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Apple Joins Blender Development Fund

blender.org

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Re: Apple Joins Blender Development Fund

#101

Post by viktorcode »

hulitu wrote: post #54
striking wrote: post #36

Earlier 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…

Apple had their answer in form of Metal. Vulkan, DX12 came out later.

Re: Apple Joins Blender Development Fund

#102

Post by outworlder »

amelius wrote: post #94

The "problem" I have with Blender is that I can use it about once or twice a year, and of course every time I forget how it works (or the UI has been updated to include an even bigger maze of options). It would be great if Blender had an API on which someone could develop a more beginner-friendly UI. (Curious to know if that happens to be the case).

I have the same problem, but I am not sure other software is much better. Say Maya or 3DS Max. Try spending an year away and then come back to them :)

Blender does seem to have a UI that's optimized for power users. It's amazing to see someone that's experienced working with it, seems to be very practical. Maybe there should be a 'beginner' view though, hiding some more 'esoteric' options.

Re: Apple Joins Blender Development Fund

#103

Post by progbits »

dagmx wrote: post #3

Apple also submitted a patch to port Cycles to run on Metal. https://developer.blender.org/T92212

I guess some will see this as good news, but further entrenching Metal is just sad in my opinion. So much wasted effort just because they can't admit they lost the standards game and won't move to Vulkan.

The generous interpretation is they just don't want to invest into that if it isn't "broken" but the cynic in me can't help but think at least part of the motivation is being different and maintaining the wall around the garden.

Re: Apple Joins Blender Development Fund

#104

Post by JAlexoid »

viktorcode wrote: post #101
hulitu wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Apple had their answer in form of Metal. Vulkan, DX12 came out later.

If memory serves - they introduced Metal as a high efficiency low level API for games, not a generic rendering API.

Deprecating opengl was confusing for me.

Re: Apple Joins Blender Development Fund

#105

Post by outworlder »

webmobdev wrote: post #4

Probably just to make sure that Blender remains available for their platform. If popular programs aren't available for their ARM / macOS platform, it can hurt them. Good for Blender.

> If popular programs aren't available for their ARM

Not a problem. M1 blender benchmarks were already smoking the x86 Macs, despite the fact Blender was running on M1 with Rosetta.

A native build is obviously better of course. But OSX ports are a bigger deal, in general, than the CPU architecture.

Re: Apple Joins Blender Development Fund

#106

Post by sbuk »

nightcracker wrote: post #100
mekster wrote: post #96

I'm not a user but I know Blender had existed for quite a while but how is it gaining traction a lot these days suddenly? Is there something that makes it a first choice for many professional users?

From what I have read (I don't do 3D modeling myself) Blender has overhauled its UI significantly over the past couple of years to great praise of a lot of people.

This is exactly the reason. Most 3D software has esoteric UIs, but Blender's workflow was extreme. Since its initial OSS release (2.4?) the UI has matured and changed significantly for the better. Its far more approachable now, and follows paradigms that every other solution does. It fits nicely in the pipeline alongside tools like Houdini.

Re: Apple Joins Blender Development Fund

#107

Post by outworlder »

valine wrote: post #8
dagmx wrote: post #3

Apple also submitted a patch to port Cycles to run on Metal. https://developer.blender.org/T92212

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.

> that seems like the logical next step if Apple wants to permanently remove OpenGL from macOS

They should just allow third-party OpenGL implementations. OpenGL on OSX is stuck in the past.

It would be great to see Metal die a fiery death too, and Vulkan being adopted. The current situation is just DirectX once again.

Re: Apple Joins Blender Development Fund

#108

Post by yreg »

washadjeffmad wrote: post #33
cdiamand wrote: post #16

It'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've been helping add it to University curriculum because it's enabled us to contract and hire really talented and motivated people without the vendor tax of 3ds Max or Maya, and they usually have broader skill sets that we can apply elsewhere. Not knocking all the amazing people who use other software, but if you want new opportunity, use Blender!

We had a class on Blender in high school (mandatory even!) and it was very popular.

A lot of people in our school played with Blender in their free time in the following years.

Re: Apple Joins Blender Development Fund

#109

Post by ognarb »

xvilka wrote: post #18

Hopefully, 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...

Krita also has a nice funding website: https://fund.krita.org/ (forked from the blender one)

Re: Apple Joins Blender Development Fund

#110

Post by ksec »

JAlexoid wrote: post #93
ksec wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Counting the App Store service fee of 30% as "game revenue" is disingenuous, It was total revenue from App Store derived from Gaming Apps. I dont see how that is disingenuous. Just like Sony makes a cut from games on PS5.

> I dont see how that is disingenuous. When Apple has a total 0 input in making and marketing of said game and just charges for services - that's not revenue from games. And if you want to put a bar that low - Google makes billions from ads for games, YouTube play alongs and other services purchased by game makers. Let's also no forget Starbucks revenues from all the game devs, that definitely counts as game revenue.…

Apple dictate what is inside their App Store. Along with tools that partly support the Game Development. i.e Development of Metal and their Custom GPU ( At least that is the way Apple likes to formalise their argument in court ) . In reality there is no different between the role of Apple and Sony when viewed from a business perspective. No matter how big or small their input into Games. They take their Cut on Games purchase. So either Sony is not counted as one, and if they do the similar revenue counting could also be used for Apple.
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