An Alpha version of AvaStar is out. The usual software release order is; Proof of Concept, Alpha, Beta, RC, Final. As an RC version had been released (reference), I took the following Test Versions to be RC releases too. But, apparently not. Bad assumption on my part. Whatever we call this release, it is the next step in the progression.

This Alpha release has all the TEST version changes up to Test Version 1076. The official release name is now:  avastar-1-1-alpha_Blender_2-70.

I am running Blender 2.70a. So, I can’t tell if this version works with previous Blender versions. What I do know is that newer video tutorials will most likely be showing the Blender 2.70+ user interface. So, it is probably a good idea to update your Blender to the latest version: Blender 2.70a.

These are the AvaStar changes since my last posting:

• changeset:   1076:458339edeca3 – tag: tip – date: Tue May 06 22:27:06 2014 +0100
  summary:     fix: reference shape was not created when sliders get attached
• changeset:   1075:fb143e6fd7aa – date: Tue May 06 21:12:05 2014 +0100
  summary:     Fixed templates to work correctly with the Sliders
• changeset:   1074:4af52495b6ac – date: Tue May 06 19:29:28 2014 +0100
  summary:     fix: Face expression default values are now read from the avatar_lad.xml (mouth is now closed by default)
• changeset:   1073:3272376ca13c – date: Tue May 06 15:56:56 2014 +0100
  summary:     Fixed Rebake UV, the function sometimes did not recognize the mesh boundaries.
• changeset:   1072:23a69f73c6b6 – date: Tue May 06 14:10:17 2014 +0100
  summary:     fix: rebake UV pinned wrong vertices for rebaking
• changeset:   1071:54a862320587 – date: Mon May 05 23:41:31 2014 +0100
  summary:     Add error detection and warning messages for situations where active Object is invisible
• changeset:   1070:5f2e0c4f13f3 – date: Mon May 05 23:40:03 2014 +0100
  summary:     Added a warning message when trying to change mode of the active object when it is invisible
• changeset:   1069:da55d562f38e – date: Mon May 05 23:37:25 2014 +0100
  summary:     Added option to only update one single custom object. needs firther testing though
• changeset:   1068:8ec0a7266999 – date: Mon May 05 21:29:56 2014 +0100
  summary:     added some debug print() statements for another scaling issue with sliders