[Bf-committers] GSOC2013

Fable Fox fablefox at fablefox.com
Wed Mar 20 13:34:06 CET 2013


I agree with some of the point given.

However:

Ton, I know we have discussed this before and 'Blender road map' is what
contributor brings to the table. But I think people need an official road
map, while still accepting whatever other branches that deemed useful, eg:
Freestyle. To quote Alice in Wonderland, "If you doesn't know where to go,
any road is okay" or something. This is to make sure Blender isn't spread
too thin, and at times, functionality will be dropped due to lack of
maintainer (Photoshop file input?) Or dropped just because (Blender
Internal).

Is it possible to have "Summer of TODOs"? I thought TO DOs are something
useful that not much people want to work on after realizing that its not a
bug. After all, there is a lot of good stuff there. Maybe divide TODOs into
category and let students work on it. This is maybe good since students are
not overwhelmed with one big project that might not get incorporated into
Blender. Instead, they kept working on multiple small stuff, with each are
useful once completed since it will improve Blender.

Last but not least, not naming names, it is possible to have Blender own
texture generator? You know, like some generator that is popular enough to
be incorporated into game engines, and texturing pipeline. The idea is that
maybe one or two student code the tools while the rest code the generators
(gausian, checkered, etc, wood, marble, etc). Just take any GPL code
available on the net, or from other GPL software, GIMP or Krita or Mypaint
or what not, to make the development fast. I know Blender already have
texture (basic?) generator, so maybe an idea there.

I thought there is a website where people vote for Blender features, but I
can't remember the address, or if the website is still alive, or popular
enough that what voted there is the voice of majority.

My vote? Since Blender was used for one of Spiderman pre-production, I
think Machinima is a good target since we already have the game engine
side. With Cryengine goes into CryCinema, and UDK with its export to bmp,
and Unity with its machinima and that Butterfly movie, and Steam Movie(?),
Valve Filmaker, so I think its a good idea to venture there.

And maybe Blender should officially "adopt" a few game engine format (Valve
and Unity is good idea) and provide some student into improving current
exporter. If we want to bring more users (therefore, hopefully, more income
through item purchase and donation) this is a good thing. The other good
thing is that, unlike other target sector, these users, sometimes, are
developer (eg: indie game programmer). Unlike artist users who have no
background in programming, these people usually know C,Python,C# and
somewhere  on the level. This could lead to more future Blender developer.

Anyway, that is my rant on GSOC and Blender road map.

Oh, I'm back. :-)

-- 
Fable Fox
fablefox at fablefox.com
http://www.fablefox.com


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