Currently whatever renderer you use, Blender becomes unresponsive until rendering is complete.

Cinema 4D is the closest (interface wise) to Blender (total customization).

When one renders in C4D, i can still continue to work on the project, and the scene simply renders in the background (with the penalty of render speed) but overall productivity increases 10fold as I never (nearly never) stop working on the project.

Like with all major 3d animations, it would be nice to have an integrated solution for rendering across a local area network. Such as under render having a box called "NetRender" after which it would scan the LAN and distribute work.

issues/disadvantages of external solutions
- external application, in some cases complex setup
- lack on integration for post Node processing (as far as I know)
- lack of development
- bucket rendering (in some cases) requires second apps
- not portable between computers


Last might need some definition

portable means that I simply copy one directory (blender) and no installation is required (windows). with other packages, additional setup is required.

Current implementation shows only the material that is applied to object that I have selected.

However when I want to create a file that contains only materials, I have to create object to assign them to so that Blender will save them.

And there is no one view that will show me all the materials in the scene. Most applications have the ability to create and view all materials without even applying them to objects.

Having a window view that would show all materials using thumbnails would help.

Additionally the ability to see which object is assigned to given material. Currently this is complicated if not borderline impossible. Sometimes during creation of meshes, i create a few materials.001 and i don't recollect which object has that material. So i have to go through a bunch of objects (and also look through objects that have various materials assigned) to identify where it is to correct the assignment.

Currently there are only three options to adjust the center of the object. Center New, Center Cursor, and Center.

It would be nice addition to be able to adjust the object center by simply translating it to a desired position.


[i]Edit[/i]
Also add the posibility to change scale and rotation without modification of the mesh structure in any way.

One addition that could be welcomed is a shader that reacts to particles.

Seen something like this in Cinema4D.

Useful for using it as a displacement map and shooting bullets. Instant dents to the object ;) Also good for shield effects.

Basically, the proximity shader looks at the designated emmiter, and based on how close a particle is to the surface of the object which (which the shader is applied to) make a spot on a texture (Grey scale is sufficent). This then can be applied to just about any type of node. :D

Example for using it would be as following:
bullet impact:
1st emitter shoots a "bullet"
upon impact, bullet particle is eliminated. It triggers a new emitter (object it impacts) to spawn a new particle. This new particle is used on the proximity shader which is applied as displacement creating a dent.

shield effect:
1st emitter shoots a "plasma bullet"
upon impact, plasma bullet particle is eliminated. It triggers a new emitter (object it impacts) to spawn a new particle which slowly moves away from the surface. This new particle is used on the proximity shader which is applied as alpha channel creating a "shield impact" effect. Why moving away, because then it looks like the impact triggered a huge reaction afterward is shrinks as times proceeds.

this can be simplified. it is something that could improve some SFX.

When i create a detail that has a mirror modifier, then I create a "ALT + D" duplicate.

Each duplicate still maintains the mirror modifier. But when I try to "apply" the modifier on any of the duplicates, it gives me an error.

I use this often, so it becomes quite annoying at times. Basically, i have to delete the mirror modifier on all of the duplicates first. Then I have to go into edit mode and duplicate faces and mirror along the same axis. After which i can finally perform the cleanup action to reduce polys.

Originally wanted to add an idea to add function like "Around Selection" bust since I just found out it exists, the new idea is to have a shortcut to at least the "Around Selection".

Generally this is quite useful but when I'm in object mode and the object is quite huge it rotates on its pivot, which in most cases is outside of the viewport. I have to quickly change to edit mode and select an area, for this function to rotate more where I desire.

The ability to turn it on and off via a hot key would be welcomed.

Also, there was a "turntable"/"trackball" default question with one of the ideas. Providing a shortcut to this would also help, as its sometimes advantageous to use both modes.

It would be nice to be able to define the center of a Group Object.


When Importing a group form another file or for that instance even same file, center of the "grouped" object is the 0,0,0 location of the scene and not the object.

At times this is quite anoying.

Will there ever be one?

Is there a plan to work on the Windows x86-64 code path? Currently (as far as i know), Windows code is not 64bit safe.

We are all looking for speed, and it would be nice to have this option on Windows as there is on Linux.

On Linux platform, Blender 64bit version (non optimized) is as fast as Blender 32bit with sseX optimizations. And 64bit optimized... well :)

It would be nice to have the same thing on the windows side.

Additionally, one thing I forgot to mention in the original version of this idea is support for more then 2Gb (32bit) and even 3GB (with laa version)

The ability to adjust the modifier center (translate/scale/rotate) without modifying the object.

For example, mirror modifier.

if i have an object located at 1,1,1. and I'd like to mirror it to -1,-1,-1. using current method its ... extremely time consuming and .. painful.

with the ability to modify the modifiers center, I'd place it at 0,0,0 and rotate it. that's it. done.

- one possibility is for the modifier to be an independent "object" like an empty. Then parenting a real object to it would cause the modifier to perform its function on its child/children.

Instance object is similar to the "ALT + D" duplicate in a sense that it represents the same geometry using same geometry data. But that is the extent of the similarities.

Instance object would be able to accept a Parent Tree and duplicate it at any location.

This can be an option for an "EMPTY" object. you place it where you want, then enter the name of the designation object. and presto chengo, empty is now an instance. This can be then changed at any time if you feel that the original object (group/parent tree) is not the one you'd like to use. you just simply change the target name.

This could also solve the issue i presented in idea 303
http://www.blenderstorm.org/qapoll/ideas/idea/303, issues with using/applying modifiers on "ALT + D" duplicates.