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.




  • Omar Domenech(dostovel) replied

    Ok now this one is surely a bug. Say you have a detailed model with SubD, it has 1 million polygons


    If you link the collection of that model into a new file, in that file if you enable Simplify, Viewport Max SubD to 0, you'll see that the linked model will not get un-subdivided in the viewport, and yet any other model local to that file will be un-subdivided. You have to save the file, close it and then open it and then Simplify will take effect and the linked model will be un-subdivided. 

    If you uncheck Simplify, to get all your smoothness back, the linked model will stay un-subdivided and jagged, you have to save, close it and reopen so that the unchecked Simplify take effect.

  • Wayne Dixon replied

    dostovel Yeah that sounds like a bug

    I've been noticing some weird lag with things updating.  So it might be a similar thing.

    (I'm trying to render a project at the moment and simplify is active on some characters in the render but not in the viewport - and simplfy isn't activated at all)


    if you can replicate your issue with a simple file - then report and upload it to them
    or I can do it if you send me the file for testing

  • spikeyxxx replied

    dostovel Crazy stuff! I tried it, but with me Simplify also un-subdivides the linked Collection. And subdivides it back if I uncheck Simplify....

    Maybe it's an OS dependent bug? Or something else is going on???? Like your file is 'hexed'???

  • Omar Domenech(dostovel) replied

    @waylow You can access the file here:

    https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1uQARj0zmVeDL91rIZcL50xTU7jVLo88D 

    In the "Blend Packed Files folder" --> Open file "Render 2.8 Scene 3 Packed" 

    When you open that file in Blender 2.8, if you check Simplify the Heli model wont simplify yet the Earth on the background will. That file is linking assets that are in the "Assets Files" folder that is also there in Google Drive. Play around if you like and yes I feel ashamed of that rig, I need to learn how to rig, I would've done some better animation. 

    Let me know if it's really a glitch in the matrix, that would be my first finding ever. 

  • Wayne Dixon replied

    dostovel 

    Cool - downloading now and I'll take a look later.


    fyi - there will be some fun rigging and animation content coming next week ;)

  • Jake Korosi(jakeblended) replied

    I discovered something while setting my challenge project up for compositing that I think might be very important for people to know: when rendering in Eevee, there is currently no way to mask/holdout any objects in your scene, like you can with Cycles.  The Holdout and Indirect Only buttons are still there in the Outliner and are clickable, but they have no effect when Eevee is your engine.  I researched to see whether or not this was a bug, but it is not; the functionality is not there.  I don't know if there's plans to add it in the future or not.  Just something to keep in mind!

    For anyone not there yet, "holdout" or masking is when one of your objects is set to be invisible but still hide anything behind it in the scene, from the camera's perspective.  It is different from simply being set to not appear in the render; when an object is set as a holdout, it leaves a black hole in the render, in the shape of its silhouette.  This is very useful when compositing, if you want to be able to adjust the colors or other material properties of particular objects in a scene independently of the rest of the scene after rendering.

  • Wayne Dixon replied

    dostovel 

    Yep.  Not simplifiying.

    I'll see if I can create a more simple version and send it to the devs.
    I think it is because the parts are instanced.

  • Wayne Dixon replied

    Thanks jakeblended 

    Your pain will help others.  I'll add that to the list of videos to make and explain.

  • Jake Korosi(jakeblended) replied

    @waylow Excellent!

    The workaround I used was rendering my foreground object separately with a transparent background, and placing it on top of the rendered background with an Alpha Over.  By default this had quite a noticeable "cut and paste" effect along the edges of my foreground object, which I reduced as best I could by using an Erode node with a negative value to feather my foreground object's alpha pass.  I don't know if that's the best way to go about these things though, there might be a better way.

  • Wayne Dixon replied

    jakeblended I will get Kent or Lampel to look into that.  I just know how to press the render button.

    Well now there isn't even a render button anymore haha.

  • Jake Korosi(jakeblended) replied

    Good old F12 has not changed!  For most of us that is; I've heard that there are a few more issues on Mac still than the rest of us are having to deal with by this point, so I sympathize.  Hopefully the Mac issues will settle out quickly as well.

  • Omar Domenech(dostovel) replied

    @waylow Yes! I feel like a legit bug-buster. There's something strange, in the blender file, who you gonna call?

  • William Miller(williamatics) replied

    How do you make an object unselectable?

  • Johan Stenberg(ztenis) replied

    williamatics Go to the outliner and click the filter menue (second button top right)->
    klick the 2nd button in the "Restriction toggles row".
    -Now you can toggle selectable/unselectable in the outliner.
    Hope that helps!

  • spikeyxxx replied

    williamatics Also, the leftmost icon on the top right of the 3D View (the eye and arrowpoint) let's you make Object Types unselectable. Can be handy sometimes.

  • Matthew Fricker(frikkr) replied

    I am making a staircase model in Blender for somebody , and it has glass panels. In cycles, the glass behaves as expected (you can see through it and it looks realistic) , however, as you can see in the image below, in Eevee , it reflects the HDRi environment 100% which looks hideous . 

    I am still getting to grips with 2.8 and Eevee so can anybody offer any help please? 

    Eevee :


    Cycles :


  • smurfmier1985 replied

    frikkr glass in Eevee is tricky (in any game enigine really).

    I recommend watching this video from the Eevee course here in CG Cookie.

  • Omar Domenech(dostovel) replied

    ssmurfmier1985 The nun strikes again, I though she was locked in her room. 

  • smurfmier1985 replied

    dostovel nope! She’s out playing games 😛

  • Jake Korosi(jakeblended) replied

    Last month I mentioned that the Eevee render engine in 2.8 doesn't support holdout functionality for render masking.  I learned today that this WILL be added in 2.81; in fact it was just recently added to the nightly beta builds.  So there's that problem solved I suppose - no need to put it in your video, Wayne.  My understanding is 2.81 will come out somewhere around November (though we know how release dates like to drift).