Blender 2.41 released

The Blender 2.40 release was huge. Seven months in the works, it revealed a ton of new features including better character animation tools, a modifier stack, fluid effects, hair, and physics. The Blender 2.41 release was pretty hot on the heels of 2.40, but it adds a bunch of improvements to something I've been wanting for a long time: the Game Engine. The Blender game engine has endured a checkered past. When Blender first went open source, there were fears the engine wouldn't be licensed, as the original agreement was only for the modeling and animation assets. But it looks like recent releases (including 2.40) have been bolstering the engine's features. Key components in this one involve the materials and shaders within the game engine. Previously, well, they sucked. Now you can program pixel and vertex shaders, and use most of the materials you'd find in Blender. The armature system is back, as is sound support. All this and several killer Python tools to boot. If you've never tried Blender before, this is a great time. Now I wish they'd fix the browser plugin...

Tags: 3d, animation, blender, game engine, GameEngine, opensource, python