Hi folks,
I was reading some stuff about “linux and open source code” (see Glyn Moody’s book ‘rebel code’) and I wonder if Blender turns to open source. Of course, it’s not sure this way, but Ton remarks this possibility…
And now, imagine this fact: Blender is open source and creates a community coders to expand its features.
The first question will be on things people like/dislike in Blender and what features most people would want.
I would like to know your suggestions. 
Javier
I myself would implement renderman compatibility.
I dont think you will find many coders willing to work off feature wish lists.
Open source projects work best out of necesity.
it’s true, but there’re some features we like is common for most of Blender users and why not, for coders… 
Javier
a raytracer would be nice.
be able to shape the dynamic circle in game blender
i’d want
multi monitor support (just working over several screens)
network rendering (from within blender)
an enhanced OO window
procedural everything(!!!) (hehe - a running theme for me)
parallelism (essential IMHO)
for starters
as a programmer and a Blender user i can appreciate that there are features i’d rather not implement, and i’m sure that applies to many others, but i do strongly feel that software should be driven by what users can do already, and want (not just need) to do in future, not whats easy to code.
If you have Win 2K you can actually set your desktop up across multiple monitors… you could span monitors with Blender that way… I can give you more details if you’re interested
you gotta have a pretty half-assed OS/windowing system not to
have multiple monitors these days.
Material plugins (a.k.a. shaders). And I would be willing to impliment this feature personally.
Hey, I’ve just had an idea that would solve ALL your woes if Blender did go opensource. Right, we all agree Blender needs renderer/materials imporvements, yes?
Well, POV-Ray is well known because it’s the best free reytracer available. Bar none. Trust me, I’ve tried. It’s beautiful, and it’s opensource. The only problem is getting your models and stuff into it in the first place. So…DEEP BREATH what if some one implemented POV-Ray inside Blender?
I know the material and renderer interface would have to be…erm…altered slightly but I think that could really go somewhere. It would certainly put Blender in Maya’s league (everyone knows Maya’s renderer is crap).
I know it would require some serious coding (as well as permission from the makers of POV-Ray), but I’m sure it could be done… Waddya all think?
LethalSideParting
I think that patching Povray into Blender would be unwise. First of all, it would increase Blender’s size considerably. Secondly, it would be kind of like putting a square peg into a round hole by pounding it with a hammer: it would be messy, and the end result would not be very nice for the users of Blender.
It would be better to make a new “peg” (raytracer) from scratch specifically to mesh seamlessly into Blender.
And it would be even better to simply add support for external renderers (i.e. add support for the IRSpec). The advantage of external renderer support is that the user is not limited to using any particular renderer, and can choose from any renderer that conforms to the supported spec(s).
I support the idea of doing both of the following two things:
I dont believe your statement and infact im offended by your suggestion to replace blenders renderer with that horror.
You get to support from me.
fix the nmesh module!
it garbulates my meshes horrifically. I can’t even do a clean RIB export…
you gotta have a pretty half-assed OS/windowing system not to
have multiple monitors these days.[/quote]
even my poncey win98 setup has multimonitor support, but blender can’t go over 1600 by 1200 (if i remember rightly) and hence covers one monitor and a bit for me
It’s not a matter of the OS being able to drive multiple monitors, but can
the application span monitors? Blender’s activities all take place within a
single unified window, which is then subdivided. It would be
nice to be able to tear panels off of Blender and have X,Y,Z views on one monitor,
palettes on another, materials on a third monitor, Camera view on a fourth
(hey, dream big!)
As for integrating POV-Ray - why not just build export filters for the POV
file format? Let POV-ray handle the rendering outside of Blender. That way
you would always be able to use the most current POV-Ray regardless of how often Blender would release versions.
the most important thing to me is that Blender continues. I would like to see better stability - blender still crashes quite a bit, and I’m running a stable kernel - 2.4.12. I also would like import filters for some common 3d file formats.
High quality 3DS import and export including bones and texturing information. This new feature would allow me to incorporate other tools into pieces I’m working on. Use the right tool for the right job… and no tool is even good (let along perfect) at everything.
This all sounds noble… making Blender open source and letting the community further develope it. The big difference IMHO is that an OS like Linux has a huge potential user base, where as Blender serves a rather small market. Where are the programers who will devote all the required time to it?
To put it another way… how many people who now belong to this Blender community and are capable of coding on this level? Remember, you are not getting paid.
Warren
To put it another way… how many people who now belong to this Blender community and are capable of coding on this level? Remember, you are not getting paid.
I am capable (I think 
). And I would be more than happy to contribute a not-insignificant amount of time and effort to improving Blender.
As for integrating POV-Ray - why not just build export filters for the POV
file format? Let POV-ray handle the rendering outside of Blender. That way
you would always be able to use the most current POV-Ray regardless of how often Blender would release versions.
This really isnt the solution I think. I would have to do more research, but I am pretty sure the way most apps integrate external renderers is through plugins that establish a direct data stream with the renderer (mayaman, brazil ect). Lots more effecient that way.
Besides, POV files are ASCII text which means HUGE files. (A hand rolled binary format for mesh data COULD be written and hooks for it placed in POV but that creates more problems than it solves.)
To put it another way… how many people who now belong to this Blender community and are capable of coding on this level? Remember, you are not getting paid.
I believe most of people from Blender’s community would be ready to write code and funny to help and grow Blender, isn’t?
Javier
Uhmm, there aren’t a heckava lot of people who get paid for developing Linux, but it still gets done somehow. Hmmm, perhaps some things are about more than money?
Linux itself is written by volunteers. POV-Ray is written by volunteers. Blender could be continued by volunteers. Some might come from here, some from elsewhere.
Open Source can and does work. A newly opened Blender code base could even be marketed and sold with other software by NAN, who would no longer need the same programming resources in-house. Ton and company could re-focus on how to move the company forward without the overhead of a full development team.
The end user could continue using the software without fear of Blender dying and becoming out of date.
Blender may even by expanded by other commercial shops who see it as an alternative to other costly development tools.