[Bf-committers] Meeting minutes aug 31

[Ton Roosendaal]

Hi,

irc.freenode.net #blendercoders, 16-18h CEST

Agenda:

--> 2.29 release shortlist (and discussion)
Goal was to pin down what the targets are for a release, based at what  
people work at now, and what is expected to be finished in a couple of  
weeks.

- Recursive Environment mapping
Intrr experimented with multi-pass environment mapping, to enable a  
'mirror in mirror' effect. He proposed to make this a global render  
option (F10 menu). After some discussion (read: pressure :) he accepted  
moving this locally, as a "Depth" setting per envmap texture.

- Other new envmap options:
   - In render buttons (F10) you can enable/disable envmap render, like  
now with shadows
   - In texture buttons (F6); new option "free all envmaps".
   - Ton proposed to look at a 'Render envmap" option here as well, to  
be able to render a single environment map, for test & tweaking.
   - Intrr will check if not displaying rendering in renderwindow (while  
envmap rendering) is giving a nice speedup.

- Python in UI integration
This topic has three sub-projects involved:
1. A method to scan default directories with Python scripts to be  
included in Blender
2. A method how python scripts will use the GUI, and where in Blender  
that will be located
3. A new 'SpaceScript' window type, available for python scripts to use  
as canvas.

Extensive discussion on these topics also were on the mailing list the  
past week. It is not clear yet how much of this will make it in 2.29,  
or will be done in conjunction with a UI make-over project.
It would also be nice if we can quickly offer built-in  
importers/exporters to our users.

- FaceLoop and EdgeLoop selection
Both Goofster and Intrr have experimented with a new selection tool,  
which allows automatic selection of a row of vertices/edges/faces  
within a model.
Intrr will continue work on this code, but he suffers from lack of  
documentation on EditMesh code... Ton proposed he should use the 'last  
selected vertex' which is a global within the editmesh code. That would  
enable sequential edge-loop selection based at actual selected edges,  
not on 'an edge close to mouse'.
Goofster doubts his code is useful compared to intrr's...

- MetaBall improvements
Jiri works on improving the metaball editor, also based at proposals he  
already sent to the mailing list. First step will be adding more  
primitives, which should have been committed now. He also checks on the  
bug of the 'dissappearing mball' that sometimes happens.
His next target is including Curve Objects in an MBall system. After  
that he'll look at a smart incremental-update system, to make editing  
quite some faster. The latter might not be a 2.29 target.

- Radio render
The code has been committed, and is being tested by users now. There  
are a couple of UI issues with it, like integrating this with the  
current 'shaders' menu, instead of heaving a 'Radio' option in  
Materials. Based at feedback from users I'll come with a proposal on  
this later.

- New installer
Aphex presented a new installer for Windows. Matt Ebb will come with  
some gfx for it.

- New Constraints
Theeth has worked on constraints, which will be moved from Tuhopuu to  
Blender. This was discussed at funboard mailing list

- Numeric entry for transform()
Was also in discussion at funboard list, specs need to be finalized.

-Ton-

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--
Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton@blender.org  
http://www.blender.org