Blender 2.76 RC - Now Final

[Bullit]

The Blender Foundation has posted the first release candidate for Blender 2.76, the latest update to the open-source 3D tool, adding support for OpenSubdiv and improving viewport performance.

Initial support for OpenSubdiv, but still some issues to resolve
The headline feature this time round is initial support for OpenSubdiv, Pixar’s set of open-source libraries for GPU-accelerated evaluation of subdivision surfaces.

The release notes describe the work as being aimed at “making viewport animation of hi-res characters more real-time, helping animators to see a final result [at a higher frame rate]“.

The integration was originally demoed last year, at which point it was planned for Blender 2.72, and there are still quite a few issues to be ironed out.

These include lack of support for UV maps in the viewport display, and a number of tools not working on OpenSubdiv meshes. In addition, smooth normals are incorrect: a “high priority” for future development.

You’ll also need to be running Blender in Windows or Linux on a Nvidia GPU if you want the full experience: there’s currently no OS X support, Intel cards are disabled, and some features are disabled on AMD hardware.

You can read a discussion of the underlying technical issues, along with a more detailed description of the OpenSubdiv feature set in the online documentation.

Better support for AMD GPUs in Cycles, better viewport performance
However, cross-platform support has been improved in the Cycles render engine, which now runs on AMD GPUs on Macs for the first time, at least if you’re using OS X El Capitan, due for public release this month.

Support for AMD GPUs under Windows and Linux, reinstated in Blender 2.75, has been further improved. In addition, the Viewport 2.0-style viewport display introduced in Blender 2.74 gets a “huge” performance boost.

New animation and modelling tools, new workflow boosters
The animation and modelling toolsets also get updates, including support for bone selection groups in the former, and new Flatten Faces and Edge Offset tools in the latter.

The sequencer gets a new text effect that can be exported as subtitles; and the node editor gets an Auto-Offset feature (above), which automatically respaces existing nodes when you drop a new node into a network.

Availability
Blender 2.76 is currently available as a release candidate build for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

http://www.cgchannel.com/2015/09/check- ... nder-2-76/


http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:R ... Notes/2.76

In this release:
Initial support for Pixar's OpenSubdiv geometry subdivision technology.
A huge view-port performance boost.
Big file browser performance boost and arrow keys navigation support.
Node auto-offset feature that helps organizing node layouts.
Absolute grid snapping in the 3D view.
Sculpting with tiled strokes.
Text effect strips for the sequencer, supporting subtitle export
And: 100s of bug fixes and other improvements!

[Bullit]

Also this plugin for Blender were released

https://cgcookiemarkets.com/all-products/mirage/ landcape and nature work plugin for $25


http://blendingjacob.blogspot.pt/p/jarch-vis.html JARCH Vis 0.6 for architecture work, and is freeware.

[Draise]

The node offset thing I think is awesome. I wish ICE or the Canvas in Fabric engine had that. Seriously, you do click a lot shifting nodes around.

[Bullit]

Agreed. The stuff we always have to do can be much improved.

[Mathaeus]

Just tried this release candidate thing. So, 'huge view-port performance boost' is real... giving a somehow strange feeling, as Blender view port behavior didn't changed that much for more than decade. So, completely different thing, with some a bit unpleasant delay here and there, but generally, good.
OpenSubdiv support seems to be really initial, as they said. Does not work in mesh edit mode, no support for textures. Anyway, playback of deformed meshes, works. Got almost 1:1 speed of subdivided against non subdivided mesh. Yet another pleasant surprise, Blender was already quite good in running the enveloped models, now all that nicely subdivided...
From rest, 'data transfer modifier', introduced in 2.74, got some improvements. As name says, Blender's 'data transfer modifier' is doing (almost) exactly the same, as what we know as GATOR. Plus few interesting additions, like 'baking' into custom normals, and 'direct' 1:1 option. It already had a 'weight transfer' command, similar to what we have in old Valve addon. Now, complete operator is there.
Some old slowdowns are still alive, like dope sheet delay in huge scene. Whatever, looks like a beginning of Blender's new era.

[Bullit]

Thanks Mathaeus for the feedback.

[Bullit]

2.76 Final is out



*In this episode*
-----------------------

Viewport (0:37):
- Display optimizations (with a comparison to 2.75)
- Pixars OpenSubdiv is in trunk (Animators: fun times ahead!) (2:33)

Blenderplayer (6:16):
* Allows sound playback for movies
* Allow play-pause with space button
* Allow displaying a position indicator with the I button

Nodes & Rendering (7:40):
- Point density texture support
- Expose Clip image extension type (14:50)
- Auto-offset nodes on insertion (17:23)




*In this episode*
-----------------------

VSE:
- Text Effect Strip (0:30)
- SRT export support (4:48)
- Removing gaps will now also move the scene markers (5:50)

Filebrowser (7:40):
- Navigation with Keys is now possible
- Previewing is much faster
- Recursive directory browsing
- Filtering in Appendi/Link mode massively updated

Freestyle (13:35):
- Thickness: Tangent
- Thickness: Noise
- Thickness: Crease AngleA
- Thickness: Curvature 3D
- Geometry: Simplification

Blender Internal (13:35):
- Particle Info node



http://www.blender.org/download/