Blender mention on Slashdot

[Nyrath]

http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/06/1713256

The initial post is by somebody named gmueckl, and it basically says Blender is old and decrepit, and should be replaced.

Later there is this interesting comment:

Originally Posted by uglymike Kdawson submitted some anti-Blender tirade written by gmueckl. Fair enough, the guy has a right to his opinion. I want to check it out so I go to the never-changing site of AoI and look at the gallery. Well, maybe they keep their best stuff somewhere else....That stuff has been there forever. Next I go to K-3D, fondly remembering the build-in tutorials in the 'old' K-3D, the one before the never-ending refactor. Site doesn't load. Head over to Moonlight3D. Hey, I remember that from about 10 year ago! Sad story: guys write Moonlight (closed source) Later they come up with Moonlight Atelier. Loads better but still closed source. (Linuxgraphics.fr had a nice Moonlight section) They open source the old code base, lose interest in Atelier and that's it. End of story. OK, so some guys decide to try to revive the old codebase, did some hacks and changes. Project died. This seems to be the legacy. Go look at news. Hey! Who's that posting there? It's our old friend gmueckl! So the anti-Blender tirade looks like a serious bout of jealousy to me... If that is the competition Blender has, I suspect it'll be on top for quite a bit longer.... Just compare development pace, feature set, support (2 modern Blender books with a third one on order), roadmap.

[yann]

Well, the K-3D project page seems a bit more responsive than their webpage. I haven't tried AoI Art of Illusion yet, but for Moonlight, I actually have a bit of an answer.
I tried Moonlight several years ago, and had some difficulty dealing with its interface - as with all other 3D modellers. Only one struck me as having an easy to start with interface, Amapi, and I couldn't possibly afford it, not to mention the freedom to hack (it matters to me). Blender was a bit odd, much like VI, but highly consistent and rather enthusiastically documented.
Today, I went over to the Moonlight webpage. Found a UI screenshot that didn't make much sense (looks like a node chain filling the screen), went over to the Documentation link... "The Moonlight|3D User Manual and other documentation on Moonlight|3D are still work in progress. They will be made available when they are finished."
I'd say that's a pretty glaring flaw right there, having nothing to do with the modeller software. There was a reference to the forum, which contains a total of 13 threads. The longest of those has 4 posts and is about getting the program to run - not about using it.
I applaud the effort, gmueckl, but a bit more openness is crucial to gathering interest.

[Hippie]

Meh... another my daddy is stronger than yours competition going on.

But from a personal point, I use Blender because it is: A) the only 3D app I know how to use well enough, B) it's free and has lots of features and C) it was the first free 3D program I found, that seemed to have everything I needed. (Back then I barely knew anything about 3D programs, just knew, that I wanted to try it out.)

[Koba]

Usual nonsense about the UI.

I'll be really happy once the UI system is revised and customisable so no one will have to hear those complaints anymore! Of course, I'll probably leave everything with the defaults as I'm so used to it now.

Koba

[PapaSmurf]

You really cannot make yourself look big by making others look small.

[yann]

Originally Posted by PapaSmurf You really cannot make yourself look big by making others look small.

How else would you? The problem with this statement, however, is the idea that it would be good to look either. I'd be much happier about being welcoming!

[BlackBoe]

He said 'by', not 'without'. I'm basically interpreting it as meaning that dissing the other team is not a good way of making yourself look awesome.

[PapaSmurf]

ty BB. I think the actual quote is You cannot make yourself big by making others look small. In other words, the only way to get bigger/better is to increase your worth. Not, as BB said, dissing the other team.

Having said that, I will now thoroughly enjoy the upcoming election debates...

[VenomSeven]

blender power! down with all other free 3d software!

/joking tone

[p00f]

Who ever wrote that knows NOTHING about 3D apps he mentioned.

what a retard, He did not even say anything about Wings3D.

I think there is even a UI hack coming up that makes blender into a 3D studio look-a-like...

I cant believe slashdot did this, they seem like credible geeks to me in the past...

I just deleted my slashdot bookmark!!

HA!

I wonder if they just need some Web hits, so they decided to inflame the largest 3D community on the web....

[tml4ever14]

what i find kind of odd, is that this guy has coded stuff for blender, and all of a sudden he writes something like this, without even thinking really. Something must of went wrong with him and blender

[Nyrath]

Originally Posted by p00f Who ever wrote that knows NOTHING about 3D apps he mentioned. what a retard, He did not even say anything about Wings3D. I think there is even a UI hack coming up that makes blender into a 3D studio look-a-like... I cant believe slashdot did this, they seem like credible geeks to me in the past... I just deleted my slashdot bookmark!!

Well, to their credit, most of the people commenting think the original poster is some kind of troll.

[JiriH]

Sadly this article is linked also from 3dtotal :-(
Should I also delete their bookmark :-/ ))

[Jhop]

Blender has a huge community of artists, a huge team! If he wants to go to battle lets go! I had a very very quick look at the website cos I've never heard of the program, had a quick squizz on the forum, 436 reg users, on this forum 24,021 reg users. Now that is saying something.

If you are going start something make sure you have the goods to back you up.

[IamInnocent]

One always pays for one's success: expect such 'critics' to multiply. Is this part of the Blance of the World?

Jean

[PapaSmurf]

So I checked out Wingz3D. "No animation planned." "When version 1.0 is released..." so, I'm either at the wrong site looking at the wrong software, or I'm clueless as to why Wingz is soooooo much better, or maybe I'm just a blenderhead. Anyway, I'm glad LetterRip is taking it to him.

[Samir]

Here's my take on the subject:

How Entertaining is Your 3D Software?

[Nyrath]

Originally Posted by IamInnocent One always pays for one's success: expect such 'critics' to multiply. Is this part of the Blance of the World?

Again, if you look closely, this is not a "critic" so much as it is a developer attempting to write a rival 3D application. They are trying to drum up interest in their rinky-dink program, and are jealous of Blender's popularity and community.

[Nyrath]

Originally Posted by Samir Here's my take on the subject: How Entertaining is Your 3D Software?

Yes! I think you've put your finger on the secret.

[tyrell]

I've installed K-3D before and, man, it took about half of my hard disk space. What a bloated program, especially one that's just starting to add features. It will probably take thousands of suggestions to overtake Blender's numerous seemingly small but powerful features such as the To Sphere button, Spin, Spin Dup, Screw, etc. How about Blender's new Array? Or Sculp mode? Naa. I'd stick with Blender.