so, what do YOU want in Blender 2.29?

[A2597]

So, how about a real list of things that
1: Are realistic for the next release
2: are something the entire community can use



My short list of things I've been wanting for years and years...

GLOWS. I want the ability to make an object GLOW, like a halo, only for meshes. Hundereds of uses...I want.

Focal Blur: I saw a picture somewhere that showed one method of doing it, that had a point along the camera distance line that was the focal point, I think its an excellent idea

textures in radiosity:
The new radiosity ROCKS, but I want textures included.



ok...that pretty much completes my list...of course there are alot of things we all want, raytracing, etc. but face it, theres no way that can make it into the next release. If you post anything, try to keep it realistic.

[theeth]

Whatever you ask for 2.29 is just not gonna happen since there won't be a 2.29.

I guess the 2.28c notes weren't clear enough about that, we skipped 2.29 to have more time to work on 2.3

Martin

[jd-multi]

Theeth: I guess the 2.28c notes weren't clear enough about that, we skipped 2.29 to have more time to work on 2.3

Lol, I tought he didn't read the article at the frontpage.

What I really want in the next blender release?
Oowh, I've got one big wish, not so hard to do, but It's really needed. The return of the game engine with some awesome new features.
I'm really addicted to blender's game engine in 2.25, it's easy, cool, and even no coders can make games. And if you want to make a game more complex, just use python. It would be really sad when they let it Die slowly. But Ton said that the game engine will return. So I believe.

[steve_t]

-Hard edges in subdivision surfaces-
I have used this feature in maya and other 3d apps. I think it is a staple feature of a subdivision surface system. With creases or hard edges I can make the same car model with a base mesh half as complex and messy and it will look better in the end result.
I understand that this might be a hard feature to impliment but this is a real feature with real value to allot of people.
Steve

[blendermax]

-Hard edges in subdivision surfaces-

ditto. id really love to see that. its a pain in the ass to extrude everything all the time, and then have to re-do EVERYTHING when you decide to remove doubles, forgetting about the fact that you've got 0-distance extrusions in your mesh (essentially doubles that you want).

[BgDM]

Hard edges in the sub-surf would be fantastic to add. I 3rd this motion.

Also, as I have requested here before, better & cleaner boolean operations. This would make modelling stuff so much easier. Details that you have to physically model now, could be done later on for fine details, etc. Just would make my life so much easier.

BgDM

[pgregory]

I know this is probably a point done to death but I honestly believe that until Blender has proper multi level undo across the board it will stuggle to gain true industry acceptance. I know the roadmap for 2.3 suggests an undo functionality for mesh editing but that doesn't cut it, it must apply across the whole gamut of functionality.

I know it is probably a nightmare to retrofit into an existing system, but without it Blender will be overlooked. If just once a day in a production environment a significant amount of work is lost because of no undo, the product will not be financially viable. This problem is only going to get worse with the expanding level of functionality that seems to be happening. More functions means more chance of doing something unintended.

Just my two-penn'orth.

[RobertT]

Some possible suggestions:

- the ability to align selected objects to first object selected (top, left, right, bottom, center...)

- more procedural textures

- a variable noise texture

- the ability to select multiple objects and assign materials or textures simulataneously to all those objects

- random vertice selection under Specials menu

- add noise function to Specials menu

- make noise button variable (like fractal subdiv function) in Edit window

- new object constraints: copy Size (or individually Size X, Size Y, Size Z)

- increase nor intensity range values in materials window

- ability to edit object (when pressing "/") as if it were not rotated (temporarily canceling rotation for the purposes of editing an object)

- prompt to save changes before exiting Blender

- crash recovery option (reload last temp .blend file if possible)

- render level options: render as grayscale, increase/decrease RGB levels of rendered image/frame, hue/saturation adjustment, brightness/contrast, camera grain, color correction, DOF, blur/sharpen (some inline post-production stuff, especially handy for animation purposes)

- new primitive shapes: pyramid (3d triangular), mesh donut

- add new mirror x/y options to image textures to create continuous/seamless textures when repeated over a mesh

- add Make Dupliverts Real (ctrl shift a) option somewhere in interface (maybe Specials menu)

- new palette option/window when double-clicking mirror/spec/color boxes - creates a color selector palette with user definable boxes and a save/load palette feature

- ability to edit multiple objects at once without having to join meshes (select multiple objects, maybe something like shift tab to enter "edit selected meshes" mode)


Just some thoughts.

Thanks to all the programmers and people who make Blender possible. Your work is deeply appreciated and simply incredible!!

RobertT

[matt_e]

Hrm, some interesting ideas!

Just a hint, if you have a feature suggestion, it's a good idea to it in the Feature Requests tracker, so it doesn't get lost in the noise of the forum and so they're in a central place for programmers to find them. Even better is to help out with more detailed proposals/research for how these would work within Blender's interface, on the Functionality Board.

Here's a bit more information:
Feature Requests

BTW RobertT: I already put random vertex selection in tuhopuu2 recently. It's not in the specials menu, but it's currently in the menu Select -> Random Vertices when you're in edit mode

Cheers

[Monkeyboi]

A new Relative Vetex Keys (RVK) system. You should be able to rename the each RVK, and the management system of them should be different - the current strange line-based system of storing the keys is too wierd, we need something more logical. You should also be able to create as many RVKs as you would like, and deleting/creating new RVKs is more logical too. No more having to press IKEY and choosing Mesh (this is so illogical, and wierd). You would just press the New button to create a new RVK.

Here is a mocup of how it could work:



The idea is to make it possible to rename the RVKs, so that you keep track of things.


As you can see, there are sliders under each RVK. I know there are already RVK sliders in the actoion window, but I think placing them in the IPO window would be better for this reason: Sliders would be in the same window you also edit the curves in wich would be more convenient.

You could also expand on the idea and have sliders for all types of IPO. This would make lots of cool thing possible, for example you could have a slider control an NLA-strip infulence through the IPO window. You colud also use in in conjuntion with the sequence editor for blending your compositions with sliders.

[RobertT]

if you have a feature suggestion, it's a good idea to it in the Feature Requests tracker

Thanks, broken! I did just that. I didn't know of the feature request tracker. I posted all my suggestions there.

Thanks!

RobertT

[harkyman]

For the record, you can already rename rvk's. In the action window, the rvk sliders appear. Place the cursor over the key name in this window, press n-key, and it allows you to rename the key. Agreed the system is sloppy and illogical. It would make more sense to generate the keys directly in the Actions window.

[theeth]

*** Those are feature requests by RobertT

- more procedural textures

- a variable noise texture

- the ability to select multiple objects and assign materials or textures simulataneously to all those objects

Can already be done. Ctrl-L -> Materials to link the material of the active object to the selected objects.

- random vertice selection under Specials menu

I think somebody already added this to Tuhopuu

- new object constraints: copy Size (or individually Size X, Size Y, Size Z)

Easy stuff, this would take a big 30 mins to code, maximum

- ability to edit object (when pressing "/") as if it were not rotated (temporarily canceling rotation for the purposes of editing an object)

I don't get that.

- prompt to save changes before exiting Blender

that's what quit.blend is for, but a save dialog would be nice.

- crash recovery option (reload last temp .blend file if possible)

first, it would have to identify when it crashes (not always easy, but could be done through a trick) then it would just need to load the last temp file.

- new primitive shapes: pyramid (3d triangular), mesh donut

Pyramid is easy, just make a cone and decrease the vertice count.

A donut would probably be easy to add.

- ability to edit multiple objects at once without having to join meshes (select multiple objects, maybe something like shift tab to enter "edit selected meshes" mode)

That's most probably not possible due to a couple of things, the first of which being that you could select both a mesh and a nurbs surface and a lamp and ...

A hotkey to "tab" between selected object would be nice though.

Martin

[stiv]

- more procedural textures
- a variable noise texture

You don't need a new release of blender for this. An API for texture and sequence plugins already exists.

[modron]

I would like it to have a secret command that unleashes a powerful death ray.