2.80

Decorators for node tree updation delay

When we create a field on the add-on interface panel, the value of which changes something in the node tree, each time the user changes the field value the node tree recompiles. If the user changes the value in that field by holding and moving the mouse, too frequent node tree recompilation will cause Blender to hangs.

This problem can be solved using decorators for deferred updating of the node tree.

Code by Skarn.

Class for creating nodes by type

Class for quick node creation by their type.

Code by Skarn.

Texture pixelization

The simplest way to pixelate texture, procedural or not – get the color from the single pixel and fill the region with required width and height (resolution) with this color.

Here is the gradient texture with red – green – blue colors:

To pixelate it with the first step of resolution we can make some vectors manipulations.

Quick Instance Add-on: grouping-like workflow

This add-on for Blender 2.8 creates a grouping workflow using Blender 2.7 group style. Add-on doesn’t “brokes” the scene, so you can properly work with groups made with this add-on having no add-on installation.

By Michael Soluyanov.

  • ctrl+g – group selected objects
  • f9 – manage the group name and origin
  • tab – enter/exit group edit mode in separate space

Video with an add-on demonstration:

You can get this add-on at:

Blender Market: https://blendermarket.com/products/quick-instance

Gumroad: https://gumroad.com/l/qinstance

How to protect your add-on from downloading through aggregators

With the Blender popularity growing, the number of add-ons created for it by third-party developers is growing too. A lot of high-quality professional add-ons are written for Blender now. Over time, the number of add-ons is becoming more and more. And on this wave aggregators appeared – programs and services independently searching for add-ons and allowing Blender users to install add-ons quickly, many at once, and bypassing add-on distribution channels selected by their authors. What caused a negative reaction of add-on developers.

How to detect if Local View is on in 3D View window

The following command returns the 3D View areas list with enabled Local View mode:

 

Where are the icons for managing objects visibility in the Outliner window in Blender 2.8

In the latest Blender 2.80 builds, the visibility control icons are disappeared from the Outliner window.

They were not removed, they are just hidden from the interface by default. To return them to their usual place click the button with the funnel image and mark the icons you need to display.

After closing the dialog box, the icons will appear in their places.