I will run a Blender course for teenagers in a few days time and we will be at a place that has no internet connection whatsoever. That means I will take with me all the files that the kids need to run Blender on their computers. Most of them have Windows I guess, a few have Mac OS X and none have Linux.
In the 2.49 Blender downloads it said “Requires Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7, built with Python 2.6” (for the Windows downloads).
But in the 2.5.2 downloads it only says “Requires Windows XP/Vista/7” and Python is also not mentioned in the Readme file. But it does include a file called “Python31.zip” which seems to include a bunch of python scripts. What’s the deal with that?
So, do I still need to download Python separately? And therefore do I need to bring along this Python installer? I do not have any Windows system here where I could test this.
In the course I would like to use a recent Blender version, without the installer, just run it as is from the desktop so we will have the least installation trouble possible, so we can get passed the point quickly and start working in Blender.
Would be great, if somebody could help me with that!
I would highly recommend you bring the Python installer with you just in case. I’m not really sure if you need it, but I’d still bring it, after all, I believe it’s only a few megabytes : ).
So that means “Yes, you need to install Python to run Blender.”?
Because I think I remember that I used to run Blender on a few Windows computers at my old school and it just worked without me installing any Python IIRC.
Can anybody give a definite answer? Also do you people know if Python needs an administrator password to be installed? Because that could become a problem, if kids bring the laptop of their parents or so and they do not know the password, would we then not be able to run Blender in the end?
Like 2.49 I believe you do not need to install the full python 3.1 to run blender as the python it requires is built into blender. Some addons may need the full install. You will need to have the Visual C++ 2008 SP1 package installed though for windows machines (link on the blender.org download page)
Hi Richard,
Thank you for your answer. So I guess for basic modeling and (very) basic animation I probably do not need Python then? Because it is a beginner’s course so we will not dive to deeply into Blender of course.
And thanks also for the Visual C++ 2008 SP1 package warning, I was aware of that and have it already put to my files that I will take with me.
OK. You do not need to install Python to run Blender 2.49 or Blender 2.5.
But, in order for some external scripts to run right, you will need it.
You might also need to get the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable files.
Below are linkw to the 5 different things you need to have 2.49b and 2.5 running on Windows: