Blender 2.8 UI Changes and improvements.

Started by Amon, May 29, 2019, 21:03:10

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Amon

I just downloaded Blender 2.8 beta. I have to say one thing; this is how it should have been from the beginning. The UI is brilliant and I know, thanks to the icons, where to find everything. It is such a vast improvement that all my 3D work is now going to be done in Blender 2.8.
Well done to the Blender crew for the UI fix. It finally resembles industry standards (icon wise) and everything is accesable via easy to navigate left/right click menus.
That's all. :)

Derron

I think I am too used to the old interface to enjoy the 2.8 series for now.

Always gone back to 2.79 as I was not able to find some "not that regularily used" elements. Icons are for _beginners_ who need visualized help - I prefer texts as I know "what I am looking for" but not necessarily share the same "visual idea" with the icon designers.

Also 2.8 requires more GPU if you want to use the visual "sugar". On my active-cooled GPU this means the fans start to rotate which results in some noise I do not like (prefer a silent computer if doing some "modelling"). Not a fault of the devs though ;-)

It might attract more people now - but it's more to attract the masses and maybe so also the "mouse driven" creativity crowd instead of nerdy efficiency monsters (using shortcuts with their "other" hand and drawing with the main hand and a mouse/pen).

They (and other 3D suites) ALWAYS will have the problem of exposing or hiding complex stuff - somewhen you just NEED to access and modify certain values. This results in Blender having a load of tabbers and sub-panels etc. - to define params of a hair / particle system.
Dunno how to do differently but I can imagine how that puts off beginners.


If you ignore the UI changes you still get the (imho) best and almost most simply shortcut driven 3D editor for free. Select, g-rab, s-cale, r-otate.
Render quality should be more than most of us need (as our skill limits, not the renderer ;-)).


bye
Ron

Rick Nasher

#2
I really used to like Google SketchUp for it enabled me to do a complete mockup (without any prior knowledge, very intuitive) of my companies building, inside and outside, in just 2 evenings! Staircases and elevator shafts included.

Shame it was so sloppy that the resulting model was really hard to export to B3D, not to mention the horrific pipeline I had to go through.


I'll have to try the new version of Blender and SketchUp to see if things changed for better or worse.
_______________________________________
B3D + physics + shaders + X-platform = AGK!
:D ..ALIENBREED *LIVES* (thanks to Qube).. :D
_______________________________________

Pfaber11

Well I really didn't get on with the old blender but I was using wings3d but had problems with it so downloaded the new blender and I absolutely love it . 2.8 for me was a real improvement much easier to use .
HP 15s i3 1.2 upto 3.4 ghz 128 gb ssd 16 gb ram 15.6 inch screen. Windows 11 home edition .  2Tb external hard drive dedicated to Linux Mint .
  PureBasic 6 and AppGameKit studio
ASUS Vivo book 15 16gb ram 256gb storage  cpu upto 4.1 ghz

blinkok

Do any of you guys have a GPU that has less than 4GB?

Derron

If your GPU has less then use the CPU for cycles rendering. My GT 620 has 4gb but it is useless as somehow the system has micro-stalls when using the GPU for rendering (think this is a linux-gpu-driver issue).


bye
Ron

blinkok

blender 2.8 doesn't work on my GPU. Someone told me blender won't work on a GPU with less than 4GB

LineOf7s

That is demonstrably untrue.

Just tested on both a 2GB GTX 760 and some dirty ole Intel integrated graphics and it worked great on both (and by "worked great" I mean it fired up, responded snappily and rendered the default cube quickly).
"Life's biggest obstacles are your greatest opportunities to excel"

Naughty Alien

..some time back, i did try Blender, and i couldn't use it at all, as UI was beyond alien to me..maybe because im using 3dsmax all the time...now im wondering, is this 2.8 version, somewhat similar to 3dsmax UI/layout?? Any of you blender guys, with 3dsmax experience, could share some insights on this?

Derron

#9
I cannot really judge for current 3D Studio Max versions - started with 3D Studio R4 and used some of the very early Windows versions - and started to use Blender about 15 years ago.

I did not play much with 2.8 yet - as I think the addition of all these icons is a huge "break" if you were used to the 2.7x so much. They tried to mimic behaviour of other modellers - so left click select etc (right click select saved some required mouse hits/interaction which other platforms with left click select still require - and so does Blender now). Also for some 3d suites they offer "keymaps" so that stuff is reachable similar.

For me Blender is still the most efficient "modeller" when you do classic polygon modelling - never did real sculpting, which is the favorite for many organic things for years now.

The changes in 2.8 are pretty big (wait for 2.81 which might/will contain some real cool stuff for retopology and sculpting - thanks to Pedro, and a hefty powerful realtime remesher). 2.80 does add Evee (if you like real time rendered modelling and are having a not too old GPU). The GUI overhaul is a breaker (need to get used to when doing my next render assets) for me but a BIG chance for everyone beginning with Blender - or wanting to give it a new try.

If you are used to other software then you might need to "force" yourself to use it for some days (to get used). Else you will see "features" as "quirks". I especially prefer the shortcuts which are the same across all parts of the suite (g, r, s + x,y,z to constrain or shift+x,y,z to exclude). It is free and there are plenty of tutorials available for it. Just am missing a FOSS substance painter replacement (armory paint is ... not what I am looking for).


@ UI
The UI regarding Windows seems to be a bit confusing at first as you can simply drag new views from the "sides" of a sub windows (and you collapse them similary). They added icons for faster visual recognition - once you know the symbols. Still it offers so much functionality that not all functions will be reachable by simple symbols. Most of the time you do not require all functions but sometimes it is good to know that it is available (eg "double e" for edge sliding between two other edges).
As said: if you do only use it for simple polygon modelling then just ignore all the other tab groups, windows, ... just model your stuff, save and done.


bye
Ron

Pfaber11

I've got intel HD400 intergrated graphics and it works fine for me .  Doesn't get much lower tech than this.
HP 15s i3 1.2 upto 3.4 ghz 128 gb ssd 16 gb ram 15.6 inch screen. Windows 11 home edition .  2Tb external hard drive dedicated to Linux Mint .
  PureBasic 6 and AppGameKit studio
ASUS Vivo book 15 16gb ram 256gb storage  cpu upto 4.1 ghz

blinkok

QuoteJust tested on both a 2GB GTX 760 and some dirty ole Intel integrated graphics and it worked great on both (and by "worked great" I mean it fired up, responded snappily and rendered the default cube quickly).
QuoteI've got intel HD400 intergrated graphics and it works fine for me .  Doesn't get much lower tech than this.

Is that version 2.8?

LineOf7s

"Life's biggest obstacles are your greatest opportunities to excel"

blinkok