Hacker News Reader

Comment by jcl | Hacker News Reader

You wouldn't happen to have a link to open-source Bryce, by any chance? The only relevant link I can find in Google is a newsgroup post dated six weeks ago indicating that they might open-source it, so I'm not surprised it hasn't been improved yet, assuming it was released.

Blender of course has been open-source for years now and is being improved, but note that it too was proprietary software prior to being open-sourced.

View on HN

I meant Blender. My bad ;)

If you meant Blender then your offhand remark of "was it ever improved" kind of missed the mark: http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/ is the second open movie project based around Blender - this one and the first, Elephant's Dream, have pushed major improvements into Blender. They're doing a game project next. The commercial packages can still claim a lot of additional features, but Blender is clearly catching up.

I have to agree with rtf, then: Blender is actually a counterexample to your point. It has improved dramatically since it was open-sourced; it has actually implemented some features (like automated texture unfolding and Python scripting) earlier than its proprietary competitors.

blender is a great example of how poor people can be at UI design. why open source usually very shitty UI?? it's unfortunate, and is the major reason i stay away from linux (that and font rendering, which is related)

I'm not going to disagree about Blender's interface; I don't like it much, either. But I am used to other 3D programs, so perhaps I am not the best judge.

UI is a tricky thing, especially in graphics applications, where once you're used to one application, the others feel wrong. And especially in 3D applications, where there's no standardization -- look at Max and Maya, both now from the same company, or look at ZBrush, whose interface is equal parts brilliance and lunacy (although version 3 is much improved).

This is not merely an open-source vs. proprietary thing; Blender's interface was at least as bad when it was a proprietary product. Wings3D, on the other hand, has one of my favorite interfaces. It's open source, but its interface is inspired by Nendo, a defunct commercial product.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com