Developer Meeting Notes

General Forums Blender Development Discussion
1739

sigh… hoping they will start to working on bugs again, instead of new features and “interface cleaning”. Althoug this is also important, of course

2.92 release completely broken for Cycles+OSL combination (no way to reliably get vertex colors with 2.91) and bugs are not even confirmed on tracker :frowning:

1740

They are continuously working on bug fixes, just as they are continuously working on cleanups. Usually, you don’t find information about resolved bugs in the meeting notes.

Out of curiosity, what’s that issue? I couldn’t find it with the information you provided.

5 Likes
1741

Please, link to issue reports…

1742

Yes, i understand there are many tasks and all… But waiting for a way to upgrade is really makes me mad, so many juicy stuff here!

Currently half of my materials are simply broken in 2.92 // because vertex colors that are not present on object but present in scene - are reported (via new attribute node) as existing. attribute node returns alpha==1 and color from last used vertex color in some other object in scene… so missing vertex color “leaks” from one object to others, there is simply no way to detect that vc is not present on object anymore. In 2.91 material could compare color with black, but in 2.92 this is not an option

Issue (with video demonstration of problem) is here: https://developer.blender.org/T86121

1743

That’s a highly uncomfortable situation to say the least, I totally understand that. I only wanted to point out that they are continuously working on bugs.

That’s a horrible bug indeed. I can clearly see what the issue is, but I wasn’t able to reproduce it on my computer (Windows).

1 Like
1744

but I wasn’t able to reproduce it on my computer (Windows)

Interesting… I`m on Mac (BigSur), so seems the problem is here, for me it is reproducable 100%, and 2.93 beta also has it. Seems something OS-dependent then :frowning: Will wait for a fix…

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Announcements

Blender 2.93 targets meeting

Animation & Rigging

All changes are either done on in review. However the asset browser and the new pose libraries won’t be available in 2.93.

  • NLA: allow evaluation of the entire NLA stack when tweaking an NLA strip in the middle.
  • Weight Painting symmetry options improvement & cleanup.
  • Updated UI for FCurve Modifiers (in FCurve and NLA editors).
  • Asset Browser improvements to support a pose library system.

Core

Nothing blocking. The pending issues can be tackled in bcon2. It includes user interface potential change for the outliner that would need to be in the documentation as well. Need to involve Francesco and Ton for final decision.

Grease Pencil

Some of the unmerged features (D10482, D10588, D10502) are pending review by the User Interface team, who will look at them. Bezier improvements are 95% ready, to be finished/merged soon.

LineArt needs final cleanup and UI changes approval - The grease pencil team is reviewing it together with Sebastian Parborg, who will present it to Ton Roosendaal today.

  • Improves in Fill Tool
  • Added support for multiframe in Drawing mode
  • Improves in Interpolation Tools.
  • New layer transform parameters.
  • Changes to use Autokey button.
  • Import/Export for SVG and PDF (D10482 ).
  • Changes in Dopesheet block drawing (D10588 )
  • Changes in Dopesheet context menu (D10502 ).
  • Bezier curves improvements [T85754]
  • LineArt [Pending of review D8758]

Modeling

No release targets for 2.93. The module will soon meet to discuss module management and planning.

Nodes & Physics

All the targets are on track. The primitive nodes will be reviewed today. The new workspace can happen after bcon1.

  • Texture pipeline and other new geometry nodes already merged .
  • Primitive geometry nodes yet to be implemented (cube, cylinder).
  • Spreadsheet editor
    • Initial implementation sent for review.
    • Expect more datasets, context data and filters before final release.
  • Attribute search
    • Initial implementation already in master.
    • Waiting for its final UI to have an image in the release notes .
  • New Geometry Nodes workspace.

Pipeline, Assets & I/O

Asset browser was discussed already as part of the Animation module topic - it will be postponed.

USD is a bit late to the party. Sybren Stüvel will look at the patch today to see if it can get in or if it needs to be postponed.

Platforms, Builds, Tests & Devices

All the libraries are updated already, Dalai Felinto will update the Attribution Document. The new package with the libraries is aimed at bcon3.

  • Dependencies library update (T85365 )
  • Self-hosting libraries (T86124 ).

Python & Add-ons

All done and handled. The Python version is 3.9.2, but Blender is already future proof for 3.10.

  • Python 3.10 compatibility.
  • Temporary library data loading API.

Rendering

For geometry nodes the EEVEE geometry attributes support is still important, but it can be done in bcon2. Brecht Van Lommel will check if Clément Foucault has time for that.

Point cloud rendering may not make it, but it is not blocking for bcon2. Point clouds are still not rendering.

  • Eevee
    • New depth of field
    • New ambient occlusion
    • Geometry attributes support (not done yet, not blocking)
  • Cycles
    • Subsurface scattering
    • Geometry attributes support
    • Point cloud rendering (unfinished, not blocking)
    • Light spread (under review, minor feature that could be in bcon2)
  • Pipeline
    • OpenColorIO 2.0 (additional polishing planned)
    • New cryptomatte workflow (D3959 ) .

Sculpt, Paint & Texture

The new tools are missing icons, and the user interface team wasn’t aware of them. The scene project brush will be merged as experimental tools until it get its icon.

  • Expand operator.
  • Mask init.
  • New interactive mask filter (merged soon as filter, later as tool with icon).
  • Scene project brush (merged soon as experimental, needs icon).
  • Missing icons task .

User Interface

No specific release targets. The team is working on the Asset Browser & geometry nodes projects. Small patches may still make it in.

VFX & Video

VSE proxy performance improvements are not ready, but usability improvements will be in 2.93.

  • Video Sequence Editor
    • Proxy system :
      • Usability patches to be merged soon (D10362, D10363)
      • Performance patch has remaining issues - will be postponed (D10630 ).
    • Community patches :
      • Some are straightforward and can be approved by Richard Antalík.
      • Other either lack a design or needs UI improvements change.
      • They are not blocking for bcon2 though, so Richard will handle this.
  • Compositor
    • Add Anti-Aliasing node (D2411 ).

Projects

New Features and Changes

New Spreadsheet Editor

  • Add a new spreadsheet editor (commit , commit ) (Jacques Lucke)
  • Expose more domains and point cloud data (commit ) (Jacques Lucke)

Geometry Nodes

  • Add Attribute Remove Node (commit ) (Fabian Schempp)
  • Add Attribute Convert node (commit ) (Charlie Jolly)
  • Expose “shade smooth” as an attribute (commit) (Hans Goudey)
  • Add Attribute interpolation for polygon domains (commit ) (Hans Goudey)
  • Add “normal” attribute for face normals (commit , commit ) (Hans Goudey)
  • Transfer polygon attributes to points in Point Distribute node (commit ) (Jacques Lucke)
  • Support Vector Rotate node (commit ) (Leon Leno)
  • Improve performance of point distribute node (commit ) (Hans Goudey)
  • Rename subdivision nodes (commit ) (Hans Goudey)

Sculpt

  • Add operator to initialize mask values (commit ) (Pablo Dobarro)
  • Add option to initialize face sets by boundaries (commit ) (Pablo Dobarro)
  • Unifiy Dyntopo Detail Size operators (commit ) (Philipp Oeser)

Grease Pencil

  • Remove limitation to use only one Lattice modifier (commit ) (Antonio Vazquez)
  • Interpolate can use all keyframe types except breakdown (commit) (Antonio Vazquez)

Library Overrides

  • Add a new operation to Outliner to enforce resync of hierarchies (commit ) (Bastien Montagne)
  • Automatically run resync process on file reading (commit ) (Bastien Montagne)

User Interface

  • Add operator to scroll to selected file in file browser (commit ) (Sybren A. Stüvel)
  • Make multi-input sockets manually sortable (commit ) (Fabian Schempp)
  • Move group input and output nodes to a consistent menu location (commit ) (Hans Goudey)
  • Add Copy Full Data Path to RMB menu (commit ) (Aaron Carlisle)
  • Graph Editor: FCurve Show Extrapolation Toggle (commit ) (Wayde Moss)
  • Support Sculpt / Paint with the “Show Texture in texture tab” button (commit ) (Philipp Oeser)
  • CLOG: Add support for substring matching (blender --log "*undo*" to get all undo-related log messages e.g.) (D10647 , rBef5782e2 )

EEVEE

  • GGX: Improve noise levels of screen-space reflections / refraction (commit ) (Clément Foucault)
  • Ambient Occlusion: Add sample parameter support for the AO node (commit ) (Clément Foucault)

Cycles

  • Alembic procedural: Add support for instancing (commit ) (Kévin Dietrich)

Weekly Reports

Weekly Reports list
7 Likes
1747

Announcements

  • Grease Pencil Bezier stroke type (T85754 ) was postponed to next release. The team decided to move it to get a stable an full feature solution, instead of a hacky partial solution.
  • Habib Gahbiche presented a webinar on contributing to Blender , aimed at potential Google Summer of Code students.

Modules

Projects

Geometry Nodes

  • This is the last sprint of the current project cycle.
  • The focus is on finishing the documentation for the previous sprints.
  • The focus last week was to produce design prototypes:

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https://dev-files.blender.org/file/data/h4nga5oyxokk5zsdwv3z/PHID-FILE-52axfchs3whyyt54aybk/asset_tools_demo-2021-03-17_17.22.42.mp4

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New Features and Changes

Grease Pencil

  • Add Line Art modifier (commit ) (Yiming Wu, Sebastian Parborg)
    • Optimize default settings (commit ) (Yiming Wu)
    • Remove option for geometry-space chaining control (commit ) (Yiming Wu)
    • Do not calculate lines for objects not included (commit ) (Yiming Wu)
  • Tweak UI labels, descriptions, and panel layout for line art (commit ) (Hans Goudey)
  • Modify Dopesheet block between keyframes (commit ) (Antonio Vazquez)
  • Dopesheet Context Menu updates (commit ) (Matias Mendiola)

Video Sequence Editor

  • Improvements to the proxy workflow
    • Automatic proxy building (commit ) (Richard Antalik)
    • Improve proxy building performance (commit ) (Richard Antalik)
    • Simplify proxy settings (commit ) (Richard Antalik)
  • Add option to preview images when moving strip handles (commit ) (Peter Fog)
  • Various text strip improvements (commit ) (Peter Fog)
    • Add bold and italic option for text strip (commit ) (Peter Fog)
  • Add new_meta RNA API function (commit) (Félix David)
  • Add move_to_meta RNA API function (commit) (Félix David)

Geometry Nodes

  • Add initial version of mesh primitives (commit , commit , commit , commit ) (Hans Goudey)
  • Expose builtin crease attribute (commit ) (Jacques Lucke)
  • Support drag & drop object to create Object Info, Collection Info and Sample Texture nodes (commit ) (Charlie Jolly)
  • Implicit interpolations to and from the edge domain (commit ) (Hans Goudey)
  • Implicit data type conversion changes
    • Change vector implicit conversion to float from distance to average (commit ) (Charlie Jolly)
    • Add implicit conversion for int to color (commit ) (Charlie Jolly)
  • Rename “Subdivide Smooth” node back to “Subdivision Surface” (commit) (Hans Goudey)

Compositor / Cryptomatte

  • Redesign Cryptomatte node for better usability (commit ) (Jeroen Bakker)
  • Show name of object/material under the cursor when picking (commit ) (Jeroen Bakker)

Miscellaneous

  • Add support for muting node wires (commit ) (Charlie Jolly)
  • UI: Dynamically increase data-block name button size if there’s space (commit ) (Julian Eisel)
  • Theme: Use curved noodles in the nodes editor. (commit ) (Pablo Vazquez)
  • Write File: regular blend file saving no longer includes the users full-path (commit ) (Campbell Barton)

EEVEE

  • Volumetrics: Add support for soft volumetric shadows (commit ) (Clément Foucault)
  • Lights: Add Volume and diffuse light power slider (commit ) (Clément Foucault)
  • Volumetrics: Add back support for light clamp (commit ) (Clément Foucault)
  • Volumetrics: Add Area light shape support (commit ) (Clément Foucault)
  • Volumetrics: Add special attenuation volume for lights (commit ) (Clément Foucault)

Spreadsheet Editor

  • Support showing data from original/unevaluated object (commit ) (Jacques Lucke)
  • Display data from geometry instances generated by geometry nodes (commit ) (Hans Goudey)
  • Add footer to display filtered and total number of rows (commit ) (Jacques Lucke)

Modeling

  • Compensate for different bevel depths when joining two curve objects (commit ) (Philipp Oeser)

Python API

  • Expose Curve Profile widget “Reset View” function (commit ) (Patrick Busch)

Audio System

  • Add support for CoreAudio on macOS (commit ) (Jörg Müller)
  • Add support for WASAPI on Windows (commit ) (Jörg Müller)
  • Add support for PulseAudio on Linux (commit ) (Jörg Müller)

Weekly Reports

Summary
13 Likes
1748

Loaded week! Specially for the VSE! Pretty aweseme :grin:

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Announcements

Modules

No module has anything to communicate this week.

Projects

Geometry Nodes

New Features and Changes

Grease Pencil

  • Add I/O modules for SVG import and SVG/PDF export(commit ) (Antonio Vazquez)
  • Various user interface tweaks (commit , commit ) (Antonio Vazquez)

Compositor

  • Display generated inputs in Viewers and Previews (commit ) (Manuel Castilla)
  • Add automated tests for compositor (commit ) (Habib Gahbiche)

Geometry Nodes

  • Add Attribute Clamp Node (commit ) (Charlie Jolly)
  • Add Attribute Map Range Node (commit ) (Victor-Louis De Gusseme)
  • Add remaining operations to the Vector Math node (commit ) (Leon Leno)
  • Show domain in the Attribute Fill node (commit , commit ) (Jacques Lucke)
  • Various tweaks to mesh primitives (commit , commit , commit ) (Hans Goudey)
    • Remove location and rotation inputs on primitive nodes (commit )
  • Improve naming of attribute domains (commit , commit) (Jacques Lucke)
  • Change implicit conversion for float/integer/color to boolean (commit ) (Charlie Jolly)

Nodes

  • Add “Refract” and “Faceforward” functions to Vector Maths nodes (commit ) (Charlie Jolly)
  • Tweak link picking distance for multi-input sockets (commit ) (Fabian Schempp)

User Interface

  • Remove “Enable physics for:” text in physics properties (commit ) (William Reynish)
  • Rename node editor sidebar categories (commit ) (Jacques Lucke)
  • Various tweaks and fixes to layouts and UI text (commit , commit, commit , commit) (Yevgeny Makarov, Hans Goudey)

Cycles

  • OSL: add basic OSL shader template (commit ) (Ray Molenkamp)

Video Sequence Editor

  • Significantly improve playback and seeking performance (commit ) (Richard Antalik)

Modeling

  • Warn when UV unwrapping fails (commit ) (Campbell Barton)
  • Curves: Add taper mode option (commit ) (Omar Emara)

Python API

  • Animation: Action mirror RNA API using pose contents (commit ) (Campbell Barton)

Weekly Reports

Summary
12 Likes
1750

Hair nodes, can it be!? Please don’t play with my heart Blender!

8 Likes
1751

Please let hair nodes happen soon. I’m currently working on an image that requires many particle systems to get the look I want and it’s pure pain.

6 Likes
1752

All these new nodes sound really cool. Node tools as well. There definitely is a need to hook up the node system to the viewport. It seems easy enough for controlling vectors, where one gizmo is enough, but not so obvious for other types.

1753

Anyone have any practical examples of how to use the new vector math functions?

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Announcements

  • Geometry nodes development discussion channel was renamed to #geometry-nodes ,

Modules

Projects

New Features and Changes

User Interface

  • Tweak alignment of spreadsheet values (commit , commit ) (Harley Acheson)
  • Add a gizmo button to lock camera to view (commit ) (Harley Acheson)
  • Bring back hover shortcuts for mesh modifiers (commit ) (Hans Goudey)
  • Add description methods for many generic window-manager operators, extracting descriptions from the properties they control (commit ) (Campbell Barton)
  • Skip undo steps when changing properties of the 3d cursor (commit ) (Germano Cavalcante)

Geometry Nodes

  • Improve speed of boolean node, use multi-input socket (commit ) (Hans Goudey)
  • Support multiple group input nodes (commit ) (Jacques Lucke)
  • Separate grid primitive X and Y size (commit ) (Hans Goudey)
  • Change defaults for grid mesh node and point translate / scale nodes (commit , commit ) (Hans Goudey)
  • Allow float input for point scale node (commit ) (Hans Goudey)

Modeling

  • Knife tool: Support vert/edge snapping when not directly over a face (commit ) (Campbell Barton)

Grease Pencil

  • Remove “soft selection” and re-sampling settings from line art modifier (commit , commit ) (YimingWu)

Cycles

  • Add a spread setting for area lights (commit ) (Matteo Falduto)
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    • Add importance sampling for rectangular area light spread (commit ) (Brecht Van Lommel)
  • Disable NanoVDB for AMD OpenCL (workaround driver issues) (commit ) (Brecht Van Lommel)

Compositor

  • Add Anti-Aliasing node (commit ) (Habib Gahbiche)

Animation

  • Add display axis offset setting for bones (commit ) (Scott Wilson)

Python API

  • Add template for more efficient image processing (commit ) (Élie Michel)
  • Add fit method to RNA API (commit ) (Richard Antalik)
  • Nodes: Expose multi input socket in python API (commit ) (Wannes Malfait)
  • Add bl_rna_utils.decompose_data_path (commit ) (Campbell Barton)

Weekly Reports

Summary
7 Likes
1755

@Harley Thanks for this! It’s much nicer than going into the sidebar.

14 Likes
1756

Wonder when Blender stop generating those annoying absurd numbers, sometimes it is really frustrating to edit because of this.
01
02

4 Likes
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I think that’s just how computers work… wasn’t there an option at some point to choose number of decimals ? right now what you see is the maximum precision in Blender, as far as I know it goes to six decimals.