Hello fellow Blender friends,
Recently there has been some chat on Blender use of GPL, EEVEE, and future of BGE.
So I’d like to discuss each of these from the viewpoint of a person who values true freedom and ability.
To me, software is a tool that we control ---- not software that controls us. Simply it means, software needs to be: (1) USEFUL, (2) EASY TO USE, and (3) NON-HARMFUL.
Examples of software that violates the above 3 principles are: (a) MAL-WARE, (b) BLOAT-WARE, © SPY-WARE / BACKDOORS.
Out of all the software licenses, the GPL has preserved our freedoms the best. Yes, I agree there are some instances where you do not want to release your source code (eg Game).
Also, the GPL does not address 2 fundamental problems plaguing Sofware ====> (1) BLOAT + (2) MALWARE
But that is not a problem, as I have created a Community License that fixes these problems. But now is not the time to talk about it. I will release it when one of my Projects (Game, Movie, Software) is released in the future.
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Now to discussion about EEVEE. Eevee’s main purpose of being is speed, ie “Realtime rendering”. However, unfortunately the last time I thoroughly tested in on several Computers running GNU, it didn’t work well. On Windows it worked better, but the loading time + Viewport render was not better than Blender 2.76b or 2.78c (ie OpenGL 1.4 & 2.1).
But more important is the ability to COMPILE a portable working BGE. And the most recent version that compiles + works is Blender 2.63a. Note, 2.64 compiled for me, but segment faults when I open a game with it.
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While is is true that on Blender 2.7x I only can reasonably handle only 2 million verts/faces in Viewport. While on other software it is 5-10+ million, it’s OK.
I simply adapted my modelling, texturing, and scene layout to be more optimized. For example, my assets are only 1/10 to 1/100 the size.:yes: Trust me, using 4K textures (4096 x 4086) doesn’t help.
Now regarding GODOT. On my LG G4 (~3 years old) mid-to-high end MOBILE PHONE, I’ve noticed blender 2.63a APK crashes when I load any game (2D or 3D). While it works for older ANDROID devices.
I surmise, the reason is with newer versions of Android (eg 6.0+) the OPENGL 1.4 support is broken. And that I why I use GODOT to target mobile devices.
While Godot 3.0 requires OpenGL ES 3.0, I’ve noticed by looking around on trains, buses, etc that nearly EVERYONE has phones that are modern. Sure they have older phones lying around, but their main computing mobile device is quite fancy. Regarding the “third-world” (aka “poor countries”), trust me, they use modern fancy phones. Also, going forward, newer phones will have no problem with GLES 3.0.