Bforartists 1.0.0 RC1 released

#1

A new version of the Blender Fork Bforartists is ready. We are getting close.

This version is a release candidate for the upcoming version 1.0.0. It marks the end of the initial development cycle. Nearly three years of work comes to an end. And most of the initial goals are fulfilled.

The download can as usual be found in the download section. We have as usual first the Windows binaries ready. Please be patient.
The release notes are located here: https://www.bforartists.de/wiki/bforartistsreleasenotev100rc1

There aren’t this much changes in this release. Just around 40, and most of them small ones. The Bforartists 1.0.0 RC1 release is mainly cleanup work and last fixes to prepare the final version. We have catched a few bugs, extended the material library vx addon by more materials, added some last icons, and did some last changes. There were for example still two “are you really want to delete” dialogs around.

A note to Cuda in the 32 bit Windows version. GPU rendering may or may not work for you. Cuda 9 doesn’t support the outdated 32 bit architecture anymore. I have compiled the 32 Bit version with Cuda 8 now. But it throws still an error with my Nvidia 1060. So expect GPU rendering not to work in the 32 Bit version. Rendering with the CPU works of course. Please upgrade to a 64 Bit Windows in this case. It is more than time!

The further road map is to wait until the Blender 2.8 development at the UI is finished. Makes no sense to change something that is under a permanent change anyways. A first incarnation of Blender 2.8 should arrive at the next Siggraph. And then we can have a look at it, and will continue the development. But we don’t run out of work. We need a new homepage since Drupal 7 is now EOL. And at the documentation front there is years of work waiting.

As usual, a big thanks to the team!

  • Reiner
#2

Rainer, can AMD Radeon ProRender for Blender be made to work with Bforartists?

I haven’t tried, but it would certainly be interesting!

#3

Looks good. I just wonder what the future holds for this fork once v2.80 comes out. Blender’s new UI looks like it’s going to be game changer for a lot of new users. Between v2.80 and Bforartists, I foresee a lot of Blender converts on the horizon.

#4

Well, i keep my fingers crossed too that they manage it this time. This would make the fork obsolete. But then there are statements that for example Ton will not let go RMB select. The double menu entry mess seems to stay too. One of the first worries was and is the keymap. Means the hotkey centered workflow remains. And so on. And we have seen in the past how UI development in Blender ends. Implement it half arsed, then happily forget about it. Up to the point where you simply have to do something.

In three months they will present a first incarnation at the Siggraph. And then we will see. I will continue the fork as long as there is a need for :slight_smile:

[quote=]Rainer, can AMD Radeon ProRender for Blender be made to work with Bforartists?[/quote] Does it fail? I remember somebody got it to work already. I have to check.

Either way, you can always load the scene in Blender, and render from there :slight_smile:

EDIT, i have checked now. The addon works with Bforartists 0.9.3. But not with newest RC1. The reason is that we always merge the Blender master. While the Blender devs finish their final versions in branches. And they have made quite a few changes for the 2.8 branch in the master already. So some addons fails now. There is unfortunately little that we can do. I guess when the addons gets updated to Blender 2.8, then the addon will work again ^^

#5

Rule Number 1 of User Interface Design: “Never ever force a UI layout, interaction or convention on users that a) feels unnatural or unintuitive b) confuses the user or c) causes muscle-memory problems when switching between multiple softwares during a work assignment.”

Muscle-memory problems means that if 4 apps you use on a project use a left-click select, right-click open menu convention, a 5th app you switch to during said project - Blender in this case - should NOT twist this convention upside down for no good reason at all.

Your muscle memory / brain neuron-mapping gets so used to conventions like left-click vs right-click over time that using Blender crosses those wires in your brain.

Even GIMP - which had a different UI logic from Photoshop in the beginning - now features a UI layout that is very similar to the Photoshop model.

Blender, in my humble opinion, needed a serious UI overhaul 5 or 6 years ago.

They should have stopped adding 3D features for just 7 - 8 short months, revamped the UI during that period, and then focused on adding new 3D features. Blender would have had maybe 7 - 8 times the users it has today had they done that.

They did everything backwards - they completely neglected the UI for years, kept repeating the lie that Blender’s UI “is fantastic” and instead just piled 3D feature after feature into a poor UI that prevented good use of these features.

Bforartists demonstrates very nicely that Blender with a more sensible UI layout and interaction is almost as good as using a commercial 3D app that sells for 2K to 4K.

#6

They needed it 20 years ago… It is rather amazing how stubborn they have been.

#7

I completely agree with Skeebertus about Blender and it’s update path, but am eager to try out Bforartists and see how it goes myself.

However, I disagree about muscle-memory learning in pipelines. While I get the analogy with crossed-wires, our brains don’t actually work like that and I don’t think it’s necessarily true. Perhaps for Skeebertus, perhaps for many people, but I have no problem switching between various softwares which have different hotkeys and operational methods. Pan/Zoom/Orbit is different in Maya and Rhino, for example, one using Alt for everything the other using Shift for some things and default LMB/RMB for others, and I never have issues going back and forth constantly every day - or perhaps I don’t have issues because I go back and forth so often. Same with Photoshop. I never accidentally try to Alt-MMB “pan” in Photoshop. My mind is already in “Photoshop-space” or “Rhino-space” when those apps are open.

But on the flip side of that, I never learned Zbrush because I couldn’t get used to the controls. Mudbox however works great for me, since you set it to act just like Maya and then it’s fine. So I don’t mean to make myself sound super-capable or “beyond” such logics - I’m just as much prone to hotkey confusion as anyone else.

Hopefully Bforartists and the upcoming big update for Blender help it out, though! We need Blender around, the competition makes all products better (hopefully!) :slight_smile: