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Recently I learned that there are several initiatives to make Physically-Based Shading available on Blender. One of these is the development of a Cycles Disney BRDF.

I have a couple of questions on installing this Blender development on my computer.

  1. Is this Blender Branch Windows only ? I would like to install it on macOS.
  2. As I have a Windows machine too .. how would I install such a branche on my Windows machine

Edit: after reading the answer of @aliasguru I understand that GraphicAll makes new developments available without having to compile code ?

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If I push that download button what am I downloading and how do I install that as a experimental feature to my Blender 2.78 installation ? Is this possible for macOS ?

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1 Answers1

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Tech Stuff first

As most Blender Branches, they are cross-platform and can be compiled for any supported operating system. Since support for compiling Blender is out of scope of BSE, I won't go into detail on how to do it. However, the documentation gives a very good starting point: https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Doc/Building_Blender Note that for adding the Disney Shader, you'll need to checkout a branch with GIT that actually contains the code. One such branch is the Experimental one.

Easy solution for quick evaluation on Windows

Some people actually go for the extra effort and provide self made Blender Builds on a dedicated website called GraphicAll. You can search for keywords there, Disney will give you this page as a result: http://graphicall.org/1192

Just download and unzip it to your hard drive (this is a Windows Build), and run blender.exe from that folder directly. You'll find the Disney Shader in the Add section of the node editor, together with the Diffuse, Glossy, Anisotropic,...

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aliasguru
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    Just realised the second part of my answer is pretty redundand, apart from the info that you don't have to install anything. Unzip and run works fine. MacOS builds I haven't tried yet, but if I can get hold of a machine I'd like to give it a shot. – aliasguru Dec 21 '16 at 14:55
  • you say "need to checkout a branch with GIT that actually contains the code. One such branch is the Experimental one.". I am not a programmer and not familiar with Blender Development and I cannot find some documents that make things understandable for me. So, if you don't mind, what is GIT ? what is a branch ? Where can I find Experimental ? –  Dec 21 '16 at 15:28
  • About GraphicAll ... is this not "official Blender development" ? You name it self made Blender Builds ... I thought that this Cycles Disney Brdf is part of the Blender software ? –  Dec 21 '16 at 15:33
  • @OldMan You're mixing up two things: a) the source code, and b) compiled binaries of the source code, i.e. applications that you can run. GIT is a version control system which helps programmers to keep track of changes in code. A branch is something like a spin-off version of a code. 'Experimental' is a name of a Blender Source Code branch. If you download a stable release, you are indeed running the branch called 'master'. 'Experimental' is a branch which has been changed, in this case one of the changes is the implementation of the Disney shader. – aliasguru Dec 21 '16 at 15:54
  • @OldMan Unless you have at least some understanding of coding and/or using version control, you'll find it really hard to get a first self-compiled Blender up and running. But again, the docs I linked are a step by step guideline which helps you through. Regarding braches, there is lots of them. The purpose is to enable developers to test things without doing any harm on the master branch. – aliasguru Dec 21 '16 at 16:04
  • @oldMan: Blender's code is open source, anyone can get it. The way you get the code is using GIT, which is a specialized software for tracking versions of code, branches and changes to the code. With GIT you can pull a copy of the "trunk" code and add the "branches" you need. After you have the code locally in your machine you have to compile it, which is the process of making human-readable code into executable binary code that your computer understands. – Gez Dec 21 '16 at 16:05
  • Oh, sorry. I started writing the above comment before aliasguru's comment popped up, so I said the same :-) Compiling is a chore if you're not into coding (and I guess it still is even if you are). Community builds like the ones in Graphicall are an easy way to get those experimental builds without having to run through the tedious process of setting up git, getting the code and the dependencies and compiling the software. Unless you plan compiling experimental builds regularly, I'd suggest you to go straight to the community builds. – Gez Dec 21 '16 at 16:10
  • Thanks. I now understand that the Blender software and its development is "stored" with an application called GIT and while I don't have the skills I should not try messing with Git, downloading code, compiling and stuff. But I also understand that Experimental software is made available for "artists" by means of GraphicAll ?? Now ... if this is correct ... how can I download this Cycles Disney Shader from GrahicAll and install that on my macOS machine ? –  Dec 21 '16 at 16:31
  • see my Edit too –  Dec 21 '16 at 16:47
  • I don't see a reason to include the 'tech stuff' section as the OP didn't ask about building blender themselves they are simply asking what the downloads on graphicall are and how to install them, which your second section answers. – Ray Mairlot Dec 21 '16 at 17:41
  • @aliasguru This GraphicsAll build of the Cycles Disney Brdf is Windows only, right ? Is it not customary to make builds for macOs and Linux available ? I understand this download is in fact a complete Blender installation with this "branche" added ? So I could simply run this 2.78.1 version ? –  Dec 22 '16 at 14:11
  • @OldMan Yes, for the time being, it is Windows only. You can, as stated above, run it on Windows. I'll give a MacOSX Build a shot over the Christmas holidays (borrowed a Mac from the IT). If that works, I can upload it to GraphicAll for you. No guarantees. – aliasguru Dec 22 '16 at 14:23
  • @aliasguru I had sent a message to the developer and he has a macOS version of this Disney Shader available. I have downloaded this macOS 2.78.1 build and it works haha !! Not sure why it is not on GraphicsAll –  Dec 22 '16 at 15:20
  • @OldMan That's good news! I've managed in the meantime to build a working 2.78.3 MacOSX version of Blender with the Disney Shader and the ShadowCatcher both enabled. That should be a LOT of creative fun to play with. At the moment I'm waiting for a response from GraphicAll, I've requested upload permissions, but that will take a little while. – aliasguru Dec 23 '16 at 09:13
  • @OldMan ShadowCatcher is described in detail here: https://developer.blender.org/D1788 – aliasguru Dec 23 '16 at 09:14
  • @aliasguru If a "blender build" is called 2.78.3 would this always imply that 2.78.1 and 2.78.2 is included ? Where can I find an overview on what is in the pipeline ? I mean 2.78.1 ...2.78.2 .... 2.78.3 ....etc –  Dec 23 '16 at 11:18
  • @OldMan It's unfortunately not that simple. The version number is being elevated by the main devs whenever they see fit. Since these intermediate releases don't go public, there is no changelogs specifically for them. What I can say is that 2.78.3 has been the version number in mid November. The current one is 2.78.4 afaik. To see what devs are doing, you can read the Git log here: https://www.miikahweb.com/en/blender/git-logs/ – aliasguru Dec 23 '16 at 15:14