Change List
This document contains details about what has changed in RetopoFlow since version 2.x.
4.0.0 alpha
RetopoFlow 4 is a complete rewrite of RetopoFlow that massively improves performance and integrates the tools directly into Blender’s Edit Mode.
Some key changes include:
- General
- The tools are now in the Edit Mode toolbar
- Ctrl scroll is now used instead of Shift scroll for adjusting insert count
- Contours
- A new Fast method was added, which can improve performance on dense meshes and work in some cases where the mesh is split
- PolyStrips
- Proportional Editing can now be used for smoothly affecting the surrounding geometry while adjusting existing strips
- The angle at which new strips are split to create sharp corners can now be specified
- Strip spacing is now calculated in world space
- Strokes
- Several new stroke shapes are now supported so drawing new geometry feels more natural
- Extrudes can now match the curvature of the original geometry if the method is set to Adapt
- A smoothing control has been added for naturally blending between strokes created at different angles
- The new default insert count, Average, always creates perfectly even quads when extruding
3.4.3
- Fixed text rendering bug
- Fixed GPU Capabilities bug with Blender 4.1
- Fixed Blender UI becoming unresponsive after starting RF
3.4.2
- Worked around issue of “locking” Blender interface on Windows machines with Blender >3.6
- Strokes now shows counts for selected verts, selected edges, new spans, new loops
- Improved clarity for target geometry that is pinned, seam, non-manifold
- Disabling visualization of pinned or seam geometry will disable pinning
- Added keymap for marking/clearing seams, confirming quick tools
- Added keymap for confirming quick tools
- Added Merge options to Delete / Dissolve pie menu
- Many minor bug fixes
3.4.1
- Improved visualization and editing when working on “wrong” side of symmetry
- Fixed bridging bug with Strokes
- Fixed many bugs
- Improved general PolyPen performance
- UI drawing uses framebuffers again (UI performance)
- Warns when geometry is on “wrong” side of symmetry
- General code cleanup, refactor, and optimizations
3.4.0
This version of RetopoFlow requires Blender 3.6 or later.
- Blender
- Removed dependence on deprecated
bgl
module
- Added support for Metal
- Improved general feedback and error handling during startup process
- Improved indication of warnings in Blender menu
- Added button to continue editing with active mesh as target
- Improved handling of when Blender version is outside requirements
- Performance
- Improved navigating and selecting
- Improved performance of all tools
- Select: added new tool to do box selection
- General: added simple rip and rip fill
- Contours
- Fixed crashing bug when cutting across non-manifold edge
- Fixed bug when cancelling cut
- Strokes: consistent fixed span/segment count for all insertions
- Knife: fixed bug when using where no source geometry exists
- Tweak: added raycast/snap modes to work in screen or world space
- Auto Save
- Fixed and improved reporting, recovery, and other operations
- Auto save is delayed until current action is finished
- Input
- Added keymaps to select all linked, roll view, increase vertex count (Contours, PolyStrips, etc.) with
plus
key
- Fixed NDOF and trackpad
- Mirror: preliminary work to mirror actions to “correct” side of symmetry plane(s)
- Debug: deep debugging for capturing terminal output to a file
- Hive: improved integration
- General
- Fixed visual bug when matcaps are not installed. Light and Dark themes now use built-in matcaps
- Ray casts ignores source geometry that is clipped (near clip only) or culled (backface)
- Brush size (PolyStrips, Strokes, Relax, Smooth) is more consistent across screen
- Fixed many smaller bugs
- Restructured, refactored, and cleaned code base
- Auto saves will make a few attempts before alerting of failure
3.3.0
- New undo system
- New recovery system
- Revamped action system
- Added button to open online documents for Warning Details
- Improved error handling at startup
- Refactored large sections and cleaned code
- Removed code for Blender 2.79 and earlier
- Reorganized file structure
- Improved Hive integration
- Added option to keep viewport orbit center when nothing is selected
- Added options to control Tweak/Relax brush alpha
- Fixed disappearing text on detail UI elements at certain Blender UI scales
- Fixed crash when exiting RetopoFlow after starting in wireframe mode
- Fixed issue where selected but hidden geometry could get deleted
- Turning off shading optimization now restores original shading settings
- General code improvement
3.2.9
- Fixed bug where scaling of target and viewport changes with save/undo
- Fixed rare bug in PolyPen
3.2.8
- Fixed bug where checkedness of alert checkboxes is not saved
- Fixed bug with Stroke snapping distance
3.2.7
- Fixed bug when pressing MMB while moving geometry with LMB
- Significantly improved Auto Save and Auto Save recovery
- Added quick bail if unexpected exceptions occur to prevent work loss
- Temp mesh is used when updating to prevent work loss
- PolyPen now has option to adjust distance for inserting vertex into edge
- Fixed issue where loose verts and edges are unselectable
- Fixed issue with crashing when using tablet
- Improved auto adjustment of view clipping
- Improved stability of Strokes and PolyPen
- Added option for snapping to geometry while using Strokes instead of using brush radius
- Checking for invalid characters in add-on folder name
- Improved and debugged UI code
- Removed RetopoFlow menu from all modes other than Object and Mesh Edit
- Moved version number from the menu title to the menu header
3.2.6
- Vertex pinning and unpinning, where pinned vertices cannot be moved
- Seam edges can be pinned
- Option to hide mouse cursor when moving geometry
- Keymap editor improvements: shows keys for done and toggle UI, added Blender passthrough, fixed many bugs
- Fixed bug where modifier key states would be out of sync if pressed or unpressed while changing view
- Added auto clip adjustment setting, which adjusts clip settings based on view position and distance to bbox of sources
- Fixed visualization bug where depth test wasn’t always enabled and depth range might not be [0,1]
- Added check for and button to select vertices that are on the “wrong” side of symmetry planes.
- Fixed many bugs and cleaned up code
3.2.5
- Worked around a major crashing bug in Blender 3.0 and 3.1
- Overhauled RetopoFlow’s Blender menu, by adding custom icons to buttons, improving the wording, buttons to online help documents, buttons to updater
- Modifier keys (i.e.,
Ctrl
, Shift
, Alt
, OSKey
) now show OSX-specific symbols (i.e., ^
, ⇧
, ⌥
, ⌘
) for better readability on OSX machines
- Improved keymap editor
- Minor improvements for smaller screens
- Started working on improvements for error reporting
- Started refactoring code for major changes to Blender 3.0+ API, such as removing dependence on the deprecated
bgl
module
- Many bug fixes
- General cleaning up of old code and adding comments
3.2.4
- Fixed visual bug that affected machines with Apple’s M1 processor (issue #915)
3.2.3
- Worked around a bug with Apple M1 MacBook Pro / Intel graphics card where Blender would crash on load
- Warn if a source or the target has non-invertible transformation matrix
- Minor change due to Blender 3.0 deprecating
blf.KERNING_DEFAULT
3.2.2
- Fixed major updater bug
- Fixed bug where Brush Falloff with
Ctrl+F
was not working
3.2.1
- Fixed issue where normals are not computed correctly after applying symmetry
- Added shortcuts to increase and decrease brush radius for Tweak and Relax
- Fixed scrolling UI with trackpad
- Minor fixes across several tools (Contours, PolyStrips, Loops, Strokes, Relax, Tweak)
- Broad and general maintenance (code refactoring, cleaning, and commenting)
- Minor UI/UX improvements
3.2.0
- Added builtin Keymap Editor (prototype)
- Significantly improved performance of tools with large target meshes!
- Target mesh visualization will now split (under the hood) when working on a small portion, improving feedback performance for some actions
- Shortest path selection keymap default changed from
Shift+Alt+LMB/RMB+Double
to Ctrl+Shift+LMB/RMB+Click
to better match Blender
- Added ability to hide/reveal target mesh geometry
- Added button to recalculate normals in the Target Cleaning panel
- Added ability to Collapse Edges & Faces from delete/dissolve/collapse menu
- Tweak and Relax can now slide vertices along a boundary
- New Plane Symmetry Visualization setting, which is now default for better performance
- Added selection options to help with selecting hard-to-get vertices
- Improved Updater System
- General code cleanup and refactoring
- Works in Blender 2.83.0–3.0.0alpha (as of 2021.06.21)
- Many bug fixes and UX improvements
3.1.0
- Knife is a new tool for cutting into existing geometry!
- Selection painting now selects geometry along shortest path from where mouse was first pressed to the geometry nearest current mouse position
- Tools are much more responsive when working on targets with high geometry counts
- Loops, Tweak, and Relax now have quick shortcuts
- The tools pie menu is now
Q
as well as ~
to help reduce finger gymnastics
- Major UI performance improvements from redesign and reimplementation of underlying UI system
- Improved smart selection and added actions for selecting geometry along shortest path
- Added button to push target vertices along normal before snapping to fix vertices snapping to inner source surfaces
- Added updater system for updating to specific branches or commits
- Added actions for hiding or revealing target geometry
- Added button on help system to view help documents in web browser and to open FAQ
- Added Blender operator for creating new target mesh based on active source mesh
- Visualizing non-manifold edges and detached vertices
- Many bug fixes and UX improvements
3.0.2
- Tweak/Relax: added brush presets
- Symmetry: added button to apply symmetry, improved visualization
- PolyStrips/Strokes: brush settings now remain through sessions
- Strokes: added span insert modes (fixed, brush size) and brush size adjustment
- Improved ability to select geometry
- Added edge flow smooth feature
- Several bug fixes and UX improvements
3.0.1
- PolyPen: added ability to move edge with drag after inserting new quad (before releasing insert)
- Strokes: added a simple visualization to show how a stroke will connect to hovered existing geometry. Still a work-in-progress!
- Dissolving edges now dissolves verts (similar to Blender)
- Tweak/Relax: brushes now do not become fully opaque (nor fully transparent) when strength is set to 1 (or 0)
- Patches: improved code to detect good candidates for bridging two I-strips
- PolyPen: PP-specific pie menu now shown in help doc
- Added quit confirmation dialog when using
Tab
. This dialog can be disabled.
- Added Delete/Dissolve pie menu using
Ctrl+Backspace
, Ctrl+Delete
, Ctrl+X
- Other miscellaneous bug fixes
3.0.0
- Left-mouse select is now a thing!
- Mouse dragging, clicking, and double-clicking are now possible actions.
- Some of the keymaps for some tools have changed to allow for LMB-select.
- The target mesh is what you are currently editing (Edit Mode), and the source meshes are any other visible mesh.
- RF now automatically detects many common mesh errors, such as vertices with invalid coordinates and inward-facing normals.
- Some RF tools have improved options.
- Major UI and UX improvements, including: tooltips, labels, help docs, gizmo rendering, minimizing main tool window
- Improved consistency across all tools
- Tools refresh faster when in middle of editing
- Code optimization, cleanup, and refactoring
- Reworked Auto Save and Save to be more intuitive and handle errors better
- Works in Blender 2.8x and 2.9x
- Fixed many issues