I am quite unimpressed with the effects of the introduction of OpenSubdiv.
Before it, everything was working OK. Immediately after the introduction there was a phase in which enabling the subdiv modifer just instantly crashed Blender if OpenSubdiv option was enabled.
Today I tried to see whether the thing had been fixed in the latest nightly, and now Blender does not crash but, if I select wireframe or solid vieport shading the object vanishes from sight (in all other cases it remains visible).
Needless to remark, this situation is a show stopper.
Is this a known bug? do I have to configure something? or do I have to save 2.75 official build and stop upgrading?
People keep thinking that non-release builds are as stable as release builds. This is unlikely the case. Depending on the release cycle phase, WIP or test features/changes might be in master. And it is to be expected that these cause some breakage or don’t work as expected.
Playing with new features in non official builds comes at the price of finding bugs. Not always, but…
They’re two faces of same coin. Bugs finding is the other good reason to have NB
In an indirect way, they answered you. To clarify:
Is this a known bug? > Maybe, or maybe not. You should report it nonetheless.
Do I have to configure something? > If it is a bug, it’s improbable that any config you do will solve anything.
Do I have to save 2.75 official build and stop upgrading? > Using nightly builds isn’t “upgrading”, it’s “toying with experimental software”. If you need blender for production, stay in 2.75 and wait for the next official release.
I’ll repeat what JulianSeverin said: A nightly build is a toy that can explode like a bomb at any moment, taking your work with it. Play with it if you like, but be aware of the risks.
or do I have to save 2.75 official build and stop upgrading?
You’re not supposed to use development builds for production, at all. You’re supposed to test them. Always keep your release build around and don’t “upgrade” with a development build.
do I have to configure something?
You can configure OpenSubdiv right where you configure the GPU device for Cycles. Choosing a different backend might fix your issue. However, the described behavior sounds like a bug, so you better report it either way.
OpenSubDiv is still fairly new tech and some of the bugs may not even be on Blender’s side at all, but is rather something for Pixar to fix. A couple of the initial limitations for the 2.76 integration is something that is Pixar’s responsibility as well.
If you have a bug that can be reproduced, report it. Otherwise it may not be fixed because the developers don’t have time to read every single post that’s made on this forum.
I thought that getting confirmation about a behaviour before crying wolf (bothering uselessly devs) amounted to basic common sense and decency but…
Well, for the time being I will stick to 2.75. When (if) there will be a Blender build which is not a show stopping regression w.r.t. 2.75 I will reconsider my stance.
P.S.: note to self: stop thinking that you can get user support on Blenderartits forums.
You have been told how to fix this issue.
Identify a bug
Report bug to bug tracker
Nice developer person reads the bug report and at some point fixes it and closes the bug report so you know its fixed
The buildbot version the next day will incorporate that fix
You download this nightly build and continue on your way with your problem solved
If you find another bug, repeat.
I’m pretty sure you’re bothering developers much more by ranting about how you’re “unimpressed” and how this is “a showstopper” when obviously you shouldn’t be running dev builds for any show whatsoever.
From a developers perspective: If something looks like a bug, it’s better to have it reported than not, even at the risk of having it be a duplicate or a known issue. If there’s no clear way that “known issues” are communicated to the users, one should have to expect them being reported. You should do your due diligence to see if it’s already reported, however.
The only way you can truly waste developer time is by filing incomplete bug reports (i.e. no instructions on how to reproduce the error, incomplete hardware/software specifications). In my opinion, even if something is a user error, if it just looks like a bug, that may hint at a usability issue. Having something on the bug tracker records that this issue exists, which is good.
