Installing yafray in linux

[TheSquire]

Hello. I just switched to Linux to do my graphic stuff, and I got blender installed successfully.

Now, all I need to do is install yafray. On the yafray site it says this:

WARNING (linux only): For the plugin to work, you need to compile Blender and YafRay with the same compiler or at least same ABI. Packages are compiled with g++ 3.3, but official Blender uses 2.95, it won't work. You have to compile Blender yourself or try to compile YafRay with 2.95. We will try to put gcc 3.3 Blender binaries for download.

That's all really great, but being a total beginner, it doesn't make any sense to me.

I'm running Fedora Core 2 and installed apt and got blender from there, and it's already running and all. So how do I go about installing yafray?

Thanks alot guys!!

Christoph

[phlip]

There's two ways to use yafray in blender. There's the old way, where blender exports a yafray XML file, then spawns yafray to do the render, then reads in the yafray output.
And there's the new way with the "plugin", which yafray is mroe integrated into blender, so it doesn't need to go via the disk for the XML and image. This also has the advantage that you can see the render progress rather than just having to wait until it's finished. However you can't edit the XML file itself, if you want to change one of the few (if any anymore) yafray options that aren't in the blender GUI.

In one of the Yafray settings panels there is an "XML" button - if it's turned on blender will do the first of these, if it's off it will do the second.

Now I might be wrong, but I think that warning only applies to the plugin method - so if XML is turned on it may still work.

[TheSquire]

um...thank you, but I think you got me wrong. I'm using yafray and blender in windows already and I know how to work it.

My problem lies with the yafray installation under linux.

Thanks for replying though

Christoph

[Timonides]

Allthough it would be a nice drill for you to try to build yafray from source I think since you're not that experienced with Linux, not to mess with that...

Fedora core 2 doesn't have gcc++ 2.95 (I think it is version 3.3.something but I'm not sure) and believe me you don't want to go through downgrading to that version......

I suggest you download the yafray rpm packages and install it from the console as usuall:

rpm -ivh package_name.rpm

You'll have to become root to do that, so change to root with su before that....

It is much easier to download the blender source from Blender.org and compile it yourself...

The reason I'm proposing you this, is that if you build it on your own, instead of using the allready pre-built binaries, you will have better performance and especially in the case of Fedora core 2, you'll avoid a few problems....

In order to compile it you'll need scons... You can find rpm packages of scons from http://www.scons.org (where else). Download it and install it...

Just unpack the archive containing Blender's source with:

tar -xvzf archive_name.tar.gz.

This command will create a directory, containing Blender's source. Change to that directory with cd and issue the command scons.

You'll have to wait for some time, cause it takes a while. When you see that scons is finished you'll notice two new files created, one named "blender" and the other "blenderplayer". These are the binaries created from the whole process... Just copy them where ever you like...

If there's anything else that you don't understand, or in case you find any difficulties, I'll be happy to assist you further....

[phlip]

What I meant by my reply was that if you have XML turned on, then it's possible that the version difference in gcc might not matter (since it's just a spawned process) - I think it would only matter when it's used as a plugin.

[GreyBeard]

The debian (sid - unstable) distribution has both blender and yafray. You could use those -- available at www.debian.org. Debian uses .debs rather than .rpms but there are programs to switch between the two formats. In debian the name of the package convsersion utility is called alien. In fedora I'm not sure what the package is called or if the package installation utility can handle debs natively. You could ask on the fedora mailing list / newsgroup forum.

Hope this helps,
GreyBeard

[basse]

yes, the solution is, to install yafray as usual, like pointed out here. then, you have two choices, use it in XML mode, it works fine. if you want to preview to show in render window when it's rendering, then you need to use it as plugin. that doesn't work with official Blender straight.

you can download self compiled versions people compile all the time... there are some at www.blender.org, in the forums, there is "test builds" section. also, you can pop up in #blenderchat and ask around, there's almost always somebody that has on for you..

or, try out mine.. hmm.. I build one fairly often, check out here:
http://koti.welho.com/bsalmela/blender/

.b

[Timonides]

basse: Unless your builds were compiled on Fedora core 2, he'll definetely have to compile Blender by himself...

There was a thread somewhere here, explaining why...
I'm not going to repeat them here (various segmentation faults with precompiled bBlender binaries and F.C. 2, for various reasons)...
And actually I've also experienced a couple of problems working on Fedora core 2 myself and had to compile Blender on my own.....

Besides building Blender from source is a very easy task and a very "educative" process.....

I rest my case....

[TheSquire]

Thanks for all the answers so far guys, I will compile blender myself later, right now I'm kinda busy with school and job and everything, but I will ask if I have anymore questions!

[basse]

basse: Unless your builds were compiled on Fedora core 2, he'll definetely have to compile Blender by himself...

I wouldn't be so sure.
they are compiled with debian.. but I don't see why they wouldn't work.

.b

[TheSquire]

Hey there again!
After so long I finally tried to compile blender myself using scons.
I got it for Fedora Core 2 from apt and it gives me lots of warnings while its compiling, and then terminates because of an error.

I will try to get scons from the website instead of the Fedora mirrors and let you know what happens...

EDIT: I needed the SDL-devel package. Trying it again now, let's see what happens....

EDIT2: Ok got it compiled nicely, now I just have to find out how to use yafray

[macraebr]

Someone please help. I can't get Yafray to work right from within Blender.
I compiled Blender using scons and it works fine.

I compiled Yafray using scons and it works fine.
libyafraycore.so and libyafrayplugin.so are in /usr/local/lib

If I export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib and start Blender, I get a plain blue render (sky maybe, but objects don't show up) every time.
If I don't set LD_LIBRARY_PATH, I get errors: can't find shared library libyafraycore.so

What am I doing wrong?