Make the move to 2.56 it's worth it!

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
1

Blender 2.56 is really good, you should make the move.
http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=7992

Some hints:
When opening old files, make sure load ui is turned off in the file options.
If your file is broken or wont open, use File Append then load your scene.
If this Fails, then try to Append the mesh, if this fails…
Don’t expect everything to be the same, it’s better!
Take the time to Explore the interface.
Especially look in User Preferences>Addons. There’s some handy tools in there. :wink:

If you don’t Build blender yourself, look to Graphicall you will be able to get builds as recent as 24hours old for most os. Most time the builds are from 1 to 12 hours old.
The Builds that say BF Trunk are the standard builds.
If you choose, you can, as I do, download special builds that contain patches or extras.
Be careful here, some builds are very experimental.
However, builds that are optimized, generally are as stable as the trunk build.
Often these are the best.
Currently I’m using Blender 2.56 by Filiciss, which is by far the best Blender build ever.
I update this as often as he does & have found them to be at least as stable as Blender!
It’s up to you to find a build & stick with the builder that suits your needs.
You will get less problems this way.

btw, Blender 2.56 is as stable as Blender 2.49b is.

If anyone has any other 2.56 hints for ease of transition, let us know. :slight_smile:

enjoy.

2

just a few points:
Please TAKE YOUR TIME on the GUI.
Just because it’s different then it was, doesn’t mean it’s worse. You just need to get used to it. You will soon see all the benefits of it. At many points, it’s way quicker to use, and easier to learn.
introduction on a very early version:
http://www.blendervideos.com/blender-2-5-overview-by-by-jonathan-williamson/

Currently, the GUI has a few problems:

  1. You would have to scroll more then usual. But this will be fixed (Probably before 2.6)
  2. No Render preview/Floating panels. But this will also be added probably before 2.6.
  3. No horizontal properties. Won’t come back.

But the missing stuff stands no ground against what new features 2.56 has! Feature wise, 2.5 blows 2.49 away.

I don’t think it’s as stable as 2.49, But it’s very close.

Blender 2.5 modeling tools are a little weaker then 2.49, but the Addons fix this. Just get the bevel addon and the bridge addon and you are good to go.

3

And we can’t forget that everything is animatable… Atleast that’s my favourite change, aside from the gorgeous interface.

4

Not to mention the much much much faster render times.

5

Hi!

Indeed, after a very looooooong break (3 years), I started blending again. It took me some time to find some features again (mostly because I had forgotten the hotkey, although I have not found the auto-ik option yet). But all in all it makes sense! I’m happy with it!
It plays better on linux with my old Mobility Radeon 9700 than 2.49 which is unusable (lags all the time).

However, all my old models that had view subsurf level at 2 tend to be significantly slower now, but this may be a problem with my legacy driver on linux compared to windows. Editing at this level was confortable before but not anymore it seems. It could also be that I could be using software gl without knowing it (well glxinfo says dri is on)… Or maybe am I using a static blender build? So many options, so little time…

Anyway, 2.56 or die like dinosaurs did :wink:

Daniel

6

Personally, I am liking 2.5x better than I liked 2.49. The interface is easier to use and feels more comfortable. It might take some adjusting but if you were able to work with 2.49, you’ll have little problem with 2.56.

I am not sure if 2.56 is stable as 2.49 was but I have had less problems with 2.56 and on my system it hasn’t crashed yet – so for me, it seems more stable.

7

Don’t forget volumetrics:) my favorite feature.

Another unforgetable coolness is pressing record and play and moving objects around and it keyframes in real time. Also continue modelling while it’s rendering.

8

There are so many amazing new features, some of which aren’t immediately obvious, like the new caching system, in all honesty the simulations/ particles do just crash out on odd occasions, mostly when changing settings while the animation is running, but it still is in Beta, so I can forgive that.

Then there are the modelling add-ons, the bevel tool, and bridge/ loft tools alone make it worth the switch, they are a level above 2.49b (Still would love Bmesh though!!), then there is the new sculpting system which is phenomenal to say the least, sculpting smoothly on a 30 million polygon mesh is something I never expected in Blender, but it just works, this coupled with the surface sketch, and baking tools means Blender, and specifically Blender 2.56 is a real competitor to the likes of Mudbox, and 3Dcoat, it even does a good job of going against Zbrush in some areas.

Scripting is also another big thing, I’ve seen a lot of interesting scripts, and tools pop up already, and with all of the access that the API(s) now allows, means we’ll be seeing some amazing new add-ons, not to mention the benefit this has for external renderers. (Major issue in 2.4x!).

After seeing what has been achieved so far I can honestly see the blender 2.5/6+ builds becoming extremely popular, it’s more stable in it’s current state than some of the major applications, as well as featuring some pretty impressive tools, either built-in, or tightly, and actively integrated with the core, and in terms of development age it’s still a very young application.

As sad as some people may find this I cannot help but get extremely excited about the current developments, and the future prospects for Blender, so to those who haven’t switched, or at least sampled Blender 2.56, then I’d highly recommend you do so.

9

Nothing blocks you from having 2 copies of Blender.

We all know it’s worth a move, or just an addition. The only people who don’t think so are the haters of interface change and the ones bitching about few tools that haven’t been brought back.

10

Really wow, I must definitely do some modeling this weekend. It seems I have been foolishly ignoring the add-ons

11

Hey Brendon,

Welcome back buddy, missed you.
I hope that your Christmas was pleasant and you are enjoying a very Happy New Year.

P. Monk

12

Can you please tell me where is this bevel add-on you are referring to? It’s not in my copy of 2.56 (linux 64 bit) and my google-fu seems to be failing me. I can’t see a link on the offical scripts catalog either.

13

The areas where Blender 2.5 is not as good as 2.49 and can not be used are with sound and the fact that 2.5 has no frame change event.

the ones bitching about few tools that haven’t been brought back
The lack of a frame change event is a serious flaw in the new API design. The BPY context falls out of scope on a frame change so even if you get a hack to work for the GUI, you can not render the results.

Not being able to render procedural based animations that are managed by Python still keeps me going back to 2.49.

Everything is not animatable, that is a myth that seems to keep popping up. For instance, add a modifier to an f-curve and then try to animate the parameters of that modifier (which would be incredibly useful). You can’t.

I still like 2.5 and have hope that my mentioned issues will be resolved. Until then, as Sneg said, you can use them both.

14

@Fade: Same here; I’m guessing it broke and got removed.

15

Switching to blender 2.5 is definitely a smart move, besides getting familiar with the interface, which will be introduced in the next official release. I am personally impressed with the new UI, much more intuitive, and it is more ‘real time’, meaning you can playback animation while editing parameters.
But still i keep the good old stable 2.49b, for rendering with Yafaray and bevel tool :wink:

16

:frowning: I’m sad now.

17

Thanks for pointing out Filiciss’s 2.56a build. I’m downloading now and am excited to play with all the add-ons!!

18

Guiseppe, in 2.56 Graphicall builds you will find a Yafaray intergrated build, so you can use it.

fade & spacetug, you can get the bevel tool in the builds by filiciss then copy it & it’s modules to your build if you need to.

currently I’m having lots of fun with Luxrender & 2.56, It’s awesome!

19

Cool! thanks, but that is version 0.1.2, i read something about speed decreases, although better render quality. Do you think the move from 0.1.1, to 0.1.2 is worth it?

20

Thanks Meta-Androcto. Found the add-ons in the builds you mentioned.