[wishlist] Blender 3D needs more attention from Ubuntu

[YAFU]

Blender 3D is an OpenSource jewel, this is one of the best examples of how an OpenSource project can be well led and grow daily in their development. Blender 3D is a complex software, competing on a par with other great softwares of big companies.
I can mention you some of the problems discussed in "www.blenderartists.org" about Blender and Ubuntu:

* Blender 3D is outdated in Ubuntu: The development of Blender 3D is very fast incorporating important new features in each release. To date, the stable version of Blender is 2.71, and is close to release the 2.72. In Trusty Blender 2.69 is currently in the repositories. Even in the unreleased Ubuntu Utopic the version is 2.70.

* Blender 3D Ubuntu packages do not include the precompiled CUDA Kernel. The GPU acceleration on nVidia cards is very important to the Cycles engine. The official Blender 3D binaries include precompiled CUDA Kernel. But in Ubuntu to compile the kernel you need to install CUDA Toolkit, this means installing a lot of packages for developers that you will never use. According to the next thread:

https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/544289/can-applications-to-use-cuda-technology-just-installing-nvidia-driver-on-linux-/

You should need to install only the runtime librerieas, but apparently that does not work in Ubuntu. Perhaps this should be revised in Ubuntu and it would be good to have a metapackage to install corresponding CUDA runtime libraries for Blender, instead to need to install all CUDA Toolkit for developers.

* Some Blender HotKeys malfunctions are reported and apparently only occur in Ubuntu / Unity:

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?316258-double-press-key-on-Linux

Please, users of the best Linux distribution and the best 3D software will be grateful if you pay attention to these points.
Thank you.

[Gianfranco Costamagna (costamagnagianfranco)]

sync requested in bug 1375342

[Gianfranco Costamagna (costamagnagianfranco)]

all the features you are requesting seems to be also needed in debian, so I suggest you to open a bug there

[YAFU (yafu)]

I do not know, I'm not a Debian user (I can only do tests in Kubuntu and Ubuntu). I could not follow any feedback if Debian maintainers ask me something. Also the last point I mention before seems to be a problem only in Unity.

By the way, instead of using Blender Debian packages, would not it be possible to package binaries from official Blender releases? People report that these builds work better, and they include precompiled CUDA kernel.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Thomas Wright (tvtom100)]

I have been having an issue with Blender 2.72 and Ubuntu Unity where navigation in Blender snaps to orthographic views and it ONLY happens with Ubuntu Unity. I have switched to Cinnamon as a temporary fix.

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?353511-Ubuntu-Linux-Navigation-Issue&p

The issue involves using 3 Button Emulation (which is necessary for tablet use). When holding Alt to rotate the view, if the user hits the Shift or Ctrl keys (which is common because those keys are also used for navigation with 3 Button Emulation) the 3D view will snap to angled or straight on orthographic views making it impossible to properly navigate. I have disabled all actions associated with these keys in compiz settings and still get this issue. When booting the same Ubuntu but with Cinnamon instead of Unity, 3D view works as expected.

[Thomas Wright (tvtom100)]

I'm on Ubuntu 14.04 btw.