Changelog

Allow fixture edits while preserving addressing

This release adds the ability of device editing while preserving DMX address, universe and/or the Fixture ID. Strobing is now really flashing and not blinking as before. When Cleaning project data, old BlenderDMX profiles are now being removed. MVR export/import has been improved.

Changelog

• Update pygdtf to 1.2.4
• Sync Shutter1Strobe to the programmer
• Make Shutter1Strobe flashing, not pulsing
• Ensure that DMX breaks's address/universe are overflowing 512
• Export MVR with breaks from 0, set universe 0 as 1
• Fix programmer values after clear
• Clear any selection prior to fixture edit/mvr import
• Add option to not modify Fixture_ID and Address during Edit
• Ensure that color defined close to GDTF default white is interpreted as full white
• Remove and re-copy BlenderDMX provided files when Cleaning project data

Full Changelog: https://github.com/open-stage/blender-dmx/compare/v2.0.1...v2.0.2

Changelog

Small re-adjustments after the big 2.0 release

Fixture channel-functions and channel-set processing now has an initial caching system to eliminate some of the the small penalty added by using the real-world physical properties for the fixture. Both the color picker and the pan/tilt fader handling has been improved to eliminate spontaneous value drifting on selecting/unselecting fixtures. BlenderDMX Addon provided GDTF profiles have been revised - several were updated and improved, some were removed (they remain in the GDTF Share should they be needed, along with many much better ones).

• Improve migration from older blend files
• Unify programmer defaults
• Fix gobo indexing angle calculation
• Update packaged fixture profiles:
  • keep only BlenderDMX created profiles
  • improve the default profiles with more data
  • provide RGBW/RGBA versions
  • REMOVED some files like rotating beam or source4, they exist in the GDTF Share
• Add per-channel caching to render()
• Save and apply XML provided offset to pan/tilt geometrie
• Map pan, tilt, color picker to DMX RGB/CMY correctly and without drifting

Full Changelog: https://github.com/open-stage/blender-dmx/compare/v2.0.0...v2.0.1

Changelog

Support for GDTF real-world physical properties

The data provided in the GDTF files includes not only 3D models, gobo images... or the necessary DMX control descriptions, but it additionally contains measurements of movement ranges, beam angles, rotation speeds, and other physical parameters. This release of BlenderDMX Addon adds initial support for utilizing these measurements on supported visualized device properties, transforming it from a "nice effects generator" into a lighting visualizer representing real lighting fixtures behavior.

The following currently supported GDTF Attributes now utilize physical measurements from both Channel Functions and Channel Sets:

• Pan, Tilt, PanRotate, TiltRotate
• Zoom, Iris
• CTC, CTB, CTO
• Shutter1, Dimmer, ShutterStrobe
• Color1, Color2, Color3, ColorMacro1
• Gobo1, Gobo1Pos, Gobo1PosRotate
• Gobo2, Gobo2Pos, Gobo2PosRotate

Current limitations:

• Acceleration and time for the movement is not utilized yet (so for example Pan or Tilt can move unrealistically fast).
• Strobing should be improved for short "flashes", rather then "blinks".
• Combining multiple colors on a single device needs to be improved (for example using RGB and CTO at the same time).

Enhancements thanks to using physical properties:

Using the physical properties brings also further enhancement in visualization, for example when selecting colors on ColorWheels or gobos on GoboWheels now uses correct Wheel Slots. Strobing has been reworked to use Blender' "driver" feature, using the "frame" of the animation playback with correct strobing speed. Some behavior of the device can be conditionally affected by a value of multiple channels (for example Gobo Indexing and Gobo Rotation, Pan and PanRotation or Zoom ranges) and this is supported by utilizing the Mode dependency (Mode Masters) feature of GDTF.

Being able to represent lighting devices more correctly should enhance the usefulness of BlenderDMX Addon for the generation of high-quality renders, particularly with the Blender Cycles renderer and we hope that future developments in Blender's Eevee Next will improve the real-time visualization of many volumetric beams.

Speed up improvements should also be done in the Addon, as this initial support for utilization of the physical parameters in BlenderDMX Addon does introduce some rendering speed penalty, so future improvements and data caching will be useful.

Other improvements:

• Programming movement via Pan/Tilt/PanRotate/TiltRotate sometimes collides with the "follow Target" feature. New option to ignore the Target on selected fixtures allows to have more control during programming.
• When zooming in to smaller diameter, the intensity is now being increased, further mimicking real world behavior.

Updating:

After updating BlenderDMX and opening .blend files created in older versions, GDTF fixtures need to be re-edited in the Advanced mode: select fixture, go to Fixtures → Edit → Advanced edit, make sure a correct GDTF profile is selected, click OK.

For more details, see the changelog for this 2.0.0 release:

• Add support for ChannelFunctions and ChannelSets with their Physical From, Physical To and WheelSlotIndex:
  • Add this support to following GDTF Attributes:
    • Pan, Tilt, PanRotate, TiltRotate, Zoom
    • CTC, CTB, CTO, Iris
    • Shutter1, Dimmer, ShutterStrobe
    • Color1, Color2, Color3, ColorMacro1
    • Gobo1, Gobo1Pos, Gobo1PosRotate
    • Gobo2, Gobo2Pos, Gobo2PosRotate
  • Add support for Mode Masters
  • Add optional BlenderDMX defined default Physical From/To values
• Reworked Shutter/Dimmer - removed complex code
• Added compensation of intensity when zooming
• Adjusted and separated color related code
• Add support for PanMode, TiltMode, and PanTiltMode GDTF Attributes
• Add support for emitter models with multiple materials
• Add option to ignore Target during programming
• Fix DMX breaks during MVR import
• Fix color import during MVR import
• Re-add address/universe option when editing multiple fixtures
• Fix GDFT processing
  • Mark empty manufacturer
  • Handle some importing errors
• Fix DMX Breaks processing on fixtures

Full Changelog: https://github.com/open-stage/blender-dmx/compare/v1.9.6...v2.0.0

Changelog

1.9.6

• Ensure that empty geometries are handled correctly
• Update pygdtf to version 1.2.0

Changelog

Add full support for DMX Breaks

• Allow proper patching of fixtures with multiple DMX entry points (DMX Breaks)
• Centralize GDTF loading to gain speed
• Add possibility to Set Eevee Cutoff distance on selected fixtures
• Accommodate to latest pygdtf changes - use channels directly and so on

There is a migration procedure to make sure older .blend files can be open, but you will have to use the Fixtures → Edit → Advanced Edit → OK, to have the fixtures' data to be re-generated.

Changelog

Improve control of color mixing of child geometries

Fixtures with multiple levels of sub geometries where control attributes of color mixing or dimmer are linked to a parent geometry can now be controlled even if the parent geometry is several layers up the chain.

With that, we also have improved getting correct default values for DMX channels (the pygdtf library still was using the GDTF 1.1 style of defaults).

Changelog:

• Improve getting default values for DMX channels
• Improve detection of parenting geometries for control of beams

Changelog

• Allow control of beams from attributes on parenting geometries
• MVR-xchange:
  • Handle not existing commits
  • Show info about downloaded commits
  • Use UUID in uppercase
  • Ensure FileName is not empty
  • Make StationName definition global

Changelog

Improvements to MVR-xchange local version

• overall improvements to the TCP communication
• use per blend file application/station UUID
• add configuration for mDNS group compatibility
• handle UUIDs with changed character casing
• reformat all code and add uv based python helpers
• update pygdtf and pymvr

Changelog

MVR-xchange websocket mode rewritten to pure websockets

Our last release added support for the non-local version of MVR-xchange. For that, not only was the MVR-xchange implemented into the BlenderDMX Addon, but a coordinating server had to be written from scratch. The plan was to eventually re-write the server, to clean up the code and make it more efficient and only during the re-write I have discovered that the implementation, based on the socket.io foundations is not the same as if done in pure websockets. So after the server has been re-written, this release (v1.9.1) of the BlenderDMX addon now contains a re-write of the non-local MVR-xchange to websockets. There is not difference on the user facing side, except that the address to the MVR-xchange server must start with a websockets scheme wss, rather then https.

For more details about the MVR-xchange Internet version and about the testing server, read the blog post for v1.9.0 on blenderdmx.eu or release notes on the Extensions site.

UPDATE: The testing server period had ended, the publicly available testing server has been removed.

Changelog

MVR-xchange - Internet-Based Implementation

Working on a lighting project and sharing data with other designers can be supercharged with the MVR-xchange protocol.

After implementing the local version of the MVR-xchange protocol, which is suitable for local networks, this release of the BlenderDMX Addon adds an initial implementation of the internet-wide MVR-xchange. It allows cooperation between parties in different locations. It requires a publicly accessible coordination server.

UPDATE: The testing server period had ended, the publicly available testing server has been removed.

BlenderDMX Testing MVR-xchange Server

UPDATE: The testing server period had ended, the publicly available testing server has been removed.

Fix SVG loading

Many thanks to Lily Hopkins for the fix of SVG 2D symbol loading.

List of changes

• MVR-xchange - initial websockets implementation
• Fix SVG import on some systems [Lily Hopkins]
• Translated using Weblate (Chinese (Simplified Han script))

Changelog

See the changelong for more information, or developers can look at git log for full details.

Changelog

1.8.3

• MVR-xchange networking working also on Windows:
  • Tweak networking to get port number on Windows hosts
  • List only MVR-xchange clients with at least minimal required data
  • Do not allow empty mDNS service group
  • Add network interface selection

Changelog

MVR-xchange sending and receiving support

Translations

Numerous translations have been added. Many thanks to all contributors.

GDTF Imports

The pygdtf library has received several improvements.

MVR-xchange sending and receiving

Previously, only file receiving on MVR-xchange has been available. With the fixture export to MVR added this summer, the sending part of MVR-xchange has been implemented in this release. It has been tested and confirmed working between two Linux stations, but the implementation will need more work as file transfer between machines on Windows still does have some issues.

Changelog

See the changelong for more information, or developers can look at git log for full details.

• Update pygdtf to pygdtf-1.0.5.dev8
• Translated using Weblate:
  • (Czech) (origin/main, origin/HEAD) [vanous]
  • (Italian) [Fede Pre]
  • (Tamil) [தமிழ்நேரம்]
  • (Chinese (Simplified Han script)) [大学没毕业]
• MVR-xchange update:
  • Add serving part of MVR-xchange
  • Show date time of commits, ensure mDNS groups have no dots
  • Add search to MVR-xchange panels
  • Change mDNS sub service naming
• Add confirmation dialog Allow selecting geometries
• Improve message of dialog Clear custom data
• Print extension version to the terminal on startup

Changelog

Blender 4.3 now supported, Updated pygdtf/pymvr, Drivers keyframe recording

Translations

Numerous translations have been added. Many thanks to all contributors.

MVR and GDTF Imports

The pygdtf and pymvr libraries have received several improvements. These, together with some other changes in BlenderDMX Addon, should further improve GDTF and MVR imports.

MVR Import can now be adjusted to utilize (or not) Focus Points as device Targets.

Blender 4.3 support

SVG imports and some other documented and undocumented changes to the Blender API had to be handled to support the 4.3 release of Blender.

Key-frame recording and playback of #bdmx drivers

There are new options to allow recording of #bdmx drivers. In order to re-play them, the drivers need to be disabled, which is not easily supported in Blender but a workaround has been found and implemented.

Remove BlenderDMX Addon from a .blend file

A new option in Setup - Extras: "Remove DMX from blend file" tries to clean up BlenderDMX Addon device specific data from a .blend file.

Other changes

• Ensure that gobos and iris work without zoom (again)
• Add keymap preference screen

Changelog

See the changelong for more information, or developers can look at git log for full details.

• Translated using Weblate (Tamil, Literary Chinese, Chinese Chinese (Simplified Han script), Polish, Spanish, Turkish)
• Handle some essential MVR import errors
• Add MVR Target import option
• Update pygdtf and pymvr - improve imports of GDTF and MVR files
• Add support for Blender 4.3
• Add possibility to record objects with #bdmx drivers and disable/enable them to allow playback/rendering
• Add 'Remove DMX from blend file' option
• Ensure that gobos and iris work without zoom (again)
• Add keymap preference screen

Changelog

For full details, read the blog post here.

Support for second gobo wheel, iris, continuous pan/tilt, CTC and more

This release contains support for new attributes (Gobo2, Iris, CTC, CTO, CTB, PanRotate, TiltRotate) and more. The Shader three had to be completely re-organized and gobo loading needed to be refactored. There is a migration procedure in place, but very likely, older .blender files will not project gobos correctly. Re-editing fixtures might be needed. It is also possible that previously recorded keyframe animations will not work right away and will need re-adjustments. Sorry for the inconvenience. Read more details in the blog post here.

Complex fixtures can now be controlled via the new Subfixtures menu, allowing precise selection of fixtures' geometries and controlling of only attributes attached to these geometries.

Changelog:

• Updated translations
• Add support for pan/tilt rotation, add GDTF fixture with continuous rotation
• Add support for Iris
• Add support for Gobo 2 and for Gobo1/Gobo2 combined gobo projection
• Add support for static gobos (Gobo(n) without Gobo(n)Pos or Rot)
• Add support for CTC
• Add display device label also in 3D
• Add subfixture based controlling
• Programmer: show fixture type name if multiple selection is one gdtf type
• Fix: Ensure working Pan/tilt control for fixtures without target
• Fix: Fix keyframe cleaning after addition of PSN
• Fix: Adjust share profile path after changes for custom user data path
• Fix: Ensure that World - Scene - Background exists

Changelog

1.7.7

• Adjustments and fixes after path changes

1.7.6

• Adjust timing for first run event

1.7.5

• Allow using user writable directory associated with an extension (extension only)
• Show fixture name in Align panel if it is a selected active object
• Fix count of selected fixtures in Programmer, Align, and other panels
• Ensure that the beam has full diameter at the lense in Cycles for Blender 4.1 and up
• MVR import:
  • Deselect all objects before import to prevent issues
  • Add support for MVR classing to show/hide MVR classes
• GDTF import:
  • Add constraints for multiple heads and yokes
  • Apply transformation after joining the objects
  • Check dimensions with safer method
  • Allow import of existing files
  • Use DMX break overwrite only for Geometry References
  • Transfer root geometry attribute to children for complex fixtures
  • Improved creating constraints and removed pixel factor
• Import_3ds: Fix texture color
• Increase time for collection auto-creation in import/export dialogs
• Update translatable language strings
• Add testing files download and basic testing scripts