Bforartists 2 final released

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Tiles
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Bforartists 2 final released

Post by Tiles »

Hello Friends,

Long time not been here :)

This is it, we have released the final version of Bforartists 2. For those who doesn't know the software, it is a fork of Blender. With the goal to improve the UI and usability.

The binary downloads can as usual also be found in the download section of the official webpage. https://www.bforartists.de/download/
The sourcecode can be found at Github. https://github.com/Bforartists/Bforarti ... tag/v2.0.0
And the release note is here: https://www.bforartists.de/release-notes/

We have found and fixed a hand full of last minute bugs. And we have readded the align view buttons from Bforartists 1 back into the header. I missed it too much in my workflow. And we have corrected a mistake at the versioning numbers. This is Bforartists 2. And so the version number should be Bforartists 2.0.0. It is now.

This release is a milestone release. It ends the development cycle for Bforartists 2, and continues the success story of the Bforartists project. This doesn't mean the end of development. Quite the opposite. This just means that we have finally a stable version that can be used in production. A version where we can finally make tutorials for again. The first quickstart videos are popping up at the moment. We will continue to release a new and updated version every time a new Blender version appears. And we will continue to improve Bforartists as good as we can.

But the focus of the next months will be at the manual and the tutorials first. We have lots of gaps here that we need to close. And we need to close them first before we can go on with adding features.

Here you can find a short video note to the release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avVzpciUxRI

And here we have created a video here that explains the differences between Blender and Bforartists in more details:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAJQsKRi3sY

A very special thanks goes to the team and everybody involved and who has supported us. You have helped to make Bforartists possible. Have fun with the new version - Reiner
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Re: Bforartists 2 final released

Post by bitkar »

wow, this looks so neat and tidy! Maybe i will learn "blender" finally :D

btw:
- those tS like view buttons are great, can you add one more for 3D view maybe? like in tS
- can I add one small floating window with a 2D/3D view? Iam used to it from tS. Usually i work in the big view and control stuff from the small view and also render previews in the small view, its very handy to have it. Is it possible?
- can you make some better material editor? that one is still very unintuitive and confusing, and where is some material preview??

Can I change navigation to rotate with my middle mouse and pan with right mouse?

anyway, the more tS in a blender, the better UI ;)

overall well done, this looks like a new world of blender.
Michal aka bitkar
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Re: Bforartists 2 final released

Post by Tiles »

Thanks :)

To turn Blender into a trueSpace will unfortunately not work. The source code and the features are too different for that. And the UI solution from Blender does not allow such things really. The better method is to improve Blender / Bforartists from its own UI, piece by piece. Evolution. That's what we do at Bforartists :)

A material editor, woah. I miss the super simple one from trueSpace too. But features is unfortunately out of scope. Especially such a super complicated thing like a new material editor. Materials are node based in Blender/Bforartists. I have just two hands, and am super busy with just the UI. But have a look in the materials tab for the Materials Libary VX panel. Here you will find some preset materials.

Yes you can change the navigation. But i remember there was a reason why we have chosen rotate with rmb and pan with mmb. I just can't remember what the conflict was ^^

Kind regards
Reiner
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Re: Bforartists 2 final released

Post by bitkar »

thanks for advice... iam just not a blender guy. Never was able to make anything in that. I have no idea why some things are so complicated there... This is the best thing tho, definatly. Iam able to use at least some basics without knowing blender at all. Thats a success. But i have no idea how to normally setup my material that actually looks real :D

btw what is GGX and BSDF??? why so much acronyms?

sorry, i give up, i will wait for bforartist 5 or something :D its 1000% better than native blender, but still... i didnt figure out how to make a sphere that has more quads or triangles... i will stick to tS, its godlike.
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Re: Bforartists 2 final released

Post by Tiles »

That's okay. Bforartists is simply too different from trueSpace. You could wait until we have our official quickstart tutorials ready. There i will cover the materials too. Just give me a few weeks, this task is time consuming :)

And forget about this acronyms. That's just shaders :)
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Re: Bforartists 2 final released

Post by bitkar »

iam not in a hurry :) I will be curious to see that. thanks.
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Re: Bforartists 2 final released

Post by v3rd3 »

Thank you for this wonderful news. I will download asap. I hope to get something decent done this summer and will give you whatever feedback I have then.
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Re: Bforartists 2 final released

Post by Tiles »

Hello Friends,

We have a new version of Bforartists ready. Version 2.1.0

The binary downloads can as usual also be found in the download section of the official webpage. https://www.bforartists.de/download/
The sourcecode can be found at Github. https://github.com/Bforartists/Bforarti ... tag/v2.1.0
And the release note is here: https://www.bforartists.de/release-notes/

Bforartists 2.1.0 is a bug fix and maintenance release. It brings the new features from Blender 2.83 LTS. And some smaller corrections and fixes that we have found at our way through the missing manual chapters and creating the quickstart tutorial videos. Bforartists 2.1.0 is based at Blender 2.90 Alpha.

The usual thanks goes to the team and all supporters. Have fun with the new version - Reiner
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Re: Bforartists 2 final released

Post by Tiles »

Hello Friends,

With every new Blender version there will also be a new Bforartists version. Today Blender released yet another point upgrade, and so we have already arrived at Bforartists 2 Version 2.3.0.

The binary downloads can as usual also be found in the download section of the official webpage. https://www.bforartists.de/download/
The sourcecode can be found at Github. https://github.com/Bforartists/Bforarti ... tag/v2.3.0
And the release note is here: https://www.bforartists.de/release-notes/

The Linux version will arrive a bit later this time. Our maintainer is at holidays.

Bforartists 2.3.0 is a bug fix and maintenance release. It brings the fixes from Blender 2.83.2 LTS. And some minimal corrections and fixes that we have found at our way through the missing manual chapters and creating the quickstart tutorial videos. Our current main focus is to finish the manual. Bforartists 2.3.0 is based on Blender 2.90 Alpha.

Bforartists is a fork of the popular open source software Blender. With the goal to improve the UI and usability.

The usual thanks goes to the team and everybody involved. Have fun with the new version - Reiner
Free Gamegraphics, Freeware Games http://reinerstilesets.de
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Re: Bforartists 2 final released

Post by v3rd3 »

Thanks again Reiner... Awesome accomplishment, Congratulations.
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Re: Bforartists 2 final released

Post by Draise »

:bananalove: :bananacool2: :bananalove: :bananacool2: :bananalove:
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Re: Bforartists 2 final released

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And here comes Bforartists 2 version 2.5.0 :)

The binary downloads can as usual also be found in the download section of the official webpage. https://www.bforartists.de/download/
The sourcecode can be found at Github. https://github.com/Bforartists/Bforarti ... tag/v2.5.0
And the release note is here: https://www.bforartists.de/release-notes/

Bforartists 2.5.0 brings the fixes and changes from Blender 2.90. And some minimal corrections and fixes that we have found at our way through the missing manual chapters. Bforartists 2.5.0 is based on Blender 2.91 Alpha.

We have also updated the manual. All chapters are written now, so it is feature complete. And this means this chapter is finally finished, and we can continue to develop the software now. The focus was at the manual for a while.

The download offers for linux are now reduced to two. tar.gz and deb. RPM seems not longer supported by Blender, the script is missing. And i never managed to get SH to work. Linux remains a difficult chapter.

Many thanks to the team and everybody involved. Have fun with the new version - Reiner
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Re: Bforartists 2 final released

Post by bitkar »

awesome, thanks again! Bforartits is still my only way forward from tS.
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Re: Bforartists 2 final released

Post by Tiles »

Hello friends,

Completely forgot to post here too. Sorry. We have meanwhile arrived at Bfoartists version 2.7.0.

The binary downloads can as usual also be found in the download section of the official webpage. https://www.bforartists.de/download/
The sourcecode can be found at Github. https://github.com/Bforartists/Bforarti ... tag/v2.7.0
And the release note is here: https://www.bforartists.de/release-notes/

Bforartists 2.7.0 brings the fixes from Blender 2.91.2. It also brings quite a few new features from Blender 2.92 alpha. Like the new geometry node editor. Bforartists 2.7.0 is already based at Blender 2.93 Alpha.

In Bforartists we have fixed the usual things like aligning ui content left, and adding new icons to the new tools. The new geometry nodes can already be inserted from the sidebar instead of the add menu. Most of the nodes have an icon now in the header, which makes it easier to distinguish them in the node viewport. We did quite a few changes at the layout, like in the transform panel. Now you can animate from there, no need to dive into the properties editor anymore. Quite a few panels written in C code have now left aligned content. The adjust last operation panel for example. The align view buttons addon up right is extended. Some editors have now the options as a dropdown panel up right. And we did lots of smaller refinements, changes, improvements and fixes.
All in all we have fixed 124 issues in this release.

Many thanks to the team and everybody involved. Have fun with the new version - Reiner
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Re: Bforartists 2 final released

Post by clintonman »

The GamesFromScratch guy did a video on it.

Clinton Reese

http://clintons3d.com
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Re: Bforartists 2 final released

Post by bitkar »

hey i dont know what changed from last time, but iam miraculously able to do things in "blender"!!! what?? never expected this to happen. Even it has some kind of material editor that is fast to work with.
Btw: how do I render current view and not the camera view?

and i have to figure out how to set the GI basic "fill" component of lighting in cycles or whatever. Its a bit too bright sometimes.

But ya, its looking very very good. Iam tinkering with it and its almost as comfy as trueSpace. Well not equal but comfy enough to work with it even tho iam spoiled with tS UI!

Well DONE!
Michal aka bitkar
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Re: Bforartists 2 final released

Post by Tiles »

Hey Friends,

I have completely overlooked this thread. So sorry for the late answer. To render in the Viewport is done by changing the shading method up right to Rendered.
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Re: Bforartists 2 final released

Post by Tiles »

And we have arrived at Bforartists 2.9.0 meanwhile ^^

The binary downloads can as usual also be found in the download section of the official webpage. https://www.bforartists.de/download/
The sourcecode can be found at Github. https://github.com/Bforartists/Bforarti ... tag/v2.9.0
And the release note is here: https://www.bforartists.de/release-notes/

Bforartists 2.9.0 brings the new features and fixes from Blender 2.93 LTS. Bforartists 2.9.0 is already based at Blender 3.0 Alpha.

The first major project concerns the Tool Shelf. Bforartists 2.9.0 brings back the tool shelf tabs. Most of the content from the header text menus can now also be found in the tool shelf as icon buttons. The tabs are optional. You can deactivate it.

The second big project in this version was the new Geometry Nodes Editor. The content of the Add menu in the Geometry Node Editor is now also available here in the sidebar in panels, if desired as icons. The nodes now each have an icon in the viewport.

Another big ongoing project is to split the tooltips by tool. Blender unfortunately still has a single tooltip and a tool name for up to 6 different tools. And we've made the usual little tweaks and changes. New UI content aligned to the left, human-understandable tooltips incorporated, new icons created for the new tools, and so on. All in all, there are over 280 changes in this version.

Many thanks to the team and everybody involved. And a special Thanks goes to Iyad Ahmed to re-enable the tool shelf code, and to Tymen Muller for this great splash screen image.

Have fun with the new version - Reiner

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOikIfCkDZ8[/youtube2]
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Re: Bforartists 2 final released

Post by Tiles »

Hello friends,

We have released a last small point upgrade. Bforartists 2 Version 2.9.1 is a small point release that brings some last changes and fixes. It is the last version in the Bforartists 2 series. This version ends the Bforartists 2 development cycle. Every development after this point release will be part of Bforartists 3 already. The download can as usual be found at our webpage:

https://www.bforartists.de/download/

As with every release, and even more with this milestone release, i want to thank everybody involved for your support and help and passion for this project. It was as usual a great ride and a pleasure to work with you all :)

Have fun with the new version - Reiner
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Re: Bforartists 2 final released

Post by bitkar »

thank you again... looking forward to version 3
Michal aka bitkar
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