Blender 2.5 PTEX support & new multi-res vertex painting/baking

[ifxs]

video URLS with demos from top to bottom, with builds already available!

[haikalle]

Just amazing... Hope they go into trunk at some point.

[Digital777]

Blender is getting really good now, i used to dislike the interface but after looking at all the cool stuff it had i started to learn it and although it can take a while it's worth it. The sculpting stuff is better than sculptris (im guessing not much will happen now with the buy out thing but i might be wrong) and it looks like it will have decent texture and bump map stuff soon also. Blender is an amazing program.

I just hope with all the cool stuff it is adding it doesn't put anyone off buying programs like 3DC, although that said if that happened it would probably be the same for any higher priced software like zbrush also. The rate at which it develops is one reason why i think a real SDK/or scripting (allowing more than app links) would be good as users could make things for 3DC just like they do for blender with python. I and others have said about this before though so hopefully it is planned at some point.

[michalis]

I just hope with all the cool stuff it is adding it doesn't put anyone off buying programs like 3DC, although that said if that happened it would probably be the same for any higher priced software like zbrush also. The rate at which it develops is one reason why i think a real SDK/or scripting (allowing more than app links) would be good as users could make things for 3DC just like they do for blender with python. I and others have said about this before though so hopefully it is planned at some point

.

Blender is my favorite app but this will never happen. I personally use three sculpture apps to do the job, blender sculpt among them. I don't really like to sculpt there but you know, when starting render tests I always want to change things. The weak point of zbrush is the luck of a decent preview render. 3DC is great here.

Box modeling and surface sculpture is great in blender, a stand alone app here, box-modeling produces good topology anyway. But approaches like re-topo a dynamic geometry sculpt is not the best in blender.

Blender 2.53 still doesn't have a decent obj importer, I use 2.49 for this. And never press [F] when free editing particles (hair). Save first. lol

[Digital777]

Yeah i agree, i use a similar multi-app workflow also. I think the blender GUI will put many people off still though even though it is much better now. When it reaches V3 though i think it will rival the very high end stuff in terms of features like physics and maybe better quality for some things. Things seem to be going quickly now but this is maybe due to the google summer of code thing and they have various projects going. When i read the blender forums though it seems as soon as another 3D app adds a cool feature someone starts building it into blender like for example sculptris and i read someone might be adding auto retopo in now.

That was my point i was getting at though, they put everything in now and it's a free app so some will say "why should i get ___ when blender has ___ already for free" etc. I don't share that view though and even though it's a great app blender won't be taking 3DC's place in my workflow any time soon even if they add all the retopo stuff etc.

[michalis]

I agree.

When we are for serious sculpture, when we start sketching, cutting nice simple shapes when details can wait... then 3DC and voxels is the only solution I can see. Sculptris can't do this in the way a real sculptor can do it easily. Zbrush has the best surface tools I know. Never tried MB. For other kind of modeling like hard surfaces blender is great. Its nice to have functions like sculpture, retopo etc. Sometimes I need these and use them. But I can't imagine myself using just one app for all these. I need 3dc and zbrush for a portrait but I need blender for the shirt. BTW I love UV editor of blender, all versions.

[philnolan3d]

This is not my opinion since I haven't used blender enough to form one like this, but from what I hear of people who do use it the problem with open source is that they'll get a cool feature started, then the person behind it loses interest and that feature never gets fully implemented. Also due to the open source nature it causes some of the confusion in the app and some continuity problems where one part may not work the way other parts do, or may not even look like other parts. Again this is just what I have heard from users, I have not seen it myself. Good luck to them with this Ptex venture. The more apps that accept .ptx the more useful 3DC becomes.

[haikalle]

Well, it seams that blender is one of the first 3d programs that supports Ptex. Not bad from open source program

[Giuseppe]

I love blender, of my first 3d program.

But too much meat to cook, should focus more on modeling tools

[michalis]

The more apps that accept .ptx the more useful 3DC becomes.

Is this what we're talking about? How useful 3DC is? Because it is in a way or another.

As for your personal opinions about open source let me remind you that 3DC among other apps, could not even exist without this. So, please keep them for yourself.

Hi Giuseppe,

Giuseppe is a fine artist using blender among other apps, still uses a blender render for his avatar picture. Am I right?

[philnolan3d]

What do you mean "3DC could not exist without this"? Is "this" blender or open source? 3DC was never open source and it has nothing to do with blender. Andrew created 3DC based on his work at a game studio. That is all stated on the 3D-Coat website.

[michalis]

Your policy here philnolan is to pretend that you don't understand. Be careful because others can understand perfectly. I said open source as you did critic against open source.

Is this what we're talking about? How useful 3DC is? Because it is in a way or another.

As for your personal opinions about open source let me remind you that 3DC among other apps, could not even exist without this. So, please keep them for yourself.

I don't see any "blender" word here, do you see it? As for voxels these are open source alright. Without voxels 3DC could not exist for me.

[philnolan3d]

Your policy here philnolan is to pretend that you don't understand. Be careful because others can understand perfectly. I said open source as you did critic against open source.

I did not criticize open source. Many great things come from open source like the fantastic Open Office and a number of other tools I use every day. If you read what I actually wrote, I was passing along what I have heard about one specific project (blender), and specifically stated that I was not sharing personal opinion.

I don't see any "blender" word here, do you see it? As for voxels these are open source alright. Without voxels 3DC could not exist for me.

This is why I asked you what you were referring to. Blender is the main topic in this thread, you didn't have to say it. So "this" could be either one and I wanted to be clear before responding. Perhaps 3DC is only about voxels for you, but even without voxels it would still exist. Versions 1 or 2 did not have voxels and it was still a really great program, that being the reason I bought it around the time version 2 had just come out.

Please note that while Blender may not be my personal choice of applications I understand that others do enjoy using it and as I said before I wish the Blender organization the best of luck with it.

[michalis]

OK phil, you're a friend of open source, apologies then.

but even without voxels it would still exist

Yes, I know this too but I bought it for voxels and retopo. Other fine tools are of minor interest to me. Re-topo "belongs' to Andrew, there's a personal experience there, its obvious.

[Digital777]

Voxels in 3DC are a lot different to the uses they had in projects before it though in my opinion. Mainly they were used in games like Command & Conquer for 3d style graphics and also blocky pixel style 3d models. I am probably wrong but everything i saw before 3DC was very basic looking and 3DC then took things to the next level with a very high detail version of it, or at least in the 3d graphics world with it's sculpting.

[Tony Nemo]

Voxels in 3DC are a lot different to the uses they had in projects before it though in my opinion. Mainly they were used in games like Command & Conquer for 3d style graphics and also blocky pixel style 3d models. I am probably wrong but everything i saw before 3DC was very basic looking and 3DC then took things to the next level with a very high detail version of it, or at least in the 3d graphics world with it's sculpting.

Voxels have been used in medical imaging for awhile. Brain scans, etc are often presented this way.