[Bf-committers] Bug tracker stats + engine future...

[Ton Roosendaal]

Hi,

Did a cleanup of tracker. Still about 64 open report, of which:

25  Game engine
11  Python API
10  Confirmed bugs, waiting to be solved (with 6 related to rendering)
  6  Unconfirmed bugs, pending research/feedback
  5  Bugs in code we don't support now (subdivide, boolean, subsurf, IK)
  3  Scripts bundled in
  3  related to dependency graph

The open python and scripts report seem to me partially solved  
already... might be nice signal for the py team to go over it one of  
these days. :)

The 25 game engine bugs, almost all assigned to Kester, is a major  
issue yes... can't expect Kester to solve all by himself, but we can't  
keep this situation much longer either.

Kester, how are you BTW! I can imagine it's not nice to be so less  
appreciated for all your work... nevertheless, we have to define how we  
move on. Suggestions we can think of todo;

1- Declare engine as "unstable" and "in development" still. Create a  
separate tracker for engine bugs, with a clear note that we like such  
reports in, but can't solve it all yet.

2- Leave the game engine in Blender and wait for a dev team to emerge.

3- Remove the engine from bf-blender, separate it in own project (own  
cvs) and wait for a dev team to turn this into an optional download,  
working as plugin for Blender (like yafray) but opening its own window  
(like a player). Opportunities for tighter exporting to other engines  
could be checked on (Worldforge, Ogre, etc).

Already from a long past ago, I'm the main baddie to blame that we've  
got an engine in Blender. I really think it's an important & unique  
selling point for Blender. I also still firmly believe in the future of  
an integrated real-time/interactive 3d creation suite.
Unfortunately for such a major feature it's not only "what you like to  
see happen", but especially "where does energy & interest go to". From  
open source management perspective, we should not release (too much)  
unsupported & unfinished & unused code in Blender.

As for the current roadmap, with major restructuring plans in progress  
(displaylists & drawing, event system, dependency graph, armature  
animation system, softbody & physics, the 2.3 UI project) it's very  
clear where our interest and energy goes to. If we, as intended, like  
to go for a 2.4-stable this summer, we should also have decided if 2.4  
will have an engine, or not... from my perspective, I'd go for  
alternative 3... howver painful it is for a couple of *very* happy  
users of our interactivity tools <sob>!

-Ton-


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