Which version of Blender?

[varenne]

Figured I'd look into this finally so I can tweak, modify or make new stuff. Have Poser 8 but the whole export/import nonsense from nif to obj back to nif is IMO a headache.

 

So which version of Blender is best to go with? I have a 64-bit capable PC; Windows 7 64-bit, multiple distros of Linux too.

 

Or should I stick with an older version and 32-bit?

 

EDIT 1

I'm going to use this thread to also trace my path to getting back up to speed on using Blender, but most especially using it to produce or rework stuff for Oblivion.

 

1. Link 1 - Blender Basics

There was another post here but this points the very first YouTube video on Blender, where that one pointed to a more advanced topic.

[Ark of Truth]

I would say this one.

http://www.mediafire.com/?fz8i49rzltov0ea

 

Includes everything you need. My computer is 64-bit and that's the one I use.

[gregathit]

Ark, is that different from this one: http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/40980

[Ark of Truth]

Nope, same thing. It's just comes with install instructions.

 

The guy at the Nexus just downloaded and uploaded there because he's a thief.

[varenne]

Thanks guys! Now to relearn Blender, been a while.

[adrenaline]

Guys, there is a new version of Blender(http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/42755/), has anyone tried it?

I'd like to give it a try, but I don't know if it works well and the performance is better.

[gregathit]

Guys' date=' there is a new version of Blender(http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/42755/), has anyone tried it?

I'd like to give it a try, but I don't know if it works well and the performance is better.

[/quote']

 

I noticed that one too. It looks as though it has been updated a bit over the "other" version on the nexus. Not sure if it or Ark of Truth's version is the latest.

 

EDIT: Ark of Truth's version "is" larger but I don't know if that is the compression method used or what......

[varenne]

I DL'ed and installed on a pocket flash drive just to see.

 

It seems to have everything except nifskope. Uses the default qskope instead.

 

Unpacked

Seems to be a promo of "winPenPack Project § X-Software collection", which is what is in the Readme folder, INSTEAD of what should be there, information on exactly what is in the compilation.

 

Think I'll go with the one Ark recommended myself, besides it's already setup. This may be useful while I'm on the road with a laptop in hotels, and want to work on Oblivion stuff after working at client sites.

 

It has a very small footprint on the flash drive, but the down side is flash drives run FAT32 and not NTFS so it will be somewhat slower. I personally would have constructed a portable Linux version as you would have less overhead that you would normally running anything on Windows, so more goes to the running of applications such as Blender. (It's a fairly well known fact that all versions of Windows are system resource hogs.)

[varenne]

Just updating this with some additional personal notes. I may at some point repack the original package pointed to by Ark of Truth with my slightly updated package.

 

Notes 1 - Upgrading (Slight)

I recently took an informal pole of those using PyFFI successfully and 2.1.11 is what came up, plus it uses Python 2.6.6, which is still compatible with Blender 2.49b, and I updated NifSkope to version 1.1.0, revision 29ab55b, which is also compatible with that version of Python.

 

backtracking even a bit further, I had posted a thread hear http://www.loverslab.com/showthread.php?tid=11844 to find out which version of Blender to go with and the one recommended by Ark of Truth is what I went with last time I rebuilt everything from scratch, and then upgraded to those in the above paragraph.

 

So I recommend:

1. http://www.mediafire.com/?fz8i49rzltov0ea (recommended by Ark of Truth)

After installing above I then,

2. Updated Python to 2.6.6

3. Updated NifSkope to 1.1.0 (revision 29ab55b)

4. Updated PyFFI to 2.1.11

 

You may in fact be able to skip installing Python 2.6.5, and the older version of NifSkope and PyFFI from the package in 1, I just haven't figured out all the right steps to do so.

 

 

Only issue (minor) is getting rid of all the QSkope crap, so watch for that when installing I think it was PyFFI. QSkope requires another framework installed to work, so I decided to keep it simple and just use NifSkope since I already know it somewhat. I may at some unknown future point in time review QSkope, but right now I don't have time for it.

 

Notes 2 - Patched version of Blender

http://home.comcast.net/~chronosphere/true-normals.htm

Prevents Blender from automatically recalculating vertex normals. (Leading up to Seam Mender script from gerra6)

 

Notes 3

Blender 2.49b Script: Clothing Bodytype Converter V.2.2 (Updated 10/22/2012)

http://www.loverslab.com/showthread.php?tid=12606

 

Notes 4

Information Blender Script: Seam Mender: Version 1.4 (Updated 10/12/2012)

http://www.loverslab.com/showthread.php?tid=12378

[Guest user29]

I've never had any problems with 2.49b

[GSBmodders]

the version adrenaline posted is the way to go, unless you want to focus on animation if so get 2.47. I suggest the link provided by adrenaline for the portable use, it allows for multiple blender setups as many as you can run on your pc and it comes with plugins that are extremely useful and a royal pain in the ass to track down

[Ark of Truth]

O_O I see GSB. You back?

[varenne]

the version adrenaline posted is the way to go' date=' unless you want to focus on animation if so get 2.47. I suggest the link provided by adrenaline for the portable use, it allows for multiple blender setups as many as you can run on your pc and it comes with plugins that are extremely useful and a royal pain in the ass to track down

[/quote']

 

I've settled with 2.49b for now. Already set up with scripts I've found here and there. I may revisit that one now that you've mentioned the hard-to-find scripts though, and see if I can just copy/move them over to my current set up.

 

God only knows when I'll actually be able to focus on Blender. For now it's NifSkope and PyFFI. Current goal is to optimize, then move forward with MOD ideas.

 

Looking at changing some or maybe even all of the default armors/clothes etc. that came with some of the MODs, that the NPCs are using. These are MODs that add large numbers of NPCs to the game, often causing severe lag or loss of FPS.

 

I just finished last night and this morning PyFFIng all of Apachii Goddess Store, plus all the BBB versions for it. I'm just systematically going through the larger armor/clothing MODs I like or may use for what I want to do, with really no intentions of releasing it. It's just for myself and to further my goal of optimization, while continuing to expand my current Oblivion setup.

 

I will at some point probably want to get into what gerra6 introduced me to recently; Clothing Bodytype Converter V.2.2, so I can make more HGEC H-cup, LL bottoms armors, both BBB and BButts. But I'm months away from even considering that.

 

Thanks for the input.

[gerra6]

the version adrenaline posted is the way to go' date=' unless you want to focus on animation if so get 2.47. I suggest the link provided by adrenaline for the portable use, it allows for multiple blender setups as many as you can run on your pc and it comes with plugins that are extremely useful and a royal pain in the ass to track down

[/quote']

 

To help minimize the mess, it should be fairly straightforward to extract the scripts from that copy of Blender and port them into another. I'll take a look.

 

Do you recommend any scripts for me to pay particular attention to?

 

Of course, what I really need to do is get off my ass and help out over at the Niftools project, now that I am reaching the blind-drunk novice stage of Python competence. We really need an updated Blender port.

 

 

I will at some point probably want to get into what gerra6 introduced me to recently; Clothing Bodytype Converter V.2.2' date=' so I can make more HGEC H-cup, LL bottoms armors, both BBB and BButts. But I'm months away from even considering that.

 

Thanks for the input.

[/quote']

 

I'm working on a major upgrade to the clothing converter (transformation lattice generator) that should mark as big an improvement as the 1.5 to 2.0 release (assuming that everything works the way I think it well).

 

It should be ready sometime in the next couple of days, assuming that I can steal enough hours from Real Life to finish coding this beast.

[varenne]

 

 

the version adrenaline posted is the way to go' date=' unless you want to focus on animation if so get 2.47. I suggest the link provided by adrenaline for the portable use, it allows for multiple blender setups as many as you can run on your pc and it comes with plugins that are extremely useful and a royal pain in the ass to track down

[/quote']

 

 

To help minimize the mess, it should be fairly straightforward to extract the scripts from that copy of Blender and port them into another. I'll take a look.

 

Do you recommend any scripts for me to pay particular attention to?

 

Of course, what I really need to do is get off my ass and help out over at the Niftools project, now that I am reaching the blind-drunk novice stage of Python competence. We really need an updated Blender port.

 

 

 

I will at some point probably want to get into what gerra6 introduced me to recently; Clothing Bodytype Converter V.2.2' date=' so I can make more HGEC H-cup, LL bottoms armors, both BBB and BButts. But I'm months away from even considering that.

 

Thanks for the input.

 

 

[/quote']

 

I'm working on a major upgrade to the clothing converter (transformation lattice generator) that should mark as big an improvement as the 1.5 to 2.0 release (assuming that everything works the way I think it well).

 

It should be ready sometime in the next couple of days, assuming that I can steal enough hours from Real Life to finish coding this beast.

 

A dedicated Oblivion Blender port, or two would I think be awesome. Would make helping others get up to speed that much easier. I know there's tons of info on Blender, but it's like wading through all the Oblivion MODs to find that one MOD you've always wanted.

 

Are Blender python scripts like they are in Poser; UI with dedicated labeled buttons and in a separate folder and called up as needed? If they are for the same version of Blender it should be the same version of Python and fairly straight forward I would think. I only briefly looked at the resulting folder structure and Python files post an install, but it looked fairly similar in structure, 'look and feel'.

[gerra6]

A dedicated Oblivion Blender port' date=' or two would I think be awesome. Would make helping others get up to speed that much easier. I know there's tons of info on Blender, but it's like wading through all the Oblivion MODs to find that one MOD you've always wanted.

[/quote']

 

I'm thinking more in terms of lending a hand to the project to port Niftools to the more...up to date...versions of Blender. Somewhere along the line, I got promoted to Niftools developer under my main handle (the one I sign my scripts and mods with). I just haven't...err... done any work yet.

 

What I'd really like to do is lend a hand to improve Blender's Skyrim support.

 

Of course, that's all Python 3.0 and all I've learned so far is 2.73. Gotta love a challenge though.

 

Are Blender python scripts like they are in Poser; UI with dedicated labeled buttons and in a separate folder and called up as needed? If they are for the same version of Blender it should be the same version of Python and fairly straight forward I would think. I only briefly looked at the resulting folder structure and Python files post an install' date=' but it looked fairly similar in structure, 'look and feel'.

[/quote']

 

For the most part, Blender scripts all hide somewhere inside of the Blender/.blender/scripts subdirectory structure. Back when I was depending on other folks' scripts (way way back in August), I probably installed something on the order of 300 scripts.

 

Any script that works in Blender 2.47 *should* work in Blender 2.49b (but you know what happens to should when it smacks into the brick wall of reality). The real challenge is figuring out which scripts should be ported.

 

These days I like to try and write my own scripts to do the the things I want to do. Mostly that's because I want to do things that, as far as I know, no one has really tried to do before in Blender (controlling vertex normals, generating precision transformation lattices, automated bbb boneweighting) but it's also because writing the scripts myself forces me to learn how all of this stuff fits together.

[GSBmodders]

the version adrenaline posted is the way to go' date=' unless you want to focus on animation if so get 2.47. I suggest the link provided by adrenaline for the portable use, it allows for multiple blender setups as many as you can run on your pc and it comes with plugins that are extremely useful and a royal pain in the ass to track down

[/quote']

 

To help minimize the mess, it should be fairly straightforward to extract the scripts from that copy of Blender and port them into another. I'll take a look.

 

Do you recommend any scripts for me to pay particular attention to?

 

Of course, what I really need to do is get off my ass and help out over at the Niftools project, now that I am reaching the blind-drunk novice stage of Python competence. We really need an updated Blender port.

 

If nifscripts were to upgraded for blender 2.62 or above that would be so damn sweet that i would swoop down out of the modders retirement home and shower you with praise.

 

as for scripts the portable blender found here http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/42755/

comes with Geom Plugin 0.5, Mesh Ascii Plugin and i think but do not remember if it also had .psk import scripts as well as actor x import/export these are all extremely usefull and are beggining to become mandatory for modding not just for oblivion but just about all modern games. Of course a collada import script that actually works would be something nice to have too but seeing as more then a dozen teams cannot get it right for 2.49b and below i think its pointless to try that one

 

O_O I see GSB. You back?

 

no after work i go home and then i end up working into the wee hours from home too, so now and then i just need a break before i go crazy. I forgot why i shunned working professionaly again for so many years. while i do love my boss and those that i work with. the development process at this point has turned into tediuosly boring shit. to make it worse my fellow whore mongering drinking partner and scandalizer of interns gets to work on the cool shit and he wastes no opportunity in rubbing it in my face

 

after looking at gerra's scripts though i would be lying if i said i wasnt tempted, he is coming close to automating modding. the rate he's going i can almost imaging the day