Blender 2.8 is driving me up the wall! I installed it to test out Eevee with some of my models, and was unpleasantly surprised. #1: The viewport: It constantly has z-fighting and other glitches. Not to mention, there is no view changes either. I was hoping for a mode like in earlier ones, where you can switch views, from just plain openGL like in older versions (Because that makes it easy to model), to preview renders, to Full render. Nope! Even in Cycles, there is constant glitching and preview renderings. I imported a new model of mine and wanted to get used to the workflow, and it is IMPOSSIBLE to model in this scenario. Not to mention, the viewport image constantly lags behind the camera. As someone who is used to modeling fast (And has a pretty bad computer) this was a big issue. I tried modeling a simple spaceship: Constant lag and glitches. Even with the basic cube, it takes the viewport miliseconds to catch up with the camera! Even the mat-cap lags (Or âClayâ as itâs called). This does not happen on 2.78 (My previous blender update) Here is a screenshot (at bottom). For now, no siree to that!!! Aside from Cycles, while Eevee EXCELS at producing good, fast renders, it fails and providing non-glitchy viewport images. Constant z-fighting!
#2: The materials. One thing I love about Cycles is the material editing. Yeah, no. All I get when I go to the Materials panel is âCustom Property: Cycles.â When I go to node editing, it kind of works, but still has no convenient way of viewing the material, and renders need to be rendered MULTIPLE TIMES to catch up to the changes. Keep in mind, this is in Cycles, which I expected to have no change from before. No where in âNew features and changes for 2.8â does it mention that it overhauls Cycles- for the worse!
#3: The user interface. I get blender wants to have a more accessible interface but this is not the way to do it. The main, default view has somehow morphed and I donât quite get how, but it looks awful now. Also, I already talked about the lack of ability to change viewport. Why did Blender have to overhaul everything? For me, I would have been satisfied if they added collections and added Eevee as another render option against Cycles and Blender Render.
I really want to like blender 2.8, but I canât. Please tell me how to fix this, or maybe I just donât understand 2.8. I dont know.
You mentioned in the post that you have a pretty bad computer. 2.8 will require you have a GPU that supports OpenGL 3 or above (if you want everything to run properly).
What is your graphics setup like, do you use a GPU or Intel integrated?
The downside of making new Blender versions available to the public so early is, that there are always people that donât understand the words âin developmentâ âDo not use in productionâ. Itâs far far far from finished and very buggy. Wait until it is done, then you might like it.
Edit: This came across more toxic than I meant it. Itâs a tradeoff of opensource. If itâs posted for bugfixing purpose who am I to judge - although I think they are aware of most the âbugsâ you pointed out.
Blender 2.8 is going to be more GPU-dependent than 2.7x, your lag issues are likely due to a combination of very weak graphics capability and the fact that many areas of 2.8 are unoptimized yet.
to Stunt Koala, I understand that. The reason I am posting this is as a âBug Fixâ, or in order to try and see if it is my fault, a problem with Blender, or other.
Also, Ace Dragon, thanks, I will try and use it on my friendâs GPU powered system.
2.8 is not even in beta. I think even calling it alpha is a bit of stretch. If you want to have a good and successful experience with it, then you should wait after the Siggraph 2018. Until then, itâs meant maily for people who enjoy testing and proving developers with feedback and mainly, bug reports. If you want to have a good time, then 2.79a is a better bet.
No, I know. I just wanted to see what itâs like. My biggest complaint are not the bugs (I get it is really early) but with the new UI and user stuff that seem to make it impossible.
You might want to take a deep breath and not use a software that is an early preview and changing constantly.
It is riddled with bugs - that is to be expected.
Any complaints are completely pointless the way I see it. Itâs in development at the moment. There can be no complaints at all about anything - bugs, interface, functionality, looks - everything is expected not to function as intended. It isnât time for complaints or feedback yet. Seems very normal to me. One could expect it not to run at all at times.
Iâm not in agreement hereâŚthere is a such thing in development when you are developing something, in such a way, for so long that it makes complete sense to youâŚ
Then you release it to beta testers and they are like WTF!!!
Healthy criticism is always goodâŚsome people just do not know how to do it tactfullyâŚbeen there myself a few timesâŚemotion can get the best of us.
How do you know at this point which parts of 2.8 are at a stage where it makes sense to criticize them? Right now, there is a reason why bugs should not be reported.
Everything you have mantioned is because blender 2.8 is in development. Most of the functionality was taken away because is has to be rewritten. Glitches, lack of simple options like changing viewport etc are here because itâs veeery early version. It is 100% normal on pre beta soft!
They are not asking for feedback yet, it means itâs not yet that stage. I donât think criticism is good in this stage. Imagine I am a passenger in your car and it breaks down and you pull over, open the hood to have a look at whatâs wrong and then I start shouting: âHey man, you cannot drive with the hood open, you should close it! It is getting in the way and you will not see the road this way. You cannot drive the car like that, thatâs unsafe and you have no right to risk my life!â Well, this situation might not seem very logical and I would not be helping anyone much, would I? I think thatâs exactly like this situation. Itâs not done, the hood is open and the car is going nowhere at this stage. So be calm, get out and walk around or even have a look under the hood if you wish, but donât complain yet.
I really want to like this car, but I canât. Please tell me how to fix this, or maybe I just donât understand. I donât know.
i know itâs under development, but i wanted to see what it was like! why wonât it drive the way my old car did?
itâs the same thing with blender 2.8 really, thereâs pieces everywhere, bits are missing, sure everyone is talking about how good the shiny bits are but itâs far far from usable. Just give it time, itâll get there eventually.
I think itâs definitely correct to let people know that itâs not even in beta. However, I donât thinking its appropriate to chastise/shame people for complaining when the informaiton about what is working and not isnât actually obvious.
I think it would be wise of the dev team though to post a list of features that are working (in a done like state) and features that are not implemented along with a list of things that are just place holders. The main issue I see is that people are encouraged to take part in testing right on the main download page. But there isnât a very clear list of what to test.
I stopped playing attention to 2.8 development because it was never clear what the devâs intentions where as I was using it. I think LordVoldemort99 brings up some valid concerns about the future of Blender. The lack of view modes seems to be a very consistent complaint. Itâs not at all clear when you launch the software if this is the intention or not. When you encounter it youâre left wondering if this is the way itâs supposed to be, then someone needs to say something. What do you do then?
You mentioned that healthy criticism is good. My question is, what that should be at this stage of the development. If you are not interested in a discussion, thatâs no problem at all.