Blender 2.68 is out!

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Download Blender 2.68

Release notes:

The Blender Foundation and online developer community is proud to present Blender 2.68. Many different mesh modelling tools were added and improved. Cycles render performance was improved on Windows and on GPU’s. The motion tracker can now automate placement and choice of markers more with new tools. Smoke rendering quality has been improved to reduce blockiness.Python scripts and drivers are now disabled by default when loading files. This is for improved security, without this feature malicious .blend files could cause problems. See the Python security documentation for details.

[B]Modeling[/B]


Improved bridge tool to bridge multiple loops at once, subdivision, surface blending and bridging face regions. New grid-fill tool filling a grid from edge loops, X mirror and projected proportional editing, snap to symmetry, face split option for dissolve, vertex connect cut across faces.

[B]Cycles Rendering[/B]


Rendering performance has been improved on CPU and GPU and support for new GPUs was added. A new Mist render pass is available, Ray visibility is now supported for all light sources, and new Nodes have been added. Hair rendering on the GPU has been enabled as well.

[B]Motion Tracker[/B]


Some new features and smaller improvements to existing ones were done for motion tracking. Main features are markers’ position refining, which allows you to refine marker position after it was occluded by an object, and automatic keyframe selection, which tries to automatically find a best keyframe for the reconstruction.

[B]Physics[/B]


Smoke has improved rendering quality avoid blockiness, and subframe simulation support to handle fast moving emitters. Particles can now be emitted from faces generated by modifiers that were not in the original mesh.

[B]Usability[/B]

Improved weight painting tools, mask modifier for sequencer strips, 2D image paint more consistent with 3D painting, better key shortcuts display, quick enabling and disabling of multiple layers or visibility, auto indent for multi-line Python statements, and more.

[B]Python Security[/B]

Auto-running Python scripts can now be controlled more securely.

[B]Addons[/B]

New addons are Texture Atlas to bake shadow and lightmaps for an entire scene, and Edit Linked Library, for quick editing of linked assets.

[B]Bug Fixes[/B]

In addition to the new features, over 280 bugs that existed in previous releases have been fixed.

supercool!

Oh and one of the bugs fixed was over 10 years old!! (Was around since blender 1.8)
Bug report #36176

Congratulations to everyone that contributed to another great release !

been waiting for this a long time since the RC was released. this time it took more days to get a stable version. which means it has probably lesser bugs.

The decision was made to extend the Bcon4 period by a couple of weeks in an effort to ensure that there was not going to be any showstoppers making it into the release.

In general, the rule of thumb for what is acceptable is that showstoppers or crashes of any kind should not be allowed to be in a release build, but other, more minor issues (usability or otherwise), can wait until the next release Cycle to be fixed.

Thanks again Blender Foundation for your wonderful software. I stand amazed at your upgrade schedule too. :yes:

Thank you, Blender Dev Team!!!

Is the Mist node the same thing as the Z-depth Pass ?

http://www.mathiesonfacer.com/wp-content/images/zdepthFog/zdepthFog03.png

or is it just some kind of fog ?

Yay, new blender! But expect 2.68a soon.

VSE has become totally unusable (deleting a movie file = crash). Also my shift+LMB for extended border select (same as Maya preset) broke, but the VSE bug alone seems big enough for a bug-fix release.

Mist pass is anti-aliased, while depth pass is not.

Haven’t tried the Mist node in cycles, but the mist in BI allows for falloff in the global z-direction. Can make simple fog effects

I don’t know why they call it Mist node.
There are parameters through camera to control the dynamics of this mask. It is AA, so it’s very welcome.

Thanks a Lot!

Modeling has a new grid fill option which is similar to create a surface based on 4 edge curves, very useful.

Maybe they will add more polygon surfacing tools.

Great news. Thanks to all developers.

But, where is official pie menus for Blender 2.68? :frowning:

another release ALREADY , you guys are @$#^%$'in incredible . might wait a week or so to get it . Mabye an “a” release . who knows , but great job , and thanks to everyone involved with blender . By the way if it is a widow’s specific release as i have heard . thank’s , speed up in rendering will be great .

Props to all of the blender developers…
You guy’s rock!!! :RocknRoll:

Cheers,
~Tung

Yes! I have been waiting for this version!

Modeling has a new grid fill option which is similar to create a surface based on 4 edge curves, very useful.

Indeed it is useful.
Now, if it could follow snapping to a surface, I’m talking about re topology, it could be much nicer.

Critique now: (or “the devil’s advocate”)
Blender 2.68 is a fine blender build, full of new additions.
As always, most of these additions are in favor of the developers. They did a fine job, they had their fun…
However, they forgot what workflow means. They do what pleases them, without having the slightest idea what a blender artist needs sometimes.
We have a new toon cycles shader (before a decent solution on termination issues)
We have great mesh tools - edit mode. (without a decently organized workflow, like retopology tools etc)
Replies from developers like “what is broken?” when the majority of users ask for a better multires modifier.
A broken video editor. (obviously there’s no fun on fixing it, from a developer’s perspective).

I’m not disrespectful to most of developers, after all, most of them worked for free.

What about the needs of the many?

Many new commitments, some are of great importance, as the whole effort of Psy-fi, who’s basically tries for a unification of sculpting and painting mode. For a better blender UI. A UI that makes sense because it serves a precise workaround.
On the other hand, lot of other less important commitments around, some of them are quite useless and better not in blender.
For instance, who needs a wireframe cycles render, when cycles can understand triangulated meshes only. (what else it could do?)
Am I disrespectful? Or, maybe, some developers are disrespectful to the needs of the many?

Michalis, this is a pretty common thing for Open Source. People add early versions of tools. It may not be useful for you in the current state, but someone else might already benefit from it. :slight_smile:

One could argue that Cycles itself is not feature complete yet, still we are thankful that we have it (and have it for 2 years now).

We could not add those early things, and only add “finished” tools, but then I am sure you (not you in particular, the community) would say that there are not enough new developments. This is just a difference to closed source software. You can already use early things, whereas in commercial software you would only see the finished result. Both methods have its pros and cons.

Best regards,
DingTo