Software update: Blender 2.49b

The Blender Foundation released the second update on Thursday for the version 2.49 of the open source and cross platform 3d program Blender, which was released at the end of May. This program is intended for 3d modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. More information about the extensive possibilities of Blender can be found on this page are being found. This program includes the open source animation films ‘Elephant’s Dream‘ and ‘Big Buck Bunny‘ made. The changelog mainly shows bug fixes, but a handful of new features have also been added to the program and several support programs have been updated to newer versions. Below is the changelog for version 2.49b:

Updates:

• Update for new OpenAL windows library.
• Update Japanese translation.
• Upgrade external/xvidcore to version 1.22. This fixes Xvid crashing on linux 64 bit.
• Updated Blender/Python API and GameEngine docs.
  http://www.blender.org/documentation/249PythonDoc
• Python Script Pack and Example Files.

Various Bugs:

• SoftBody, vertex groups were not notified on deletion & fixes for Mass and Spring Painting
• Softbody, non mesh objects missing initializers [bug #18982]
• Self Shadow Vertex Colors, improved blur method to give more even results.
• Converting nurbs to a mesh ignored smoothing for Alt+C and from python.
• Object Active to Other, Fix python error when running in local view.
• Ancient resource leak where checkPackedFile would open a file and never close it.
• Fix for uninitialized memory use with X11 keyboard and tablet events.
• Fix for building with Clang (LLVM)

Render Bugs:

• Using LightGroups override for material doesn’t work for preview renders.
• Render Stamp, error in setting the alpha value when drawing text into a char buffer.
• Lumma Matte, Fix in a low value setting.
  Originally checked against the wrong channel (chroma) instead of the luminence channel. Changed default value for high value to 1.0 from 0.0
• Baking selected to active with nearby dupliframes objects crashes blender [bug #19029]
• Fix for high energy sunlamps, turning specular black [bug #18837]

Game Engine Bugs:

• Saving runtime on Windows didn’t work with python2.6
• Let IPO’s animate the ref value for KX_BlenderMaterial’s

Game Engine Python Bugs:

• Converting a mesh from a python argument was broken but happened to work in some cases.
• Memory leak fix for action.channelNames.
• Was writing to freed memory when freeing a python object in some cases.
• Removing GameLogic.EvalExpression(), was unstable.
• Crash fix when casting a ray to the same location as the object.
• Fixed KX_PolyProxy returning improper VertexIndex with mixed triangles and quads with using .getVertexIndex() and .v1, .v2, etc. [bug #19254]
• Fixed obj.sendMessage() with 4 arguments crashing blender [bug #18963]

Game Engine Bullet Bugs:

• Crash fix when a parent compound object didn’t have a physics controller.
• Fix for the torque actuator x -& y-axis not working.

Sequencer Bugs

• IPO curve deletion resulted in non-working effect
• easy retiming only allowed enlarge of strips, now shrinking is also possible (easy retiming: use the right display handle of input strip and shrink or enlarge, will make the speed of the strip exactly fit the effect strip’s length)
• frames after end-of-display of input strips can now be accessed.
• frame blending can now be done on more than two frames, enabling really fine grained motion blur if you speed up a sequence with high factors (bigger than two).
• Scene-Strip rendering with compositor scenes failed, if they had no camera attached.
• Fixed hdd-audio for sample formats other than 16 bit (8 bit eg).

Import/Export Bugs

• FBX Export, Incorrect formatting that broke some converters.
• BVH Motion Capture Import, Did not support single rigid body objects. [bug #18949]
• OBJ Import, fix for importing of transparent faces from .mtl files – ZTrans now is set for them as well. (improves import from SketchUp)
• Collada export, Empty material slot would raise a python error.
• Collada import, fixes for increased Sketchup interoperability and more.
• Quake MAP Export, empty nodes were not exported, also noticed files were invalid if there were no meshes or surfaces.
• Quake MAP Export, had support for single triangular brush unnecessarily disabled.
• Quake MD2 Export, Fix for vertex normals [patch #19206]

Python API

• Mathutils (quat_a*quat_b) was broken, returned (quat_a*quat_a) instead.
• Support for editing properties IpoCurve.driverBone and IpoCurve.driverBone2 ​​and modifies IpoCurve.driverChannel to allow OB_ROT_DIFF.
• Documentation corrections.
• Support for rendering background scenes different from the active scene.
• scene.render.render() now behaves the same in interactive and background mode
• scene.render.saveRenderedImage() now works correctly in background mode
• Armature active bone can be set.

New:

• 16bit SGI image loading
• When BLENDER_FORCE_SWAPBUFFERS env variable is defined, a function is enabled that fixes flickering for some Intel and Radeon cards.
• Python API – Particles
  • Draw As variable and dict
  • Beach render toggle
  • Object, psys variable in duplicate
  • Material, Beach render variables
  • Texture, Use color bands
  • Bulb, Spot buffer type selection
• Game Engine Physics support for reinstancePhysics mesh from Python and the dynamic actuator.
  • ReplaceMesh Actuator option to replace the physics mesh and display mesh + python api options.
  • Video and blend file demo.
    http://www.graphicall.org/ftp/ideasman42/reinstance.ogv
    http://www.graphicall.org/ftp/ideasman42/reinstance_demo.blend

• Mouse focus sensor “pulse” option to pulse TRUE when the object under the mouse changes.
• EDL importer for the sequencer. support…
  • audio, video editing
  • fades, wipes, speed changes (video only)
  • importing from multiple reels

    Example import from final cut pro.
    http://www.graphicall.org/ftp/ideasman42/edl_in_blender_px.png
    http://www.graphicall.org/ftp/ideasman42/edl_import_ui.png