A full detailed description of this will be done later... is several days
of work. Here's a summary:
Render:
- Full cleanup of render code, removing *all* globals and bad level calls
all over blender. Render module is now not called abusive anymore
- API-fied calls to rendering
- Full recode of internal render pipeline. Is now rendering tiles by
default, prepared for much smarter 'bucket' render later.
- Each thread now can render a full part
- Renders were tested with 4 threads, goes fine, apart from some lookup
tables in softshadow and AO still
- Rendering is prepared to do multiple layers and passes
- No single 32 bits trick in render code anymore, all 100% floats now.
Writing images/movies
- moved writing images to blender kernel (bye bye 'schrijfplaatje'!)
- made a new Movie handle system, also in kernel. This will enable much
easier use of movies in Blender
PreviewRender:
- Using new render API, previewrender (in buttons) now uses regular render
code to generate images.
- new datafile 'preview.blend.c' has the preview scenes in it
- previews get rendered in exact displayed size (1 pixel = 1 pixel)
3D Preview render
- new; press Pkey in 3d window, for a panel that continuously renders
(pkey is for games, i know... but we dont do that in orange now!)
- this render works nearly identical to buttons-preview render, so it stops
rendering on any event (mouse, keyboard, etc)
- on moving/scaling the panel, the render code doesn't recreate all geometry
- same for shifting/panning view
- all other operations (now) regenerate the full render database still.
- this is WIP... but big fun, especially for simple scenes!
Compositor
- Using same node system as now in use for shaders, you can composit images
- works pretty straightforward... needs much more options/tools and integration
with rendering still
- is not threaded yet, nor is so smart to only recalculate changes... will be
done soon!
- the "Render Result" node will get all layers/passes as output sockets
- The "Output" node renders to a builtin image, which you can view in the Image
window. (yes, output nodes to render-result, and to files, is on the list!)
The Bad News
- "Unified Render" is removed. It might come back in some stage, but this
system should be built from scratch. I can't really understand this code...
I expect it is not much needed, especially with advanced layer/passes
control
- Panorama render, Field render, Motion blur, is not coded yet... (I had to
recode every single feature in render, so...!)
- Lens Flare is also not back... needs total revision, might become composit
effect though (using zbuffer for visibility)
- Part render is gone! (well, thats obvious, its default now).
- The render window is only restored with limited functionality... I am going
to check first the option to render to a Image window, so Blender can become
a true single-window application. :)
For example, the 'Spare render buffer' (jkey) doesnt work.
- Render with border, now default creates a smaller image
- No zbuffers are written yet... on the todo!
- Scons files and MSVC will need work to get compiling again
OK... thats what I can quickly recall. Now go compiling!
Also fixed signature to const char* to indicate which parameters can be changed
to make it a bit safer, because constant strings are passed into this function
and changing them caused a crash.
Now relative filenames that are not below the .blend file
in the directory hierarchy can be used.
CAUTION:
The relative filenames are not updated if the blend file
is moved to another dir or saved into another dir (save as)
We will rely on the smartness of the users for this.
my first official commit - thanks Ton!
- removed {lattice,curve}_modifier functions
- changed render code to use displist for curve rendering
instead of making its own. required adding a bevelSplitFlag
field to DispList. I also fixed the bevel face splitting
which did not work correctly in many situations.
- changed so all curve data creation happens in makeDispListCurveTypes,
includes making bevel list and filling polys
- changed render code to use displist for surface rendering
- removed Curve.orco variable, built as needed now
- removed stupid BLI_setScanFill* functions... why use a function
argument when you can use a global and two functions! Why indeed.
(this fixed crash when reloading a file with filled curves and
toggling editmode)
- bug fix, setting curve width!=1 disabled simple bevel for no
apparent reason
- cleaned up lots and lots of curve/displist code (fun example:
"if(dl->type==DL_INDEX3 || dl->type==DL_INDEX3)"). Hmmm!
- switched almost all lattice calls to go through lattice_deform_verts,
only exception left is particles
- added DBG_show_shared_render_faces function in render, just
helps to visualize which verts are shared while testing (no
user interface).
- renamed some curve bevel buttons and rewrote tooltips to be
more obvious
- made CU_FAST work without dupfontbase hack
Also by the way I wrote down some notes on how curve code
works, nothing spiffy but it is at:
http://wiki.blender.org/bin/view.pl/Blenderdev/CurveNotes
He even made a nice doc in wiki:
http://wiki.blender.org/bin/view.pl/Blenderdev/Blendgz
Usage: set the option "Compress File" in the main "File" pulldown menu.
This setting is a user-def, meaning it is not changed on reading files.
If you want it default, save it with CTRL+U.
The longest debate went over the file naming convention. Shaul started
with .blend.gz files, which gave issues in Blender because of the code
hanging out everywhere that detects blender files, and that appends the
.blend extension if needed.
Daniel Dunbar proposed to just save it as .blend, and not bother users
with such details. This is indeed the most elegant solution, with as
only drawback that old Blender executables cannot read it.
This drawback isn't very relevant at the moment, since we're heading
towards a release that isn't upward compatible anyway... the recode
going on on Meshes, Modfiers, Armatures, Poses, Actions, NLA already
have upward compatibility issues.
We might check - during the next month(s) - on a builtin system to
warn users in the future when we change things that make a file risky
to read in an older release.
1:
* when a blendfile gets loaded, paths are corrected with OS specific slashes (see blender.c)
* made available BLI_char_switch(char *string, char from, char to)
* made available BLI_clean(char *string);. This function should be called whenever you're doing path stuff, so paths are correctly saved, and thus avoiding other path functions stopping to work
2:
* relative paths work now in sequencer too (due to slash mess that didn't work all too well).
- EditVlak -> EditFace
- variables called 'evl' -> 'efa'
- functions with 'vlak' in it now have 'face'
Just thought was nice starter for editmesh recode...
Basically this provides three new things:
1. Choice of a list of noise-base functions, which can be used by the
current Clouds, Marble, Wood textures as well.
2. Three new texture types: Musgrave, Voronoi and DistortedNoise
3. Python access to noise functions (not for render!)
All of this together makes Blender's builtin procedural textures a LOT
more powerful. Here again, a full webpage should be made to show off all
possibilities, and explain some of the more scientific names for settings.
A good read on Musgrave textures can be found here:
http://www.ypoart.com/Downloads/Musgrave.htm
About Voronoi:
http://www.ypoart.com/Downloads/Worley.htm
I can't find official DistortedNoise docs easily... maybe its something
Eeshlo created himself.
I've spent some time to change the patch Eeshlo provided. Worth noting:
- created main texture "Musgrave" with 5 sub choices (instead of 5 new
main textures)
- added for all new textures the option to scale (zoom in out)
- added patch in do_versions to initialize variables
I hope the Python team will check on the Noise.c API. And include in docs!
(adding)
#ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H
#include <config.h>
#endif
also the Makefile.in's were from previous patch adding
the system depend stuff to configure.ac
Kent
--
mein@cs.umn.edu
