For the win32 builds FFTW3 support (used in Smoke simulation) is now enabled too, whereas for the 64bit builds it already was there.

This build has now the merged GSoC Sculpt branch work, as well as the latest changes for the filepath patch.

Please give these a good spin again. Thanks and enjoy!
/Nathan

• Blender 2.5 r30109 win32
• Blender 2.5 r30109 win64

As always, you can find the links to these download pages on the right side of my blog.

Update: I’ve now also updated the installer builds:

• Blender 2.5 r30109 win32 installer
• Blender 2.5 r30109 win64 installer

• Blender installer for Windows 32
• Blender installer for Windows 64

The fixes in these binaries are:

• win64 version had default install path pointing to C:\Program Files (x86)
• links from start menu weren’t properly removed
• update to later vcredist, so there won’t be temp files hanging around after install

I’ve also enabled the blenderplayer, so you should be able to find that too!

Again, please test drive them and report back.

Enjoy!
/Nathan

• Blender installer for Windows 32
• Blender installer for Windows 64

Please post results (both positive and negative) in the comments. Thanks!

Enjoy,

/Nathan

I still need to check out on Jack, libsamplerate and sndfile -support, as those are still disabled in my builds.

Other than that, enjoy as usual!

/Nathan

As I wrote in my previous short blog, I’d write up a longer post about what’s happening. As you may have noticed, my regular builds came to a halt. This was simply due to me being transferred to a project with the usual hush-hush tag on it. Also, this project was very demanding. I loved to do it: it was (and probably still is) technically challenging, had to do with cool technology and the direct collegues were great to work with. That was January, 2010, at Cybercom Plenware Oy.

Because the project was very intense: high communication demands, lots of code to work with: own code, numerous dependencies, and a constant changing development environment, almost weekly travels, and at some point, being scrummaster, I found it very hard to properly concentrate on anything else but my family after working hours. So unfortunately I let my blog linger, and all other work I had wanted to do.

Then came April. Talks with several people. Talking with the better half of me. And finally on April the 30th I resigned from my job – even though it was a great place and position to work in. With the possibilities offered and all the talking, I felt now was the right moment to do so. The right moment to make the decision to become my own boss.

So, a months worth of resignation time started – with no less work to do. Still so many interesting and more or less exciting things in the pipeline that I just couldn’t leave right away. And to be honest, I think it was the right think to do: to complete the tasks still open, to do My Thing one more time for Cybercom Plenware and the project. And I think that I managed to do so.

Meet Mr. Nathan Letwory, entrepreneur. Or whatever those beasts are called. I’ve now worked for a few weeks already as my own boss, and I must say I like it very much. In the morning I wake and, what do you know, I’m at the office already!

I am now active in a RealXtend, working on the Naali viewer. This will take right now most of my time. But I have also activated again in Blender development – started with updating some overdue libraries in lib/windows and lib/win64 modules. Furthermore I’ve taken some bug reports and patches (like the data and installation paths patch by Matt Ebb) under my looking glass to work on in the coming time. I hope to be useful for the upcoming Blender 2.5 Beta release (right now targetted for the end of this month). I’ve also offered Ton to assist him with Blender Conference 2010 organisation, so I’ll be there too – at last, it has been too long.

Of course, there’s the other projects I’ll be working on, and have been working on and off for the past two weeks: blenderstorm.org, updates to blender-fi.org (working on a competition module for organising contests and tournaments – and integration between the different parts that we have there), some work for Daniel Salazar (you’ll see, you’ll see) and much more.

As you can see, enough to do for this year: both paid work and volunteering work. I hope to be in touch with more people who need contracted work to be done, so please contact me if you read this and you think you might need me I’ll be looking as much as possible for work related to Blender and Open Source.

Looking at my previous posts with testing builds published on Graphicall.org, I see that during my 4 month inactivity there have been a whopping 3100+ commits! Way to go! When I’ve got more of the libs updated I’ll be posting again a newer testing build.

Now I’ll have to get back to work. I hope readers now know more about what has happened and what will happen in the (near) future.

/Nathan

[NOTE] The uploads seem to be stuck, so please keep checking the links to see if the uploads when through properly.

Just a quick post that I have updated since a looong time my builds on Graphicall.org. See the links in the navigation section for the new builds.

I’ll write up later today a larger post about my Blender development and other exciting news.

Stay tuned!

/Nathan

For those interested in COLLADA there’s a fix by Arystan that addresses some rotation issues and naming issues.

Further there are fixes for crashers (opening properties window could crash, projection painting on subsurf or multires could crash. And there’s fixes for existing, but broken functionality, like edge slide after loop cut when face select mode was enabled.

Download the version you need for your Windows and give it a spin.

• Blender 2.5 r25969 – 32bit Windows
• Blender 2.5 r25969 – 64bit Windows

Remember, comments and other feedback (bugs, other issues) are always welcome!

It’s been only a few weeks since my previous builds, but between that post and this there have been over 300 commits. Please refer to the commit logs to see what has been changed, added, removed.

As always, the packages are self-extracting 7z-archives (you can still use your locally installed 7z if you are so inclined – just right-click on the archive and choose the proper action from the 7z context menu), and scanned for viruses with AVG Anti-Virus 9.0.725.

• Blender 2.5 r25772, Windows, 32bit
• Blender 2.5 r25772, Windows, 64bit

As interesting extra information: I have now bought Windows 7 Ultimate retail, and the install went smooth. At least my Blender development and build environment is up and running! Although I’ve got this covered now, you are still free to donate (I’d like to be able to get the next Visual Studio when it comes out, for instance). Check the Blender Development page elsewhere on my blog.

At any rate, enjoy these new builds!

/Nathan

keymap editor

It represents the available keymaps in a hierarchy that shows in a nicer way than the old version. Just give it a good spin. As always give everything a good spin

You should be able to find the links to the builds on the right side of my blog →

Anyway, I’ve uploaded 32bit and 64bit builds to Graphicall.org again, so grab them, test them, and keep the reports coming in!

• 32bit Blender 2.5 for Windows
• 64bit Blender 2.5 for Windows

Note, I have also links to my builds on Graphicall on the right of my blog ->

Make sure you follow them

I have re-uploaded 32bit and 64bit builds to graphicall.org that now have SSE optimisation for the renderer enabled.  You should now be able to successfully use SIMD QBVH and SIMD SVBVH, which would print that SSE was disabled during compile time when using the previous builds I posted.

To use any of the optimisations, check the Performance panel in render settings. The Auto setting tries to select the best optimisation strategy, but you can choose any of the other ones too. Octree is what we know from the previous Blender series, all the new names are from the GSoC work done by André Susano Pinto (jaguarandi).

• win32 build
• win64 build

To use any of the optimisations, check the Performance panel in render settings. The Auto setting tries to select the best optimisation strategy, but you can choose any of the other ones too. Octree is what we know from the previous Blender series, all the new names are from the GSoC work done by André Susano Pinto (jaguarandi).

• win32 build
• win64 build

• Minimum size for windows: Blender windows (system level, ie. the application window of Blender) can’t be resized below a minimum size. This is to prevent buggy behaviour of the Blender window manager, where all areas would go bonkers when Blender window would be resized very, very small.
• Preparation for Drag and Drop: Matt D. adds support for drag and drop on the GHOST level, the OS-layer library that Blender uses to get events, manipulate windows etc. from the OS. Further of no usage to the user, but I bet that the prospect makes users drool with wild fantasies.
• Last, but not least: Continuous Grab. This will allow you to execute translations without having to worry for the mouse pointer to go out of the 3dview. Just start your transformation and drag, drag, drag until your happy. You’ll see the mouse pointer warp around the 3dview. This feature is by default enabled, but if you’ve been mucking about with the user preferences, make sure you haven’t accidently disabled it.

Again, great work by Matt D.! You can grab your build from Graphicall of course!

• win32 build, r25059
• win64 build, r25059