Blendigo for Blender 2.5 BETA

[SaphireS]

Congrats to commit-rights dougal, hope this speeds up exporter development for 2.5.
Looking forward to testing it!

[StompinTom]

I'm afraid that the exporter won't be available for use with Indigo 2.x due to implementation of features that I am not yet allowed to disclose.

Damn, now I'm curious.

[dougal2]

Congrats to commit-rights dougal, hope this speeds up exporter development for 2.5.
Looking forward to testing it!

Thanks! Hopefully by the time I'm ready to publish the exporter, the installation will by pretty trivial (automatic! )

[StompinTom]

Hey Doug,

When it comes to exporting large meshes, what is the bottleneck in terms of speed? I mean, is it just processor-intensive or does it depend on the disk. I'm trying to figure out how I could speed up export of large (+ 50 million poly) scenes and am wondering if an SSD would help to use as a system/Indigo drive or if just upgrading to an i7 980x would suffice...

Hopefully the new API will help in this department too! It's those damn Evermotion trees...

[dougal2]

Hey Doug,

When it comes to exporting large meshes, what is the bottleneck in terms of speed? I mean, is it just processor-intensive or does it depend on the disk. I'm trying to figure out how I could speed up export of large (+ 50 million poly) scenes and am wondering if an SSD would help to use as a system/Indigo drive or if just upgrading to an i7 980x would suffice...

Hopefully the new API will help in this department too! It's those damn Evermotion trees...

Well... it could depend on a number of things. Already I've demonstrated that writing binary .igmesh files is faster than the old XML format. Also, I've been using an SSD for a couple of months and it is definitely a lot faster than an HDD, though I've not yet benchmarked it with regards to igmesh writing.

Also, faster RAM in particular might help, seeing as the export operation is basically copying numbers out of RAM and into a file on disk. There is also a little bit of processing going on in the exporter for re-arranging said numbers into the correct order.

I have also noticed that the API in blender for extracting mesh data is not the fastest mechanism I've ever seen. Hopefully as the render API in blender 2.5x evolves, then this will get some attention and things will speed up a bit.

I will try to make some SSD vs. HDD benchmarks soon for igmeshes, both in blender 2.4x and 2.5x to see what the current situation looks like.

[Doug Armand]

what is the current roadmap for Blendigo for Blender 2.5?
I am itching to start switching over as it seems the recent builds are gettting close to the finished item.

[dougal2]

what is the current roadmap for Blendigo for Blender 2.5?
I am itching to start switching over as it seems the recent builds are gettting close to the finished item.

Soon hopefully. I've just released a test version to Glare for internal testing, but until the next Indigo release is announced I can't make it public.

[Doug Armand]

Thanks for the quick reply Dougal - theres hope in your message

[Borgleader]

Thanks for the quick reply Dougal - theres hope in your message

There was hope on Reach too, and look what happened!

No but seriously, I can't wait to indulge in Blender 2.5/Indigo goodness!

[Doug Armand]

Hehe - I really enjoyed Reach - even the end with my helmet spinning in the dust
better than ODST. Must say I only play single player in Halo though - I get slaughtered every time I try MP

woops bit OT - but yes be great to start using Blender 2.5 in anger - its got a much better workflow.

[StompinTom]

Would love to see a 2.5 exporter! I've been using 2.5 more and more for rendering, so it'd be awesome to hear of an ETA for Blendigo as well

[SaphireS]

To be honest, when using blendigo is the only time I switch back to 2.4x.
The rest of the time I exclusively use 2.5!

[Doug Armand]

To be honest, when using blendigo is the only time I switch back to 2.4x.
The rest of the time I exclusively use 2.5!

does that work well? anything to look out for like particle systems, etc?

[StompinTom]

To be honest, when using blendigo is the only time I switch back to 2.4x.
The rest of the time I exclusively use 2.5!

does that work well? anything to look out for like particle systems, etc?

Particle systems have so far been OK... I can usually get the same scattering of grass, trees, dead bodies, etc. over terrain as with 2.49, though sometimes it does throw a kink or too (not updating properly and such) though that's not all too often.

What's mostly missing is the modeling tools such as beveling and all the useful scripts that help and speed up precise geometric modeling (intersecting edges and planes, for example). If I work with Indigo, I just stay in 2.49. When working with Vray, however, I use 2.49 for modeling then open the scene in 2.5, resave it as a new iteration, tweak everything and setup the scene for rendering and render. I'm hoping to be able to do the same with Blendigo, as the customizable UI in 2.5 makes it so much easier for working with engine-specific things!

[Doug Armand]

Thanks for the info