18 ms·

Blender 2.80

674 points by harperlee 7y ago

edgarvaldes 7y ago
One thing I always loved about Blender is the installer size. It blows my mind that a 3D modeling software is under 100 MB.
- beering 7y ago
  I wonder if there's a consumer perception around big file sizes for expensive software, e.g. they're getting more for their money. The commercial 3D programs bundle a lot, including: extensive documentation, video training, example files, material/light databases, example textures and assets, 3rd-party software (e.g. additional renderers). Arguably those things do provide value.
  - okcando 7y ago
    Blender Foundation puts a lot of their training materials (which are very good) behind a subscription paywall.
    - vanderZwan 7y ago
      Good on them, seems like a good business model
    - xanth 7y ago
      I'd always wondered how they made money. I've had the (outsider) impression that Blender was substandard in comparison the the paid suites (3Ds Max, Maya) in part because of my interactions with GIMP—my impression has been its lower quality in comparison to PS is a result a of its lack of funding. Could the GIMP foundation follow Blenders example or is it politically untenable?
      - reilly3000 7y ago
        I'm not sure about their revenue model but I completely concur with the GIMP experience. When I use it I feel like the wheels are going to come off, and they often do. Photoshop, while a bit bloated at 29 years old, is pretty amazing software.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- gregschlom 7y ago
  I think the same thing every time I download it. I hope the Blender foundation is able to keep it that way, as things do tend to get more and more bloated over time.
  - meruru 7y ago
    I would make a "ultimate" flavor that comes with a kitchen sink for people who have no clue and would think a larger download is a sign of good software.
  - vanderZwan 7y ago
    Ton Roosendaal started out as a programmer on the Amiga. I'm probably somewhat biased here, but I expect that he has strong feelings about avoiding bloatware
    - anchpop 7y ago
      I think it would be a good use of space to include some default assets (models, textures, etc.) for beginners to play with, even if it doubled the size of the download
      - amatecha 7y ago
        There are already tons of demo files you can mess around with and learn from: https://www.blender.org/download/demo-files/ https://www.blender.org/download/demo-files/ :)
    - JeremyHerrman 7y ago
      That's apparently also why blender had such unusual UX (like right click to select) - it's rooted in Amiga conventions.
  - badsectoracula 7y ago
    Funny you say that, i remember years ago thinking that Blender was becoming bloated after the download reached ~20MB :-P.
- inflatableDodo 7y ago
  What is really funny, is that for blender, historically speaking, 2.8 is massive. Have a look at the file sizes of some of the early work - https://download.blender.org/release/ https://download.blender.org/release/
  - jolmg 7y ago
    I got curious, so I made a graph with the average of sizes above 10KB per version (to exclude the checksum files). 2006 1.0 1 MB |x 2006 1.60 1 MB |x 2003 1.73 2 MB |x 2003 1.80 1 MB |x 2003 2.04 2 MB |x 2003 2.26 2 MB |x 2003 2.27 3 MB |x 2003 2.27-newpy 3 MB |x 2003 2.28 3 MB |x 2003 2.28a 3 MB |x 2003 2.28c 2 MB |x 2003 2.30 3 MB |x 2003 2.31 3 MB |x 2003 2.31a 3 MB |x 2004 2.32 3 MB |x 2004 2.33 4 MB |x 2004 2.33a 4 MB |x 2004 2.34 5 MB |x 2004 2.35 5 MB |x 2004 2.36 5 MB |x 2005 2.37 6 MB | x 2005 2.37a 6 MB | x 2005 2.39 7 MB | x 2005 2.40 7 MB | x 2006 2.41 7 MB | x 2006 2.42 10 MB | x 2007 2.43 11 MB | x 2007 2.44 12 MB | x 2007 2.45 13 MB | x 2008 2.46 15 MB | x 2008 2.47 15 MB | x 2008 2.48 17 MB | x 2008 2.48a 15 MB | x 2009 2.49 19 MB | x 2009 2.49a 21 MB | x 2009 2.49b 17 MB | x 2009 2.50alpha 20 MB | x 2010 2.53beta 21 MB | x 2010 2.54beta 24 MB | x 2010 2.55beta 24 MB | x 2011 2.56abeta 23 MB | x 2010 2.56beta 23 MB | x 2011 2.57 25 MB | x 2011 2.58 27 MB | x 2011 2.59 30 MB | x 2011 2.60 34 MB | x 2011 2.61 41 MB | x 2012 2.62 40 MB | x 2012 2.63 40 MB | x 2012 2.64 45 MB | x 2012 2.65 53 MB | x 2013 2.66 55 MB | x 2013 2.67 65 MB | x 2013 2.68 64 MB | x 2013 2.69 67 MB | x 2014 2.70 67 MB | x 2014 2.71 81 MB | x 2014 2.72 83 MB | x 2015 2.73 86 MB | x 2015 2.74 88 MB | x 2015 2.75 90 MB | x 2015 2.76 92 MB | x 2016 2.77 108 MB | x 2016 2.78 116 MB | x 2017 2.79 121 MB | x 2019 2.80 117 MB | x
- ticmasta 7y ago
  I think a lot of commercial applications include assets that quickly eat up space.
  - agumonkey 7y ago
    yeah, it's always been the case. flagships were in the 100-400MB top, the rest was tutorials, massive docs, textures etc etc
- _nedR 7y ago
  As a kid, i used to muck around with a 3d modelling tool called anim8or - it was around 2mb. Seems that they're still around - (http://anim8or.com/ http://anim8or.com/). Current zip download is 4.7mb - No installation just an exe in a zip file. :)
yodon 7y ago
previous discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20563491 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20563491
- dmix 7y ago
  Funny, that one originally linked to a HTTP file server index download page and this one links to just the homepage. Is there really no good changeset/blog links to post? Edit: looks like the previous link was fixed to which someone mentioned hasnt been updated for RC3 yet https://www.blender.org/download/releases/2-80/ https://www.blender.org/download/releases/2-80/
  - harperlee 7y ago
    Sorry, the homepage announces the new version but you are completely right. I tried updating the post afterwards but I can't change the link myself.
- orev 7y ago
  That “previous discussion” is mostly people confused about what is going on because that poster tried to steal their thunder by making the post before the actual release was announced. That’s not a useful discussion thread.
  - Nullabillity 7y ago
    Nobody has a right to compel other people to follow their release schedule.
    - liability 7y ago
      No such supposed right was implied...
      - Nullabillity 7y ago
        > because that poster tried to steal their thunder by making the post before the actual release was announced.
pcurve 7y ago
I used to do a lot of 3d in the 90s so I'm extremely familiar with 3d modeling concepts. One day I decided to give blender a go after many years of hiatus and oh boy was it difficult to use even after looking up documentation. Nothing like maxon cinema 4d. Is blender built on preexisting 3d app UI convention? Or is it its own animal?
- Jonnax 7y ago
  They've done a redesign of the UI with this version. I'd say it's a bit easier to grasp for someone new.
- container 7y ago
  When exactly did you try it? It has changed significantly at least a few times in the last 10 years.
- klodolph 7y ago
  Blender dates back to the 1990s but it is its own animal, more or less. For documentation I would recommend going through the tutorials first, rather than trying to figure things out and searching for what you need. It reminds me a little bit of Vim in the sense that you switch between different modes a lot, and that's not exactly friendly if you're not used to it. That said, I've never been proficient at 3D, other than a couple of level editors, so all 3D tools are hard for me to use. With my mediocre background and armed with tutorials, I didn't find it time-consuming to do some basic things like creating a mesh (lots of techniques to pick up here), creating a UV map, and baking a light map.
  - cameronbrown 7y ago
    I've struggled with Blender so much that I do all my modelling with Unity's Probuilder[0] which I can get away with because I've got a low poly game. Super convenient. [0]https://unity3d.com/unity/features/worldbuilding/probuilder https://unity3d.com/unity/features/worldbuilding/probuilder
    - klodolph 7y ago
zowanet 7y ago
I don't suppose there's a torrent/magnet link? My http download is glacially slow right now...
- nybble41 7y ago
  You can install and run Blender through Steam. There's even a beta channel for the release candidates. That might get around the slow download issue.
  - mottosso 7y ago
    Indeed it did! Barely pressed the download button before it finished, and it's 2.80 as well, as opposed to the previous RC. Already updated on Steam too, that's quick!
  - pbhjpbhj 7y ago
    Well look at that, couldn't find an Ubuntu apt repo I trusted -- ppa:thomas-schiex/blender appears to be often suggested but he has an open offer for someone to take over the repo admin, and I've no idea who he is. I hate fragmenting my install routes though. Fwiw the Steam install comes up as only 491MB for me. Also I see quite a few "bring back 2.79" comments whilst everywhere else I've looked had only been positive.
- Topgamer7 7y ago
  Don't believe so
- mottosso 7y ago
  Same issue here (London). Stuck at 0.3 mb.
  - penagwin 7y ago
    You might be able to download it through steam. I grabbed most of the downloads from the website and have them in a resilio share here BBFPBUQ2TM7EKQIH3MVFPQWIRBLWVQEOO too if that helps.
dgellow 7y ago
Quite excited by the 2D rendering features! https://www.blender.org/features/grease-pencil/ https://www.blender.org/features/grease-pencil/
helb 7y ago
2.8 release page with news & screenshots: https://www.blender.org/download/releases/2-80/ https://www.blender.org/download/releases/2-80/
- harperlee 7y ago
  Thanks! Unfortunately I can edit the title but not the url. Perhaps dang or other admin can update to this one?
  - sctb 7y ago
    We've updated the link from the homepage. Thanks!
tombert 7y ago
Has anyone here used the Blender video editor? How well does it work? I've been looking to get back into video-production in my free time, but on Linux the number decent video-editing solutions is limited. I'm looking into Lightworks, but I'd prefer something FOSS if at all possible.
- mrpotato 7y ago
  It works pretty well. I've used it in the past to make youtube videos (i no longer do anymore). That being said, I ran into 2 bugs back in 2015 that haven't been fixed. The first was that videos > 3hrs long don't work with VSE. The video cannot be viewed/edited past the 3hr mark. The second issue is that the imported video will only keep the video and the first audio track it finds. This can cause issues if you say have the video audio on 1 track and the voice over audio on a second track. With that being said, it is still a great tool for making videos. *edit fixed some sentences
  - tombert 7y ago
    Hmm, I wonder...is this video editor ffmpeg-based? That second issue sounds like the default behavior of ffmpeg. If I have a file with multiple audio tracks called "blah.mkv", and I run `ffmpeg -i blah.mkv -c copy blah2.mkv`, by default that will chop out all but the first track.
    - HelloNurse 7y ago
      Yes, definitely FFMPEG-based.
- TACIXAT 7y ago
  I'll give it a shot tonight. I record in OBS and edit in Camtasia (since I have a license, but there is a bug with my webcam). Didn't know Blender had a video editor. I just got a Photoshop subscription, so I was considering looking at Premiere, but I think it would be overkill for what I'm doing.
- echelon 7y ago
lukebitts 7y ago
I've been a Blender user since 2.48 and it's so nice to see open source software getting so much better. Eevee is the biggest game changer for me, my workflow is much faster now that I can actually preview what my assets will look like in a PBR renderer, but even "small" stuff like workspaces made my workflow better. All in all a great release! Congratulations to everyone involved!
Mobius01 7y ago
I’m really happy to see this. There are so many segments that could benefit from Blender’s non-existing cost of entry that were running into too much friction with the user interface and general oddities of it’s interaction models, and this may help bridge that gap.
dingus 7y ago
The interface overhaul is a huge accomplishment. I suspect adoption will grow considerably. The previous interface conventions were unusual and clumsy, and were the primary barrier for those curious about switching packages. I switched to Blender after using the beta for several months. I have put thousands of dollars into licenses for Modo and Maya over the years. I would much rather put that into Blender donations, now that I can actually use it. The things a good user interface team can do.
- bogwog 7y ago
  > The previous interface conventions were unusual and clumsy Unusual, sure. Clumsy? not at all. It was extremely efficient and hyper-organized. The real problem was that it was different, and people just don't like change. This new interface is great because it's easy to use for Maya/Max people, and it's still similar-enough to the 2.7 era so as not to alienate long-time users.
  - echelon 7y ago
    > Unusual, sure. Clumsy? not at all. It was clunky, kind of like Gimp's UI, and felt like a remnant of the 90's. Usable, sure. Aesthetically pleasant? Absolutely not. Our tools should feel nice. Major kudos to Blender on this.
    - inflatableDodo 7y ago
      It was nevertheless already a massive improvement on the early stuff. My first introduction to blender involved three floppy discs, printouts of all the keyboard shortcuts sellotaped around the monitor, and lots and lots of colourful swearing.
    - bogwog 7y ago
      You must have not learned how to use it then. That, or we have different definitions of the word "clumsy". It has absolutely nothing in common with Gimp, so that makes me wonder if you used it at all. > Aesthetically pleasant? Absolutely not That's subjective, but it did support themes and DPI scaling.
cabaalis 7y ago
"The Blender Game Engine was removed." It's been a very, very long time since I played with Blender, but I think this is good news? The game engine thing never quite made sense to me. Edit: This quote is from a different link, https://www.blender.org/download/releases/2-80/ https://www.blender.org/download/releases/2-80/
- PhilippGille 7y ago
  Maybe that paved the way to the huge donation ($1.2 million) by Epic Games, who are in the game engine business (Unreal Engine)? https://code.blender.org/2019/07/development-fund-report-july-2019/ https://code.blender.org/2019/07/development-fund-report-jul...
- bogwog 7y ago
  Yeah that had always been a strange inclusion. Armory3D (https://armory3d.org/ https://armory3d.org/) is IMO a perfect example of how to use Blender as a game engine.
- DonHopkins 7y ago
  It was a nice idea in theory, but it basically required re-implementing everything twice.
- afraca 7y ago
  I enjoy removing technical debt, I can't image the satisfaction one would get from a commit like this: https://developer.blender.org/rB159806140fd33e6ddab951c0f6f180cfbf927d38 https://developer.blender.org/rB159806140fd33e6ddab951c0f6f1... Showing 876 changed files with 228 additions and 193,524 deletions. Another large cleanup was done on the "internal and legacy viewport" (I'm not familiar with the lingo, sorry), also so satisfying: https://github.com/sobotka/blender/commit/51b796ff1528c52cc8b4079fab1003671652a4d9 https://github.com/sobotka/blender/commit/51b796ff1528c52cc8... (only have the git mirror link, sorry) Showing 309 changed files with 1,687 additions and 84,075 deletions.
- reilly3000 7y ago
  Godot has done a great job in this space. The Blender team is wise to not try to be great at everything, especially when they are great at so much.
severine 7y ago
And they're hiring: https://www.blender.org/jobs/ https://www.blender.org/jobs/
deltron3030 7y ago
Their integrated renderers don't work on newer macOS versions with AMD cards unfortunately, no metal support. macOS id really a bad place right now if you're into 3D and want GPU rendering, not only because of Blender, but others like Cinema 4D aren't there yet either. It's a big fail of the Apple management to not support the metal development for apps like Blender, they gonna lose a generation of creatives.
- pier25 7y ago
  > they gonna lose a generation of creatives Haven't they already? I don't do 3D but anecdotally the 3D guys I know all use Windows.
  - santaclaus 7y ago
    Film 3D is mostly Linux at this point. All the major VFX shops (like Weta) and animation studios (Disney, Pixar, etc) are on Linux for artist workstations. Apple stuff gets lots of use, but mainly iPads for story boarding and such.
    - atkbrah 7y ago
      Indeed, many bigger VFX companies are on Linux. However, smaller shops are mainly powered by Windows (or at least that's the case here in Finland). Building your production pipeline on Linux is something that not everyone is capable of doing and in many cases not even worth the r&d costs.
      - mdre 7y ago
        I always wondered what do the replace photoshop with on Linux, haven’t worked in the industry yet.
        pier25 7y ago
        I imagine in bigger VFX companies the texture artists use Windows or Mac and produce the assets for the 3D guys which use Linux.
dekhn 7y ago
a while ago, before the North American Solar Eclipse, I needed to do some simulation work on my code that processed eclipse images so I made a toy solar system from spheres and used it to render views of the eclipse from locations on earth. Lots of fun. Huge learning curve, but still lots of fun. The only issue I had was I had to scale everything down 1/10th due to float precision issues.
ilaksh 7y ago
Really hopeful for the UI changes. Crazy question. Is anyone working on a VR interface for Blender?
- mdre 7y ago
  There is a GSOC project for that, MARUI developers are doing their version and also there’s a XR version solely for drawing by the grease pencil devs
- makx 7y ago
  https://www.marui-plugin.com/blender-xr/ https://www.marui-plugin.com/blender-xr/ https://github.com/MARUI-PlugIn/BlenderXR https://github.com/MARUI-PlugIn/BlenderXR
danellis 7y ago
I love Blender. I'm not an artist, even though I've made a few little things in it, but I still think it's an incredible piece of software and a shining example of what open source software can be.
wy35 7y ago
It looks so much better! When I tried using Blender it felt really awkward and the learning curve was really steep. Glad to see this update.
hutzlibu 7y ago
Does anyone know, what is still missing, to wide professional adoption of blender in the industry? Is it at this point mostly momentum of Maya etc. or are there still many small things, that a professional designer miss in blender? Or is it bigger? Some time ago, I heard the renderer of blender did not hold up to the rest, but that has changed? Some time ago, the blender ren
- atoav 7y ago
  Depends entirely on how you use it. But for many many things it is already used professionally. I used Maya as a 3D freelancer for some while and switched to Blender when Cycles got introduced. I never really regreted that decision. Odly enough the one point that I liked the most about Blender was its user interface – yeah it was weird, but it was consistent. If "g" moves things in the 3D window it moves things also in a timeline and in a compositor. What does Blender need? I think 2.80 has done a lot of what the industry needs, especially in terms of 2D animation and performance improvements. My major caveat is, that Compositing with video sources is just slow.
- _delirium 7y ago
  Ubisoft just announced they're moving at least in part to using Blender, as one example of professional adoption seemingly picking up: https://www.blender.org/press/ubisoft-joins-blender-development-fund/ https://www.blender.org/press/ubisoft-joins-blender-developm...
micah_chatt 7y ago
One of the things about blender that was frustrating for me when I last tried it ~3 years ago was the inability to use a different python REPL (ex: iPython) or easily import the blender python libraries in a non-blender python process. Can anyone say if this has gotten better?
- UncleEntity 7y ago
  Almost all of bpy is a simple generated wrapper around builtin C functions but you can (or could, dunno how well its been maintained?) build blender as a python module to import into CPython. Some experimental CMake setting IIRC.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
dman 7y ago
In case someone from the Blender team is reading this could you share some pointers on how the ui toolkit for blender 2.80 is implemented? Any files to start reading / any design docs? Blender is one of the nicer opengl based guis I have seen and am curious to learn more on how its implemented (fonts for instance).
- boterock 7y ago
  If you are into opengl guis, you can check ImGui, it is a joy to work with it. although it doesn't have any fancy font stuff afaik. Also there is UE4 slate, which has a funny way of doing stuff.
- Jasper_ 7y ago
  Looks like a custom glyph atlas cache based on top of FreeType [0]. These days I would use HarfBuzz/stb_truetype [1] for a lightweight thing. Use FreeType if you need something even fancier. [0] https://git.blender.org/gitweb/gitweb.cgi/blender.git/blob/HEAD:/source/blender/blenfont/intern/blf_glyph.c https://git.blender.org/gitweb/gitweb.cgi/blender.git/blob/H... [1] like https://gist.github.com/rygorous/6f2779a451d2040371e3acb79e16eaff https://gist.github.com/rygorous/6f2779a451d2040371e3acb79e1...
- UncleEntity 7y ago
  Somewhere in the sources is the GHOST (General Handy Operating System Toolkit) folder which is where the UI stuff is implemented. intern/ghost if I were to guess without looking at the actual sourcetree...
vkaku 7y ago
Whoa :o they made it, Amazing work by the devs. It looks more like Max now. And I know they did some rework in the whole asset organization thing. And they removed the parts that weren't as core, so great job overall. :)
agumonkey 7y ago
I think I need an opengl 1.3 laptop now
billfruit 7y ago
They have done amazing work in building their own UI framework. Perhaps one day they can make it available as a standalone library, for use as a crossplatform UI toolkit.
TheRealPomax 7y ago
Really wish I could run it on my my laptop with a Radeon HD 6750M, though. Instead it's just a blank screen with a spinner for a cursor, which isn't the greatest experience. Sure, the minimum requirements are "GCN 1st gen and up", which came out after the 6750M, but other apps with GPU acceleration work fine with it, and Blender 2.79 also worked fine, so it's kind of shitty to miss out on all the amazing new stuff that got added to 2.80 =(
xtracerx 7y ago
Used Maya and cinema 4d for years.. just started switching to Blender because I heard the buzz around it.. and it is legitimately the biggest win for consumer open source software by a huge margin. Absolutely great product, I think I can get workflows as good or better than Maya out of this.. and Maya costs thousands of dollars a year.
v-yadli 7y ago
As a long time Vim user, the comments here actually encourage me to give it another try. I once tried it on a tablet, but obviously I missed that it’s about keystrokes.
bla3 7y ago
Encouraged by the "new, more intuitive UI" points I gave it another try. Background: I did lots of 3d coding and have used several 3d modeling packages, all a while ago. I've tried to learn Blender years ago and after lots of RTFM I could do some things in it back then, but I forgot all about that. I still find the 2.80 UI unintuitive. Clicking now selects, which is great, but it's weird to me that clicking on the background and then dragging doesn't move the viewport but does a selection box. Neither ctrl-drag nor any other modifier and drag moved the viewport either. After some more trial and error, apparently swiping on the trackpad rotates the viewport and shift-drag moves it, but I couldn't figure out how to dolly after some more trial and error. IIRC Blender is the only program where I couldn't figure out basic actions without RTFM. It's a bit better now, but that's still the case. Don't get me wrong, it's really impressive that they're able to do such a big UI overhaul! But at least for me, it feels there's still a ways to go.
- avhon1 7y ago
  Middle-click and drag to rotate the viewport Shift+middle-click to translate the viewport If you're using a Mac, or a laptop without a three-button trackpad or mouse, there is an option called "emulate three-button mouse" that lets you use alt+left-click as an alternative to middle-click. A little clumsy, but adequate for viewing files on-the-go. In the new 2.80 UI, there is a set of colored axes in the top-right corner. Clicking and dragging on those rotates the viewport, and clicking on the ends of one of the axes aligns the viewport to that axis. To the left of those axes is a hand-shaped icon. Clicking and dragging on this icon translates the viewport. (I'm curious which programs you've used before. This is definitely the same way you navigate in all of Autodesk's products, and in SolidWorks.)
smcnally 7y ago
> Templates > When starting a new file, there is now a choice between multiple application templates: ... > Video Editing: for using Blender as a video editor. Video’s a reason I’ve spent time with multiple previous Blender versions. Be great if this UI refresh + templated defaults create more traction for me and other video editors.
ohazi 7y ago
Congratulations to the Blender developers! This massive release has been years in the making. I remember watching an interview with Ton Roosendaal just before the 2.7 release (so 5 years ago? Back then they still thought the next version was going to be 3.0), and they were talking excitedly about this UI refresh as if it were just around the corner.
darkwater 7y ago
When I see new releases of art/design/drawing creation products I always envy the artists that are capable of using them and create beautiful things. I've always been incapable of anything related to drawing. I wonder if it is something you can learn by working on it or you just have to be gifted...
- hapsam 7y ago
  Art is a profession which can be learned, you dont need to be gifted or have any talent to start. But like with many professions, art takes time and people underestimate the amount of time which is required to get to a decent level (multiple years of practise and exercise).
Zikara 7y ago
Hey. I am too trying to do a startup and I can understand you. But before doing all this, I've spent about a year in the R&D to understand how to make new technologies correctly. The bottom line is that to begin the whole process you must business model Canvas. And only then do everything as spelled out in your roadmap. In this article, you can understand how to do this in the right way https://clockwise.software/blog/how-to-make-a-business-model-canvas-for-mobile-app/ https://clockwise.software/blog/how-to-make-a-business-model.... Study carefully and make basic development priorities. Good luck in the future!
Arinako 7y ago
Looks nice!

674 points by harperlee 7y ago

One thing I always loved about Blender is the installer size. It blows my mind that a 3D modeling software is under 100 MB.

beering 7y ago
I wonder if there's a consumer perception around big file sizes for expensive software, e.g. they're getting more for their money. The commercial 3D programs bundle a lot, including: extensive documentation, video training, example files, material/light databases, example textures and assets, 3rd-party software (e.g. additional renderers). Arguably those things do provide value.
- okcando 7y ago
  Blender Foundation puts a lot of their training materials (which are very good) behind a subscription paywall.
  - vanderZwan 7y ago
    Good on them, seems like a good business model
  - xanth 7y ago
    I'd always wondered how they made money. I've had the (outsider) impression that Blender was substandard in comparison the the paid suites (3Ds Max, Maya) in part because of my interactions with GIMP—my impression has been its lower quality in comparison to PS is a result a of its lack of funding. Could the GIMP foundation follow Blenders example or is it politically untenable?
    - reilly3000 7y ago
      I'm not sure about their revenue model but I completely concur with the GIMP experience. When I use it I feel like the wheels are going to come off, and they often do. Photoshop, while a bit bloated at 29 years old, is pretty amazing software.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
gregschlom 7y ago
I think the same thing every time I download it. I hope the Blender foundation is able to keep it that way, as things do tend to get more and more bloated over time.
- meruru 7y ago
  I would make a "ultimate" flavor that comes with a kitchen sink for people who have no clue and would think a larger download is a sign of good software.
- vanderZwan 7y ago
  Ton Roosendaal started out as a programmer on the Amiga. I'm probably somewhat biased here, but I expect that he has strong feelings about avoiding bloatware
  - anchpop 7y ago
    I think it would be a good use of space to include some default assets (models, textures, etc.) for beginners to play with, even if it doubled the size of the download
    - amatecha 7y ago
      There are already tons of demo files you can mess around with and learn from: https://www.blender.org/download/demo-files/ https://www.blender.org/download/demo-files/ :)
  - JeremyHerrman 7y ago
    That's apparently also why blender had such unusual UX (like right click to select) - it's rooted in Amiga conventions.
- badsectoracula 7y ago
  Funny you say that, i remember years ago thinking that Blender was becoming bloated after the download reached ~20MB :-P.
inflatableDodo 7y ago
What is really funny, is that for blender, historically speaking, 2.8 is massive. Have a look at the file sizes of some of the early work - https://download.blender.org/release/ https://download.blender.org/release/
- jolmg 7y ago
  I got curious, so I made a graph with the average of sizes above 10KB per version (to exclude the checksum files). 2006 1.0 1 MB |x 2006 1.60 1 MB |x 2003 1.73 2 MB |x 2003 1.80 1 MB |x 2003 2.04 2 MB |x 2003 2.26 2 MB |x 2003 2.27 3 MB |x 2003 2.27-newpy 3 MB |x 2003 2.28 3 MB |x 2003 2.28a 3 MB |x 2003 2.28c 2 MB |x 2003 2.30 3 MB |x 2003 2.31 3 MB |x 2003 2.31a 3 MB |x 2004 2.32 3 MB |x 2004 2.33 4 MB |x 2004 2.33a 4 MB |x 2004 2.34 5 MB |x 2004 2.35 5 MB |x 2004 2.36 5 MB |x 2005 2.37 6 MB | x 2005 2.37a 6 MB | x 2005 2.39 7 MB | x 2005 2.40 7 MB | x 2006 2.41 7 MB | x 2006 2.42 10 MB | x 2007 2.43 11 MB | x 2007 2.44 12 MB | x 2007 2.45 13 MB | x 2008 2.46 15 MB | x 2008 2.47 15 MB | x 2008 2.48 17 MB | x 2008 2.48a 15 MB | x 2009 2.49 19 MB | x 2009 2.49a 21 MB | x 2009 2.49b 17 MB | x 2009 2.50alpha 20 MB | x 2010 2.53beta 21 MB | x 2010 2.54beta 24 MB | x 2010 2.55beta 24 MB | x 2011 2.56abeta 23 MB | x 2010 2.56beta 23 MB | x 2011 2.57 25 MB | x 2011 2.58 27 MB | x 2011 2.59 30 MB | x 2011 2.60 34 MB | x 2011 2.61 41 MB | x 2012 2.62 40 MB | x 2012 2.63 40 MB | x 2012 2.64 45 MB | x 2012 2.65 53 MB | x 2013 2.66 55 MB | x 2013 2.67 65 MB | x 2013 2.68 64 MB | x 2013 2.69 67 MB | x 2014 2.70 67 MB | x 2014 2.71 81 MB | x 2014 2.72 83 MB | x 2015 2.73 86 MB | x 2015 2.74 88 MB | x 2015 2.75 90 MB | x 2015 2.76 92 MB | x 2016 2.77 108 MB | x 2016 2.78 116 MB | x 2017 2.79 121 MB | x 2019 2.80 117 MB | x
ticmasta 7y ago
I think a lot of commercial applications include assets that quickly eat up space.
- agumonkey 7y ago
  yeah, it's always been the case. flagships were in the 100-400MB top, the rest was tutorials, massive docs, textures etc etc
_nedR 7y ago
As a kid, i used to muck around with a 3d modelling tool called anim8or - it was around 2mb. Seems that they're still around - (http://anim8or.com/ http://anim8or.com/). Current zip download is 4.7mb - No installation just an exe in a zip file. :)

yodon 7y ago

previous discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20563491 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20563491

dmix 7y ago
Funny, that one originally linked to a HTTP file server index download page and this one links to just the homepage. Is there really no good changeset/blog links to post? Edit: looks like the previous link was fixed to which someone mentioned hasnt been updated for RC3 yet https://www.blender.org/download/releases/2-80/ https://www.blender.org/download/releases/2-80/
- harperlee 7y ago
  Sorry, the homepage announces the new version but you are completely right. I tried updating the post afterwards but I can't change the link myself.
orev 7y ago
That “previous discussion” is mostly people confused about what is going on because that poster tried to steal their thunder by making the post before the actual release was announced. That’s not a useful discussion thread.
- Nullabillity 7y ago
  Nobody has a right to compel other people to follow their release schedule.
  - liability 7y ago
    No such supposed right was implied...
    - Nullabillity 7y ago
      > because that poster tried to steal their thunder by making the post before the actual release was announced.

pcurve 7y ago

I used to do a lot of 3d in the 90s so I'm extremely familiar with 3d modeling concepts. One day I decided to give blender a go after many years of hiatus and oh boy was it difficult to use even after looking up documentation. Nothing like maxon cinema 4d. Is blender built on preexisting 3d app UI convention? Or is it its own animal?

Jonnax 7y ago
They've done a redesign of the UI with this version. I'd say it's a bit easier to grasp for someone new.
container 7y ago
When exactly did you try it? It has changed significantly at least a few times in the last 10 years.
klodolph 7y ago
Blender dates back to the 1990s but it is its own animal, more or less. For documentation I would recommend going through the tutorials first, rather than trying to figure things out and searching for what you need. It reminds me a little bit of Vim in the sense that you switch between different modes a lot, and that's not exactly friendly if you're not used to it. That said, I've never been proficient at 3D, other than a couple of level editors, so all 3D tools are hard for me to use. With my mediocre background and armed with tutorials, I didn't find it time-consuming to do some basic things like creating a mesh (lots of techniques to pick up here), creating a UV map, and baking a light map.
- cameronbrown 7y ago
  I've struggled with Blender so much that I do all my modelling with Unity's Probuilder[0] which I can get away with because I've got a low poly game. Super convenient. [0]https://unity3d.com/unity/features/worldbuilding/probuilder https://unity3d.com/unity/features/worldbuilding/probuilder
  - klodolph 7y ago

zowanet 7y ago

I don't suppose there's a torrent/magnet link? My http download is glacially slow right now...

nybble41 7y ago
You can install and run Blender through Steam. There's even a beta channel for the release candidates. That might get around the slow download issue.
- mottosso 7y ago
  Indeed it did! Barely pressed the download button before it finished, and it's 2.80 as well, as opposed to the previous RC. Already updated on Steam too, that's quick!
- pbhjpbhj 7y ago
  Well look at that, couldn't find an Ubuntu apt repo I trusted -- ppa:thomas-schiex/blender appears to be often suggested but he has an open offer for someone to take over the repo admin, and I've no idea who he is. I hate fragmenting my install routes though. Fwiw the Steam install comes up as only 491MB for me. Also I see quite a few "bring back 2.79" comments whilst everywhere else I've looked had only been positive.
Topgamer7 7y ago
Don't believe so
mottosso 7y ago
Same issue here (London). Stuck at 0.3 mb.
- penagwin 7y ago
  You might be able to download it through steam. I grabbed most of the downloads from the website and have them in a resilio share here BBFPBUQ2TM7EKQIH3MVFPQWIRBLWVQEOO too if that helps.

dgellow 7y ago

Quite excited by the 2D rendering features! https://www.blender.org/features/grease-pencil/ https://www.blender.org/features/grease-pencil/

helb 7y ago

2.8 release page with news & screenshots: https://www.blender.org/download/releases/2-80/ https://www.blender.org/download/releases/2-80/

harperlee 7y ago
Thanks! Unfortunately I can edit the title but not the url. Perhaps dang or other admin can update to this one?
- sctb 7y ago
  We've updated the link from the homepage. Thanks!

tombert 7y ago

Has anyone here used the Blender video editor? How well does it work? I've been looking to get back into video-production in my free time, but on Linux the number decent video-editing solutions is limited. I'm looking into Lightworks, but I'd prefer something FOSS if at all possible.

mrpotato 7y ago
It works pretty well. I've used it in the past to make youtube videos (i no longer do anymore). That being said, I ran into 2 bugs back in 2015 that haven't been fixed. The first was that videos > 3hrs long don't work with VSE. The video cannot be viewed/edited past the 3hr mark. The second issue is that the imported video will only keep the video and the first audio track it finds. This can cause issues if you say have the video audio on 1 track and the voice over audio on a second track. With that being said, it is still a great tool for making videos. *edit fixed some sentences
- tombert 7y ago
  Hmm, I wonder...is this video editor ffmpeg-based? That second issue sounds like the default behavior of ffmpeg. If I have a file with multiple audio tracks called "blah.mkv", and I run `ffmpeg -i blah.mkv -c copy blah2.mkv`, by default that will chop out all but the first track.
  - HelloNurse 7y ago
    Yes, definitely FFMPEG-based.
TACIXAT 7y ago
I'll give it a shot tonight. I record in OBS and edit in Camtasia (since I have a license, but there is a bug with my webcam). Didn't know Blender had a video editor. I just got a Photoshop subscription, so I was considering looking at Premiere, but I think it would be overkill for what I'm doing.
echelon 7y ago

lukebitts 7y ago

I've been a Blender user since 2.48 and it's so nice to see open source software getting so much better. Eevee is the biggest game changer for me, my workflow is much faster now that I can actually preview what my assets will look like in a PBR renderer, but even "small" stuff like workspaces made my workflow better. All in all a great release! Congratulations to everyone involved!

Mobius01 7y ago

I’m really happy to see this. There are so many segments that could benefit from Blender’s non-existing cost of entry that were running into too much friction with the user interface and general oddities of it’s interaction models, and this may help bridge that gap.

dingus 7y ago

The interface overhaul is a huge accomplishment. I suspect adoption will grow considerably. The previous interface conventions were unusual and clumsy, and were the primary barrier for those curious about switching packages. I switched to Blender after using the beta for several months. I have put thousands of dollars into licenses for Modo and Maya over the years. I would much rather put that into Blender donations, now that I can actually use it. The things a good user interface team can do.

bogwog 7y ago
> The previous interface conventions were unusual and clumsy Unusual, sure. Clumsy? not at all. It was extremely efficient and hyper-organized. The real problem was that it was different, and people just don't like change. This new interface is great because it's easy to use for Maya/Max people, and it's still similar-enough to the 2.7 era so as not to alienate long-time users.
- echelon 7y ago
  > Unusual, sure. Clumsy? not at all. It was clunky, kind of like Gimp's UI, and felt like a remnant of the 90's. Usable, sure. Aesthetically pleasant? Absolutely not. Our tools should feel nice. Major kudos to Blender on this.
  - inflatableDodo 7y ago
    It was nevertheless already a massive improvement on the early stuff. My first introduction to blender involved three floppy discs, printouts of all the keyboard shortcuts sellotaped around the monitor, and lots and lots of colourful swearing.
  - bogwog 7y ago
    You must have not learned how to use it then. That, or we have different definitions of the word "clumsy". It has absolutely nothing in common with Gimp, so that makes me wonder if you used it at all. > Aesthetically pleasant? Absolutely not That's subjective, but it did support themes and DPI scaling.

cabaalis 7y ago

"The Blender Game Engine was removed." It's been a very, very long time since I played with Blender, but I think this is good news? The game engine thing never quite made sense to me. Edit: This quote is from a different link, https://www.blender.org/download/releases/2-80/ https://www.blender.org/download/releases/2-80/

PhilippGille 7y ago
Maybe that paved the way to the huge donation ($1.2 million) by Epic Games, who are in the game engine business (Unreal Engine)? https://code.blender.org/2019/07/development-fund-report-july-2019/ https://code.blender.org/2019/07/development-fund-report-jul...
bogwog 7y ago
Yeah that had always been a strange inclusion. Armory3D (https://armory3d.org/ https://armory3d.org/) is IMO a perfect example of how to use Blender as a game engine.
DonHopkins 7y ago
It was a nice idea in theory, but it basically required re-implementing everything twice.
afraca 7y ago
I enjoy removing technical debt, I can't image the satisfaction one would get from a commit like this: https://developer.blender.org/rB159806140fd33e6ddab951c0f6f180cfbf927d38 https://developer.blender.org/rB159806140fd33e6ddab951c0f6f1... Showing 876 changed files with 228 additions and 193,524 deletions. Another large cleanup was done on the "internal and legacy viewport" (I'm not familiar with the lingo, sorry), also so satisfying: https://github.com/sobotka/blender/commit/51b796ff1528c52cc8b4079fab1003671652a4d9 https://github.com/sobotka/blender/commit/51b796ff1528c52cc8... (only have the git mirror link, sorry) Showing 309 changed files with 1,687 additions and 84,075 deletions.
reilly3000 7y ago
Godot has done a great job in this space. The Blender team is wise to not try to be great at everything, especially when they are great at so much.

severine 7y ago

And they're hiring: https://www.blender.org/jobs/ https://www.blender.org/jobs/

deltron3030 7y ago

Their integrated renderers don't work on newer macOS versions with AMD cards unfortunately, no metal support. macOS id really a bad place right now if you're into 3D and want GPU rendering, not only because of Blender, but others like Cinema 4D aren't there yet either. It's a big fail of the Apple management to not support the metal development for apps like Blender, they gonna lose a generation of creatives.

pier25 7y ago
> they gonna lose a generation of creatives Haven't they already? I don't do 3D but anecdotally the 3D guys I know all use Windows.
- santaclaus 7y ago
  Film 3D is mostly Linux at this point. All the major VFX shops (like Weta) and animation studios (Disney, Pixar, etc) are on Linux for artist workstations. Apple stuff gets lots of use, but mainly iPads for story boarding and such.
  - atkbrah 7y ago
    Indeed, many bigger VFX companies are on Linux. However, smaller shops are mainly powered by Windows (or at least that's the case here in Finland). Building your production pipeline on Linux is something that not everyone is capable of doing and in many cases not even worth the r&d costs.
    - mdre 7y ago
      I always wondered what do the replace photoshop with on Linux, haven’t worked in the industry yet.
      - pier25 7y ago
        I imagine in bigger VFX companies the texture artists use Windows or Mac and produce the assets for the 3D guys which use Linux.

dekhn 7y ago

a while ago, before the North American Solar Eclipse, I needed to do some simulation work on my code that processed eclipse images so I made a toy solar system from spheres and used it to render views of the eclipse from locations on earth. Lots of fun. Huge learning curve, but still lots of fun. The only issue I had was I had to scale everything down 1/10th due to float precision issues.

ilaksh 7y ago

Really hopeful for the UI changes. Crazy question. Is anyone working on a VR interface for Blender?

mdre 7y ago
There is a GSOC project for that, MARUI developers are doing their version and also there’s a XR version solely for drawing by the grease pencil devs
makx 7y ago
https://www.marui-plugin.com/blender-xr/ https://www.marui-plugin.com/blender-xr/ https://github.com/MARUI-PlugIn/BlenderXR https://github.com/MARUI-PlugIn/BlenderXR

danellis 7y ago

I love Blender. I'm not an artist, even though I've made a few little things in it, but I still think it's an incredible piece of software and a shining example of what open source software can be.

wy35 7y ago

It looks so much better! When I tried using Blender it felt really awkward and the learning curve was really steep. Glad to see this update.

hutzlibu 7y ago

Does anyone know, what is still missing, to wide professional adoption of blender in the industry? Is it at this point mostly momentum of Maya etc. or are there still many small things, that a professional designer miss in blender? Or is it bigger? Some time ago, I heard the renderer of blender did not hold up to the rest, but that has changed? Some time ago, the blender ren

atoav 7y ago
Depends entirely on how you use it. But for many many things it is already used professionally. I used Maya as a 3D freelancer for some while and switched to Blender when Cycles got introduced. I never really regreted that decision. Odly enough the one point that I liked the most about Blender was its user interface – yeah it was weird, but it was consistent. If "g" moves things in the 3D window it moves things also in a timeline and in a compositor. What does Blender need? I think 2.80 has done a lot of what the industry needs, especially in terms of 2D animation and performance improvements. My major caveat is, that Compositing with video sources is just slow.
_delirium 7y ago
Ubisoft just announced they're moving at least in part to using Blender, as one example of professional adoption seemingly picking up: https://www.blender.org/press/ubisoft-joins-blender-development-fund/ https://www.blender.org/press/ubisoft-joins-blender-developm...

micah_chatt 7y ago

One of the things about blender that was frustrating for me when I last tried it ~3 years ago was the inability to use a different python REPL (ex: iPython) or easily import the blender python libraries in a non-blender python process. Can anyone say if this has gotten better?

UncleEntity 7y ago
Almost all of bpy is a simple generated wrapper around builtin C functions but you can (or could, dunno how well its been maintained?) build blender as a python module to import into CPython. Some experimental CMake setting IIRC.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

dman 7y ago

In case someone from the Blender team is reading this could you share some pointers on how the ui toolkit for blender 2.80 is implemented? Any files to start reading / any design docs? Blender is one of the nicer opengl based guis I have seen and am curious to learn more on how its implemented (fonts for instance).

boterock 7y ago
If you are into opengl guis, you can check ImGui, it is a joy to work with it. although it doesn't have any fancy font stuff afaik. Also there is UE4 slate, which has a funny way of doing stuff.
Jasper_ 7y ago
Looks like a custom glyph atlas cache based on top of FreeType [0]. These days I would use HarfBuzz/stb_truetype [1] for a lightweight thing. Use FreeType if you need something even fancier. [0] https://git.blender.org/gitweb/gitweb.cgi/blender.git/blob/HEAD:/source/blender/blenfont/intern/blf_glyph.c https://git.blender.org/gitweb/gitweb.cgi/blender.git/blob/H... [1] like https://gist.github.com/rygorous/6f2779a451d2040371e3acb79e16eaff https://gist.github.com/rygorous/6f2779a451d2040371e3acb79e1...
UncleEntity 7y ago
Somewhere in the sources is the GHOST (General Handy Operating System Toolkit) folder which is where the UI stuff is implemented. intern/ghost if I were to guess without looking at the actual sourcetree...

vkaku 7y ago

Whoa :o they made it, Amazing work by the devs. It looks more like Max now. And I know they did some rework in the whole asset organization thing. And they removed the parts that weren't as core, so great job overall. :)

agumonkey 7y ago

I think I need an opengl 1.3 laptop now

billfruit 7y ago

They have done amazing work in building their own UI framework. Perhaps one day they can make it available as a standalone library, for use as a crossplatform UI toolkit.

TheRealPomax 7y ago

Really wish I could run it on my my laptop with a Radeon HD 6750M, though. Instead it's just a blank screen with a spinner for a cursor, which isn't the greatest experience. Sure, the minimum requirements are "GCN 1st gen and up", which came out after the 6750M, but other apps with GPU acceleration work fine with it, and Blender 2.79 also worked fine, so it's kind of shitty to miss out on all the amazing new stuff that got added to 2.80 =(

xtracerx 7y ago

Used Maya and cinema 4d for years.. just started switching to Blender because I heard the buzz around it.. and it is legitimately the biggest win for consumer open source software by a huge margin. Absolutely great product, I think I can get workflows as good or better than Maya out of this.. and Maya costs thousands of dollars a year.

v-yadli 7y ago

As a long time Vim user, the comments here actually encourage me to give it another try. I once tried it on a tablet, but obviously I missed that it’s about keystrokes.

bla3 7y ago

Encouraged by the "new, more intuitive UI" points I gave it another try. Background: I did lots of 3d coding and have used several 3d modeling packages, all a while ago. I've tried to learn Blender years ago and after lots of RTFM I could do some things in it back then, but I forgot all about that. I still find the 2.80 UI unintuitive. Clicking now selects, which is great, but it's weird to me that clicking on the background and then dragging doesn't move the viewport but does a selection box. Neither ctrl-drag nor any other modifier and drag moved the viewport either. After some more trial and error, apparently swiping on the trackpad rotates the viewport and shift-drag moves it, but I couldn't figure out how to dolly after some more trial and error. IIRC Blender is the only program where I couldn't figure out basic actions without RTFM. It's a bit better now, but that's still the case. Don't get me wrong, it's really impressive that they're able to do such a big UI overhaul! But at least for me, it feels there's still a ways to go.

avhon1 7y ago
Middle-click and drag to rotate the viewport Shift+middle-click to translate the viewport If you're using a Mac, or a laptop without a three-button trackpad or mouse, there is an option called "emulate three-button mouse" that lets you use alt+left-click as an alternative to middle-click. A little clumsy, but adequate for viewing files on-the-go. In the new 2.80 UI, there is a set of colored axes in the top-right corner. Clicking and dragging on those rotates the viewport, and clicking on the ends of one of the axes aligns the viewport to that axis. To the left of those axes is a hand-shaped icon. Clicking and dragging on this icon translates the viewport. (I'm curious which programs you've used before. This is definitely the same way you navigate in all of Autodesk's products, and in SolidWorks.)

smcnally 7y ago

> Templates > When starting a new file, there is now a choice between multiple application templates: ... > Video Editing: for using Blender as a video editor. Video’s a reason I’ve spent time with multiple previous Blender versions. Be great if this UI refresh + templated defaults create more traction for me and other video editors.

ohazi 7y ago

Congratulations to the Blender developers! This massive release has been years in the making. I remember watching an interview with Ton Roosendaal just before the 2.7 release (so 5 years ago? Back then they still thought the next version was going to be 3.0), and they were talking excitedly about this UI refresh as if it were just around the corner.

darkwater 7y ago

When I see new releases of art/design/drawing creation products I always envy the artists that are capable of using them and create beautiful things. I've always been incapable of anything related to drawing. I wonder if it is something you can learn by working on it or you just have to be gifted...

hapsam 7y ago
Art is a profession which can be learned, you dont need to be gifted or have any talent to start. But like with many professions, art takes time and people underestimate the amount of time which is required to get to a decent level (multiple years of practise and exercise).

Zikara 7y ago

Hey. I am too trying to do a startup and I can understand you. But before doing all this, I've spent about a year in the R&D to understand how to make new technologies correctly. The bottom line is that to begin the whole process you must business model Canvas. And only then do everything as spelled out in your roadmap. In this article, you can understand how to do this in the right way https://clockwise.software/blog/how-to-make-a-business-model-canvas-for-mobile-app/ https://clockwise.software/blog/how-to-make-a-business-model.... Study carefully and make basic development priorities. Good luck in the future!

Arinako 7y ago

Looks nice!