This Week in Blender Development

2018-04-14: Weekly News

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Hello and welcome to another issue of This Week in Blender Development! Blender is the free and opensource 3D creation suite for the next generation of artist. Follow the development on Twitter @BlenderDev.

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

Note

Due to the code quest much of this week was spent planning and doing smaller internal changes.

blender2.8

BGL: Expose OpenGL API for FrameBuffers and RenderBuffers rBb107e77e

New Patches¶

None

Other Projects¶

2.8: Code-Quest (Topics we plan to cover) T54387
devtalk.blender.org. – Devtalk is a new forum website to help new developers get into Blender development
Workbench render engine: (T54592)

Documentation¶

Code Quest Kick-off

2018-04-07: Weekly News

Sat, 07 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

PyAPI: Add PyC_Tuple_Pack_F64 utility rB31f2a675
New utility to fix broken utf8 strings in old .blend files. rB96f565b3
Write the scene render frame range to image/video files rB6c3110a6
Added support for the WEBM/VP9 video codec rB7e39d151
Use the newer version of the bullet 6dof spring constraint for rigidbody. rB26a283de

blender2.8

Collections: Move to Collection: Popup for naming new collection rB0faa065e
Workspaces: Remove workspace object mode rB1c24c04e

greasepencil-object

Add Lock to Focal Plane to Blur VFX rBe32c22d3
New Line Primitive rB23c5eee2

New Patches¶

Python ImBuf API D3122
Add an option to do keyframe insertion in a cycle-aware fashion. D3140

Other Projects¶

2.8: Code-Quest (Topics we plan to cover) T54387
devtalk.blender.org. – Devtalk is a new forum website to help new developers get into Blender development

Documentation¶

Code Quest Status Update

2018-03-31: Weekly News

Sat, 31 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

Cycles: take into account diffuse roughness for roughness baking rBe3f1d980
UI: Edit mode move edge data tool into a menu rB354dfdac
New C logging system rB891c1cfc
Undo: unified undo system w/ linear history rB651b8fb1

blender2.8

Collections: New Move to Collection operator rBf167226b
Collections: Move to Collection: Add option to add to a new collection. rB6456d59b
Collections: Add support for Select Group rB53491625

New Patches¶

UI: use new confirm quit dialog on all platforms. D3118

Other Projects¶

2.8: Code-Quest (Topics we plan to cover) T54387
devtalk.blender.org. – Devtalk is a new forum website to help new developers get into Blender development

Documentation¶

Code Quest Status Update

2018-03-24: Weekly News

Sat, 17 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

UI: Optional prompt to quit for non win32 systems rB5ba5254e
UI: 4-column layout for the editor-type selector menu rB60712d12

New Patches¶

Add Ctrl+Click Extrude function for Surfaces D3110
Move STL import/export to C++ (great speedup) D3114

Other Projects¶

Blender Interactive Mode Outline T54389
2.8: Code-Quest (Topics we plan to cover) T54387
devtalk.blender.org. – Devtalk is a new forum website to help new developers get into Blender development

Documentation¶

None

2018-03-17: Weekly News

Sat, 17 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

GHOST: Support Unity taskbar progress API rB41149ca1

blender2.8

UV/Image Editor: Optimize UV Drawing rBcca1e1b7
Clay: Refactor: Port clay to a deferred pipeline rBb4209b13
Eevee: Render: Allow cancel during probe update rB266cdf95

New Patches¶

Proof of concept multi-object edit-mode D3101
Denoising Baking Results D3099

Other Projects¶

None

Documentation¶

None

2018-03-10: Weekly News

Sat, 10 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

Cycles: add roughness baking support, using squared roughness convention rB23ccf576
Cycles: switch to squared roughness convention for all nodes rB7613ffc9
Cycles: support arbitrary number of motion blur steps for cameras rB78c20636 rBdb333d9e
T54233: NLA “Push Down” discards Blend Mode, Extrapolation, and Influence rB7e2100e4

blender2.8

Eevee: Planar Reflection: Add refraction support for reflected objects rB92c2e2f3
Eevee: Probes: Add culling for planar probes rB13b99b7b
Eevee: Render: Add progress rB872df463
Draw Manager: Simplify the algorithm that extract the BoundingSphere of a Frustum rB267e816b
DRW: Shader Deferred compilation: Use a wmJob for threading rB94fadd00
DRW: Deferred compilation initial implementation rB3a209c28
Eevee: Optimize shadows drawing rBdd611dd0

New Patches¶

Eevee: Optimize shadows drawing D3095
Optional parameters for play_rendered_anim operator D3097
Fix T53971 Render Result showing the wrong renderlayer in image editor D3098

Other Projects¶

Multi-object edit mode support (design overview) T54242
2.79b release, proposed fixes T54255
Python API for Blender’s internal image functions T54272

Documentation¶

None

2018-03-03: Weekly News

Sat, 03 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

Cycles volume: fast empty space optimization (up to 2x speedup) rB7377d411
Collada: Adding support for Matrix Transformation export rBa024da55
Smoke: expose empty space clipping property to the UI rB4403ca80
Cycles: add Principled Volume shader. rB0aec2dcd
Cycles: Speedup rendering of dense volumes (30% speedup) rB5d5c6bb5
Animation: When scaling keyframes, merge (by-averaging) selected keys that end up on the same frame rBac717928

blender2.8

WorkSpace: show/hide opt-out support for add-ons rB61c8ed40
WorkSpace: UI filtering for add-ons rBd937d06c
Cycles: add back point density texture support rB000002e4
EEVEE: Compositing and rendering of multi-layers support rB06420c5f
Viewport: Speed up many unique objects (up to 3x speedup) rB241c90c9
Eevee: add Principled Volume shader rB38ccd1fe
WorkSpace: object-mode switching support rB4ab002bc
Viewport: Small speedup. rBc5eba46d

greasepencil-object

New Eraser brush rB32c4bc34
New Draw mode “Boxes” rB5a37f694
Interpolate mouse movement for fast drawing rBa636f3fb
Add UV rotation option to Smooth and Noise modifiers rB803f80c6
Apply Smooth and Random sculpt to UV rotation rB71f0e59b
New UI parameter to define UV rotation randomness rB11910fdb
New point fields for UV data rBf0419a4a

fracture_modifier

Add vertex group to influence metaball radii rBc381b3fa
Optionally restore old activation behavior with broken constraints rBfb8acd8b

New Patches¶

Freestyle: work in progress patch to show possible integration D3086
First steps for a User-Preferences/Settings redesign D3088
Array modifier: Do not merge vertex groups with different names D3092
Cycles: add anisotropy to random walk subsurface scattering. D3094

Other Projects¶

None

Documentation¶

EEVEE FAQ

2018-02-17: Weekly News

Sat, 17 Feb 2018 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

Cycles: Remove Fermi support rB2eaf90b3
Simple hair children: Make twist affected by texture rB6d4022f6
Simple hair children: Make twist affected by vertex group rB67cec973
Simple hair children: Initial implementation of twist control rBffde74a8
Cycles: Implement index output for hair node rB37f65e9d
Nodes: Display image name if any in the Cycles Image and Environment Texture node title rBd640ce40

fracture_modifier

Brickify fracture support rB97a677e7
External constraints support rB4eb44b86

New Patches¶

None

Other Projects¶

None

Documentation¶

None

2018-02-10: Weekly News

Sat, 10 Feb 2018 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

Cycles: add random walk subsurface scattering to Principled BSDF rBa6968e87
Cycles: random walk subsurface scattering rB0df9b2c7
Mesh: Remove Carve boolean rBe0597bae
Dopesheet: Synchronize selection on bones when selecting everything rB5f2b4002

blender2.8

Outliner: Add object(s) to new collection rB77b61b55
Outliner: Operator to delete outliner selected elements from collection rB9631c1ac
Eevee: Pixel Filter: Add parameter & rescale final LUT rB23d2f708

New Patches¶

Snap to second while scrubbing the frame in the timeline D3056
Cycles volume : fast empty space optimization by generating a tight mesh around the volume. D3038

Other Projects¶

None

Documentation¶

None

2018-02-03: Weekly News

Sat, 03 Feb 2018 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

Cycles: add Vector Displacement node and extend Displacement node rBf9ea097a
Apply Pose as Rest Pose: Bendy Bone support rB5dd52869
Cycles: rename displacement methods, default to displace rBda4c3f30
Cycles: add Displacement node. rB4a5ee1a5

blender2.8

Eevee: Render: Add ambient occlusion pass support rB36b259fa
Collections: Operator to duplicate a collection rBc7c070c2
Collections: Operator to select collection objects rBa4d2b102
Eevee: Render: Add support for multiview rB00f1bc16
Eevee: Add mist pass support rBe52c5bcd
Eevee: Render: Add Transparent Background option rBab5f86a0
Eevee: Render: Add Subsurface Pass support rB253b412a
Eevee: Render: Add Normal pass output rB55a238ed
Eevee: Add Z pass render result rB376d4230
Eevee: Add new “render samples” properties rB8cce3391
Eevee: Add support for TAA/SuperSampling for final render rBf107af35
Eevee: Probes: Add support for intensity tweak rB777e1d35

greasepencil-object

New Split operator rBd7a36693
New option to separate Points rB27e3b782
New Separate operator rBe5989702
New Lazy Mouse option rBe44fa493
Add option to reproject fill on Surface rBfa4c1ad5

fracture_modifier

Add a limit / search radius for animated mesh binding rBd68f53a3

New Patches¶

Initial move of Object.mode to workspace D3037
Asset Engine D3035
Cycles: add Principled Volume shader D3033

Other Projects¶

Blender 2.8: Icons T53840

Documentation¶

None

2018-01-20: Weekly News

Sat, 20 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

Loop Cut: Allow mouse placement w/ numeric input rB235f578a
Add “Delete Invalid Drivers” operator rBc38ebf93
Sculpting: Add an option to hide mask in viewport rB4d8b78b0

blender2.8

Outliner: Get rid of Search Menu rB51bcf7bd
Outliner: Remove User Preferences rBefe1af3d
Outliner Filtering System rB37913cf5
Eevee: Implement Sun area lighting rB03e432bc
Outliner: Alphabetical sorting rB60eb897f
Outliner: Rename “Active View Layer” > “View Layer” rB74f872df
Outliner: View Layer: add option to add a new collection to the current view layer rB33ddd926
Eevee: AO: Removes samples and denoise options rB9fd28c77
Eevee: SSR: Remove ray count rB3cb2b295
Deps Graph: Get rid of legacy extra recalc flags rBbf9460e3

greasepencil-object

Remove simplify render options rBb0c08068
New operator to clean boundary strokes rBd1f89c93

fracture_modifier

UI: move animated mesh settings to new panel rB80671518

New Patches¶

Sample based compositor D3003
Update image library dependencies to latest versions, fixing vulnerabilities D3005

Other Projects¶

Blender 2.8: Icons T53840
Blender 2.8: Collections Icons T53844

Documentation¶

None

2018-01-13: Weekly News

Sat, 13 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

Cycles: adaptive subdivision support for panoramic cameras rB5bd9b12d
User Prefs: app-template option to hide the cursor rB93d30d62
User Prefs: add new flag for app-template options rBff4c9d69
Cycles: option to make background visible through glass transparent rB322f0223
Cycles: add offscreen dicing scale and dicing camera rBcce280dd
Modifiers: Speed up Multires 8.7ms –> 2.7ms rB6695e390
Modifiers: Speed up Multires 4.5ms –> 1.4ms rB90cd856a
Modifiers: Speedup Subsurf 40% speedup rBc276fef4
UI: option not to show screen splitting widgets rB717090f4
Cycles: support animated object scale in motion blur rB25b794a3
Modifiers: Add deform axis for Simple Deform rB65542078
Nodes: Display image name if any in the Image and Texture Image node title rB87607254

blender2.8

Eevee: Lamps: Optimize lamps CPU/Memory usage rB01422645
Curve/Surface Display: UV support rB3c6e19b3
Curve Edit Mode: Use curve handle theme colors rB375d27f2

greasepencil-object

Add Ctrl keymap while fill for free drawing rBcefa6ca4
New Weight Smooth operator rB807c7b78
Include Thickness of new Fill Stroke rB40229d2a
New Weight Invert operator rB0562da81

fracture_modifier

Experimental bind of animated vertices (other object) to shards rB2a41da1d

New Patches¶

Outliner filter system – objects D2992
Support canceling color-ramp editing with the Escape key D2997

Other Projects¶

None

Documentation¶

Youtube: Outliner Filter: Blender 2.8 Development

2018-01-06: Weekly News

Sat, 30 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Again, sorry for missing last weeks report but due to the holidays last week has been included in this report. Next week will be back to normal.

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

Cycles: CUDA support for rendering scenes that don’t fit on GPU rBc621832d

blender2.8

Outliner: Support multiple-objects drag’n’drop into collections rBfb4cd136
Outliner/Collections: Add remove selected objects operator rB10f0635d
Outliner/Collections: Add selected objects operator rBeaf559d5
Outliner: Right mouse menu for collections editing rBd9b4d6ee
Outliner: Master Collection is always expanded rBa9fe9424

greasepencil-object

Add new simplify fixed operator rBabdce7f6
New option to fill using colors without fill rB2b0c317f
Add simplify level rB96e33c42
Make boundary lines display optional rB889a0707
Use a brush for filling rBb2630799
New reprojection mode: Axis rBb3848230

fracture_modifier

Deform motionblur support for FM and remesher with variable topology rB054d6d7a

New Patches¶

Add Cubic B-Spline with Prefilter Algorithm D2984
Support for UVs generated for Curves, Surfaces and Texts D2986
Nodes: Display image name if any in the Image node title D2988
Add deformation axis selection to the Simple Deform modifier D2989
Curve Edit Mode: support for curve handle-type theme colors D2990

Other Projects¶

None

Documentation¶

2017-12-30: Weekly News

Sat, 30 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Again, sorry for missing last weeks report but due to the holidays last week has been included in this report. Next week will be back to normal.

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

Fix scalability issue in threaded code of Mesh normals computation (Slight speedup) rBd130c66d
Subsurf: Avoid global lock for loops and orig index layers (4x speed up) rBdf0ecd73

blender2.8

Outliner/Collection: Interface for Master Collection Tree rBbbbdb27d
Outliner/Collection: Operator to delete selected collections rB4d08ef82
Outliner/Collection: Operator to create (nested) collections rB8252a414
Collections: Allow collections from different “parents” to have the same name rBc9cb5dc3
Collection: Name collection based on parent’s name rBc08dac00
Implement duplicator viewport/render visibility options rBb89f2276

greasepencil-object

New duplicate frame operator and special menu rB919cdad3
New rounded end caps rB95dcd183

fracture_modifier

Remesh modifier: support remeshing particle systems rB4945003f
Add acceleration maps which should be also be usable in playback rB16f161e5
Remesh modifier: support remeshing metaballs rBdf7d0e54
Add “self collision” option for constraint islands, and randomize option for sphere shape radius and margin rB7babce30
Add option to only output verts, meta threshold max is 100 now rB1010cdf4
Add option to only output centroids as vertices rBe8958954
Add grid fracture option rBfa7a666e

New Patches¶

Cycles: Allow for multi-gigapixel renders D2975
Allow loop cut placement with mouse after numeric input D2973
Viewport HMD integration using OpenVR D2970

Other Projects¶

None

Documentation¶

2017-12-16: Weekly News

Sat, 16 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Sorry for missing the post last week there was not much development so I decided to skip a week and include that content in today’s report. Also, due to the holidays there will likly not be a report next week either.

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

Add eyedropper to color-ramp widget rB7ae4c3a0
Modelling: Better bevel profile at extreme values of profile rBbdc15061
Modelling: Array Modifier: option to offset UV’s rB6d31eb01

blender2.8

Manipulators: view3d navigation buttons (see video) rB468ac903
Group collections: viewport/render options and remove collection visibility rB1f5106de
PyAPI: Message bus replacement for property notifiers rB7a8ac1b0
Eevee: Add Irradiance Visibility rB5b6cfa70

greasepencil-object

New Eraser with Lasso select rBc4dbe944
Add Erase stroke with Ctrl key rBfa2cd280
Add new option to simplify alternate points rB740506c7
New Normalize thickness parameter rBc4e595aa
New Vertex Group menu with Ctrl+G in Edit mode rBfc385754
Add default grey color with fill to default Palette rB7335e091
New Draw Specials menu with X key rB568f55e3
Change default onion mode to keyframes rB9c350fa9
New VFX light modifier rBa3930268

New Patches¶

Cycles: Compile “specialized” shader graphs for transparent shadows and emission D2938
Cycles: Split kernel reduce recompiles D3939
Use OIIO for loading DPX files D2944
Cycles: Vector Math node adding multiply and dividing D2956
Possible solution for workspace mode D2965

Other Projects¶

Static Override (main task) T53500
Static Override (UI & UX) T53501

Documentation¶

Again, have a look at the 2.8 WIP release notes: https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.80

2017-12-02: Weekly News

Sat, 02 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

5% speed improvement for subsurf modifier rB1d33843e
Haiku OS Support rB28d2148b
Cycles: Improve denoising speed on GPUs with small tile sizes rBfa3d50af
Select similar for bones by group index rB099a99db
Cycles: add object level holdout property rBe4b54f44
Cycles: 1-2% speed improvement rB7e349f27
PyAPI: add function to check any mathutils type rBc17c6557
PyAPI: Allow structs to define tags for their properties rBad625acd
Speed up stabilization tracking by 50% rBbf5b931d
Sequencer: Add option to render OpenGL preview with DoF rB9b42b3e1
Speedup mask drawing by 5-10% rB440aa2bf
Speedup mask rendering by 25% rB06e64058
Speedup movie tracking by tracking 10-15% rB440a49a2
Speed up subdividing by 20% rB2b6f3455
Improve edge rotate when edges share faces rB329bf8e1

cycles_texture_cache

This branch adds a texture cache feature for rendering a large number of largely sized textures in a pre-defined modest memory footprint.

See This email for more information.

cycles_embree

This adds the Embree raytracing kernels developed by Intel into Cycles.

See This email for more information.

fluid-mantaflow

Split viscosity settings into base and exponent rBbc6ab0f0
Add settings for fluid diffusion (i.e. viscosity and surface tension) rB02b27194

blender2.8

Groups and collection: create group from collection rBaeaf87bb
Groups and collection: initial integration rBbe9e469e
ID static override: add basic support for overriding animation rB75eb219a
ID static override: make basic object & bones transformations overridable rB20ae4f92
ID static override: make most Image properties overridable rBbde39e51
ID Static Override: add basic generic UI tools to control override of properties rB00078736
ID Static Override: add basic UI feedback rBe36b5f00
Merge ID static override, part I: core changes in DNA, BKE and .blend read/write rB39b8a330

greasepencil-object

New Gauss bell curve preset rB4cbd5933
Implement new cuve for multiframe falloff rBc7874196
GP Build Modifier - Layer Masking support rBf86f826f
New Grease Pencil Offset modifier rB0ecbe217
New VFX Flip modifier rB2392dc82
Dopesheet jump frame in active layer rBc29174ee

New Patches¶

Cycles: Re-enabled motion blur for object scaling D2937

Other Projects¶

Blender game transition

Documentation¶

Have a look at the 2.8 WIP release notes: https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.80

2017-11-25: Weekly News

Sat, 25 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

Speedup BM_mesh_normals_update (40% improvement) rB43ddf0e9
UI: Encoding output quality UI clarification rBf218e6d4
Disable adding scene sequence strips into themselves rB175e8fdc
UV Cube Project: improve default behavior rB65af15ad
Add option not to select with un-hide rB0a69e3b3
Bake Action operator: Added missing Bendy Bones support rBfc77676f
Pasting poses now updates motion paths rBc01ffefb
Vertex Paint: missed removing settings from UI rB10a11209

blender2.8

Eevee: Add SSS support in probes rB5dfeecf4
Eevee: SSS: Add separated Albedo option rB7cbc7dd9
Python API: expose base_flag settings (depsgraph) rB4493d0d0
Cycles: add object level holdout property, to replace Z mask layer. rBf8fc77ec
Python API: Allow structs to define tags for their properties rB23d148ec
SceneRenderLayer Removal/Refactor rB3a95bdfc
Eevee: SSS: Add Translucency support rB846cdf53

greasepencil-object

Add Hook Modifier rB9215e2a0
Add grid option to grease pencil paper rB55170494
Add new paper function for adding a solid color background rBe2adbc9b
Add Build Modifier rBf43aecba
Add some buttons to the bottom bar rB2a47ede6
UI: Rename MultiEdit to MultiFrame rBa666a5d0

hair_guides

Material pointer in hair systems rB56c1388e
Simplified API for generating hair follicles with a fixed max count rB5be3403a
Extend the fur generate modifier to also create guide curves rB2d241893
Start adding hair draw settings rBc6ddb6fd

New Patches¶

Cycles: Optical Vignetting and Depth of Field light distribution D2922
VSE Scene Strip Render Engine Settings D2924
Proposed fix for some math_color_blend functions D2925
Select similar for bones by action group index D2931
Improving Video Sequencer performance with C++ and OpenCL T53374

Other Projects¶

Workspaces: Integrating Interaction Modes - Requirements T53388
Workspaces: Integrating Interaction Modes - Proposals TT53389

Documentation¶

Blender 2.8 – priorities reconsideration proposal

2017-11-18: Weekly News

Sat, 18 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

Add select similar custom bone shape rBcd1d9950
Mikktspace/Cycles: Speed up the merging of identical vertices (speeds up rendering) rB119846a6
Cycles: Add per-tile render time debug pass rB40f528a7
Cycles: Add Volume Direct and Volume Indirect passes for volume-scattered light rBa0c02e4d
Fix UV Projection Center Calculation rB759b50b2
Remove default ‘Clear loc/rot/scale delta transform’ shortcuts rB556b13f0
Fix AMD Thread-Ripper rendering performance issues. rB55696b56
Cycles: Make per-object random value output also work for Lamps rB212a8d9e
BMesh Py API: Expose color alpha rBaae8e211

blender2.8

Eevee: SSS: Add cubic profile for the sake of completeness. rB936ddde3
Eevee: SSS: Add SSS to the principled shader rBfcbb8e71
Eevee: SSS: Add Christensen-Burley diffusion profile rB57c3fbd3
Draw Manager: Support for Metaball Drawing rB88c88c46
Eevee: Add SSS objects to probe rendering rBe70c563a
Eevee: SSS: Add Quality settings rB289f9f42
Eevee: Initial Separable Subsurface Scattering implementation rBf8b14305

greasepencil-object

Enable antialiasing while drawing rBe6a0b442
Smooth Strength and Thickness properties too rB0b7c2ef2
Improve subdivide stroke while drawing rBaaed5779
Check minimum tablet pressure rB5819ab66
Cleanup UI and unused fields rB330febba
New Smooth modifier rB8b97a539
Remove smooth lower limit rB541d7415
Smooth Thickness and Strength rB333e32e0

fluid-mantaflow

Re-enabled bubble rise factor and some small snd particles fixes rB91ef5780

hair_guides

Operator for generating hair follicles of the fur modifier rBc8ef6904

New Patches¶

Cycles: Speed up split kernel builds by splitting svm_eval_nodes out of direct_emission functions D2916
Notifier system (event publish/subscribe) D2917
Temporary fix for T53257: Too many color management transforms to display in the menu D2918
SceneRenderLayer Removal/Refactor D2919
Add initial UDIM support to BlenKernel, Image Editor and Cycles D2921

Other Projects¶

None

Documentation¶

None

2017-11-11: Weekly News

Sat, 11 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

Small (7%) performance increase in metaball tessellation rBd95eabf0
Cycles: better distance sampling for chromatic volume extinction (see link for comparison images) rBa466d7ae
Cycles: add bevel shader, for raytrace based rounded edges (see the link in the commit message for example images) rB26f39e63
Cycles: antialias normal baking if the mesh has a bump map rBd0af56fe
Cycles: reduce closure memory usage for emission/shadow shader data (30% memory improvement) rB8a72be76
Cycles: fix inefficient attribute map storage, saves 615MB in victor scene. rBcac3d4d1

blender2.8

Manipulators: add a new ruler tool rB0260fad9
Small speedup for viewport data caching (60% improvement) rBed555750
Support Auto-Smooth in Edit-Mode rB5d70e847
UI: show tool-tips for each tools shortcuts rBfbfda21f

greasepencil-object

Along with the noted changes below, there was a lot of work done to have the changes reading to be merged into the blender2.8 branch.

Add smoothing to the stroke thickness rBfce610ee
Add drawing parameter to adjust stroke stabilization rBa051c2e8
Add more parameters to define how the stroke is stabilized rB526e2291

New Patches¶

Optionally cancel render when a texture is missing D2908
Experimental hashing lookup of ID’s, replacing linked list lookups D2910
Cycles: Reducing amount of operations per intersect check (8% speed improvement) D2911
Array Modifier: option to offset UV’s D2912
blender2.8: support for metaball drawing D2914

Other Projects¶

None

Documentation¶

None

2017-11-04: Weekly News

Sat, 04 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

Implement a new automatic handle algorithm to produce smooth F-Curves rB8bdc391c
Fix for T48988 - Enabling bbone easing for posemode. rBa819ef65
Tracking: Create mesh from selected tracks only rBf1c72433
Alembic: added frame offset property rB6099b262
Alembic: exporting MetaBalls as mesh rB89eb05a8
Curve Decimate: new tool to simplify bezier curves (access from the curve clean-up menu) rB80465ba3
Heap re-insertion optimization for decimate and beautify (~70% faster for decimate, only ~10% for beautify). rB336885be

blender2.8

Mesh Auto-Smooth Split Normal Support See results rB59f238ba
Experiment with adding output file meta data from render engine rB5296c2e0
Collections: Bring back simple visibility behavior rB7553523a
Draw Manager: re-enable edit-mesh text overlay rB8277bee7

asset-engine

Add drag’n’drop-linking of material onto object in 3DView rB92a06831
Amber: Add icon of data type to ‘all data’ assets add operator rB0e256653

New Patches¶

Blender 2.8: Support Auto-Smooth in Edit-Mesh and allocate loop_normals in MeshRenderData instead of CustomData D2907
Cycles: Add option that makes background visible through glass have alpha transparency D2904
Cycles: Add Scatter Direct and Scatter Indirect passes D2903

Other Projects¶

RFC: Clang-format for Blender T53211

2017-10-28: Weekly News

Sat, 28 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

Cycles: Disable progressive refine if denoising or save buffers is used rB6199a606
Modeling: Speed up Polyfill Beautify by 33% rB6dfe4cbc
VSE: draw grid lines at every second rBcc96cdd9
Cycles: use AO factor to let user adjust intensity of AO bounces rB171c4e98

blender2.8

Initial Tool System rBe1e7b6db
Manipulator: move ‘Scale Cage’ to its own tool rBd3fafa30
Tool System: add an experimental low-poly construction tool (see demo video) rBcd3c31b2
Remove background images from 3D view and add them to the camera rBef96f36e
Eevee: Volumetrics: Add volumetric support to alpha blended meshes. rB310f1db7
Eevee: Overhaul the volumetric system. rB66d8f82b
Eevee: Volumetrics: Add Volume object support. rB4f7665c8
Eevee: Volumetrics: Support Smoke simulation textures rBbc7c0335

topbar

Operator settings: Add simple “More…” button to show all settings rB3ebfd533

asset-engine

Amber: Add a way to remove Amber repo, and initial step for previews rBe5243701
Amber: Add initial real asset preview. rB7a68cd02
Amber: General development working on filtering and adding assets rB0f72a291
Amber: add new assets with relative path to repository rBdce7e076
Use a more ‘generic’ way to select datablock to add as an asset rBb9f4a8d7

New Patches¶

Cycles: combined CUDA + OpenCL rendering support. D2894
Normal Editing Tools - GSoC 2017 D2897
Blender2.8: Edit Mesh: re-enable text overlay (length, area, angle) D2901
HMD_viewport: oversampling / undersampling feature implemented. D2902

Other Projects¶

Top Bar Design T50845
Tool System: Where operators can take advantage of a tool system T53101

Documentation¶

Note

As a reminder please read the Blender 2.8 Design Document

2017-10-21: Weekly News

Sat, 21 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

Render Settings: Add basic 4K render presets rBf4b5d0ba
Animation: Make auto handle placement aware of cyclic extrapolation rB1cb884be
UI: 3D View “View” menu reorganization rBa6fdec30
UI: 3D View Mesh “Select” menu reorganization rBb82b55a3
UI: 3D View, minor menu reorganization rBa8fb08b1
UI: 3D View, undo menu reorganization rB0aa6d44a
UI: 3D View, object menu reorganization rB351222c2

blender2.8

Workspace: Move engines to workspaces and cleanup the Properties Editor UI rBe4f2b2be
Change the default engine to the clay engine rB0bcb61b2
Depsgraph: Make Copy-on-Write a command line option (can be used to enable modifiers and animations again) rB3e8abc05

greasepencil-object

Rename Panel Primitives to Shapes rB5c3dcad7
Add new Select Alternate operator rB07ec03d4
Add rectangle and circle Grease Pencil primitives rB1363002b

asset-engine

UI: Add one main ‘Edit’ toggle to Amber rB9fb243f9
Amber assets: Expose more tools to the UI rBbac215bc

New Patches¶

blender2.8: Support Marking Operator Properties as Basic or Advanced D2881
blender2.8: Initial Tool System D2882
blender2.8 RNA-property tagging using tags defined by struct (+ operator properties tagged ‘BASIC’) D2883
Implement a new automatic handle algorithm to produce smooth F-Curves D2884
Add eyedropper to colorramp node D2886
Grease Pencil Branch (greasepencil-object) D2889
Cycles: Add out of view dicing falloff and dicing camera D2891
blender2.8: Initial work for groups in collections D2892

Other Projects¶

Tool System: Where operators can take advantage of a tool system T53101

Documentation¶

Note

As a reminder please read the Blender 2.8 Design Document

2017-10-14: Weekly News

Sat, 14 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

Cycles: Schedule more work for non-display and compute preemption CUDA cards. rBe360d003
UI: VSE strip menu reorganization rBe9d06f08
Cycles: Speedup up tangent space calculation rB4fce3c7a

blender2.8

Eevee: Improve cache performance by 13% rBf7db1a43
Manipulators: add cage3d scale widge rBc90ec276
Eevee: Probe: Add Cubemap Resolution option rBd4684210

greasepencil-object

Enable MSAA for strokes rB049eb49f

asset-engine

Add initial, very basic/proof-of-concept for drag and drop linking rB504287b9

New Patches¶

VSE: Add new Blend Effect strip D2872
Cycles: Allow rendering with GPUs an CPUs at once D2873
Cycles: Speed up rendering by adding BVH8 D2875
UI Reorganize 3D View Menus: View, Add and Object Menu D2876
2.8: New Viewport: Make the internal depth drawing of external engines optional (Proof of Concept) D2877
2.8: Layers: Add new layer evaluation meathod D2878

Other Projects¶

New Tool System Proposal T53047

Documentation¶

As a reminder please read the Blender 2.8 Design Document

2017-10-07: Weekly News

Sat, 07 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT

This Week in Blender Development is openly developed on Github so please report any recommendations, bugs, or PRs for this website there.

If you have idea for some great feature that you think should be part of Blender try making a post on https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/

Tip

Remember, you can test any changes done in master or blender2.8 by going to the developmental builds download page

Changes to Blender¶

master

Support CUDA 9 toolkit, and automatically disable sm_2x binaries rBf55735e5
Vertex Paint: Add projection options (matching projection painting) rBb2a10fa6
Weight Paint: disable multi-threaded weight paint when mirroring is enabled. rB88dd45e1
Weight Paint: add some color blending modes rB6092ded1
Vertex Paint: expose old Spray option as Accumulate (matching sculpt mode) rBf4b1f9b9
Weight Paint: use brush falloff to blend results of the smear tool rBa4721c05
Python: bump minimum version to 3.6 rBcbe07d98
Cycles: CUDA faster rendering of small tiles, using multiple samples like OpenCL. rB6da6f8d3
Sculpt Mode: Add 2D falloff option rBd8509b34
Vertex Paint: use brush front-face setting rB8ef757df
Vertex Paint: move normal falloff into the brush rB471be7e7
Cycles: CUDA bicubic and tricubic texture interpolation rB2d92988f
Cycles: OpenCL bicubic and tricubic texture interpolation support rBf61c340b

blender2.8

Eevee: Lamps: Change ESM default exponent rBdc327e27
Eevee: Shadows: Add Contact Shadows rBdfcdec91

topbar

Add ‘x’ icon to active workspace tab to delete workspace rB33bed112

greasepencil-object

Add curve options to Thick modifier rBef4c69a7
Add new color pallet slot system rB7c9467ae
Add a work in progress implmentation of FXAA rBcf87d575

fluid-mantaflow

Fluid particles: UI update rB949316d0
Big fluid particles update rBc1fb55b4

New Patches¶

Cycles: schedule more work and prevent CUDA driver timeouts. D2862
Sculpting: Add pressure curve-mapping D2864
UV select overlapping D2865

Other Projects¶

Blender Addon PBR T52987

Documentation¶

Blender 2.8 Design Document