Blender - Tech

Answers in this category:

1. What is the Blender file format?
2. What are the hardware requirements for Blender (Windows)
3. What is the format of Videoscape files?
4. Render from the command prompt
5. Can I program plugins for Blender?
6. Can I program plugins for Blender?
7. What are the command line options for Blender?
8. How can you start Blender in fullscreen mode?
9. Does Blender support multi processor computers?

1 - What is the Blender file format?

Contributed by anonymous.

The Blender file format is closely tied in to the Blender executable (it is just a memory dump, really), and it changes with almost every release. The best way to write use Blender information in other programs is to use Python scripting. Jan Walter, our Python expert, has published an interesting article about this:

https://www.blender.nl/showitem.php?id=21

(top)

2 - What are the hardware requirements for Blender (Windows)

Contributed by B@rt.

The lowest possible hardware spec is:

-486-compatible CPU
-32MB
-16 bit color display
-openGL drivers

Of course, this will run, but not fast. You can do some modeling and even animation on this system but don't expect to run any games on it.

The lowest realistic hardware spec is:

-Intel Celeron 466MHz or equivalent
-64MB
-16 bit color display
-openGL drivers

A suggestion for a high-end system:

-Intel P3 or equivalent
-128MB
-hardware accelerated 16 bit color display
-openGL drivers

(top)

3 - What is the format of Videoscape files?

Contributed by Paul Melis.

The Videoscape format can only contain mesh information, so no cameras, lights, layers, etc.

The layout is

3DG1

(for vertex 0)
(for vertex 1)
.....
...
...
....

The names in <> have the following meaning

the number of vertices in the polygon
a vertex number
a hexadecimal color string

An example:

3DG1
4
0.0 0.0 0.0
1.0 0.0 0.0
0.0 1.0 0.0
1.0 1.0 1.0
3 0 1 2 0xffffff00
3 1 2 3 0xffffff00

This specifies two polygons made up of 3 vertices each.

(top)

4 - Render from the command prompt

Contributed by Krister Bruhwel.

Make sure that you set up all the render settings that you want first (Use F10 and set size, format, dir, ect)then save (F2).

Exit blender (or not) and do this:

"blender -b myBlenderFile -a"

It will render the animation. Great for scripting out your renders, I think it may be faster cuz your not poping those
preview images.

(top)

5 - Can I program plugins for Blender?

Contributed by Daniel Jircik.

The standard programing language for blender plugins is _Python_ which can be
freely downloaded from https://www.python.org. Blenders discusion list host a
dedicated thread for Programing and plugins. Chances are you don't
need to re-invent the wheel as someone has probably allready written
what your looking for. FYI : The name for python is derivitave of
Monty Python Flying Circus, and it is the official position of Python.Org that
Pythonesque humor in the form of commenting is officially encouraged.
I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK.

(top)

6 - Can I program plugins for Blender?

Contributed by Nathan Vegdahl.

Yes, you can program plugins for Blender. Ever since Blender v1.60, texture and sequence plugins have been supported. At the time of writing, no further plugin support has been added yet.

Texture plugins generate procedural textures.

Sequence plugins do post production effects on images.

To learn how to program plugins, goto https://www.blender.nl/support/complete/devel/index.php

Also, I have written my own documentation for texture plugins (although I have not yet written any documentation for sequence plugins). My texture plugin documentation is at https://cessen.8m.com/text/plug_tex.html

(top)

7 - What are the command line options for Blender?

Contributed by Michael.

The command line options can be viewed by typing 'blender -h' at the command line.
Blender V 2.12
Usage: blender [options ...] [file]

Render options:
-b Render in background
-S Set scene
-f Render frame and save it
-s Set start to frame (use with -a)
-e Set end to frame (use with -a)
-a Render animation

Animation options:
-a Playback
-m Read from disk (Don't buffer)

Window options:
-w Force opening with borders
-p Open with lower left corner at ,
and width and height ,
-W Start in full screen mode

Game Engine specific options:
-g fixedtime Run on 50 hertz without dropping frames
-g vertexarrays Use Vertex Arrays for rendering (usually faster)
-g noaudio No audio in Game Engine
-g nomipmap No Texture Mipmapping
-g linearmipmap Linear Texture Mipmapping instead of Nearest (default)

Misc options:
-d Turn debugging on
-noaudio Disable audio on systems that support audio
-h Print this help text
-y Disable OnLoad scene scripts, use -Y to find out why its -y

(top)

8 - How can you start Blender in fullscreen mode?

Contributed by Zycho.

You can start Blender in full screen by typing Blender -W.

(top)

9 - Does Blender support multi processor computers?

Contributed by B@rt.

At this moment, Blender does not have multi processor support.

(top)