New RayTraing Optermisations in trunk

to test the new ray-traing optimisations i chose a slightly unusual test: a very high poly scene with ambient (ray-traced lighting) (left, the legs each have just over 6 million vertices, the total seen has just under 23 million verities, a lot!!! )
in blender 2.48b it took 46 minutes and 1 second to produce this.
in blender2.5 r23664 it took 6 minutes and 3 second.
My secondray system wich this test was run on is and old linux box with a 1.8Ghz single core Amd and one gb of ram, the file size is just over 780mb.

edit: i used the following render settings:
AO ray traced 5 samples using add, and plain.
osa:8
50%:HD size
all object have no define material
and one sun raysadowed

Voxel sculting

Raul has stated a new project on voxel sculpting, as he mentions a good example of this in 3d-coat since this is a new concept of modelling/sculpting i downloaded the trial version of 3d-coat (available for win/linux/osx) and writhing 2 minutes was creating:




a underwater rock-formation. Admittedly i was using the materials and brushes supplied with 3d-coat.



The Voxel sculpting work-flow is such that as you extend the object it adds resolution to that extension. the result is that you never end up having a mesh with to low a resolution for your current brush to have effect. of course you can increase the inter resolution (using multi-res) however this will create lots of resolution were you don't need it thus slowing down your system.

finaly a means of having custum keyboard shortcuts

Key board short-cuts for blender 2.5 dev

EDIT: warning many of these are out of data. for an uptodate version go to blenderguru.com


universal:

• "F1" open blender file
• "F2" save as
• "F3" repeat history menu
• "F4" scroll assistance / switch panel sides
• "F5" switch panel sides
• "F6" previous operation properties (nicer than "t")
• "F7" run script
• "F11" full screen
• "F12" render
• "ctrl+q" Quit
• "ctrl+w" quick save
• "ctrl+alt+w" duplicate window
• "ctrl+u" save user settings
• "ctrl+o" open resent
• "ctrl+alt+s" split region menu
• "ctrl+alt+shift+s" split region into 4 parts
• "ctrl+alt+f" search
• "ctlr+shift" redo
• "ctrl+z" undo
• "alt+a" play back animation (in all windows)
• "ctrl+x" reload startup file

(3D view port):

• "v" switch to vertex paint
• "tab" toggle into and out of exit mode
• "r" rotate, (add x,y,z to rotate only about these axis )
• "alt+r" clear object rotation
• "t" toggle last operation properties panel
• "I" Insert Key-frame
• "alt+I" Delete Key-frame
• "ctrl+I" Invert selection (selects all unselected items)
• "a" toggle deselect, select all
• "shift+a" add object menu
• "s" scale
• "shift+s" snap menu
• "b" box select tool
• "shift+b" zoom to box selection
• "n" properties panel
• "ctrl+space" maximize sub window
• number keys, vie that layer,
• shift+number-key add layer to view
• alt+num-key is for second Row of layers
• "ctrl+alt+t " ten timer menu, animation playback control

Object mode:

• "ctrl+t" track menu
• "alt+o" clear object origin
• "ctrl+p" parent menu
• "alt+p" clear parent
• "alt+s" clear object scale
• "ctrl+g" group
• "ctrl+shift+g" add to group
• "ctrl+alt+g" ungroup
• "alt+g" clear location
• "shift+l" select linked menu

shared between object and edit mode

• "ctrl+alt+c" set centre menu
• "c" add to selection tool
• "x" delete selection
• "alt+z" toggle texture view
• "z" toggle wire frame view
• "alt+h" undo all hide
• "h" hide menu
• "g" grab move
• "shift+d" duplicate selection
• "shift+a" add object menu
• "shift+w" Warp

Edit mode

• "ctrl+tab" select mode (eg switch between vertex edge and face modes)
  
• "w" subdivide menu
  
• "shift+w" warp
• "e" extrude
• "alt+r" spin (use "t" or "F6" to change properties)
  
• "shift+t" triangulate
• "u" unwrap menu
• "shift+p" mesh separate
  
• "alt+s" shrink/flatten
• "ctrl+shift+s" to sphere
  
• "shift+f" fill mesh (faces)
• "ctrl+f" faces menu
• "alt+f" beauty fill faces
• "shift+g" similar vertex select
• "alt+j" triangulated mesh to quad
• "l" select linked
• "shift+l" deselect linked
• "ctrl+n" make normals ...
• "ctrl+alt+shift+m" select non manifold

Button Window

• Right click on any value impute to control variable with a key frame, or driver.
• "I" to insert a key frame will hovering mouse over any value input
  
• "d" to add driver
• "ctrl+centre-mouse-button" will reseize the content, try it!