[Bf-committers] Preliminary version of Blender Digest

Tom M letterrip at gmail.com
Mon Apr 4 04:42:58 CEST 2005 

This is a preliminary version of the next Blender Digest.  It isn't
quite complete, and I'd appreciate people pointing out anything that
I've overlooked.  Basically it is meant to cover all significant
development since the last release.  Intrr you might want to provide a
list of stuff that is unique to your tree.

******************

Welcome to the latest Blender Digest,

improvements have been happening at a blazingly fast pace in Blender
land, with both significant improvements in functionality and code
quality.

We will look at improvements in the two official blender trees
(Bf-Blender from which releases are made, and Tuhopuu - the
experimental tree where new ideas are tested out before migrating them
to the main tree), a prominent external tree provided by intrr
(Instinctive Blender), and then we will have a look at the numerous
scripts and plugins that have been created.
  
To start off we'll have a look at the Bf-Blender Core,

[B]Tranform Refactor[/B]

Martin Poirier (Theeth) has completely refactored the transform code
(code that allows things like moving, scaling and rotating and
object).  From a user view, big changes are Planar Constraints, better
constraint handling in general, improved PET (Proportional Editing -
editing with a 'fall off distance'), and the refactor also made it
possible for Ton Rosendal to add Manipulators making Blender
significantly more accessible to new and novice users.

[B]Dependency Graphs[/B]

JLuc Peuriere (lukep) has been hard at work on a dependency graphs. 
This is mostly behind the scenes work that will make certain tasks
easier and faster.  The big area of help is that it will make Tons
planned refactor of the Animation system much easier.

[B]Half-Edge Mesh[/B]

Joeedh has implemented an additional mesh structure for Blender, the
half edge mesh.  Half Edges make implementing some mesh editing tools
much easier.  Joe has also implemented a modifier stack, mouse over
highlighting, and a tool macro system that work with his new half edge
structure.

[B]CCGSubSurf[/B]

zr has created a replacement for Blenders current catmul-clark subsurf
code.  The biggest change is that it is far faster than the original
subsurf code, especially when editing a highly subsurfed mesh.  His
work has also 'paved the way' for a modifier stack, and has simplified
the code and API.

[B]MetaMesh[/B]

JiriHnidek as part of his thesis work has been improving Blenders
MetaBalls and 'MetaElms' functionlity.  Some improvements include the
ability to rotate meta objects, and converting of arbitrary meshes to
metaelms.

[B]Softbody Dynamics[/B]

Bjornmose has implemented soft body (gelatin and jiggle effects) for
Blender.  Ton has recently integrated the code into the Bf-Blender
tree.

[B]CommandLine[/B]

?? has given full access to python scripting and blender commands via
the command line
 
[B]Ocean Simulator[/B]

Simon Harvey has been working on greatly improving Blender
capabilities to simulate an waves and oceans.  Implementing a shader
and mesh modifier tool.

[B]Python Scripts and Plugins[/B]
The next section is on scripts that have been created or improved for
usage with Blender.


Mesh Tools

Tom Musgroves (LetterRip) and Michael Schardts sculpt mesh has seen
substantial improvements in speed and a modest increase in
functionality.  It can now be used on fairly dense mesh (zooming in
increases the density it is useful on), and has an 'Undo Mode' which
will return a vertex to its original unsculpted location.  Michael has
also developed a plugin that allows usage of Pen tablets with the
script.
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31732&start=180

paleajed has implemented KnifePro0.7 an improvement over Blenders
current knife tool.
http://users.telenet.be/EWOCprojects/edgeslide.html

jms has improved his Mesh Explosion script which does a simple explosion effect.
http://jmsoler.free.fr/didacticiel/blender/tutor/cpl_meshexplosion.htm#explosionspatterns

seredipiti has written Geodesic which generates Geodesic structures.
http://members.aol.com/demalion2/index.html

cambo has created UVs -> Mesh and Mesh ->UVs (not sure what it does?)
http://members.iinet.net.au/~cpbarton/ideasman/

rherman has written Photoclinometry which creates a mesh based on
shading information from an image.
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36528&start=0
http://www.treehouse-productions.com/Scripts/clinotest.py

paleajed has written TranspRef which creates trasparent image plane
for reference images when modeling.
http://users.telenet.be/EWOCprojects/edgeslide.html

S68 has created Blender Rope Works (BRW) which allows for animation of
a rope and pulley system
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39693
http://projects.blender.org/viewcvs/viewcvs.cgi/bstar/BRW/?cvsroot=bstar

SpookyElectric has been working on an improved Boolean tool to replace
Blenders current Boolean tool.
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29200&start=0
http://astro.scu.edu/~ted/oss/blender/boolean/megabool_r08.py

syrux has written Discombobulator which creates surface 'detail' on
the surface of an object.
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36561&start=0

Jimmy Haze has improved his A.N.T. Landscape creator tool which uses
noise to create a simulated mountains valleys and other landscape.
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35882&start=0

palejed has written EgdeTune which allows you to slide verts along an edge.
http://users.telenet.be/EWOCprojects/edgeslide.html

panzi has written TerryNoise which can distort a mes through noise generation
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38458&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

neil has developered a script for creating 'Gothic Vaults'
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8086&start=0


[B]Animation[/B]

guitargeek has implemented IPOBurner Script which bakes game object
motion to Blender animation system IPOs.
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40091

lancelot has written Camera Calibration for Blender which is used for
aligning the camera to the 3d space of a photograph.
http://www.warpax.com/pytsai/index.html 

Wizards

MakeHuman team has made a number of improvements to makehuman, a
script for parametrically modeling a human, including an easy to use
interface and greatly improved model.
http://www.dedalo-3d.com/


[B]Rendering and Post processing[/B]

Makehuman team has created a script for a subsurface scattering effect.
http://www.dedalo-3d.com/public/forum/index.php?a=topic&topic=1111837542.23

[B]Importers and Exporters[/B]

phlip - premul plugin
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40114&start=0

paprmh - Z-screen/zutilz 
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35355&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

S68 - Blender Go Cubic
http://projects.blender.org/viewcvs/viewcvs.cgi/bstar/BGC/?cvsroot=bstar
http://www.alienhelpdesk.com/index.php?id=16

jms - level of detail-matic
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38948
http://jmsoler.free.fr/didacticiel/blender/tutor/cpl_LOD_en.htm

flippyneck - G Buffer Extractor
http://www.flippyneck.com/wip/g_buffer_extractor_a05.py 
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26189&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

qwe - lightsaber plugin
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29973&start=60

[B]Importers and exporters[/B]
Brandano - Netimmerse (Morrowind, Freedom Force format) importer
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/NIFLA/

hopperrr - YADEMI - Yet Another Digital Elevation Metadata Importer
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38108

Bart - improved VRML exporter
http://www.neeneenee.de/blender/x3d/changes.txt
http://www.neeneenee.de/blender/x3d/vrml97_export150.py.txt 

bob_holcomb - assorted importer and exporter scripts
http://67.22.114.230:8082/programming/blender/

Skunk - bvh to armature
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40203
http://members.fortunecity.de/arm
http://www.websamba.com/Armature

jms - curves importer
http://jmsoler.free.fr/didacticiel/blender/tutor/cpl_curvesimport_en.htm
http://jmsoler.free.fr/didacticiel/blender/tutor/cpl_paths_import_en.htm
http://jmsoler.free.fr/didacticiel/blender/tutor/cpl_import_ai_en.htm

svenom Milkshape exporter

Sutabi - BlenderMan 0.1 Beta 9c
http://sutabi.tk/files/blenderman0.1beta9.0c.zip 

hobBIT - new renderman approach
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39007

nfz - ATI nmf format exporter
http://www.blender.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=phpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=5842

rompel - CRYSTALISER
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38996

[B]Misc[/B]

SamAdam - BpyMan Script Repository Package Manager - automatically
updates Blender scripts
http://www.toxicx.toxicengine.org/scripts/scripts2.php

raphael - Gimp palettes import Script
http://dwarf.free.fr/dwarf/blender/python/transpal/transpalExpress.zip 

jms - Tessalate script
http://jmsoler.free.fr/didacticiel/blender/tutor/python_wireshadows_en.htm

More information about the Bf-committers mailing list