With the official release of 2.43 just days away and 2.5 just six or so months later what features would you like to see in 2.5 and beyond (other than nurbs and a new user interface that is)?
-rex prime
I think that the development is great and actual new features are revolutionary (mainly sculpt mode and multiple UV layers). Mostly asked functions are integrated. So improvements for new releases are just like a cream on a already excelent candy :-).
It would be great to more develop nurbs (even submodeling is the future good nurbs are still regarded as a standard for any 3d applications).
Also great would be to work with sound. I remeber even old Cinema 4D 6 had for example very good tools like sound sources and microphones in 3D view for sound direction and dophler efect etc.
Also integration of material library would be great.
Maybe sky generator.
And N-gons.
Has to be N-Gons for me too.
Ultimately Blender needs to be so good I never feel the need to run Wings ever again! (Not that Wings is bad . . . just that if it was all in Blender our lives would be easier).
*i would love to see Jahka’s particle build implemented and expanded
*i would love to see layers in the uv image editor
*layer managment (not just for objects but bones aswell) intergrated into blender itself.
*i would love to see masking painting implemented in sculpt mode aswell as multires buttons added to the properties window.
i might add more soon
i’d like to see
N_Gons ( With the great editing tools that it provide )
Align new objects to worldspace insted of view
moving Spin&Spin Dup& Warp& Screw to the modefiers And having X Y Z to determine rotation Angle
Separate The color Of the Mist And the color of the backgrond
More Inputs to Material Nodes ( Mirror - Reflection - Emit - Alpha - Ambient - … )
More Options to Manipulators ( To move object in two directions only )
Edit - new particle system from Jahka
you have a very good point especially with those you mentioned
More Options to Manipulators ( To move object in two directions only )
Press shift when you select then manipulator in the direction you don’t want to move in.
ie: shift while selecting mainpulator z moves in the x,y plane
GreyBeard
when I first discovered Blender a couple of years ago I had no idea it would eventually have the feature set that it currently boasts (hats off to all involved). I am from a 2d background and I would love Blender to have a layer management system similar to Photoshops;
- hide/reveal contents of layer in viewport/render
- the ability to label layers
- maybe a checkbox that specifies whether or not to render with or without materials
I’d also love it if attention started to focus on the Game Engine as well instead of it just being a side show. Erwin seems to be making great strides recently and its really getting me interested in learning more about it.
A lot of the new features are beyond my current skill level so I guess that means that Blender as it stands is more than adequate for my needs. A proper bevel tool would be fantastic.
Three things come to mind:
- Better NPR, the integration of Freestyle as a composite node would be awesome. Apparently this is being considered and here is the link:
http://freestyle.sourceforge.net/
-
Better layer management. Naming layers would be nice. Perhaps even appending entire layers from other .blend files!
-
Stop the headers from overlapping cause it is really annoying! Note - I am not asking for a huge UI overhall here!
That is it for now.
Koba
EDIT - Nice bevelling would be great too!
GI, Caustics, HRDI IBL.
Integration of other render engines is great but since Blender got such an improvement with the compositor I think it would be a shame to send all files to an external engine. You cannot use compositor than.
improved mental ray support. that is a glowing star that mental ray is being connected to blender.
n - gones
adaptive subdivision
maybe improved nurbs tools
–Ability to move/rotate the object’s point of origon without moving the object data.
–Stack modifier for curves to treat them as meshes without actually converting them to meshes
For 2.5 (even earlier):
- Finally, blendies on elysiun begin to use Blender and not just making wish list.
cheers 
Press shift when you select then manipulator in the direction you don’t want to move in.
ie: shift while selecting mainpulator z moves in the x,y plane
Shift while selecting mainpulator z moves in Z direction ( Small Steps ) 
i would like to see a more modern UI overhaul like the panels being more graphically modern
He meant: press shift-key and grab manipulator pointing in Z-direction. This way You’ll be able to move object only on X-Y plane…
I’d like people to stop complaining about n-gons. I’ve never used them, so I wouldn’t know how TOTALLY XTREME AND RAD-TACULAR TO THE MAX they are, but they seem lauded a bit beyond reason.
Maybe you should get to know them! 
(Not that I’ve ever used them either, but hey, I doubt they would be shouting for its implementation if it didn’t make their lives easier eh? :D)
Isn’t it too early to be thinking of 2.5?
Is Ton ganna skip some numbers here?
You mean we’re not going to have:
2.43
2.44
2.45
2.46
2.47
2.48
2.49
2.5
?
We’re just doing:
2.43
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2.5?
Seems like cheating to me…
-ngons
-32bit displacement
-gi
-real sss
^^
N-gons are a must. Blender is one of the only serious programs that doesn’t support them. I’ve used them before, they are very important when doing hard/flat surface modelling and even organic modelling. Blender would be very complete in my opinion if this feature was added.
There was a half-edge mesh type in tuhopuu, but it was postponed indefinitely in 2005.