Skybrush Studio for Blender 3.11.0 is out with slightly refactored layout and new handy features.
Follow the release changes in detail in the changelog or read highlights below.
Refactored layout and the new Skybrush tab #
From now on the Skybrush Studio for Blender add-on will have four tabs in the sidebar instead of the previous three, starting with the new Skybrush tab that helps you configure your drone show design process before you get started. We needed this change as the new and new features made the Formations tab overloaded. With the new structure the Formation tab can focus on formations and nothing else.
Real world location support #
The new Skybrush tab got an option to provide real world coordinates for your relative show coordinate that can now be exported to the Skybrush Compiled show format (.skyc). Having real world coordinates in .skyc files eases the positioning of your drone show in Skybrush Live with proposed values for show origin and show orientation.
Supporting real world coordinates in Blender and .skyc files opens the possibility for many new features that are currently on our backlog, such as automated real world terrain tile import into Skybrush Studio for Blender, 3D real world visualizations in Skybrush Viewer or adaptive net show positioning and takeoff/RTH redesign in Skybrush Live.
Dedicated spacing parameter for layered takeoff and smart RTH #
There is an explicit new “spacing” parameter now for the takeoff and RTH operators that define your expected minimum distance between the drones during these formations that frame your net show. From now on it is much easier to define the number of layers for layered takeoff operations with simply defining the minimum spacing of two drones in the same layer. Quick math of some tipical examples:
-
spacing == takeoff_grid_spacing: 1 layer -
spacing == 2 * takeoff_grid_spacing: 4 layers -
spacing == 3 * takeoff_grid_spacing: 9 layers
Added export option for Depence .ddsf format #
After the Finale 3D .vviz export option released in Skybrush Studio for Blender 3.10.0 we added yet another fireworks and show visualization exporter to create compatibility with Depence.
These exporters are available in the Studio X package on our webshop. Please download Skybrush Studio Server 2.23.0 or later to be able to use the .ddsf exporter.
Providing feedback #
Our intention is to keep as much code open-source as possible for our great community. In return we ask all of you who design large shows commercially to buy a professional license for Skybrush Studio for Blender to support its maintenance and development, and also encourage you to give us feedback on our Discord server or directly in the issue tracker of the corresponding repository on Github about potential bugs you notice, features you request or any other ideas you think worth discussing. Thank you!