Blender 2.83 Released With OpenVDB Support, Initial OpenXR Integration

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Blender 2.83 Released With OpenVDB Support, Initial OpenXR Integration

Blender 2.83 is out today as the project's first long-term support release (LTS) while still introducing many new features and improvements for existing functionality...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Blender-2.83-LTS-Released

[waxhead]

Pure erotica! Blender is fantastic, still a bit rough around the edges user interface wise (what belongs to what) but improving every single release.
For me there is just a couple of nitpicks...

1. The user interface is still lagging a bit if you turn on some heavy processing
2. There should be a proper network render built-in, sort of like crowdrender that allows me to use all my machines to render single frames.
3. Navigation is still unnecessary clumsy. Lightwave 3D does navigation right , I wish there was a way to make blender behave like Lightwave when it comes to navigation. Meanwhile I have the navigation sorted with a NDOF controller from 3D Connexion and the spacenavd daemon which happens to be in the Debian repo!

[Remdul]

@waxhead: ditto on #1 and #3. I've used 3DSMAX for 20+ years, so much I'm rusted stuck (using MAX it on Wine, way more stable than on Windows!). I really WANT to use Blender, it has everything I could possibly want, but the UI/navigation still gets in the way. There's probably nothing wrong with Blender's UI, but for anyone coming from other software, the sheer muscle memory, coordination, and deeply ingrained navigation rituals that needs to be unlearned and/or re-learned can be a huge challenge.

But the situation is improving. Can't wait to finally make the switch. Damn I'd love to ditch crappy MaxScript for Python, and _finally_ have some decent UV tools.

[polarathene]

There's probably nothing wrong with Blender's UI, but for anyone coming from other software, the sheer muscle memory, coordination, and deeply ingrained navigation rituals that needs to be unlearned and/or re-learned can be a huge challenge.

ex-Maya user here, Blender was not something I could take seriously or adopt due to UI either, but the big change since 2.8 made that possible for me. There is some stuff that still is a bit unintuitive, or requires googling how to do something you know by heart in your current software, but that's kind of to be expected when using alternative software as complex as these. I don't do 3D at a professional level mind you, I was trained in it but ended up becoming a developer instead and doing 3D more as a hobby, but Blender is bitchin'

For UVs, my preference is Rizom Unfold3D, it's a fantastic standalone tool that just focuses on doing that job well, and the developer(s) are active and engaging in their community, so if you'd like a feature or improvement they've been quite responsive. Didn't take too much time to pick up for me personally.

[Danielsan]

I am currently studying Blender 2.8 and is way more intuitive than ever...

[nokipaike]

3. Navigation is still unnecessary clumsy. Lightwave 3D does navigation right , I wish there was a way to make blender behave like Lightwave when it comes to navigation. Meanwhile I have the navigation sorted with a NDOF controller from 3D Connexion and the spacenavd daemon which happens to be in the Debian repo!

never had problems navigating with a blender, but for those who come from other software I would like to point out that there are a lot of options that make life easier in the preferences also for navigation

[waxhead]

never had problems navigating with a blender, but for those who come from other software I would like to point out that there are a lot of options that make life easier in the preferences also for navigation

Absolutely , navigation is not a problem for me. But it is clumsy. I suggest you try Lightwave 3D just to see how brilliantly simple the navigation is there. It has been some years since I used it , but as far as I remember all you needed was to press T and R and use the mouse wheel and you could smoothly navigate to wherever you wanted in a jiffy.

[nokipaike]

Absolutely , navigation is not a problem for me. But it is clumsy. I suggest you try Lightwave 3D just to see how brilliantly simple the navigation is there. It has been some years since I used it , but as far as I remember all you needed was to press T and R and use the mouse wheel and you could smoothly navigate to wherever you wanted in a jiffy.

hahaha man, i have been using lighwave for a few years since 1998 i know how it is lightwave ... it was fun at the time ... too bad it is now mostly a dying software..

but it is also natural, why invest in closed source? in the long run it becomes a blind way, while the open source is like wine, the more it ages and the more it improves .. the union is strength and the benefits are for everyone, therefore, rest the other sofware in peace and long life to blender, which it is veering towards singularity, that is to say that it exponentially doubles its functionality and refinement from year to year.

[waxhead]

hahaha man, i have been using lighwave for a few years since 1998 i know how it is lightwave ... it was fun at the time ... too bad it is now mostly a dying software..

but it is also natural, why invest in closed source? in the long run it becomes a blind way, while the open source is like wine, the more it ages and the more it improves .. the union is strength and the benefits are for everyone, therefore, rest the other sofware in peace and long life to blender, which it is veering towards singularity, that is to say that it exponentially doubles its functionality and refinement from year to year.

Agree, closed source is slowly dying. A program is after all information (just like Wikipedia is information) and you want that to be available for everyone, but not all open source projects benefits from being open - those with enough people on the other hand usually grows. Sadly the same is NOT true for user interfaces , the toolkits gets more and more infected by bad design choices.