh editing has been given a huge overhaul, with new vertex, edge and face selection modes,direct editing of the subdivision surface and not just the poly cage, Zbuffer clipped (ignoring occluded)selection, new extrusion types, new edge/face loop selection, FGons, edge rotation, and much more.

Object HooksHooks are a new way to deform the underlying geometry of Meshes, Curves, Surfaces or Lattices, at an objectlevel, allowing you to manipulate groups of vertices or control points with weighting, using 'hook' objects toinfluence them.

Python APIBlender Python is going through general clean−up and internal restructuring of the code. Many modules havebeen added and upgraded, bundled scripts have been updated as well, with documentation built−in via thenew script browser.

Curve DeformAs with Lattices and Armatures, Blender now supports deforming meshes with curves. The new option isfound when parenting an object to a curve (Ctrl P).

Curve Deform Curve Deform

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Taper CurvesTapering is a new feature that works alongside bevelling on curve objects. Similar to how BevOb is used todefine the cross−section of a curve, TaperOb defines the width along the length of the curve.

Particle DuplicatorsMesh objects with static particles can now use dupliverts to duplicate other objects along the length of theparticle trail, useful for making plants or other interesting things.

Rendering UpdatesNew additions to the renderer include dithering to prevent coloured banding, and support for ambientocclusion in Only Shadow rendering.

Stretch To ConstraintStretch To is a new constraint that lets a bone stretch between its root or an object stretch from its center point,targeting another object, making it much easier to set up automatically bulging muscles in an armature.

Stretch To Constraint Stretch To Constraint

03/11/2008 19.42.31 76

UI DrawingLive updates of buttons and menus have been recoded to not use frontbuffer drawing anymore, resulting insubstantial speedup, better compliancy with OpenGL and enabling interesting new features like transparentdrawing.

Antialised drawing for buttons and fonts has been improved too.

Game EngineThe internal time system and collisions have been improved, which gives nice speedup in physics. Work onstereo display has been done plus lotsa bug fixes were done. All releases as offered now include the standalone player too, including saving content as a 'runtime'.

Bug FixesHats off for the dev team, again!

Of the hundreds reports we got in since the last release in August, we verified about half of them as validbugs, and fixed almost ALL of them. So we still have a clean tracker with less than 30 pending reports.

BTW: you need to subscribe to projects.blender.org to submit a report, that's of great help to communicatewith the reporter. So please keep reporting!

But wait! There's more!

Full listing of small additions and relevant bug fixes•

2.35a Upgrade

Just 4 days after 2.35 release we decided to make an upgrade. This is especially for Linux (wrong gcc used)and to solve an Outliner crash. Here's the full list of changes;

Linux: recompiled using different gcc• Outliner: crash on selecting Script icon (Windows/Linux)• Curve deform (CTRL + P) crashed in Linux• Oops Schematic Window: switching from Outliner gave wrong transformed view• 3D View: options "Home" and "View selected" (numpad dot) now show identical•

Bug Fixes Bug Fixes

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Mesh EditMode: selection buffer (zbuffered selection clip) now supports full 24 bits range (was 18bits).

•

Mesh Editmode: Edge Rotate didn't copy smooth or material flags• Mesh Editmode: Loop Cut (ALT + T) now works with partially invisible (clipped outside window)vertices

•

Rendering: Ray−trace transparant for Nurbs surfaces didn't work• Game engine: World option "Physics engine" now is set to Sumo by default on reading older files.• Yafray: rendering using plugin returns zbuffer info for post processing• Yafray: support added for Material UV TexFace option•

Bug Fixes Bug Fixes

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Blender 2.34 releaseA fresh release packed with new features, and documented as never before! Check the links below forin−depth descriptions.

Particle forces and deflectionParticles can now interact with objects in two more ways: by making an object act as a force field or vortexfield, or by making an object's faces deflect particles. This is useful for many things, including water or fireeffects, and swarming 3D objects using duplicate objects (dupliverts).

UV unwrapping with LSCMLSCM (Least Squares Conformal Map) is a new UV tool that is capable of unwrapping arbitrary surfaces,preserving local angles in geometry to ensure a smoothly fitting UV layout. LSCM is available with theexisting UV tools in UV Face Select mode, with Face −> Unwrap UVs ("U" key) or in the UV Calculationpanel (Edit buttons). Like the existing UV unwrap methods, it unwraps the currently selected faces.

Yafray improvements and further integrationYafray, the advanced raytracer with global illumination and photon mapping, is now integrated with Blenderas a plug−in. Once installed, you now can use this render engine as easily as if it's built in. Further support forBlender features in Yafray has been added, as well as better control over these features from Blender, like thenew Photon Light for caustics rendering.

Yafray improvements and further integration Yafray improvements and further integration

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Weighted creases for subdivision surfacesWith "SubSurfs" as today's standard for organic modeling, the addition of edge creases now allows users tomodel fine details in SubSurf meshes without needing to add more control points.

Python APIThe transparent integration of Python scripts in the UI now offers not only import or export, but also menuand button access for scripted tools.

Read the release notes with the link above, or the general introduction to bundled scripts.

Game engineNew features were added, as well a lot of maintenance work was done on the game engine, and savingstand−alone 'run times' is now possible again. On Windows, Blender can save a project as .exe, on OSX as.app, and on Linux/Unix as a regular binary.

Full oversampling for renderBlender's OSA (oversampling) render option in Blender was always heavily optimized for scanline rendering.The new "Full OSA" option now enables rendering all samples, giving full antialiasing for specularhighlights, shading and textures as well.

Full oversampling for render Full oversampling for render

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Ramp shadingThe new "Ramp" controls in Blender lets a user set a range of colors for a material's diffuse and specularcomponents, define how that range will vary over a surface, and how it blends with the 'actual color'. This canenable more realistic appearance for natural materials like skin.

Misc rendering features* Blender's 'static particles', which can be used to for a fur or grass appearance, can now be animated todeform along with characters

* New blending modes for layering textures or ramp shaders

* Improved phong shading model to prevent raytraced shadow errors

Color pickerEach button in Blender showing an RGB color now invokes the new color picker menu... and not only that,pickers can be integrated anywhere in the UI as for example the Nkey menu while 3d painting.

Sequence editor wipe transitionBlender's hidden treasure, the built in video sequence editor, now supports effects for creating a variation ofwipe transitions.

Sequence editor wipe transition Sequence editor wipe transition

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Interface additions− Help menu calls internet browser with important links to documentation

− Further python integration in menus allows any scripter to make own tools

− Left/Right mouse usage can be switched

− New zoom methods

Bug fixesHats off for the dev team!

Of the almost 300 reports we got in since the last release in May, we verified about half of them as valid bugs,and fixed almost ALL of them. So we still have a clean tracker with less than 30 pending reports.

BTW: you need to subscribe to projects.blender.org to submit a report, that's of great help to communicatewith the reporter. So please keep reporting!

And what's more new!OpenGL normals and negative scaling• Small additions and fixes•

And what's more new! And what's more new!

03/11/2008 19.42.31 82

2.33a UpdateWith one week of testing and feedback, we managed to do so many essential fixes in 2.33 that an update wasrequired.

The download page now links to the 2.33a version. The list of fixes can be found here.

With this release we met another milestone; all of Blender's functionality from the period the sources wereclosed now have been restored. Of course that means we can welcome the 2.25 game engine back!

Further the release is packed with new features, results of three months frantic coding by our developmentteam. Enjoy!

Blender regression test files zip 2.9MB

Game EngineNot only the game engine is back, here you can also find cool demo downloads and the full html referencefrom the Blender GameKit book.

The picture to the left is from the HardMashed demo, showcased by NaN on the Game DevelopersConference, and one of the best productions of the NaN content team ever.

Ambient occlusionAmbient Occlusion is a more sophisticated ambient trick, which takes nearby faces into account by firing a

Ambient occlusion Ambient occlusion

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hemisphere (cone) of shadow−rays around.

Combined with using "Spherical Light Probe" images very realistic results can be achieved.

Musgrave, Voronoi & NoiseThe entire internal procedural texture system has been revised, allowing now much more control, and severalnew types which makes it a true Image Synthesiser.

UV and Image editorFinally we've got a new team very active on improving features for assigning and calculating UV texturecoordinates.

Check out the long list of new features here.

More FeaturesPython API• Render engine• Editmode• YafRay Export• Interface• Localisation•

Important note about compressed files

As code cleanup we removed the old file layer as being used by Blender 2.25

Publisher. This also means saving/reading compressed files isn't supported anymore.

More Features More Features

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Kester has written a python script to get around this. You can find it here: blenderdecompress

The bugfixesbug fixes are in the following categories:

render engine• Armatures• Meshes• NLA• YafRay export• Tooltips• Python API• Other interface• Uncategorised•

Changes for the developerThe following contains features and changes of the code itself, including buildsystems and other auxiliarycode.

code changesBuild systems• code cleaning•

code featuresSCons•

CVS Statisticscommits since release: 324

first commit since release, dated: 2004/02/03 17:52:10 CET

first commit since release by: SirDude (Kent Mein)

last commit since release, dated: 2004/04/23 00:33:58 CEST

last commit since release by: hos (Chris Want)

For more cvs statistics: bf−blender cvs statistics

CVS Statistics CVS Statistics

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Splash by @ndy

With this release Blender has not only been extended with a lot of new options, such as ray tracing anddisplacement mapping, but also offers the beta−test of an integrated support for the famous Yafray renderer.

Below you will find the full release notes, additional (html) documentation and sample files.

Download Blender 2.32 and Yafray from www.blender3d.org

Rendering improvementsnew: ray tracing• area lights• soft shadow• improved bumpmapping• gaussian filter•

Displacement mappingany texture actually deforms rendered geometry• including new procedural subdivision•

Displacement mapping Displacement mapping

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YafRay supportexternal rendering engine• Global Illumination• photonmapping•

Other release notesMesh beveling• Python pulldown menus for import/export• Armature speed improvements• Etc etc etc• And bugs fixed!•

Other release notes Other release notes

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New in Blender

− Added buttons drawing Theme 'Rounded'. This uses a new feature in button code that enables aligningbuttons in groups together. Will be implemented for the default 'Shaded' theme later.

− New default startup file built in. Only shows when you delete .B.blend in your home directory. It has mainlybeen designed to match the 2.3 manual best. Most obvious change is not starting with a 4−split 3D Windowanymore.

− Important note: all buttons to call an "Image Select Browser" have been removed from Blender. This isinstable code, and caused far too many crashes.

The functionality is still accessible though by holding CTRL while pressing a "Load" button for images. Thisas 'undocumented' feature for power users. :)

− Mesh Subdivision Surfaces: now supports 'hide' option as well (HKEY).

Python− New module: Lattice

− New module: Texture (mostly done already, only missing access to Ipo, EnvMap, ColorBand & Plugin)

− Bugfix: Object.makeParent

− NMesh: new vertex grouping methods: .renameVertGroup, .getVertGroupNames

− Doc updates

Bug fixes− Interface: removing a window edge (Join Areas) sometimes removed the wrong edge. Was a very old bug...but showed up in new standard default file.

Bug fixes Bug fixes

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− 2.30 error: clicking to select Objects at same location now correctly cycles through the available Objectsagain.

− Rendering specular highlights for Sun light works correctly again.

− 2.30 error: CTRL+SHIFT+F3 allows screen capture of entire Blender window again.

− 2.30 error: the "Emulate 2 button mouse" option, allowing ALT+LeftMouse for MiddleMouse now worksagain.

− Pressing ESC during rendering now reacts immediately again. This was reported fixed before, butaccidentally un−committed from the code.

− Rendering shadeless Material with UV "TexFace" option had a wrong gamma.

− F6 TextureButtons: the "Default Vars" now resets the environment mapping settings as well.

− IpoWindow: using the new Transform Properties Panel, some buttons caused the event being handleddouble, giving weird results.

− F6 Texture Buttons: browsing a new texture for a Lamp only gave the "Add New" option.

− UV Image Editor: saving an image (after using Texture Paint) now is in same type as original image (wasTarga only).

− Rendering started with mouse cursor in a 3D window now renders "Local View" or unlocked layer settingsagain.

− Removed old hack from rendering, which enabled a "Border" render in a previously rendered image. It wasbadly implemented and crashed too often. Related to this, code was cleaned up which prevents errors asreported in rendering with "Border" and "Fields".

Bug fixes Bug fixes

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− Converting a 3D closed curve (Bezier or NURBS) to a Mesh (ALT+C) the result was a bunch ofunconnected vertices.

− When rendering a 'square spot' it displayed rotated wrong in an Environment Map.

− When rendering Material with option "Wire", rendering in parts gave errors.

− Fixed in unified render (now is actually usable!):

− alpha was wrong for halos with lines or rings

− halo rendering wrong combined with spothalo

− no antialiasing with sky when rendering spothalo

− cleaned some weird usage of gamma for spothalo and sky

(when rendering sky + spothalo, sky got gamma corrected

− When rendering a Mesh with multiple users (linked−duplicates) it caused a crash when it used UV faces.

− Constraints: Fixed the lag with Follow Path.

− Mesh Vertex Keys: now can have up to 64k vertices, was 32k.

− Mesh Editmode: using Undo caused vertex colors and UV texture information to get lost.

− Mesh Editmode: using Undo caused 'hide' status of vertices being lost. Solved by storing this in the Meshthemselves, so the 'hide' status will be restored when leaving/entering EditMode.

− Mesh EditMode: the Knife Tool sometimes cut unselected edges as well

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− Mesh object: "Subdiv" level 0 and draw type "Optimal" caused Mesh not drawing in EditMode.

− MS Windows, Blender text editor: Using clipboard to copy/paste text (CTRL+C and CTRL+V) works withcorrect line endings.

− 3D Window: when using a SpotLight in 'Textured Draw mode' (aka Potato mode) the 'Solid Draw mode'turned out black. (Bug since 2.0!)

− Armatures/Meshes: using "Parent Armature−>Name Groups" puts the Mesh in a state that is ready forweight paint.

− MetaBalls: the displaylists were re−created for each redraw of 3d window, causing an enormous slowdown.Now it runs smooth again. (Old bug!)

− 3D Window: the MKEY 'movetolayer' option doesn't close anymore on numeric input. Somewhere before2.25 this was changed... weird. Now you can set layers with numeric buttons, including using ALT fornumbers larger than 10, and using SHIFT for extend−select buttons. Press OK or Enter to close the menu.

− Blender didn't rename 'temp save' file to quit.blend at quit. Was reported on OSX and Linux.

− Materials: The stencil option only worked for one channel with normal−mapping. Now it works for all asit's supposed to be.

− The default built−in font was not rendered when using background rendering (blender −b on commandline).

− IpoWindow: Sometimes the Transform Properties Panel was drawn with zero size. Added a more strictversion check for this to prevent it.

− OSX: using the F10 RenderButtons "Play" option now pops the window to the front. This also for startingblender from command line.

− OSX: the preferred AntiAlias font couldnt be written in .b.blend (unless you manually install the font in

Bug fixes Bug fixes

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~/.blender/)

− AntiAlias fonts: file paths longer than 64 characters caused crash. Is 256 now.

− Mesh Editmode: Fixed crash when try to faceloop−cut (SHIFT+R, CTRL+R) with a Mesh having an edgethat didn't belong to any face. These tools now also update the vertex counter as displayed in 'Info header'.

− Themes: switching main Theme didn't update button draw type for Theme buttons themselves.

− Constraints: prevented creating endless loops.

Various fixes− In render output window; using Pad−plus and minus zoom now always includes a zoom level 1.0 now.

− 3D window, when setting a render border in camera view (SHIFT+B) the associated render option is set aswell.

− 2.30 error: in 3D window selecting Objects wasn't updated correctly in all situations.

− 2.30 error: CTRL+LeftMouse click allows selecting Objects in EditMode again.

− Action Window: zooming in increased with factor 5.

− Buttons Window: the Panel background color+alpha is part of Theme settings now.

− 3D Window: OpenGL render option is icon in window header again, and now uses Theme Color forbackground as well.

− Image Window: the buttons in header were messed up in 2.30

Various fixes Various fixes

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− 3D Window: a Constraint now draws a blue dashed line to its parent.

− Knife tool now has correct cursor, for all platforms.

− cleaned up aligning and positioning of buttons in most Panels

− Added decorations to 'Minimal' buttons Theme to make it usable, also restored the 2.2x drawing style forbuttons as 'OldSkool' Theme.

− fixed error in 2.30, the new toolbox and floating menus were closed when mouse left the menu immediately.Is now a safety of 40 pixels again.

− Theme for TextWindow now allows color for text as well.

− Mesh EditMode, Knife Tool: ESC for pop−up menu was not handled, and pressing ENTER at pop−up menucaused 'mouse trail' call to exit.

− F6 TextureButtons: "Crop and Anim" Panel had wrong name... now "Anim and Movie". This Panel nowdraws buttons always, because it is for the 'anim option' (sequence of files) which is different from 'movie'option (single file).

− F9 EditButtons: moved vertex group buttons to first Panel. These buttons should be available outsideeditmode as well.

− F6 ObjectButtons: added to the Constraint Panel buttons indicating the 'Active Bone' or 'Active Object', likepreviously (2.2x) was drawn in constraint buttons header.

− F6 TextureButtons: Colorband color sliders didnt update the colorband

− 3d Window: Enter EditMode from FaceSelect mode correctly selects vertices again

Various fixes Various fixes

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− 3d Window: transform option (SKEY) allows typing in zero scaling value.

− 3d Window: Warp transform option (SHIFT+WKEY) allows typing in values.

− 3D Window: the header didn't display 'Mesh' pulldown menu when VertexPaint mode and EditMode wereboth active.

− 3d Window: modes 'VertexPaint' and 'Weightpaint' and 'Texturepaint' allow drawmode wire−extra again.

− TextEditor window: the hotkeys ALT+N (new) and ALT+O (open) now also work when no 'text block' isactive or available in Blender.

− F5 MaterialButtons: when you set "Halo", and "Star", then disable "Halo", the "TexFace" button was set.The fix also prevents RGB from being reaset to 1.0.

− F5 MaterialButtons: "OB" and "ME" buttons in 2nd Panel didnt work properly. Also the "1 Mat 1" buttonsdidnt display in all situations.

− F9 EditButtons: changed decimator slider into number−button, with only 1 vertex in Mesh the slider didn'tdisplay OK. The slider also provided insufficient space for the full text.

− Constraints: sometimes its data was not available (null) after reading file, causing a crash. Code has beensecured.

− File Browse window: text sometimes was drawn over outer border.

− OSX: is now compiled with optimizing, giving a speed gain of 10−20%.

− OSX: using the Apple Quicktime dialog when choosing a movie format (F10 render buttons) still can causea freeze when you choose the "Options" button. This has been verified by Apple as a system bug. We added awarning when you choose this option in Blender.

Various fixes Various fixes

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Various fixes Various fixes

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Welcome to this first release of the 2.3x series! Based on feedback and research the past months, we've finallystarted with updating and improving Blender's interface. Most of the work has been in good old code cleaningand reorganizing, in adding complete new UI functionality and in a thorough information design process tomake both navigating and learning Blender easier. The "looks" has changed as well, matching better withcontemporary desktop environments. Work on all of this is still in progress, expect more updates in upcomingreleases.

But this is not all! We now have real Undo in the modeler, improved functionality for ourGrabber/Rotate/Scale tools, improved drawing of 3d models, a Knife tool, new interactive methods forselection and subdivision in Meshes, fixes and new functionality in the Python API, and a lot more...

The changelog for this version is huge, and has been split in several sections, these links can be found below.

Blender 2.3 UI redesignWith the 2.30 launch, we present the first results of work on an improved user interface for Blender. Sincemost of Blender's code *is* UI, a huge task to accomplish, and something that will grow more mature over theupcoming releases.

Knife toolThis is a tutorial for the new "knife subdivide" (KS) tool added in Blender in rev 2.30.

It is somewhat misnamed. Probably its most usefull applicationis not to simply cut a mesh into smaller peices,but to selectively allow additions of geometry (subdivisions) to a mesh.

Knife tool Knife tool

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Mesh UndoWhile the stoic nature of working with out an undo key has been claimed as a great character builder forBlender users, we have to admit that we all make mistakes. Blender 2.30 has integrated Alexander Ewering's(intrr) editmesh undo code. (And future releases may see this implimented for other edit modes.)

Mesh drawmodesdrawmode 'Wire Extra'• 'Solid' draw mode• extra option for SubSurf•

And what's more new!New 'Transform' functionality

1. Constraining transform to an axis:

This applies all tools like Grab, Rotate and Scale.

you can still switch to a constrained transform with a single press of middle mouse key. Blendercalculates the dominant axis based on current mouse position.

•

new modes: Press X, Y or Z once to constraint to global axes• new modes: another press of X, Y or Z will constraint to local axes• a third press of X, Y or Z will go back to normal.• while entering a constrained mode, helplines will be drawn to indicate the current constrained axis. Inlocal constraint mode, an additional axis will be drawn.

•

2. Numerical input:

Numerical input applies to modes Grab, Rotate, Scale, Warp, Shear, Shrink/Fatten:

when starting a transform mode, just typing a numerical value, or pressing NKEY will invokenumerical input

•

check the window header of the 3D Window to show which of the values currently is active for input• press TAB to move to the next input value• press NKEY to leave, or to start it again.• pressing ENTER will apply the values• pressing ESC will leave the transform mode without changes• Backspace will clear the value to zero• Pressing 'Minus' (keyboard) will negate the value•

And what's more new! And what's more new!

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Only the normal 'Period' key allows switching to decimal input. Numerical Pad only allows numberinput now.

•

3. Flipping sizes

The old convention was that pressing X, Y or Z flipped the axes while in Scale mode. This has been solvedwith two new options:

in Edit Mode, pressing MKEY will provide a menu with choices.• Object Mode...•

Face Loop selection & subdvision

Press SHIFT+R in Mesh EditMode to invoke a selection mode that enables selecting entire loops in a model.Move the mouse cursor over the Mesh to see the active edges to be used as loop. Pressing left mouse orENTER adds to the selection. Press ESC to leave the mode without changes−> Loop Subdivide

Press CTRL+R in Mesh EditMode to invoke a mode that enables subdividing an entire loop in a model. Movemouse over the Mesh to see the proposed subdivision. Pressing left mouse or ENTER adds to the selection.Press ESC to leave the mode without changes

Python API

Fixes:

obj.name access in Object• bone.getParent in Armature/Bone• unchecked pointer when adding sitedirs to sys.path• added more types to obj.shareFrom•

Additions:

−NMesh:

a set of vertex group related methods• face.normal, expanded .Modes dictionary, .get/setMode methods•

And what's more new! And what's more new!

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nmesh.get/setMaxSmoothAngle and nmesh.get/setSubDivLevels methods•

−Ipo:

ipo.getCurve(string)•

−Object, Camera, Material, World:

.get/set/clearIpo methods•

Docs:

updated with all additions + a few fixes• added huge reference for BGL functions•

A new version of the docs should be available with or soon after the new

Blender release.

Radiosity render

Rendering with material without radio flag sometimes caused scanline errors.• The color didn't truely match the color when using 'radio tool'.• When adding new radiosity block, 'max iterations' is set at 120. this prevents new users from goinginto radio−solving with a long itteration time

•

Audio window as 'frame slider'

extreme small or narrow windows in Blender didn't accept mouse input. This disabled the possibilityto make a (screen wide) 'frame slider' by adding a header−less wide and narrow 'Audio Timeline'

•

And what's more new! And what's more new!

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window.An example can be found in the default .B.blend startup file, first screen.• sliding the frame in an Audio window now displays current frame number next to mouse pointer• right mouse click in Audio window gives option to switch between seconds, or frames display.• check on Render Buttons (F10), to set the right value for 'frames per second'.•

Smaller fixes

the 'shaded 3d view' (SHIFT+Z) will correctly display smoothing using vertex normals now.• default grid drawing in 3d window has been improved, it keeps drawing grid lines; independent ofhow far you zoom in our out

•

standard 'solid' drawmode is fully configurable, up to three lights. Check User Settings Menu for it(pull down top window edge).

•

OSX: closing the render output window now works• Texture channels in Material editor can be switched on/off each individually. This replaces the old'SepTex' button

•

Using the Stencil option in Material Textures, normal−mapping now can be controlled as well.• Removed built−in maximum for rendering vertices/faces/halos/lamps. It now allocates dynamicallythe tables. Watch your memory!

•

fixed overflows in unified render, caused by extreme values for specularity. This gave badanti−aliasing.

•

MS Windows version: usage of new Font draw library gives crispier anti aliased fonts, and solvescrash at exit

•

Sequencer: fixed a bug that prevented volume envelopes from being applied to the Mixdown WAV• Meta Balls: Lattice as parent now affects correctly deformation•

Things that were not restored yet:

Pressing NKEY in buttons window, gave options for hexadecimal input.• In Edit Mode, toolbox doesn't give option to add another object type•

Contributors to this release were, in random order:

Joseph Gilbert, Michel Selten, Jacques Guignot, Stephen Swaney, Willian Padovani Germano, Martin Poirier,Roel Spruit, Robert Wenzlaff , Alexander Ewering, Matt Ebb, Simon Clitherow, Jiri Hnidek, Kent Mein, JohnWalton, Rob Haarsma, Wouter van Heyst, everyone on the bf−funboard mailing list, the one I forgot, andyour humble servant,

And what's more new! And what's more new!

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Ton Roosendaal

Amsterdam, october 30, 2003.

And what's more new! And what's more new!

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