Blender 2.57 Compatibility

[Jonathan Thomas]

The official release of Blender 2.57 has broken some of the 3D animated titles used in OpenShot. We need to update our titles to support this newest release.

[Thibaut Panis (thibaut-panis)]

Yes, now i can't make any 3D animated titles. It's very strange... :o

[Jonathan Thomas (jonoomph)]

Titi 83,
What version of OpenShot are you running? Version 1.3.0 and 1.3.1~alpha1 seem to work fine with Blender 2.57. For some reason, I thought I read that people were having trouble with Blender 2.57, but now I'm wondering if maybe it only breaks older versions of OpenShot. Thanks!

[Olivier Girard (eolinwen)]

Jonathan,

Titi 83 is using at least the 1.3.0 and he had taken his version of Blender here : http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/
Have you installed your Blender 's version by a PPA ? It can perhaps explain why you don't find this bug .....

[Jonathan Thomas (jonoomph)]

Olivier, now that makes more sense. I do recall that some PPA versions of Blender were not compiled with Python support, or something to that effect. Which means, there is nothing I can do from OpenShot. If Python does not work, it should output some crazy error to the terminal.

What is the link to the PPA that you use for Blender 2.57?

[Olivier Girard (eolinwen)]

Jonathan,

I have given you the link on the MP that I have send you announcing the output of this version Blender. You have forgotten and however, you know well this site. It is here : http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/04/blender-stable-released/ And thus I was believing that you have installed with a PPA .

Me I have not use it. I will test on a virtual box for Marverick and in real condition (after) on a Lucid. And I don't know yet how to do for a LMDE.

Is it the fact that she is using Python 3.2 can be a problem for us (i.e. we are using Python 2.6) ?

[Jonathan Thomas (jonoomph)]

The self contained versions of Blender 2.57 on the www.blender.org website are statically linked to Python 3.2, which means they contain the Blender executable inside Blender. This works fine, and has no trouble with OpenShot. However, if Blender is not built with a static version of Python, I believe it just links to the current users version of Python, which would break OpenShot, since our Blender/Python files use the Python 3 syntax.

[Olivier Girard (eolinwen)]

Ah ah
How to know if Blender is not built with a static version of Python ?

[Thibaut Panis (thibaut-panis)]

Jonathan,
cenwen answered for me to your question. I'm using OpenShot 1.3.0-1.

[Jonathan Thomas (jonoomph)]

Well, it looks as if OpenShot has perfect compatibility with Blender 2.57, as long as Blender is packaged with the built-in Python 3. The official releases of Blender are packaged with Python 3. However, some of the PPA versions of Blender are not statically built with Python 3, and thus fail in OpenShot. I'm not sure how to handle this, since it looks to only be an issue with unofficial versions of Blender.

Maybe someone could try and contact these PPA maintainers, and see why they are packaging Blender 2.57 differently than the official website downloads?

[Olivier Girard (eolinwen)]

You could ask them in our bug tracker.
Yesterday evening, I installed the Chelab PPA (https://launchpad.net/~cheleb/+archive/blender-svn) on a Lucid in a virtualbox and I have had none problems but it was just a little test.
However, I found strange that they are packaging Blender 2.5.7 with a different version of Python. The fact to have a Python 3.2 is not a problem on a distribution. You can have several version of Python, the only thing is if Python 3.2 is by default but not for Blender (more for us).
I have not tested the second and I will do after eating on a Marverick. Perhaps it is this repository who brings some problems.
Anyway, Titi 83 have had a problem with the archive and not a PPA.

[Olivier Girard (eolinwen)]

Hum I am wondering me if it is not this PPA (https://launchpad.net/~irie/+archive/blender) who brings some problems. He had some patchs with his version of Blender. It can be the reason of this situation.
And he is naming his version of Blender2.5 and yesterday I have search my executable and I am sure that his executable is normal (i.e. blender).

[Olivier Girard (eolinwen)]

I have open a new FAQ (see here : https://answers.launchpad.net/openshot/+faq/1566) for the stable version (like this one).

@Titi 83
Do what is done in the FAQ (installation and changing the path of Blender) and tell us if all is okay.

Thanks.

[Jonathan Thomas (jonoomph)]

I have installed OpenShot 1.3.0 and Blender 2.57.2 (from the PPA: https://launchpad.net/~irie/+archive/blender) on a fresh install of Ubuntu 10.10 and 11.04, and I have no issues. OpenShot is able to correctly use Blender to render 3D titles. Regardless of installing with the PPA or downloading Blender from the Blender.org website, it works fine. I'm marking this bug as invalid until we can find some reproducible circumstances. Thanks!