Blender Underground

Announcement!

http://www.blendernation.com/blender-2- ... announced/

"The first of the official 2.5 versions will be released in October, during the 8th annual Blender Conference in Amsterdam."

October!

aarggaggga


can't wait for this day to come !!!

New UI and completely revamped animation system?

Yar, I sense tutorial obsolescence incoming, sir!

not to mention volumetric rendering, volumetric materials from point data and navier stroke simulation (drool's). x-mas is comming early this year

I don't see this happening. So far, everything that works in 2.49 works in 2.5 the same way (with some minor exceptions). Sure, you can change your UI but if the tutorial focuses on concepts, then that shouldn't matter. What I see it doing is obsoleting those "click here" tutorials which only provides impetus for tutorial writers (like myself) to explain the why instead of concentrating on the how.

Also, if you stick with the default configurations, they are identical to the default 2.49 configurations. Some key mappings are missing currently in development but all the ones that are there are the same as 2.49. So for example, The "U KEY" still unwraps meshes.

I see it as a challenge when it comes to writing tutorials. The new interface is different yet familiar. If you haven't compiled the 2.5 SVN yet, give it a whirl. You will be pleasantly surprised at how similiar it is to 2.49.

you could always host a new tutorial that discusses where things have changed or moved. You could also perhaps host a tutorial about "problem solving in Blender" where you discuss how to set up the UI to your liking... regardless of any UI changes.

Then your tutorial is still valid. Heck, I use 2.49 and I can still follow GreyBeard's stuff no problemo.

Hmm, well I downloaded the latest svn of 2.5 and there seems to be a lot missing.

I know it isn't finished, but things like loop cut aren't there, or the menu for knife cutting.

I do like typing in what you want, but it is going to take a while from just being able to press space, to having to press space, then type in "add mesh".

It is a lot smoother, and easier, it is just the changes make me think that I will have to learn a lot from scratch.

I fear that 2.5 won't live up to our expectations, and even if it does, it will be a heck of a lot to learn. I am really quite comfortable with the workings of 2.49.

Things change and in Blender terms,very rapidly. Nothing is forcing you to use the "bleeding edge" Blender and in fact, for new users I recommend they don't jump right on. Getting to know the old interface won't hinder you in the new if you do go up. Where you would get into trouble would be getting files from someone using newer versions. They will have features that the older can't handle.

In short, if you are doing your own work from scratch, older versions are fine. Just be aware that externally obtained blend files may be newer.

I think if you were a complete starter, never used blender, 2.5 would be easier to learn.

Will there be incompatiblities with the .blend files?

Reading his post carefully.

Yes and No.

Old Blender may not be able to read some .blend files if created with 2.5.
New Blender will be able to read old .blend files as it has current features + some.


Consider like Office 2007 word doco's not being able to be opened by Office 2003 with 1: Compatibility Pack 2: Saving it as office 2003 (then it's not 2007 word doco no more).

What you say is pretty much false Daworm


Blender absolutely does NOT behave like
any private compagny who force you to
buy the new version to read it's related files.


Blender has an intelligent way of storing info in a way
blender 2.42 can actually open a file done by 2.49


The only problem is that 2.42 do not include newer improvements.

Thus, if you made a Blender game involving softbodies in blender 2.49,
the saved file will be readable by any older versions, but they wont
take the "softbodies" in consideration when openning the
file : it's just gonna be totally ignored


Still, you'll be able to open the file.

I wouldn't say false, I was just interpreting the post as it was written and how I read it was old version may not read the new version files.

What you say is different again.


So the older version can read 2.5 files, just if there is a feature used in 2.5 older versions will gracefully ignore the errors?

Not true either...

The deal is this...

If ANY new features are used then the whole ball of wax is dead in the water when you go beck to a version that doesn't use that feature. Don't believe me? Try this...

Install any blender version earlier than 2.46. Open a blend that uses particle hair made in 2.46+ and watch the incompatibilities fly. Sure, it will still open the blend but any number of weird things can happen. Worse, saving in that earlier version any edits will really wipe out all the new features that may have taken hours to produce.

In short, backwards to forwards works fine. Forwards to backwards is where you run into problems. Trust me, don't go backwards if you intend to share blends.