As someone that still uses the 2.7x keymapping, curious if there are others who’ve had similar experiences. Those moments when your flow state is completely disrupted, like when you suddenly have to figure out why something no longer works. You end up doing sanity checks on older versions, tracking down the exact function call name, tracing it back to its mapping, and then either remapping it or finding tools to mimic the old behavior, then sort of limp yourself back to the lost flow state. It’s sad because I’ve experienced this many times since 2.8 happens, and there’s nothing I can do about the feeling of being betrayed by a tool I’ve trusted for more than 10 years, other than feeling stupid for even having such thought.
This isn’t meant as a complaint about Blender’s development direction or their commitment to updating UI/UX, they have done well in attracting many new users. It’s more of a personal question, does anyone else feel the same way?
I try to not modify and bend programs to the workflows of other programs/prior versions.
That helps especially when doing otherwise would result in biting or hampering the understanding of training materials.
For making tutorials, I tend to question any done changes and if they are truly necessary in fulfilling a project. Always going from vanilla version and then adding stuff back if it wasn´t explained prior.
If the UI allows customizations and it turns out to be a time saver, I do so.
Shortcut changes? I try to use the standard ones.
Remapping is in the majority of cases out of the occasion.
For big long going projects, a Software Version freeze might make sense.
In that case either put a Portable Version in the Folder of the Project or using an LTS version helps in having clarity.
The workflow of having portable versions next to the projects you worked on helps in revisiting old legacy projects a couple years later.
Thankfully you can use many different Blender versions parallel.
Depending on how far in development Blender or other tools are,(Alpha, Beta, Release Candidate) I will change the time spent accordingly into doing some stuff with the newer versions to keep and get familiarity.
Yes, the experience I have is even though it says 2.7x keymap, often changes are still made to the keymaps across the board and then I have to either learn it or change it back to something I’m used to
I had to force myself to adapt to 3.0 (I always use the latest versions) it was hard at first but the frustration did not last long.
I now feel lost in 2.x
I think that holding on to the past can be even more frustrating sometimes.
was using blender up to 2.49
change
was using blender up to 2.79
change
was using blender up to 3.3
little change
are using blender up to 3.6
future change for 4…
This said…
Changes when using homecomputes up to Atar ST (and GEM)…
Same with windows 3.11, 95, 98 , ( happily skiped some ), 2000, XP, a little bit of 7…
Also linux Slackware, Debian, Suse, Ubuntu, back to Debian… (skipping versions here)…
Different Windowmanager, Desktop Environments…
Everthing changes… did i mentioned the cars i drove ? The rooms i lived in…
I was downloading older versions of Blender yesterday looking for clues about what someone was talking about feature-wise and discovered I have lost the memory of texture paint setup in 2.49 through 2.79, the setup is so different.
Yes, coming from game dev, we typically freeze software versions for projects. Any updates to the software are considered a serious risk and must be handled with caution. It’s work to ensure everyone will run on the exact version, taking account into files that might not be backward compatible, preparing to test and find new bugs, and have the team spend time to familiarize with the changes. Regardless the level of integration, as individual or team, for every changes a software release, especially on UI/UX level, all users are taxed by a certain amount of their time depends on how communicative and useful the updates are.
Yep… I see that you are an addon developer, remind me of the time that I wrote in house tools, for every update I released, there might be some user that got confused from the new update and require hands on demonstration, so usually I try to be as clear and engaging as possible with the update notes with picture and gif and all. Also, the same thing happen in making game tutorial, the level of motivation and patience for a player is lower considering the market is flooded with other games, so I’ve come learn and expect some player will skip all possible skippable instruction, and somehow deal with that. It’s ironic.
Congratulation for coming this far, haha!
I sort of seeing it now that acceptance to changes in blender or other things in life, that I’ve no control for the world to remain consistent is the core feature that I’m missing. Hopefully it’ll be easier as I grow older.
Coming from game development perspective, it would actually be outrageous to change keymapping and UI/UX for any games after release, especially when they don’t align with player’s opinion of what’s better. But I guess opinion of what’s right isn’t the point, but to accept the inevitable cost that occur from changes.
Changes are always painful. From one program to another and from one major version to another if there were any. It’s never pleasant but I also mostly just try to roll with it and check what’s new as soon as I encounter it. No need to learn everything new if I am not gonna use it.
Only time I am really annoyed about it any more, these days, is when it interferes with my own shortcuts. Like when suddenly new shortcuts are used that were free before. Can’t remember when or if this ever happened over the last few years, thgouh.
So in short - yeah I try to roll with it. Maybe complain about it a bit. Vent on the forums in a few posts, then accept it and move on until the next time. Depending on the severity. XD
3D Software isn’t games, though. A game usually has a very limited set of controls which stay that way as major features usually aren’t patched into most games afterwards.
The UI remains unchanged - people ask why Blender’s UI code is abandoned
The UI finally sees a focus - people question why the UI is changing so fast
Case in point, there are certain cases where it feels the devs. simply can’t win (even though many of the recent changes regards polish and addressing shortfalls). I would think improvements coming at a steadier rate would be preferable to major changes after a long period of being largely ignored (as it was from Blender 2.30 > 2.49 and Blender 2.59 > 2.69 and Blender 2.70 > 2.79).
), 2000, XP, a little bit of 7…
