i think you guys are being realistic, which is more than reasonable. but i am an optimist. and blender is on Mac Os, so it really depends how far apple is willing to open up on their end. the screen, pencil and keyboard on ipad is great for educational purpose! if apple is really shooting for a future of ipad os being the more dominant computing platform, then blender has to be on there (reduced capaity like locking certain rendring feature)... but imagine the grease pencil art that can come out of an ipad. i was betting on the surface pro X b4 launch, but that is nmot gonna fly anytime soon, so applew, its your call!!
d
dcb.creative
While I can clearly see the various development issues involved in making a version of Blender for mobile devices I can not justify dismissing its potential to increase accessibility and broaden the user base.
I think this is a great idea that unfortunately is well ahead of its time.
Perhaps someday there will be the inclination, and equally important the resources to expand the platforms Blender operates on. An evolution that ideally will improve and expand the touch and pen options of the Blender user interface.
It is good to be inspired to envision the potential of Blender beyond the dogma of the past and comfort of the present.
j
jezzmcxAuthor
Is it possible to port Blender (ARM) to iPad with just a few optimations instead of coding everything new?
k
kNewsSpace
I don't agree with mobile hardware to be the future the way you depict it. The (near) future is cloud based computing to run any software on any device. Just stream a fully fledged desktop computer to your iPad. All it then takes is to make a touch UI, no need to port the whole application.
j
jezzmcxAuthor
*
@knewslukas
* I really get your point. But also topics like privacy are one the rise. In a Long term perspective, becuase of the latency, privacy, Cloud-tech will be used for file-sharing to work on the same Project with others and everywhere. We see this with Stadia, that People actually want to own Software at their homes. Internet is not everywhere fast enought. My favourite example: Adobe CC (Also here, the Cloud is used for file-sharing) lost many users becuase of Serifs Affinity. All Affinity-products are available on the iPad.
k
kNewsSpace
*
@jezzmcx
* Privacy was a much bigger deal in the 90s when everybody feared cash-less payments via bank transfer and credit cards. People thought it would be terrible for companies to know what you are buying in shops. Imagine shop owners could track how much toilette paper you use... Today? Today we all buy at amazon nonetheless and pretty much nobody cares about it anymore.
The reason is new generations growing up with the tech have no reason to fear it because they don't know it differently. The kids from today who use streaming services like Twitch will get used to games and eventually computer work being streamed.
Privacy issues won't stop progress in that area because they die with old generations, latency gets better year by year (soon below 1 ms) and global internet coverage will be taken care of from space within the next few years (see Starlink, OneWeb, etc).
Adoba CC vs. Affinity is more of a price issue than privacy. Adobe is damn expensive and subscription based while Affinity is the opposite.
j
jezzmcxAuthor
Blender on iPad Pro would not just be revolutionary - it could Change Blender and the entired Industry forever. Just look at Serifs Affinity or Microsofts Office - it seems to move to mobile devices. The iPad Pro 2018 is more powerful than 95% of all Laptops, according to Apple. Why not Blender for iPad? On top of that, Apple now supports OpenGL. If the development is to expensive - for sure - Apple would support that with A LOT OF MONEY. Let us move into a mobile future. Of Course, there is the Surface Pro - but it runs Windows, so there would be not shift to a mobile-engineered platform. Because Iam a german Student how goes to a Gym, my english might not be perfect.
l
luciano
*
@jezzmcx
* if you can do it, do it, let the blender devs make the best blender they can make before even thinking about something like this :)
1
t
thomasmouilleron
*
@jezzmcx
* It won't be done for a number of reasons:
Developing for IpadOS comes with licenses that do not agree with Blender's
Blender's very shortcut heavy and would need a keyboard at all times to work with it efficiently
Blender can become a real powerhouse when rendering offline scenes
You would have to completely recode blender just for the ipad, that would mean every time theres a fix for pc, you have to port it for ipad
You're not sure Apple would support that with A LOT OF MONEY, that is not fact.
1
j
jezzmcxAuthor
*
@Thomas Paul
* *
@Thomas Paul
* I get your points. But your first Point, I guess, is also not a fact. Blender could ask Apple for support on this - if they agree, this could be a huge argument to start developing. Many Things you do with a keybord are able to manage with touch-gestures. On top of that, also iOS has (of Course) a keybord. Proffesionals could buy one and with the new USB-C-Port, Apple also supports this (what about an official for Blender designed -keybord? Would mean more Money for the foundation and a better workflow for the users). Also, I dont believe they have to Code everything new - Blender is available on ARM and already supports touch-controls (within the next 2.8-update as good as never bevore).
All in all, Blender should talk with Apple and find out, how hard this really is.
j
jezzmcxAuthor
*
@Luciano A. Muñoz Sessarego
* Iam 14 and just started with Python/ Swift. It will take a Long time but If no one else does, I will do it commercially. There are 350.000.000 iPads out there, Serifs Affinity proves that there are many Creatives out there who are searching for tech like this. I think this is the future.
t
thomasmouilleron
*
@jezzmcx
* I don't think you get the gist, I mean the license wouldn't permit it, Blender would have to sign a contract binding it to apple, like anything that ends up in the app store. Blender runs on a GNU license, so I would heavily not recommend using blender's code and "doing it commercially", as you would legally be putting yourself in harm's way. But like Luciano said, if you're down for the challenge, go ahead. Just remember, you have to release it as with the same license Blender abides to, and you CANNOT release it commercially.
*
@Thomas Paul
* *
@Thomas Paul
* Thank you for that Information. But for sure it would be possible to give the user the oportunity to donate some money for the development.
14 Comments
i think you guys are being realistic, which is more than reasonable. but i am an optimist. and blender is on Mac Os, so it really depends how far apple is willing to open up on their end. the screen, pencil and keyboard on ipad is great for educational purpose! if apple is really shooting for a future of ipad os being the more dominant computing platform, then blender has to be on there (reduced capaity like locking certain rendring feature)... but imagine the grease pencil art that can come out of an ipad. i was betting on the surface pro X b4 launch, but that is nmot gonna fly anytime soon, so applew, its your call!!
While I can clearly see the various development issues involved in making a version of Blender for mobile devices I can not justify dismissing its potential to increase accessibility and broaden the user base.
I think this is a great idea that unfortunately is well ahead of its time.
Perhaps someday there will be the inclination, and equally important the resources to expand the platforms Blender operates on. An evolution that ideally will improve and expand the touch and pen options of the Blender user interface.
It is good to be inspired to envision the potential of Blender beyond the dogma of the past and comfort of the present.
Is it possible to port Blender (ARM) to iPad with just a few optimations instead of coding everything new?
I don't agree with mobile hardware to be the future the way you depict it. The (near) future is cloud based computing to run any software on any device. Just stream a fully fledged desktop computer to your iPad. All it then takes is to make a touch UI, no need to port the whole application.
* @knewslukas * I really get your point. But also topics like privacy are one the rise. In a Long term perspective, becuase of the latency, privacy, Cloud-tech will be used for file-sharing to work on the same Project with others and everywhere. We see this with Stadia, that People actually want to own Software at their homes. Internet is not everywhere fast enought. My favourite example: Adobe CC (Also here, the Cloud is used for file-sharing) lost many users becuase of Serifs Affinity. All Affinity-products are available on the iPad.
* @jezzmcx * Privacy was a much bigger deal in the 90s when everybody feared cash-less payments via bank transfer and credit cards. People thought it would be terrible for companies to know what you are buying in shops. Imagine shop owners could track how much toilette paper you use... Today? Today we all buy at amazon nonetheless and pretty much nobody cares about it anymore.
The reason is new generations growing up with the tech have no reason to fear it because they don't know it differently. The kids from today who use streaming services like Twitch will get used to games and eventually computer work being streamed.
Privacy issues won't stop progress in that area because they die with old generations, latency gets better year by year (soon below 1 ms) and global internet coverage will be taken care of from space within the next few years (see Starlink, OneWeb, etc).
Adoba CC vs. Affinity is more of a price issue than privacy. Adobe is damn expensive and subscription based while Affinity is the opposite.
Blender on iPad Pro would not just be revolutionary - it could Change Blender and the entired Industry forever. Just look at Serifs Affinity or Microsofts Office - it seems to move to mobile devices. The iPad Pro 2018 is more powerful than 95% of all Laptops, according to Apple. Why not Blender for iPad? On top of that, Apple now supports OpenGL. If the development is to expensive - for sure - Apple would support that with A LOT OF MONEY. Let us move into a mobile future. Of Course, there is the Surface Pro - but it runs Windows, so there would be not shift to a mobile-engineered platform. Because Iam a german Student how goes to a Gym, my english might not be perfect.
* @jezzmcx * if you can do it, do it, let the blender devs make the best blender they can make before even thinking about something like this :)
* @jezzmcx * It won't be done for a number of reasons:
* @Thomas Paul * * @Thomas Paul * I get your points. But your first Point, I guess, is also not a fact. Blender could ask Apple for support on this - if they agree, this could be a huge argument to start developing. Many Things you do with a keybord are able to manage with touch-gestures. On top of that, also iOS has (of Course) a keybord. Proffesionals could buy one and with the new USB-C-Port, Apple also supports this (what about an official for Blender designed -keybord? Would mean more Money for the foundation and a better workflow for the users). Also, I dont believe they have to Code everything new - Blender is available on ARM and already supports touch-controls (within the next 2.8-update as good as never bevore). All in all, Blender should talk with Apple and find out, how hard this really is.
* @Luciano A. Muñoz Sessarego * Iam 14 and just started with Python/ Swift. It will take a Long time but If no one else does, I will do it commercially. There are 350.000.000 iPads out there, Serifs Affinity proves that there are many Creatives out there who are searching for tech like this. I think this is the future.
* @jezzmcx * I don't think you get the gist, I mean the license wouldn't permit it, Blender would have to sign a contract binding it to apple, like anything that ends up in the app store. Blender runs on a GNU license, so I would heavily not recommend using blender's code and "doing it commercially", as you would legally be putting yourself in harm's way. But like Luciano said, if you're down for the challenge, go ahead. Just remember, you have to release it as with the same license Blender abides to, and you CANNOT release it commercially.
* @jezzmcx * here's a link to Blender's license en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License
* @Thomas Paul * * @Thomas Paul * Thank you for that Information. But for sure it would be possible to give the user the oportunity to donate some money for the development.