Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

Blender Fork Bforartists 0.9.2

Discussion in 'Asset Importing & Exporting' started by Tiles, Apr 10, 2017.

  1. Tiles

    Tiles

    Joined:
    Feb 5, 2010
    Posts:
    2,481
    Blender Fork Bforartists Version 0.9.2

    Bforartists Version 0.9.2 is around cleaning up the menus and connecting some loose ends. It adds some more tools to the toolbar editor. We have over 50 new icons. Again quite a few double menu entries were catched and removed. Some more tools made it into the tool shelf. The Toolbar type View is gone, and replaced by the Toolbar type Mesh Edit. It also brings a few important fixes. The Mac build now compiles. The Player and quite a few other missing things is now onboard too.

    And we have again some vital changes at the keymap to remove some conflicts and inconsistencies. Most important one is that Move and Rotate in the Viewport is now switched to be consistent with the rest of the editors. Now the Middle Mouse button pans the view like in the Image Editor. And Right Mouse rotates the view.

    Go get it here: https://www.bforartists.de/content/download
    The release note can be found here: https://bforartists.de/wiki/bforartistsreleasenotev092

    There are currently just windows binaries available. When you work with Linux or Mac then you have to compile it by yourself. The advices to compile Blender by yourself should also work for Bforartists.

    What is Bforartists?

    It's a fork of the popular 3D software Blender. Ever tried Blender, and immediately gave up at it because of the odd interface and handling? That's why Bforartists exists.

    The main focus of Bforartists is to improve the user interface and usability. It is, like Blender, free, open source, and under GNU GPL license. The development started June 2nd 2015. And we started to change what was posible within the given bounds of limited manpower and the UI limits of Blender.

    A feature that works in Blender 2.78 should also work in Bforartists. And the blend files are compatible and interchangeable. You can also use the Blender keymap, and work like in Blender in the very most cases. The very most addons will work too ( if not then hand me the addon over, and i will try to fix it) It is Blender under the hood. And it remains Blender under the hood.

    So where are the differences?

    - A brand new Keymap with Left Click select, which is reduced to just the necessary hotkeys.
    - Cleaned up User Interface. More than 300 not necessary double menu entries removed.
    - Extended User Interface. Close to 100 formerly hotkey only tools have a menu entry now.
    - Rearranged User Interface. Some things are better accessible now, some are not so much in the way anymore.
    - Over 200 new native icons, plus 80 from an addon.
    - Icon Buttons in the Tool Shelf to reduce the scrolling.
    - A configurable Toolbar with icon buttons.
    - Improved Layouts.
    - Better Tooltips.
    - Better readable standard theme.
    - Some neat new addons to improve usability, like the reset 3D View addon or the Important Hotkey addon.
    - And lots more small details like hidable 3D Cursor or Wireframe Colors. Or that you can now delete objects and selections without the delete menu quiz.

    A detailled list of the changes can be found in the release notes: http://www.bforartists.de/wiki/release-notes

    But the code is just half of the show. Another important bit is the non code things.

    - The Bforartists useage is centered around the graphical menu, not hotkeys. Bforartists relies at an intuitive and self explaining graphical UI in the first place. And then comes the hotkeys.
    - The target audience for Bforartists is the hobbyists and indie developers. Blender tries to target professionals. But most of them don't care for various reasons.
    - A better manual. The Blender manual is in big parts unsearchable, has an odd structure, and relies heavily at the Blender keymap to name just a few flaws. Which makes it of no big use for users. That's why we rewrite it, piece by piece.
    - Official learning videos. No need to spend days with searching for the one tutorial that is understandable, for the actual version and is not a spelling lesson. This is also an ongoing project.
    - Bforartists is not bound to the Blender bubble. It has its own independant eco system.

    Why this fork?

    I am an experienced 3d artist. But i could even after years not bend my brain to some of the Blender UI quirks. Even more because i develop games too. And with that background i feel the pain with UI design quirks even in a double manner. As an experienced 3D artist. And as an experienced developer who has designed more than one UI in my life.

    Back in the days the Blender developers were not to convince to change the graphical UI. Everything was more important than the graphical UI. The dogma of the hotkey centered workflow is in the way too. The graphical UI is more a necessary evil. And the so called Blender bubble with its resistance against any change is a very special chapter too. Remains the fact that the graphical UI in Blender is not in the best state. It's not all bad, but it is not good neither.

    Why not simply work for Blender then you may ask, and simply fix the flaws? I tried. Without success. They didn't even see the problems. My changes would never make it into the trunk.

    And so i started the fork instead.

    This video explains the differences:



    And here you can find a playlist with the quickstart videos where we create a little table in 3D.



    Laters

    Reiner

    bforartists092.jpg
     
    Last edited: Apr 11, 2017
    Jaimi, Fab4 and red2blue like this.
  2. Akumoo

    Akumoo

    Joined:
    Mar 27, 2017
    Posts:
    13
    ok sound interesting.... down and testing
     
  3. Tiles

    Tiles

    Joined:
    Feb 5, 2010
    Posts:
    2,481
  4. tomesparon

    tomesparon

    Joined:
    Jun 10, 2017
    Posts:
    1
    Wow! This looks great, thanks
     
    Tiles likes this.
  5. Swine

    Swine

    Joined:
    Nov 29, 2007
    Posts:
    57
    I just found this a couple days ago. So far I'm amazed. I've tried Blender many times over the years and always hated it. Bforartist is great! Thanks Tiles.
     
    Tiles likes this.
  6. Tiles

    Tiles

    Joined:
    Feb 5, 2010
    Posts:
    2,481
    You're welcome :)

    In case you need learning material, we have meanwhile completed our quickstart video tutorial series

     
    Paramotion likes this.
  7. pietersmobile

    pietersmobile

    Joined:
    Jan 26, 2014
    Posts:
    11