# Links & Library Overrides are still glitchy after 4 years of development **URL:** \ **Category:** Blender Development Discussion\ **Tags:** linked\ **Created:** [August 4, 2023, 10:38am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/links-library-overrides-are-still-glitchy-after-4-years-of-development/1476541 "2023-08-04T10:38:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 29
**Author:** ![Conan\_The\_Blendarian](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/conan_the_blendarian/32/1084923_2.png) [@Conan\_The\_Blendarian](https://blenderartists.org/u/Conan_The_Blendarian)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2023, 5:33am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/links-library-overrides-are-still-glitchy-after-4-years-of-development/1476541/29 "2023-08-10T05:33:31Z")
I hate the link and override problems, but heartened to see I’m not alone. I thought I was the only one. > [@piranha4D](#): > > So, confusing and finicky, but not random. Thanks for the info on Asset Browser’s thumnails. Yeah. Not at all intuitive, and needlessly complicated too. A ‘screenshot current view as thumbnail’ button would have made more sense. > [@eobet](#): > > Per the first bullet point in the OP, the workaround for this which I’ve added to our internal documentation where I work is the following rather silly dance: … If anyone has a better suggestion I’d be interested to hear about it! Thanks for sharing that, @eobet. Unfortunately that only works to one level of the hierachy, so you can’t get the stuff buried deeper. I’ve “solved” this by either (a) making my collections so anything I might want to tweak is pushed up to the first level of the collection hierachy, (b) hiding first level objects and then creating link to the now hidden object directly in the library, and repeating the process as deep as is needed. That’s difficult, because it gets back to the problem of not being sure what you’re looking at on screen, as well as putting it at the right location. The ‘Edit Linked Library’ Addon can tell what the linked collection is - though unfortunately not the object. I wrote a script that identifies object clicked on, though it still requires a lot of trial and error. Half-an-hour is pretty typical to pin something down this way. Something that should be doable in seconds. Considered writing a script to overcome this, though it’d be a band-aid on an ever changing tumor. > [@piranha4D](#): > > Whether the BF should aim for being more feature-competitive with the industry gorillas in order to get more investment isn’t something I can talk intelligently on because I don’t know any of the numbers involved. I’m just glad there is such a capable and generally functioning DCC for which I don’t have to beggar myself, and I can see how much juggling the BF has to do as it is just to keep all its balls in the air – and some of them obviously drop anyway. I keep thinking if anyone who uses Blender semi-seriously donated just a little bit regularly, that situation would improve considerably, but have no idea how to motivate people to do that; it’s probably harder than to motivate one big industry member to donate a hefty chunk, or contribute some development. I think it’s like this: If an established animation studio with a say Maya pipeline approached me saying they’re considering switching to Blender, I’d recommend they don’t, not just for the reasons in this thread (which are substantial), but also loss of expertise and risk. If a start-up animation studio asked me if they should go Maya or Blender, I’d recommend Maya, because you have a far better chance of completing your project without running out of money. In Blender I’m encountering problem after problem and that really hurts productivity, which makes Blender far riskier proposition. You might lose your shirt. Who does that leave? Hobbyists, and start-up animation studios who use Blender despite the risk because of the cost. Neither flush with cash. There’s also a matter of what your donation goes to. BF seems to opt for “Cool” additions like Geometry Nodes and Grease Pencil. I do understand some people are really into Grease Pencil, but personally, I think that development resource would be better spent elsewhere, especially since there is already the free professional-grade open-source OpenToonz animation system available (Futurama and Ghibli). I do appreciate Geometry Nodes, but not at the cost of ignoring fundamental core function. The bugs and crashes are a real problem too. I’ve seen is-isn’t-is-isn’t Intenet arguments on whether Blender is buggy. Think it depends on what you’re using it for. On a high-end PC, I find Blender is largely bug free for polygon modeling and sculpting, but on a low-end PC (integrated Intel chipset) it crashes frequently. For animation, even on a high-end PC, it crashes frequently. I kid you not: I get 10 to 30 crashes a day. They’re annoying, and they really interrupt the workflow. They are also unreportable, because they’re usually not repeatable. If you reload from your auto-save and repeat it, usually it works. As a rough comparison, Maya crashes, but maybe once every three days. The shortcomings we’re describing here, and documentation, testing, bugfixing: These are boring by comparison to new and cool, but IMO far more important. Of all the software I use, Blender is by far the buggiest. The bugs and crashes seen are indicative of lack of testing. Low-end PCs, because BF doesn’t use them. (When someone reported bugs in the integrated Intel chipset, a Blender Dev replied they hadn’t tested Blender on that - despite its popularity - because they don’t use them), and animation on High-end PCs because only a small number of users do animation, and animation is very likely to flush out bugs because by it’s nature you’re generating a huge volume of work and effectively stress-testing the system in a way small projects don’t. For corporations, bugs and crashes are the kiss of death. Any company which trials Blender and sees that will walk away without a further word. Worth pointing out a difference here: For animation, everything has to work. For game asset creation, you only need enough to work to be able to export your asset, then you’re done. IME for game asset creation, Blender is great. For animation production, no. Blender Studios has a different view: “Overall the feedback – mainly from the Blender Studio artists team – over the current library overrides was very positive. However, several critical pain points and potential improvements were identified, such as performance during resync.” [https://code.blender.org/2022/02/overrides-workshop/](https://code.blender.org/2022/02/overrides-workshop/) Me, I hate overrides in their current form. If you’re doing simple rig animation, yeah, they work, but if you’re doing anything more sophisticated than that, they just don’t cut it. > [@Hologram](#): > > See if you can file a bug report if it’s that bad! > [@eobet](#): > > seems neither of you have read the first post in this thread! 🤣 Yes. Talked about that earlier. I found reporting bugs to BF to be a waste of time. > [@thorn](#): > > I knew what I was going to read before I clicked the link… I wasn’t wrong. Yeah. Apart from the linking crashes - which often aren’t repeatable, the UX problems discussed here aren’t considered bugs. You’ll often hear ‘Post it in RightClickSelect’, but there are good ideas which have been sitting there for years without comment or action from the people who matter. > [@eobet](#): > > Well, I just threw in the towel on our current project. Been there, @eobet. The fix for dysfunctional overrides is often to make it local anyway. Have you Binged for python code to do that on the outliner, or just select the objects and run a script to do it with ops? > [@Ace\_Dragon](#): > > Fixing this issue though is easier said than done, because in part it relies on fixing another major issue with development and that is patch review and doing what they can to help volunteers get their work in. That and the realization that you are trying to resolve a habit that has been embedded in Blender development since version 2.25 (nearly 20 years ago). Alas though, the only thing that would prove to be a potent alternative to Blender is a fork of Blender, and that is simply not going to happen without having a well-funded team right out of the gate. That’s the big question. I don’t think forks are feasible. Blender For Artists has a tiny share (0.8%?), and you need to be able to pay your developers, but where is that money going to come from? I can’t see it. An alternative is to persuade BF to shift their priorities. Can that be done? Also a question as to whether they think it matters? Back in 2013 Ton said he didn’t care about attracting Maya users, since Blender already had hundreds of thousands of users. Would BF be willing to alter course to attract animators and future animation studios, even though it’s a smaller niche? I’m committed to finishing this current project with Blender, but if BF isn’t interested in improving its functionality, maybe using Blender for asset generation and Unreal for animation and rendering is a better idea? --- _[View the full topic](https://blenderartists.org/t/links-library-overrides-are-still-glitchy-after-4-years-of-development/1476541)._