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This is (a release candidate for) a huge milestone in Blender's history. So much has been improved, that some, including myself, have speculated why they didn't

This is (a release candidate for) a huge milestone in Blender's history. So much has been improved, that some, including myself, have speculated why they didn't choose to make it a 3.0 release. Aside from the fantastic new features geared towards existing users, which are described in detail & with pictures in the OP, this release also makes Blender a lot more user-friendly for those who haven't used it before. 3D software almost necessarily has a steep learning curve for new users, as you have to learn not only how to use a new program, but also how 3D content creation itself works. But in this release the developers and designers have made an effort to get rid of the biggest "gotchas" that many new users complained about when using previous versions of Blender. If you've wanted to get into 3D content creation before, there's never been a better time!

yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
> there's never been a better time! Sounds like the best time is "in the coming days." :) But seriously: I'm not sure I want to cut my teeth on a version that hasn't been fully tested for bugs.
- gfodor 7y ago
  It's not a beta, it's an RC. 2.8 has been being tested for bugs for months now.
  - harperlee 7y ago
    Anyone can read in the developer blog’s last entry (2 clicks away from blender’s homepage) that the final 2.8 version was scheduled in only 5 days, but OP seemingly wanted the karma points. Otherwise there isn’t any real reason for sharing a RC of a project you are not working with without checking what is the release plan.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
    Then why is it RC and not release?
goblin89 7y ago
In release notes[0] for Cycles there are a lot of mentions of CUDA. Also many mentions of OpenCL, with the ominous note that it’s been “disabled on macOS platform”. I’m wondering how complex can animations be, with reasonable frame render times, on macOS with Radeon Pro Vega 16? I know it’s a very open-ended question but I’m curious for any take. (For some context, I’m completely unfamiliar with the pipeline/ecosystem, but wanted to hobby around with 3D for a while. Lacking a suitable GPU, now I’m considering how viable would this be on latest MBP’s graphics. If not so much, I might go for a cheaper GPU option & postpone my 3D experiments until I can have a fixed workstation with fast GPU in addition to laptop I use for work.) [0] https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Reference/Release_Notes/2.80/Cycles https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Reference/Release_Notes/2.80/C...
- panpanna 7y ago
  I think it's probably cheaper and safer to buy a second hand gpu rig and use it as your reneder farm. With that said, your initial 3d experiments should run just fine on cpu only.
- _Wintermute 7y ago
  If you're just learning then new Eevee renderer in 2.80 is great for 90% of things and is pretty much real-time. For those final shots you can use cycles with your CPU, it's going to take longer but lack of a GPU shouldn't stop you as a hobbiest. edit: after some more reading I'm not sure if Eevee works on CPU, but I don't have blender 2.8 on a cpu-only machine to test this.
  - basq 7y ago
    Eevee is a gpu only renderer.
- deckiedan 7y ago
  The new 2.8 release comes with the Eevee "real time" 3d engine, which should work well with your current system. If you need to use Cycles, it'll still work fine with your CPU for now - and you can always either use an online render farm (there are many!) for more complex stuff, or buy a separate rig if you end up using it enough.
karanganesan 7y ago
what plans does the team has for 3.0 ??? any thing groundbreaking tech ???
- PyroLagus 7y ago
  Well, they're thinking of overhauling the core.[0] Pablo Vazquez also made a video on why he thinks it shouldn't be 3.0 yet.[1] [0] https://code.blender.org/2013/06/blender-roadmap-2-7-2-8-and-beyond/ https://code.blender.org/2013/06/blender-roadmap-2-7-2-8-and... [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJE7vMmOYZ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJE7vMmOYZ4
  - robin_reala 7y ago
    That roadmap is 6 years old at this point. I’d imagine plans have changed a little since then.
BurningCycles 7y ago
Another thing to note is that the future of Blender development never looked as good as it does now. The recently introduced 'Blender Development Fund' already recieves € 37245 every month in donations, which directly goes to hiring more Blender developers. As impressive as 2.80 is, I'm really eager to see what 2.81+ brings, one area which looks like it will get a major improvement is 'sculpting' where a newcomer (Pablo Dobarro) has been making waves with a lot of interesting development in a separate branch, resulting in hints from the Blender Foundation of him being hired soon. Good times!
- jadbox 7y ago
  Pablo Dobarro's work around improving sculpting is really incredible, and imho, makes Blender compete as a zbrush alternative (at least as a solid casual alternative). If you want to see this project succeed, you can donate to his patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pablodp606/posts https://www.patreon.com/pablodp606/posts
b_tterc_p 7y ago
I am interested in jumping in. I’m concerned that new features, even if better, would make it hard to find up to date documentation and tutorials. Any recommendations?
- elliekelly 7y ago
  I got started with a tutorial (on Udemy I think) that used a much older version and while it definitely took me longer I think I learned a lot more. I got to poke around and try things and make mistakes that I probably wouldn’t have tried otherwise.
- JTxt 7y ago
  Youtube has several people frantically creating tutorials for 2.8: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=blender+2.8+tutorial https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=blender+2.8+tut... 'Too hard to learn' was a legitimate concern in the early days... even though the payoff is huge. Perhaps it still is some, but not more than most other 3d suites. The interface is so much discoverable, and has switchable key maps so that it's similar to other 3d apps.
langitbiru 7y ago
Blender is also related with Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. You can create and edit 3D models of AR/VR with Blender.
- andybak 7y ago
  Do you mean "create for AR/VR" or "create in AR/VR"? Any 3D application is useful for the former so I'm not clear on what specifically you're referring to. If you mean the latter then I'm aware of a "edit inside VR" add-on for Blender but unclear on what the AR connection might be.
  - nybble41 7y ago
    This is probably a reference to the integrated motion tracking support[1]. Sure, you can use any 3D application to generate content for AR, but it's a lot easier to overlay 3D object into an existing scene when the 3D application can process a video and automatically adjust the camera parameters to match. [1] https://lesterbanks.com/2019/07/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-motion-tracking-in-blender/ https://lesterbanks.com/2019/07/everything-you-wanted-to-kno...
  - langitbiru 7y ago
    Sorry, I mean Blender as a 3D application. You can create or edit 3D models and export them to AR application.
lghh 7y ago
> If you've wanted to get into 3D content creation before, there's never been a better time! I've heard that several times as this version has been in the works. Will this make most of the tutorials for Blender harder to work through until they are updated? I've heard that the UI will be pretty different.
- canada_dry 7y ago
  > the UI will be pretty different. The is the most frustrating downside - the side effect of all major software overhauls - all of a sudden the wealth of tutorials and guides are out of date!
  - froindt 7y ago
    It'd be interesting if Blender had an interaction recorder for tutorials, which could be turned on and off as desired. The user would make and record a tutorial entirely in blender, and an interaction text file would be saved. When a new version comes out, the interactions could be replayed, with the new menu tree, effectively re-rendering the whole video. Doing so could also allow a user to upload a file summarizing their key bindings, and have any customizations shown in the tutorial. It wouldn't be perfect, but it'd be neat if it existed.
- Stevvo 7y ago
  Most people making tutorials already switched over to 2.8 a while ago, so there is already a large body of tutorials available.

yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago

> there's never been a better time! Sounds like the best time is "in the coming days." :) But seriously: I'm not sure I want to cut my teeth on a version that hasn't been fully tested for bugs.

gfodor 7y ago
It's not a beta, it's an RC. 2.8 has been being tested for bugs for months now.
- harperlee 7y ago
  Anyone can read in the developer blog’s last entry (2 clicks away from blender’s homepage) that the final 2.8 version was scheduled in only 5 days, but OP seemingly wanted the karma points. Otherwise there isn’t any real reason for sharing a RC of a project you are not working with without checking what is the release plan.
- yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
  Then why is it RC and not release?

goblin89 7y ago

In release notes[0] for Cycles there are a lot of mentions of CUDA. Also many mentions of OpenCL, with the ominous note that it’s been “disabled on macOS platform”. I’m wondering how complex can animations be, with reasonable frame render times, on macOS with Radeon Pro Vega 16? I know it’s a very open-ended question but I’m curious for any take. (For some context, I’m completely unfamiliar with the pipeline/ecosystem, but wanted to hobby around with 3D for a while. Lacking a suitable GPU, now I’m considering how viable would this be on latest MBP’s graphics. If not so much, I might go for a cheaper GPU option & postpone my 3D experiments until I can have a fixed workstation with fast GPU in addition to laptop I use for work.) [0] https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Reference/Release_Notes/2.80/Cycles https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Reference/Release_Notes/2.80/C...

panpanna 7y ago
I think it's probably cheaper and safer to buy a second hand gpu rig and use it as your reneder farm. With that said, your initial 3d experiments should run just fine on cpu only.
_Wintermute 7y ago
If you're just learning then new Eevee renderer in 2.80 is great for 90% of things and is pretty much real-time. For those final shots you can use cycles with your CPU, it's going to take longer but lack of a GPU shouldn't stop you as a hobbiest. edit: after some more reading I'm not sure if Eevee works on CPU, but I don't have blender 2.8 on a cpu-only machine to test this.
- basq 7y ago
  Eevee is a gpu only renderer.
deckiedan 7y ago
The new 2.8 release comes with the Eevee "real time" 3d engine, which should work well with your current system. If you need to use Cycles, it'll still work fine with your CPU for now - and you can always either use an online render farm (there are many!) for more complex stuff, or buy a separate rig if you end up using it enough.

karanganesan 7y ago

what plans does the team has for 3.0 ??? any thing groundbreaking tech ???

PyroLagus 7y ago
Well, they're thinking of overhauling the core.[0] Pablo Vazquez also made a video on why he thinks it shouldn't be 3.0 yet.[1] [0] https://code.blender.org/2013/06/blender-roadmap-2-7-2-8-and-beyond/ https://code.blender.org/2013/06/blender-roadmap-2-7-2-8-and... [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJE7vMmOYZ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJE7vMmOYZ4
- robin_reala 7y ago
  That roadmap is 6 years old at this point. I’d imagine plans have changed a little since then.

BurningCycles 7y ago

Another thing to note is that the future of Blender development never looked as good as it does now. The recently introduced 'Blender Development Fund' already recieves € 37245 every month in donations, which directly goes to hiring more Blender developers. As impressive as 2.80 is, I'm really eager to see what 2.81+ brings, one area which looks like it will get a major improvement is 'sculpting' where a newcomer (Pablo Dobarro) has been making waves with a lot of interesting development in a separate branch, resulting in hints from the Blender Foundation of him being hired soon. Good times!

jadbox 7y ago
Pablo Dobarro's work around improving sculpting is really incredible, and imho, makes Blender compete as a zbrush alternative (at least as a solid casual alternative). If you want to see this project succeed, you can donate to his patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pablodp606/posts https://www.patreon.com/pablodp606/posts

b_tterc_p 7y ago

I am interested in jumping in. I’m concerned that new features, even if better, would make it hard to find up to date documentation and tutorials. Any recommendations?

elliekelly 7y ago
I got started with a tutorial (on Udemy I think) that used a much older version and while it definitely took me longer I think I learned a lot more. I got to poke around and try things and make mistakes that I probably wouldn’t have tried otherwise.
JTxt 7y ago
Youtube has several people frantically creating tutorials for 2.8: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=blender+2.8+tutorial https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=blender+2.8+tut... 'Too hard to learn' was a legitimate concern in the early days... even though the payoff is huge. Perhaps it still is some, but not more than most other 3d suites. The interface is so much discoverable, and has switchable key maps so that it's similar to other 3d apps.

langitbiru 7y ago

Blender is also related with Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. You can create and edit 3D models of AR/VR with Blender.

andybak 7y ago
Do you mean "create for AR/VR" or "create in AR/VR"? Any 3D application is useful for the former so I'm not clear on what specifically you're referring to. If you mean the latter then I'm aware of a "edit inside VR" add-on for Blender but unclear on what the AR connection might be.
- nybble41 7y ago
  This is probably a reference to the integrated motion tracking support[1]. Sure, you can use any 3D application to generate content for AR, but it's a lot easier to overlay 3D object into an existing scene when the 3D application can process a video and automatically adjust the camera parameters to match. [1] https://lesterbanks.com/2019/07/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-motion-tracking-in-blender/ https://lesterbanks.com/2019/07/everything-you-wanted-to-kno...
- langitbiru 7y ago
  Sorry, I mean Blender as a 3D application. You can create or edit 3D models and export them to AR application.

lghh 7y ago

> If you've wanted to get into 3D content creation before, there's never been a better time! I've heard that several times as this version has been in the works. Will this make most of the tutorials for Blender harder to work through until they are updated? I've heard that the UI will be pretty different.

canada_dry 7y ago
> the UI will be pretty different. The is the most frustrating downside - the side effect of all major software overhauls - all of a sudden the wealth of tutorials and guides are out of date!
- froindt 7y ago
  It'd be interesting if Blender had an interaction recorder for tutorials, which could be turned on and off as desired. The user would make and record a tutorial entirely in blender, and an interaction text file would be saved. When a new version comes out, the interactions could be replayed, with the new menu tree, effectively re-rendering the whole video. Doing so could also allow a user to upload a file summarizing their key bindings, and have any customizations shown in the tutorial. It wouldn't be perfect, but it'd be neat if it existed.
Stevvo 7y ago
Most people making tutorials already switched over to 2.8 a while ago, so there is already a large body of tutorials available.