2.8 Hurdles and Roadblocks

Wayne Dixon

Hey everyone,

With the upcoming release of Blender 2.8 (approx 6 weeks according to Blender.Today) we are trying to put together a list of useful trouble shooting tips for new users to 2.8 and we could use your help.

Have you already been using 2.8 and found yourself scratching your head or trying to figure out a seemly simple thing but it took you HOURS to solve?

Wouldn't it be nice if you helped someone avoid the same trap you fell into.

What kind of stuff are we talking about?

Well not the "Hey where has this button has moved" type of stuff, we're already all over that. 

We're talking more like "My collection is hidden and greyed out but the eyeball icon says it visible - what's going on!?"

Turns out that you have the collection "disabled" in the viewport, but that toggle isn't visible in the outliner because that filter is not enabled.

Or "Weight paint mode no longer has the coloured weights visible when painting."

This is now an 'overlay' feature and when you opened your old 2.7 file that setting just happens to be disabled. (but in a new file it is enabled)

What have you noticed?

We have noticed a few weird behaviors can happen when you open old files.

If you have a tip, or have stumbled over a weird problem that should have been easy to solve, especially when opening your old files, then let us know!

We'd like to be able to help others and stop them from beating their head against a brick wall.




  • Wayne Dixon replied

    Looks like it's working for me Frikkr.


    I did check in the list of recent bugs and I couldn't see anything related to your issue.

    You can try downloading one of the daily builds to see if the issue is still there for you.

    (I build my own Blender every day because I'm a nerd like that)


    If it's just an issue for your set up try recording a quick video of the issue and reporting a bug.


  • spikeyxxx replied

    frikkr You have your Inner Miter set to Arc:

    Try changing that to the default Sharp:

  • Wayne Dixon replied

    spikeyxxx again for the win :)

    Good work sir.

  • Matthew Fricker(frikkr) replied

    Thanks again for saving the day spikeyxxx , I was sure I played around with all the settings in that box but I musn't have.  I use the bevel tool so much when I model that I was sure it was a bug as I assumed I would have come across something as simple as that in the past . But big thanks :) 

    Also , thanks @waylow for trying to help out also :)  , much appreciated. 

  • Omar Domenech(dostovel) replied

    I wonder if I have to enable something somewhere for 2.8 local mode to behave like before. Right now if I select an object and hit numpad / to get it into local view, if I start a viewport render with that object still in local mode, the viewport render brings everything back, all the other objects come back for the render, then I stop the viewport render I only have the sole object that I isolated and I only want to render preview that object that I isolated. So in other words I can't preview render that only object in local mode, the render brings all the others for the preview render. Anyone experiences the same?

  • Wayne Dixon replied

    That sounds like unwanted behavior.  I think there are a few bugs with local mode at the moment.  If you can show and explain it in a simple file, report it.

    (if it hasn't been reported already)

    I haven't had time to report the local mode weirdness I have found.

    (if you have more than 1 armature selected but then jump into local mode and animate - you actually animate the invisible control outside of local mode as well as the control in local mode.)

    I discovered this on some client work - which I can't send in to the devs to look at.  I need time to recreate it in a fresh simple file.

  • Omar Domenech(dostovel) replied

    I see a great movie plot around this. [Trailer Voice] He discovered an anomaly on some client work [Intense Music].... which he can't send it to the devs to look at or he betrays his client trust [Music Intensifies] but if he doesn't send it.... he betrays the fate of artist's around the world. [Music suddenly Stop] I'm sorry Wayne, I'm so so sorry. 


  • Wayne Dixon replied

    That is exactly what happens Omar - haha

  • spikeyxxx replied

    dostovel
     Hi Omar, Local View Viewport render is now available in the nightly builds! (Cycles and Eevee)

    Also Render Passes in Viewport Render!

    The official 2.81 release is expected in November.

  • Omar Domenech(dostovel) replied

    I'll probably wait until November, I'm always afraid of those work in progress builds, I'm afraid of their possibly instability, afraid of downloading the wrong one, of having to be a bit coding savvy. I feel people that use those are kinda hackers. But I know really is just not every having used one of those that's freaking me out, probably if I start to download them and use them it all goes away, they just feel too freshly baked. Also I don't know how people have lots of Blender versions on their computers, everyt ime I install one the previews one goes away.

  • Wayne Dixon replied

    dostovel, it's not as hard or as techy as you think.

    Occasionally they break things in master, but usually it is just a steady stream of the new features and improvements as they get added daily.

    The only difference between the daily builds and the official release is that it becomes frozen and that snap shot of the daily build becomes the "Official Release" one day.  Then it keeps on rolling to the next one.

    You can download all the branches (eg the sculpting branch or the GP branch)  but all those features get pushed to the master branch eventually (that is the one that I build everyday like a nerd haha).


    If you want to install more than one version - it depends on what OS you are using but just name it something else.

    I have 3 versions at the moment.

    2.79+  (it's newer than the official release of 2.79b or whatever the last version was)

    2.80 official

    2.81 daily build (master)  Which I had to set up once and then can download and update from a single command in the terminal.

    I'm on a mac so I can actually choose which version to open.  Only the official 2.80 version is in the 'Applications' folder, and the others are in the directory I do my daily build in.  (that one is overwritten each time because it is has the same name and the same location)

    I think I made it sound much more techy than it actually is haha.

  • Omar Domenech(dostovel) replied

    @waylow So you mean there are several builds of Blender while they experiment and add new things? So if I see on social media that there's this and that new feature, I have to download a part of Blender that has that feature? I thought there was just one Blender, not that it was broken up in pieces.

    It sounds like there are some coding involved in keeping up with branches and updates, I'll just wait like a noob for the official release. I feel if I didn't have an 8 to 5 day job I'd be more into all the tech stuff of Blender. Oh to be the owner of your time and not have it rented to a corporation, that's the dream.

  • Matthew Fricker(frikkr) replied

    Hey guys :) 

    I have an issue with rendering a particular animation. When I render , it renders each frame , composites it and saves it fine , but after two or three frames Blender just shuts down and vanishes right after saving one of the frames. 

    Sometimes it will do it after one frame , sometimes two or three before it happens. Either way it is becoming a real pain in the ass  trying to render out a 500 frame animation a couple of frames at a time. 

    I have four GPU's and it does it with any or all of them selected. The issue seems to be only isolated to this particular file which is strange. It is a very simple scene , with each frame taking about 30 seconds to render. The most complex part of the animation is a fluid simulation that was baked to 60 of the frames. 

    Unfortunately it is a job for a client so I can't share the file. 

    I have several variations of the animation to render with different lighting setups which is going to get pretty tedious with this issue , so I was wondering if anybody has come across a similar issue or has any suggestions as to what I could try to solve it. 

    As it stands , I have saved the file to a different location with a different name and am also going to try updating my GPU drivers. 

    Thanks in advance for any advice or help :) 

  • Omar Domenech(dostovel) replied

    Yeah that has happened to me with heave scenes. It worked for me to set up everything in a brand new .blend. I know it's a client and stuff but you're a Sheepit millionaire, so you can also Sheepit.

  • Wayne Dixon replied

    It's not as hard as you think

    https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Building_Blender/Windows

    (I'm assuming you are windows)

    Blender is not really in 'parts' but in 'branches'.  Most of the new features you see are actually added to the 'master', but there are some areas that have their own dedicated branch that pulls and pushes back to the master to add features and take the features that other devs have added when applicable.

    Eg - each of the Google Summer of Code students had their own branch.  Nathan Craddock had the Outliner branch.  He created some cool new functionality in this branch that can't break anything else.  Then when this code is approved, it gets merged back into the master branch. (Then that branch no longer exists - unless he does more stuff and the process repeats)

    When you see stuff on social media, it could be a branch before it is added to master - or it could be the master. (It depends)

    You could actually build your own version of ANY of these branches - or you could download a precompiled version.

    Personally I just build the master every day (well almost every day).

    Because it is already set up and optimised for my machine - it is a single line of code in the terminal and takes about 60 seconds to get the latest version (the bleeding edge).

    cd /my build location/ ; make update ; make

    Not trying to say you should go ahead and be as cool as me by building your own version, but just saying you would be a cool as me if you did.

    *NB - Being "as cool as me" is actually a downgrade from your current "Cool Level"


  • Wayne Dixon replied

    I would suggest trying one of the latest builds - I had a bunch of issues trying to render stuff for a client on the official Blender 2.80 version.

    What I had to do was just brute force it.  Save my file before I hit render.  Set it up to only render the output if the image file didn't already exist.  (Turn off overwrite and turn on Placeholders and use and image sequence)

    Then when it crashed on a random frame I could delete that last frame (if it was broken) and relaunch and try again.

    It would crash on a different frame the next time so it got there in the end.


    Stressful times but I did get it finished.

    Also try running Blender from the terminal in case it gives you some important info about the crash.

    (but mine didn't - segmentation fail 6 or something)

    Then when you get a chance - see if you can replicate this crash on a simple file
    Or a version of the file that you can send to the the devs to show the crash  (It;s hard when it's client work)


    Good luck dude - I'm sending you uncrash vibes

  • spikeyxxx replied

    Same thing happened to me; rendered between one and five frames and then Blender crashed. This was an animation of almost 1800 frames with a deadline (two minutes per frame, so pure stress...).

    Thing is, it was a heavy scene, 2.80 was still experimental (Dec 2018)and my computer is not the best, so I didn't look in to it too much (no time...).

    So, I can't help you, but you're not alone. Good luck (maybe you could try rendering without UI: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.80/advanced/command_line/render.html?highlight=background%20render)

  • Matthew Fricker(frikkr) replied

    Thanks dostovel , @waylow and spikeyxxx , seems like it is a common issue then. Strangely enough , I am rendering some more of it right now and it is on its 50th frame with no crashes so far. Perhaps updating my GPU drivers helped..... 

  • Omar Domenech(dostovel) replied

    Actually it was Wayne's uncrash vibes that did the trick. Fun fact, I actually read that before you and kept the vibes for myself, but then I felt guilty and put them back.

  • Matthew Fricker(frikkr) replied

    spoke too soon , back to crashing every two frames again. Omar , did you take the vibes back again? :P 

    Is this a known issue to the Blender developers as it is really annoying , especially since I can't open the file in 2.79 to render it. Should I report it (although again , I cant provide them the blend file as it is a client job)