Newbie question concerning the Blender versioning system

Hi,

I was wondering if anybody could be so kind to explain me shortly, why there are tutorials on youtube where tutors use a “Blender 2.78.4” and the like. All i can find is 2.78.a, 2.78.b and the latest release 2.78.c.

Where would I have to go, if I’d like to download 2.78.4? And where can I find out, which one is really the latest stable release?

Thanks in advance for your time and knowledge! Hope, this is not too much off-topic!
(And of course I did look around, e.g. here: https://download.blender.org/release/Blender2.78/ or here: https://builder.blender.org/download/; a video, where the version 2.78.4 can be seen is here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2aDImegRwZE1XFZyqwAhLzsIlo8ju9R1)

The latest build is in https://builder.blender.org/download/ but I’ve never heard of 2.78.4

Hi, if you download a daily build from bigbad post you will get a 2.78.4 or higher before 2.79 release.
Then version number change to 2.79.xy.
The daily builds are not official release, they are kind of beta version of upcoming releases.

Cheers, mib

Another Blender noob here, barely one week old. Related questions about versioning and testing new builds

I have 2.79 RC1 installed in C drive and working fine. I have 2.8.01 unzipped to A drive, haven’t launched it yet, afraid to break things.

  1. If and when I update to a “latest” 2.8.02 etc etc, what do I do with 2.8.01? Erase the whole folder?
  2. Will my 2.8 in A drive launch with my custom 2.79 UI start page, custom theme, addons, and hotkeys?

Call me chicken… I’m most worried about ZBrush Blender applink GoZ GoB being confused by multiple Blenders…

Thanks for any pointers.

@rowild : if you’re starting with blender just use the latest official version or release candidate, you’ll see about nightly build later.
In general when someone use a development version in a tutorial he mention it. There are stuff interesting in nightly builds. Like now official version is 2.78 but it hasn’t the cycles denoiser , filmic integration etc… But for learning the basics official 2.78 is way enough. Also in dev version things changes, bugs appear and disappear, for now I suggest you to stick to the official.

@GogoDisco : If you want to tests different version maybe the best is to download the portable version (without installer) , there extract the archive everywhere you want and run the blender executable inside .

1/ You can erase old 2.8.01 folder or keep it, it’s not an issue.

2/ for each version of blender (2.78, 2.79, 2.8 ) there is a separate config folder with all your pref , addon ect…
at first time you run a new version in the splash there is an option to copy the old folder to get the same pref in the new version . If you don’t you’ll have the new version with blender defaults.

If you test 2.8 it may be a good idea to keep it with default settings because chances are that some stuff (addons) may not be compatible, also it’s a big challenge to do some work in 2.8 as it is. Even if Eevee demos seems to prove the contrary , use it just for curiosity or to test some stuff, but you shoudn’t use addons or try to use it for serious work.

Thanks now I feel less chicken about testing Eevee! I agree with you about being curious. I’m holding back on activating even the shipped addons, just because things are going to change drastically (2.8 is supposed to be a giant leap forward with huge UI overhaul). Interesting time to be jumping on board Blender ship!

Thanks again for your thorough response. Very helpful indeed!