I was reading about different needs and opinions some users have regarding the default addons and about some of the problems that removing many addons and themes from the default install will cause, and I came to think of a possible solution:
Would it be possible that, when we are about to download Blender that there would be an optional extra step where we’re asked to tick which extensions do we want to come bundled in our download? If we don’t tick anything, we download base Blender + core extensions. If we tick the same extensions we already had installed, we download all of that and when we install Blender it also installs these extensions.
Is this too crazy? Or is it something possible?
Another thing I was thinking was that there could be a intermediate Blender release that would (somehow) include the default addons/themes one last time but also have the nee Extensions system enabled.
The extensions platform with the new Blender integration have a lot of potential.
I just can’t get behind the UI/UX decisions 100%.
Why did the Extensions replace the addons tab in Preferences?
Overall, it is inconsistent and somewhat confusing.
Addons are 100% in the Extensions tab along with other things.
Other “extensions” such as Themes are split between the extensions tab and their own tab.
Because addons no longer have their own space, Addon functionality is cluttered and/or hidden.
Two possible solutions:
Bring back the Addons tab and keep it as unchanged as possible. Introduce a new separate Extensions tab. All extensions can be downloaded form the Extensions tab but addons activation and options are managed in the addons tab, themes are managed in the Themes tab, etc.
Bring back the Addons tab and allow users to download and install addons from the Addons tab, Themes from the theme tab, etc.
I believe either is more consistent than the current implementation.
I made a video showing my first impression of Extensions. I am linking to the part describing the problems I see and possible solutions (the TLDR is what I wrote above):
To summarize: right now these core default addons missing is causing migration issues: user_pref.blend file defines X default addon from 4.1, user migrates from 4.1, the user_pref.blend file is missing addon scripts, user has to install manually VS something has the X default addon already downloaded and installed, ready to be updated, and when the user migrates everything is fine, ready to activate, ready to uninstall (if you don’t want bloat) and ready to update.
Backwards compatibility with user settings I think will be important - ei… automatically download addons (which is not possible since that is opt-in) OR automatically have the default addons from extensions included (pre-downloaded) in the repo ready to be updated from online.
Not sure if this is the right place but I noticed that the extensions list (not sure why the name was changed from Addons to extensions…), is not in alphabetical order.
I really hope the decision to remove Node Wrangler, import image as planes, and Rigify from default blender is reconsidered. They are used in soo many tutorials and people expected them to become default blender features and to have them be made less available is sad news especially if it breaks people’s Blender setup when they update to 4.2
I actually think that would be a very good idea. Current UI/UX issues aside, it would mean the Blender download would pretty much be the same it is now (and outside maybe a little clean up on removing a few totally outdated/useless addons which are currently included) everything that one downloads and gets with Blender 4.1, will still just be there with 4.2.
While one still gets the advantage that they can be updated outside of any release cycle, but at the very least the overall functionality of Blender is unchanged from a base install point of view.
In effect the ‘bundle of 4.1 addons’ is just included as part of the normal Blender download, that just happens to use the Extensions Platform as a reference and update system.
Mostly because the bundled addons worked with most existing tutorials and workflows out of the box. They provided a very solid all around package that just worked as is.
I fully agree with Bravelittletoaster - removing them from installation/portable is a terrible choice for Blender core functionality in bigger companies or schools with restrictions. This is not about other good addons - for discovering new addons it is super good that we have the repository. The problem is removing plugins that were mostly accepted to be core Blender functionality by now.
Please don’t make the mistake of assuming unrestricted, or even easy internet access and installation rights everywhere. It used to be a huuuuge plus for blender, that it’s a ‘download and have a working package’.
And no, sorry, creating a separate repository on one thumb drive for yourself is not a good alternative. Doing this for yourself is one thing. Imagine teaching and realizing you forgot to enable an addon that now needs to be downloaded instead of just activated. That is a terrible, terrible choice.
Blender seriously needs to keep a version where all the usual plugins remain bundled unless the same functionality is provided otherwise out of the box. This is the assumed state of a functioning, vanilla Blender installation for years.
Please never assume internet access rights or easy installation in a school or big company.
I abslutey can see why Blender would want to do this. It makes the installer lighter, only downloads what is actually needed and keeps plugins up to date independently. For my personal, unrestricted PC at home I love it. For my day to day work in a company this could be seriously problematic. Blender’s assumed core functionality by now depends on these plugins to be there and available on base installation.
Assumed core plugin installations and availability might from thereon out be out of sync for everybody with differing restrictions. If my colleagues from another department need to use blender and forget a plugin they need to potentially contact IT every time they want to enable something that used to be there before. If a partner company with similar restrictions doesn’t have the plugins available I can’t do anything about their systems, either. If I have a system with a plugin that got updated later on for someone outside of my company then despite having the same blender core version out plugins might run out of sync and compatibility. I really hope it doesn’t go so far and I am just panicking over nothing but I get very scary “Unity package downloader vibes” from this.
Please take this into consideration before permanently outsourcing functionality behind mandatory internet access.
(edit - reworded a few sentences for better clarification)
I’m little confused about this. I am also teacher and have live classes. Similarly, I distribute add-ons (as well as default startup file, keyconfig etc.) so built-in addons are helpful.
But, Blender comes with dozens of add-ons. Realistically, how many do you actually use in class? From my courses I can say I have three addons that are mandatory, and around 10 that are based on “if user is in the situation that might benefit from this”.
Is it too much hussle to tell students “Go to preferences, type in Bool Tool and enable it?”
I also don’t get what you mean people won’t follow tutorials anymore. When guy says “Search for Node Wrangler and enable it”, viewer can go to extensions, type in Node Wrangler and click install. It’s the same thing. Are changes in names SO confusing that people won’t follow tutorials anymore?
I think people still don’t understand what this change is and get scared of the fact that add-ons aren’t part of Blender anymore.
All previously bundled add-ons are still there. Still in the preferences. You can still search for them and enable them. It takes from my testing maximum 3 seconds downloading them. Workflow is 100% same.
What actually changed:
Addons aren’t automatically downloaded with Blender, but are downloaded upon enabling them
In Extensions tab you have access to hundreds of more addons than you had before
@dfelinto there are nearly a dozen users expressing identical concerns, a concern that is conspicuously being discussed only by users, not developers. Are the developers planning on addressing this, or is “looking for feedback” in this case meant as “looking for positive feedback only, no concerns will be addressed”?
It depends on if you have easy internet access I guess. In a school situation with lots of pubescent pupils it can be quite beneficial to have the classroom computers not connected to the internet.
I personally think Draise’s idea of pre-enabling the most used bundled addons is a good one.
Previous add-on system was atrocious from both dev and user point of view, dozens of abandoned add-ons shipped with Blender, and those that had maintainers weren’t get called in for fixing bugs, because triaging team did not know who maintained what.
Now each addon is clearly abandoned or has a specific maintainer with separate issue reporting channels. Users can actually reach out to add-on devs.
You still don’t get it and/or aren’t reading what people are saying.
In some educational and commercial environments, Internet Access is DISABLED. So no, it doesn’t take 3 seconds, it takes infinite seconds as it just won’t work.
So it’s no longer a case of grab Blender, install it, tick the addons you need and away you go.
It’s now, grab Blender, install it, work out a way to self host or manage a ‘collection’ of addons that use to be their by default and that all class notes or production workflows have been built around.
To me that sounds like a design flaw. It should have been possible to have a group of addons pre-installed (much like they currently are) but automatically linked back to the Extensions Platform.
That way, for anyone without Internet access, the user experience is basically the same as it is now and everything just works.
For those with Internet access, Blender (either automatically or by user choice) can go and check to see if any default installed addons have since been updated between main Blender releases and do the update.
Then ideally, the first thing that should have been done (even before any Extensions Platform was made/launched) was an audit and community consultation on the status and usefulness of all the addons have have been ‘shipped’ with Blender over the past few years.
I just realised another addon that is being left out in the cold (ie not core), LoopTools.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the entire Blender team on behalf of myself and all my students who use Blender for creating 3D content. Blender has revolutionized my life and approach to teaching animation, allowing me to deliver lessons in a more efficient and innovative manner.
I am thrilled about the introduction of the extension module feature in Blender 4.2. This is undoubtedly an exciting update that offers users greater flexibility and extensibility.
However, I would like to humbly propose a small suggestion for your consideration. It would be greatly appreciated if you could consider including commonly used plugins, such as Rigify, within the core Blender installation package.
These mainstream plugins have become deeply integrated into Blender’s native workflow, forming an indispensable part of many users’ creative processes. For many, these plugins are no longer mere add-ons; they are an integral part of the Blender experience.
Requiring an internet connection to download these plugins poses a significant challenge for users who lack access to the internet. They would be unable to utilize Blender’s shortcuts seamlessly and might even be hindered from completing basic creative tasks.
Therefore, I earnestly request that you consider incorporating frequently used plugins like Rigify into the native Blender installation package. This would ensure that users can still leverage Blender’s full functionality and unleash their creative potential, even in offline environments.
I am confident that this minor adjustment would greatly benefit the vast Blender community and further enhance Blender’s usability and practicality.
Thank you once again for your dedication and hard work. I eagerly anticipate Blender’s continued development and look forward to even more exceptional creative experiences for its users.
I’m sorry to be so blunt, but “I feel can work” is a sentence you can only say if you haven’t worked in a truly restritive company environment.
Yes you can argune that a lot of the plugins were never used by many users.
Yes, you can make it work with 4.2 as well, somehow.
Yes, it’s theoretically a good thing if Blender gets smaller in size and only downloads the needed plugins. But this seriously is a pure theoretical idea that will fail in many restrictive environments.
I can guarantee that our IT department will immediately shut down an unverified addon plattform where developers can openly create addons and everybody can download and execute them. Which means we will have to ask for remote download and installation of each and any plugin for any new blender download now. Forgotten one? Ask IT department again and wait. And that is not just one person - that is for everybody working with the software. Individually. Every new version.
The concerns for schools were also voiced by other users.
The concerns are bluntly that the currently bundled Addons are by now a part of Core Blender functionality. And they are also verified safe as being part of Blender. I assume everybody has their own set of addons they activate at startup to make blender work the way they need to.
This is a concern of all the institutions that rely on Blender working with the expected functionality after download/installation out of the box. I cannot stress enough that internet access and download permissions in schools and companies is not a given thing after downloading and installing a program any more.
A simple - “here is your one time transition package” in this case is really concerning to me. Offering an ‘unbundled’ version would be totally fine. And I’d absolutely use it on any less restrictive system. But for all the other environments a bundled version (as is) is unfortunately by now more or less a necessity.
See my reply above, it is not about some secs to download, it is about the user getting back to where she was prior to upgrading 4.2
4.2 should install the enabled default add-ons automatically. I am now looking at a blank list; I don’t even remember what functionality came from what default add-on. This will definitely confuse a lot of people. And it takes a while to figure all that out and go through a long list of add-ons to reinstall them, imagine this being done a by a million people. It might cost humanity 500.000+ hours.
See my other reply about it. I have been using Blender for something like 20 years btw. If it confused me it will confuse many other people. I did not spend all day to figure all this out but I had to reference previous version of Blender and figure all that out. Why force hundreds of thousands of people to do the exact same thing? Just give people an option to download the default addons.
The other issue is that the default addons won’t be even listed if no internet connection is available. So I hit both of those issues, because my main desktop is not connected to Internet for various reasons.
I recently downloaded the latest Blender version, 4.2, without realizing that the platform upgrade was completed by that version and several core add-ons that I was using were missing - not even listed in the search. Since my main desktop is usually offline, it caused some confusion, and I’m sure it would be confusing for other users as well.
In theory, yes, in practice, it will make so close to no difference, that it actually doesn’t matter and just shouldn’t be a consideration.
I checked the ‘addons’ folder for Blender 4.1 and it takes up 444MB as installed.
HOWEVER, before anyone says that is a fair amount, 429MB of that is Cycles (which is of course core and part of the ongoing download).
Now, even if one may think that the remaining 15MB would still add up over a million downloads, keep in mind that the download installer (or the portable) is compressed.
Using just normal zip compression, that 15MB is now 4MB, you will download more then that just getting to the download page. So I really don’t think a smaller download should be considered a factor at all.
This doesn’t address the concerns on this thread at all, nor is it on this thread. I’m aware it takes time to manage this stuff, but even just a simple “we hear your concerns, we realize we may have made a mistake, and we’re going to brainstorm how to fix it” would be a better approach than a non-committal “we might think about this” on a different thread
Good communication = trust, and trust = confidence. The communication around this change needs to improve if the goal is to build trust in Blender
