blenderseed 2.0.0-beta

This is a beta release of blenderseed, an appleseed plugin for Blender 2.79 and Blender 2.80.

blenderseed 2.0.0-beta embeds appleseed 2.1.0-beta. It contains everything that is needed and does not require any other download.

Keep in mind this is beta-quality software and there are a number of known bugs that will be fixed in the next releases of the plugin.

Also, please note that the Blender 2.80 plugin is currently available for Windows only.

Contributing Authors:

• François Beaune
• João Marcos Mororo Costa
• Herbert Crepaz
• Jonathan Dent
• Esteban Tovagliari

What's New

• Native Cryptomatte integration (Blender 2.80 plugin only).
• Stereoscopic camera support (Blender 2.80 plugin only).
• OSL scripting node (Blender 2.80 plugin only).
• Custom shader search paths can be set in the user preferences.
• Fisheye lens support.
• Lens shift support.
• New UI for shading nodes. Parameters are now grouped by function and can optionally accept a texture input.

Other Additions

• Mesh exporter code has been moved to C++, leading to a 10x improvement in speed.
• Texture converter is friendlier (and doesn't rely on the maketx command line utility any longer).
• Border rendering now works for all camera views, however real time updates in interactive mode do not occur yet.

Installation

1. Download the blenderseed version that matches your Blender version and operating system.
2. Start Blender, then File → User Preferences.
3. Click on Add-ons, then Install Add-on from File... and find the blenderseed archive that you downloaded in step 1.
4. After the addon has installed, locate the appleseed plugin in your addon list (you can filter by Render in the category list on the left) and enable it.
5. Click Save User Settings and close the dialog.
6. Choose appleseed in the rendering engine dropdown.

blenderseed 1.0.0-beta

This is a beta release of blenderseed, an appleseed plugin for Blender 2.79 (Blender 2.80 is not yet supported).

This release is designed to work with appleseed 2.0.0-beta.

Keep in mind this is beta-quality software and there are a number of known bugs that will be fixed in the next releases of the plugin.

Contributing Authors:

• François Beaune
• Jonathan Dent
• Esteban Tovagliari

Previous Contributors:

• Joel Daniels
• Petra Gospodnetic
• Luke Kliber
• Kevin Masson
• Jasper van Nieuwenhuizen

What's New

blenderseed's export and render pipeline has been completely re-written. Whereas before it exported XML scene files and used the appleseed.cli utility, now everything is handled inside Blender using appleseed's Python bindings.

In addition to increased robustness, we are happy to announce that blenderseed is now able to support Blender's rendered preview viewport.

In addition, the process used to read and dynamically load OSL shader nodes is far more reliable now with the Python bindings, so we've made the decision to move the shading system completely to OSL and remove the legacy built-in shading system (with the exception of volumetric materials).

Finally, we've decided to include appleseed itself with the blenderseed download, so you no longer need to set the path to appleseed in the preferences.

Other Additions

• Area lamps
• Archive assemblies
• Support of linked groups and objects
• Adaptive sampling
• Lens shift
• Post-processing stages
• Full AOV support
• More robust and efficient support of duplis and particles

Installation

1. Download the blenderseed version that matches your operating system.
2. Start Blender, then File → User Preferences.
3. Click on Add-ons, then Install Add-on from File... and find the blenderseed archive that you downloaded in step 1.
4. After the addon has installed, locate the appleseed plugin in your addon list (you can filter by Render in the category list on the left) and enable it.
5. Click Save User Settings and close the dialog.
6. Choose appleseed in the rendering engine dropdown.

blenderseed 0.8.1-beta

This is a beta release of blenderseed, an appleseed plugin for Blender 2.79 and later.

This release is designed to work with appleseed 1.9.0-beta.

Keep in mind this is beta-quality software and there are a number of known bugs that will be fixed in the next releases of the plugin.

Changes

• Fixed oslinfo invocation on Linux.
• Fixed error messages that were being generated when an object had no materials.
• Fixed export crash that was occurring due to a conflict with other addons that use the node system (AnimationNodes, etc.)
• Fixed issues with the final image going blank and not being usable in the compositor.
• Hid non-connectable inputs of OSL shader nodes.
• Moved SSS, Volume and Alpha/Bump parameters into separate tabs.
• Added tooltips to denoiser parameters.
• Reduced message verbosity in system console during preview rendering.

Installation

Text version

1. Download and unzip appleseed: https://appleseedhq.net/download.html
2. Download blenderseed but don't unzip it.
3. Start Blender, then File → User Preferences.
4. Click on Install Add-on from File...
5. Locate the appleseed plugin (you can filter by Render in the category list on the left) and enable it.
6. In the plugin settings, set appleseed Binary Directory to the bin folder of appleseed (e.g. C:\Program Files\appleseed\bin).
7. Click Save User Settings and close the dialog.
8. Choose appleseed in the rendering engine dropdown.

Video version

Short (2 minutes) user-contributed tutorial, click on the image to play on Vimeo:

blenderseed 0.8.0-beta

This is a beta release of blenderseed, an appleseed plugin for Blender 2.79 and later.

This release is designed to work with appleseed 1.9.0-beta.

(Red Paper Boat by Giuseppe Lucido.)

Keep in mind this is beta-quality software and there are a number of known bugs that will be fixed in the next releases of the plugin.

Changes

• Added all remaining built-in appleseed materials.
• Added support for OSL materials.
• Added support for alpha mapping.
• Added support for nested dielectrics.
• Added support for subsurface scattering.
• Added support for participating media.
• Added support for animation export.
• Added support for render stamps.
• Added support for denoising.
• Added support for render passes.
• Added automatic texture convertor.
• Overhauled object visibility user interface.
• Overhauled render panel user interface.
• Fixed many problems when enabling/disabling the blenderseed plugin.
• Removed material layer system.
• Removed DRT (Distributed Ray Tracer, i.e. direct lighting-only) mode.
• Adjusted ranges for camera's shutter open/close times.
• Added online documentation.
• Many bug fixes.

Installation

Text version

1. Download and unzip appleseed: https://appleseedhq.net/download.html
2. Download blenderseed but don't unzip it.
3. Start Blender, then File → User Preferences.
4. Click on Install Add-on from File...
5. Locate the appleseed plugin (you can filter by Render in the category list on the left) and enable it.
6. In the plugin settings, set appleseed Binary Directory to the bin folder of appleseed (e.g. C:\Program Files\appleseed\bin).
7. Click Save User Settings and close the dialog.
8. Choose appleseed in the rendering engine dropdown.

Video version

Short (2 minutes) user-contributed tutorial, click on the image to play on Vimeo:

blenderseed 0.7.1

This is a beta release of blenderseed, an appleseed plugin for Blender 2.75 and later.

This release is designed to work with appleseed 1.8.1-beta.

Keep in mind this is beta-quality software and there are a number of known bugs that will be fixed in the next releases of the plugin.

Changes

• Fixed No module named 'extensions_framework' error.

Installation

Video version

Short (2 minutes) user-contributed tutorial, click on the image to play on Vimeo:

Text version

1. Download and unzip appleseed: https://appleseedhq.net/download.html
2. Download blenderseed but don't unzip it.
3. Start Blender, then File → User Preferences.
4. Click on Install Add-on from File...
5. Locate the appleseed plugin (you can filter by Render in the category list on the left) and enable it.
6. In the plugin settings, set appleseed Binary Directory to the bin folder of appleseed (e.g. C:\Program Files\appleseed\bin).
7. Click Save User Settings and close the dialog.
8. Choose appleseed in the rendering engine dropdown.

blenderseed 0.7.0

This is a beta release of blenderseed, an appleseed plugin for Blender 2.75 and later.

This release is designed to work with appleseed 1.8.1-beta.

(Red Interior by Luke Kliber.)

Keep in mind this is beta-quality software and there are a number of known bugs that will be fixed in the next releases of the plugin.

Changes

• Implemented tile highlighting.
• Exposed tile size parameter.
• Exposed environment alpha parameter.
• Exposed orthographic camera.
• Exposed exposure and vertical/horizontal shifts to lat-long environment map.
• Exposed exposure parameter to lights and light-emitting materials.
• Exposed Sun distance and size multiplier in Sun lamp.
• Progress bar is now updated during rendering.
• Added missing BSDF nodes.
• Set Max Ray Intensity to Unlimited by default.
• Remove unimplemented Recompute Vertex Normals checkbox.
• Improved handling of plugin misconfiguration.
• Don't mask runtime errors when writing material preview project to disk.
• Many user interface improvements.
• Many bug fixes.

Installation

Video version

Short (2 minutes) user-contributed tutorial, click on the image to play on Vimeo:

Text version

1. Download and unzip appleseed: https://appleseedhq.net/download.html
2. Download blenderseed but don't unzip it.
3. Start Blender, then File → User Preferences.
4. Click on Install Add-on from File...
5. Locate the appleseed plugin (you can filter by Render in the category list on the left) and enable it.
6. In the plugin settings, set appleseed Binary Directory to the bin folder of appleseed (e.g. C:\Program Files\appleseed\bin).
7. Click Save User Settings and close the dialog.
8. Choose appleseed in the rendering engine dropdown.

blenderseed 0.6.0

Changes

• Fixed border rendering.
• Added Glossy BRDF.
• Added Sheen BRDF.
• Added missing Specular BTDF parameters.
• Enabled physics panels in blenderseed.
• Removed Shade Alpha Cutout option (no longer supported by appleseed).
• Many UI improvements and cleanups.

blenderseed 0.5.0

Changes

• Removed Project Folder setting.
• Added missing rendering settings.
• Added missing BSDF models.
• Cleaned up user interface.
• Fixed many bugs.

blenderseed 0.4.0

This is a beta release of blenderseed, an appleseed plugin for Blender 2.75 and later.

(Red Interior by Luke Kliber.)

Keep in mind this is beta-quality software and there are a number of known bugs that will be fixed in the next releases of the plugin.

Changes

• Redesigned user interface.
• Switched to a faster and more robust method of displaying rendered tiles.
• More robust material preview.
• Use proper color space for textures based on file extension.
• Fixed multi-pass rendering.
• Fixed changing number of rendering threads.
• Fixed generation of .appleseed files with non-ANSI characters.
• Removed render layers as they are no longer supported by appleseed.
• Plugin is now platform-independent.