FASTER CYCLES X | Blender.Today LIVE #176

Hi Pablo. I would like to ask about features stuck a bit in experimental limbo. What are the plans for them? For example adaptive subdivision. If software expects from me to enable "experimental" mode for some feature, it's suggest instability and/or the feature is not yet finished but available under "use at your own risk" rule. But it's there for quite some time and I'm wondering if it will get out of this status at some point.

Hey Pablo! Hope you're doing well! Do you know if there are any plans to change how the n-panel works? Currently if you have some extensions, at a certain point the text cuts off and becomes unreadable. It is really hard to use sometimes. Thank you!

Will there be any muscle systems in blender anytime in the future?

Will Blender Eevee ever have SSGI?

Also in 3.0 there is this crazy bug that needs to be fixed. Have you ever seen it yet? please check it out. youtube.com/watch

Hi Pablo!

Check out this cool video (17 seconds) of a simulation I did inside of Blender with taichi_elements (a project made with the Taichi programming language). Also read the description for more info: youtu.be/lsz2ffoKSSY

I really think that the Blender developers should look at the Taichi programming language (which is embedded in Python) for simulations. The performance of it is super fast and optimized. In my opinion, it looks perfect for the future of Blender simulations.

Useful links on the topic

• Website of Taichi: taichi.graphics
• Github of Taichi: github.com/taichi-dev/taichi
• Github of taichi_elements: github.com/taichi-dev/taichi_elements
• [SIGGRAPH Asia 2019] The Taichi Programming Language: youtu.be/wKw8LMF3Djo

Hi Pablo! Great tuesday to you!

When working with multiple scenes, it's hard to quickly switch the scenes setting. Run a quick render preview by set render resolution, samples, bounces, file output, film setting etc and then jump to a final or even a mid level render preview requires a lot of click. there should be a quicker way to set all those options. Don't you think?

also about scenes, now when i duplicate a scene with the link scene option there is no way to unlink an object shared by the 2 scenes. The "make single user" command doesn't work anymore. even delete an object from a "linked duplicated" scene cause the object to be deleted from both...What happened? :D

And last...if I have an object hide in "render" but visible in viewport, when I preview the render in viewport i see that object. In blender 2.79 there was a button to sync that state while rendering in the viewport to see the result just as it would come out when press f12. Will it come back?

Thaaanks

Hi Pablo! I am a user form India, using Windows 10. I am seeing from a couple of days that the blender version in Microsoft Store is still 2.93.105. Is this the latest version? I think that the latest version should be something like 2.93.5. Also, I could only find the 2.83 LTS version in MS Store. The 2.93 LTS version isn’t there! Please look after this!

Also, I would kindly like you to review this post by me on devtalk: devtalk.blender.org/t/fix-padding-of-top-menu-buttons-in-blender-org-website/21262

Hey Thomas, what was your last commit?

Good show, Pablo. Catch you next week.

Hey pablo how are you, I hope your UI branch changes could be implemented in 3.0.

TLDR: Sprite Fright was awesome and unexpected.

Even after 3.0 launches there are still some quality of life improvements to be made, which are long due like.

• like some important experimental features adaptive sub divison and etc are still to be finalised.
• Addons like node wrangler, loop tools, curve tools, magic uv and etc which are important to the workflow. To be written in C or C++ and internalised as a core feature.
• In 3.0 there are some improvements are made in regards to modeling tools use but, still there are some problems. The option menu in the editor and option menu in F9 key floating menu they are not in sync and option menu in the editor cannot be used after the tool's use plus the editor menu is lacking some options pre tool's use
• Modifiers cannot be applied in other modes than object mode. Even though you can use multi - resolution modifier in sculpt mode, there are still many cases in which you have to switch back to object mode just to change modifiers.

Personal opinion

• Every LTS release should be a whole number release like 3.0, 4.0, 5.0
• N-key shortcuts menu should be removed and, options like lock camera to frame should be an icon.
• there should be a separate tab in options menu for geometry node and addons management, like textures and simulations tabs.
• Blender founder should hire someone to improve texture painting in blender like the guy who developed armory paint. And add inbuild option to make circle, square and grid masks for easier material creation in blender.

Hi Pablo. I wanted to know about this patch, is there any news: developer.blender.org/D10436 Thanks.

Hi Pablo, how you doin'? Why is Apple not listed as a Patron on the Patron page?

Hi Pablo, i have a Question/Request for Thomas.... i was looking into building a Branch or applying a patch .... but i couldn't find information on the wiki.... could that info be available

pleaaasse add utf-8 for text object in 3D view and RTL support for text in Video Sequence Editor.

Hi Pablo, any news on this fixing off the invalidation issue with MantaFlow when parameters are changed and the cache is invalid but there's no indication that the sim has to be re-run? Also any news on the GPU update for this too?

could geometry nodes get things like a loop function or possibly "if" logic like a programming language, in the future?

Hey Pablo, I love Blender Today, its the only Live Stream I watch consistently! Thanks a lot for all the effort! I have a simple question regarding instancing collections and I couldn't find an answer anywhere on the internet.

Is there a way to use the "Instance Index" input on the "Distribute on Points" node? I can instance a collection and use a value to change which element of the collection it instances, just as expected. Is there a way to specify which Object corresponds to an Index? Right now it seems random.

Thanks a lot!!

Oi pablo!

I've been learning geometry nodes for the first time for nodevember, and I've hit a good number of walls- mostly due to instances and attributes. most notably, using an object to affect the location of instances made from a grid! sounds easy! just subtract the location of the object from that of the instance, and apply with instance translate... but I'm having issues =~=

of course, a good number of the issues are lack of current tutorials. A good number of nodes say "ignoring instances", but only when you plug them into the geometry socket! this is rather disruptive! a catch-all isn't very usefull when it doesn't... catch all... As well, because it's almost impossible to get information on what attribute nodes actually do, what they take in, how to know which attribute you're working with, or how to determine which you're trying to work with, and how they process them! (like in attribute capture, it starts out as point and float, but doesn't tell you what that float would be until you use it!)

basically, with the eradication of the bespoke attribute workflow, There are a lot of issues for new users, when it comes to knowing exactly what some of these nodes do! The capture attribute says "type of data in stored attribute", but it's terribly unclear if that attribute is "stored" in the node, in the original geometry, etc! and how does that even work? say the attribute is the location of a point- how does float properly convey that information to another node, when position is a vector? if data is lost, what will be lost?

I know vector math and trig just fine- but blender's attribute system is a black box! I don't know... how to know... what I need... to know?

Hello Pablo!

happy to see you back and congrats for 3.0 Beta and Sprite Fright!

I want to share a proposal I did some time ago, jumping in the 3.0 era is a good moment for rethinking materials and how we manage them, therefore a new editor: a proper material library (please note that what I mean is NOT as asset browser, I just used the Asset browser editor to create the mockups) blender.community/c/rightclickselect/Qk57/

Hey Pablo and Thomas,

with all the nice new (visual) features in the node editors, will some of these be available in custom node editors for the python api? This would be really nice to make addons with custom node trees more consistent with how geo nodes, shader nodes, etc. look and work.

I'm mainly referring to that there's no way to change the header colors for custom nodes in our node trees and it would also be nice to get the new colored links and the socket tooltips.

Edit: Great news on the colored links, that works great now!

Hi Pablo! Great Monday to you!

When working with multiple scenes, it's hard to quickly switch the scenes setting. Run a quick render preview by set render resolution, samples, bounces, file output, film setting etc and then jump to a final or even a mid-level render preview requires a lot of clicks. there should be a quicker way to set all those options. Don't you think?

Also, about scenes, now when i duplicate a scene with the link scene option there is no way to unlink an object shared by the 2 scenes. The "make single-user" command doesn't work anymore. Even deleting an object from a "linked duplicated" scene cause the object to be deleted from both...What happened, is that a bug or I've missed something? :D (This doesn't happen when you manually link objects between scenes with CTRL+L)

And last...if I have an object hidden in "render" but visible in viewport when I preview the render in the viewport, I see that object. In blender 2.79 there was a button to sync that state while rendering in the viewport to see the result just as it would come out when pressing f12. Will it come back?

Thaaanks

Hi Pablo;

I totally agree with @koko_ze about the need to implement TaiChi into Blender for doing simulations. I did a long write-up about using Taichi in the Simulations sections of Right Click select some time ago for anyone who wants to read it:

blender.community/c/rightclickselect/999x/

Blender users would get the best of both worlds: Speed and Simplicity

Please, tell us that you, Dalai and Jacques are considering Taichi for simulations.

If not, perhaps an official poll would be in order?

Thanks for everything you do Pablo.

We need more people like you.

Hi Pablo, can you spoil a secret and tell me what Sergey Sharybin next project is? =D

Are any hirings planned or workshops instead of the blender conference?

Cheers.

Hello Pablo a few quick questions (some of them from - the last week- few weeks now):

1. I recently came across this shirt: twitter.com/IdoineTutorials/status/1431261751585222656 (image only: pbs.twimg.com/media/E9zc69QXoAAoWAT )

I think it looks really nice and I would love to buy some stylish blender gear. The current wear is a bit... boring? ...Let's say it could be better. Is there any place where such ideas are collected or maybe even voted on to see if the design could even be sold.

Last time you noticed the code quest badge. To be honest, I was just in for the shirt and the rocket-USB stick. That's a much nicer way to support blender with money in my opinion.

2. Regarding donations:

Was, is or will there be a focus on making donations to blender tax deductable? I think in my country there could be a sneaky way around a fuzzy 'not really', but it would be the in the line of 'education for adults' and you would need the ministry of finance to play along.

3. Is the discussion regarding blender versioning still alive?

In the past I heard some people write about the new versioning of blender and that they wish it would not advance with 3.0, 3.1, 3.2 etc. To be honest, I also kinda like the idea that every LTS ends with something-point-3. So 3.03, 3.13, etc.

4. VSE talk

I'm interested in the VSE development. Is there any place where I can directly ask a developer? In my opinion the VSE has some parts that are really great and some that are really terrible. I have seen the bad parts been done much better in other software, but I'm not sure if these parts of the VSE are even considered problamatic or if they are meant to be that way. So I would like to poke a developer and see what they think about certain features.

5. Sprite Fright

Something I did not understand: Are the Sprites hostile or friendly in nature? Would they have went on a killing spree when they behaved well in the forest? Or are they like spiders in Minecraft: Passive during the day and hostile during the night.

6. Live shows and questions

I wonder if there is a way to have some kind of place to put up questions for the show without watching it live. The problem is that sometimes you have no time to watch the show live. Next time Pablo doesn't get down to the question. Next time you have a guest and don't get to the comments at all. All of that piles up to entries like this one. It would be nice to have a place to drop a question for the show (maybe with a length limit like twitter). Also: It seems that latest comments are placed right below the comments liked most. So early birds will have a worse chance of getting their comment answered than those who post it right before you switch over to the comments.

7. Using Linux (not so serious question):

You said that you used a system with PopOS for the streams in the past. Wouldn't it be much better for these streams to run on a system with Ubuntu MATE while drinking mate? ^^

Thanks for the stream and have a great week! Sorry for the long post, I would send you a picture of a potato, but instead I will tell you stay hydrated with some peppermint tea :D

Hi Pablo, I would like to ask you about these 2:

• GNodes currently clears the mesh data like UVs, vertex colors, vertex groups etc. during realize (Realize node, Apply modifier, ...). This makes GNodes useless for many people who need all these data to be prevented in the resulted mesh - for example when exporting it to other tools like a game engine. There is already a task with 40 subscribers regarding this issue: developer.blender.org/T85962 , but so far no relevant reaction from developers, only tips for partial workarounds (like getting UVs from Attributes in a shader), but this is not really a solution. Do you also think this an important issue to be solved? Can you please talk with some developer regarding that?

• Vertex & Weight Paint is very slow with higher poly meshes (comparison with 2.79 & 1M mesh: youtube.com/watch ). Sculpt Paint seems to be an alternative, but as it works smoothly only in Solid shading, it is pretty useless for any serious work. I think such basic features like Vertex / Weight paint should be really flawless and Sculpt Paint shows the potential for significiant improvements in this area - can we expect some soon?

Thank you for all your work!