Blender

Blender 2.78 Released Today

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A new Blender release is out: 2.78. You can download it here: Blender 2.78 download.

Blender 2.78 Release Sept 30, 2016
Blender 2.78 Release Sept 30, 2016

There are new features that will help Second Life users. The full list of features is here: Blender 2.78 Release Logs. Interesting ones for SL users are:

  • Viewport Rendering – Improvements in texture display
  • Cloth Physics – New Dynamic Base Mesh and Simulation Speed option
  • Cycles Render Engine – Faster easier
  • Modeling – New tools
  • User Interface – Better snap, new eyedropper, and something about operators

There are more changes. For instance, Animation & Rigging improvements that may or may not help us. It is hard to say clearly because we are limited in what aspects SL actually supports. But, a number of improvements will provide better work flow and make some tasks easier. So, depending on how you work these may help you, probably.

I have not yet tried AvaStar 2 with Blender 2.78. No one in the Blender-AvaStar group spoke up when I asked. So, I’ll just have to try it.

Blender 2.78 RC2 Released

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The announcement is here: Blender 2.78 RC2. Earlier this month I wrote Blender 2.78 Release Candidate is now available. It gives you a bit on what is in this release. We are nearing release of the final 2.78 version.

Current AvaStar Releases
Current AvaStar Releases
Archived Versions of AvaStar
Archived Versions of AvaStar

AvaStar is now on alpha release 2.0-23 for Blender 2.77… If you are confused by the version numbering, so am I. The last version I downloaded was 2.0 Alpha-10. Asking in the AvaStar-Blender group I’m told Matrice said drop the alpha… and that Gaia does the numbering… and that they are just generally inconsistent… I took that as nobody knew.

What they were sure of is: AvaStar 2,0 is still in Alpha. I’m not sure that is so. What I do think is the case is 2.0-23 is not the final release but a beta or RC version. We may find out Thursday at the Bento UG meeting.

Second Life News 2016 w37

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The main channels are getting a roll today, Tuesday. This update is described as a security update. The release notes describe the update a minor changes, logging changes.

[ kunst ] - Cinema lightbox
[ kunst ] – Cinema lightbox
The RC channels remain as is, no update.

Viewers

The main viewer remains 4.0.7.318301, as of this morning. The same as last week. 

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AvaStar 2 Alpha 7 Released

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Gaia Clary has released AvaStar 2 Alpha 7. This version has what we think is the final avatar skeleton. The big change in this version is Matrice has the Blender-AvaStar sliders working as they do in Second Life, an impressive feat.

We still have to use the Bento Project Viewer to see and upload Bento animations. The project is active on the main grid. So, we can seriously start yo play with Project Bento.

I think the big result of Project Bento will be way better mesh heads. I’ve avoided them because I hate the frozen-in-place expressions. That will be a thing of the past.

See the announcement here: AvaStar 2 Alpha 7. If you purchased AvaStar 2, you can download this version from the Machinimatrix web site’s Product Page.