Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cycles is good first step if Apple wants to make blender fully functional on Mac. I wonder if they'll ever attempt to port Eevee to metal, that seems like the logical next step if Apple wants to permanently remove OpenGL from macOS.
Blender’s UI would also need to be ported to Metal, as that’s currently OpenGL if I’m not mistaken.
Apple Joins Blender Development Fund
61–70 of 285 posts
Re: Apple Joins Blender Development Fund
#62Hopefully, projects like Krita[1] and GIMP[2] would get more funding like Blender as well. [1] https://krita.org/en/support-us/sponsors/ [2] https://www.gimp.org/news/2021/07/27/support-gimp-developers...
Re: Apple Joins Blender Development Fund
#63Hopefully, projects like Krita[1] and GIMP[2] would get more funding like Blender as well. [1] https://krita.org/en/support-us/sponsors/ [2] https://www.gimp.org/news/2021/07/27/support-gimp-developers...
Re: Apple Joins Blender Development Fund
#64It's great to see Blender get the support. The user numbers seem to be arcing upwards. https://www.blender.org/news/blender-by-the-numbers-2020/ If you've ever had a passing interest in Blender or 3d modeling I recommend checking out the donut tutorial, which is fast becoming the "hello world" of blender - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPrnSACiTJ4 And check out all the donuts - https://www.reddit.com/r/BlenderDough…
I can attest to this. The donut tutorial is really good. It has all you need to know if you are starting from nothing.
Re: Apple Joins Blender Development Fund
#65Wonder if this will lead to a functional iOS port of Blender? Pretty much the whole reason I went with a MS Surface tablet instead of an iPad of some sort, was the lack of Blender.
Would be pretty wild to have a full Blender running on my M1 iPad Pro, though I imagine touch controls are somewhat tricky (maybe pen only?).
Re: Apple Joins Blender Development Fund
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
It definitely makes sense. Recently I had a need for a CAD program and rediscovered how insanely expensive commercial 3D software is for the average person. Sure, many companies now offer monthly subscriptions, but even those subscriptions are ginormous for the amount of relative value returned. Like, do I really want to pay $220 a month for AutoCAD when I only need to design a part for a non-commercial personal proj…
unfortunate because blender isn't really optimal for cad. Its a mesh based modeler which makes it great for animation and demonstrations but solid level modeling thats suppose to simulate real things isn't its intention.
I use Blender these days mainly for direct manipulation of meshes in ways that a parametric CAD program won't let you. If I was doing character animation again, I'd probably still use Blender for that. General modeling, Blender is very good. I just hope the UI continues to improve and not obscure so many things behind various icons.
Re: Apple Joins Blender Development Fund
#67Wonder if this will lead to a functional iOS port of Blender? Pretty much the whole reason I went with a MS Surface tablet instead of an iPad of some sort, was the lack of Blender.
Not unless Apple open up their locked-in platform. Blender licensed under GPLv2 or later and fortunately it's completely impossible to change source code license.
Re: Apple Joins Blender Development Fund
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
They've already deprecated OpenGL. Drivers on macOS are locked at OpenGL 4.1, which is missing a whole lot of nice features. Not because the hardware doesn't support them, but because Apple doesn't want to keep maintaining OpenGL. And why would they? OpenGL is really unpleasant from a hardware manufacturer's / integrator's / OS author's perspective, it makes app ports for mobile that much harder unless you're using G…
> And why would they? OpenGL is really unpleasant from a hardware manufacturer's / integrator's / OS author's perspective That's why it must be deprecated. Why do we need to reinvent the wheel over and over again ? I get it, X sucks and the answer to this is .... wayland. OpenGL sucks and the answer to this is ? DirectX ? Vulkan ? SDL ? Libcaca ? ( sorry i forgot ncurses). Just like an old builder: you have some bric…
OpenGL was released 29 years ago, and the way GPUs work now vs then is massive. Apparently developers want low level access, and that is what Vulkan/Metal give them.
As a user I wish Vulkan had a path without so much setup. I'm not sure if that's possible, or maybe it would defeat the purpose. It seems like it would be nice for hobbyists/beginners like me who just want to get a triangle on the screen and play with shaders though.
Re: Apple Joins Blender Development Fund
#69Re: Apple Joins Blender Development Fund
#70> ... Apple has joined the Blender Development Fund as a Patron Member. To find out what "Patron Member" means, it's 120k or more per year[0]. It's the highest corporate tier Blender has. Nice to see Apple supporting open-source. [0]: https://fund.blender.org/corporate-memberships/
This is especially interesting because Blender is GPLv2. And AFAIK apart from Webkit which for historical reason it is LGPL, all other open source software Apple support are BSD / MIT / Apache. It is also exceptionally rare Apple donate this amount of money to any open source organisation. To the point I would argue this is very non-Apple. There could be some strategic interest for Blender, although I haven't figure…
Companies like Apple also need software. To me this donation to Blender is just a gesture to show they like to use Blender in-company.