In light of recent changes by Jeroen, #124515 seems to have been resolved properly, rather then using this workaround.
This also sidesteps the issue seen in #136633 which only happens when GPU sibdiv is disabled.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/136678
This makes it possible for Cycles adaptive subdivision to always get the
base mesh, and will enable the same for other external renderers as well.
Metal and Vulkan now support GPU subdivision, so by default the wrapper
will be used most of the time. However this can be disabled in the
preferencesas well. For those cases, the subdiv wrapper is still created
but cached immediately as part of modifier evaluation. This way it can
take advantage of multithreaded depsgraph evaluation, which is not
guaranteed for other cases.
The draw code access the object data through a wrapper that will return
either the base mesh or subdivided mesh depending if GPU subdivision is
enabled or not. Previously Object.data would have the appropriate mesh
already, but now that Cycles may do adaptive subdivision while GPU
subdivision is disabled this is no longer possible.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/135895
This PR enabled GPU based subdivision on Metal.
Most work is done in #135296.
- Metal max storage bindings for compute shaders were never set.
Some performance figures: Suzanne 6 subdivision levels
| Machine | CPU Subdivision | GPU Subdivision |
| --------------- | --------------- | --------------- |
| M1 Studio Ultra | 7fps | 12 fps |
| M2 Air | 3fps | 11 fps |
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/135628
This PR enabled GPU subdivision on Vulkan backend. Measured
performance is slower compared to CPU on my system. But it is
expected that other bottlenecks should be solved in order to
fully benefit from this feature.
We enable it so we keep track of the performance bottlenecks.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/135777
Blender already had its own copy of OpenSubDiv containing some local fixes
and code-style. This code still used gl-calls. This PR updates the calls
to use GPU module. This allows us to use OpenSubDiv to be usable on other
backends as well.
This PR was tested on OpenGL, Vulkan and Metal. Metal can be enabled,
but Vulkan requires some API changes to work with loose geometry.

# Considerations
**ShaderCreateInfo**
intern/opensubdiv now requires access to GPU module. This to create buffers
in the correct context and trigger correct dispatches. ShaderCreateInfo is used
to construct the shader for cross compilation to Metal/Vulkan. However opensubdiv
shader caching structures are still used.
**Vertex buffers vs storage buffers**
Implementation tries to keep as close to the original OSD implementation. If
they used storage buffers for data, we will use GPUStorageBuf. If it uses vertex
buffers, we will use gpu::VertBuf.
**Evaluator const**
The evaluator cannot be const anymore as the GPU module API only allows
updating SSBOs when constructing. API could be improved to support updating
SSBOs.
Current implementation has a change to use reads out of bounds when constructing
SSBOs. An API change is in the planning to remove this issue. This will be fixed in
an upcoming PR. We wanted to land this PR as the visibility of the issue is not
common and multiple other changes rely on this PR to land.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/135296
The general idea is to keep the 'old', C-style MEM_callocN signature, and slowly
replace most of its usages with the new, C++-style type-safer template version.
* `MEM_cnew<T>` allocation version is renamed to `MEM_callocN<T>`.
* `MEM_cnew_array<T>` allocation version is renamed to `MEM_calloc_arrayN<T>`.
* `MEM_cnew<T>` duplicate version is renamed to `MEM_dupallocN<T>`.
Similar templates type-safe version of `MEM_mallocN` will be added soon
as well.
Following discussions in !134452.
NOTE: For now static type checking in `MEM_callocN` and related are slightly
different for Windows MSVC. This compiler seems to consider structs using the
`DNA_DEFINE_CXX_METHODS` macro as non-trivial (likely because their default
copy constructors are deleted). So using checks on trivially
constructible/destructible instead on this compiler/system.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/134771
Move `CD_CUSTOMLOOPNORMAL` to the newly added
`CD_PROP_INT16_2D` generic attribute type. This is similar to
previous commits moving specific custom data types.
The attribute name is `custom_normal`. When the attribute with
that name is on the face corner domain, the code will interpret it
as stored in the existing deformation-invariant spherical coordinate
space.
The API remains the same, with the additional opportunity to edit
custom normal data as an attribute directly (which admittedly is fairly
unintuitive currently).
See #130484.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/130689
Compute shaders are required since 4.0. There was one occasion where
an older AMD driver failed and support was turned off. This driver
is now marked unsupported.
This PR includes:
- removing the check in viewport compositing
- remove properties from system info
- always construct draw manager.
- remove unused pass logic in draw hair/curves
- add deprecation warning when accessed from python
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/120909
Move most code to `blender::bke::subdiv`. That helps organization
and makes using C++ in subdiv code easier, which will be useful for
removing the unnecessary opensubdiv C-API wrapper.
Fall back to CPU subdivision when there are split edges and the mesh
normals domain is face corners. This is required because splitting the
normals on faces adjacent to sharp edges doesn't work well with the
performance requirements of GPU subdivision.
This is related to 1111903416
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/120674
Previously I misunderstood the subsurf modifier's handling of custom
normals. The "use custom normals" check in 4.0 checked if there were
custom normals and whether the auto smooth flag was checked. I wrongly
changed that to check the mesh normals domain instead of whether there
was custom normals. In 4.1, auto smooth isn't required to use custom
normals, but that should be the only change here.
In this PR, that change is done for CPU and GPU subdivision, and for
the versioning which adds a modifier. The versioning now only puts the
new modifier before the subsurf modifier if it would have used the
custom normals interpolation in 4.0.
The last change causes two test failures which I also misunderstood
before. The previous results were arguably incorrect, because the
Cycles experimental adaptive subdivision ignored the auto smooth
angle, which was 5 degrees. It should have been 180 degrees.
I will modify those test files to remove auto smooth from the meshes.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/119485
Remove most includes of this header inside other headers, to remove unnecessary
indirect includes which can have a impact on compile times. In the future we may
want more dedicated "_fwd.hh" headers, but until then, this sticks with the
solution in existing code.
Unfortunately it isn't yet possible to remove the include from `BKE_geometry_set.hh`.
All the relevant code is C++ now, so we don't need to complicate things
with the trip through C anymore. We will still need some wrappers, since
opensubdiv is an optional dependency though. The goal is to make it
simpler to remove the unnecessary/costly abstraction levels between
Blender mesh data and the opensubdiv code.
Design task: #93551
This PR replaces the auto smooth option with a geometry nodes modifier
that sets the sharp edge attribute. This solves a fair number of long-
standing problems related to auto smooth, simplifies the process of
normal computation, and allows Blender to automatically choose between
face, vertex, and face corner normals based on the sharp edge and face
attributes.
Versioning adds a geometry node group to objects with meshes that had
auto-smooth enabled. The modifier can be applied, which also improves
performance.
Auto smooth is now unnecessary to get a combination of sharp and smooth
edges. In general workflows are changed a bit. Separate procedural and
destructive workflows are available. Custom normals can be used
immediately without turning on the removed auto smooth option.
**Procedural**
The node group asset "Smooth by Angle" is the main way to set sharp
normals based on the edge angle. It can be accessed directly in the add
modifier menu. Of course the modifier can be reordered, muted, or
applied like any other, or changed internally like any geometry nodes
modifier.
**Destructive**
Often the sharp edges don't need to be dynamic. This can give better
performance since edge angles don't need to be recalculated. In edit
mode the two operators "Select Sharp Edges" and "Mark Sharp" can be
used. In other modes, the "Shade Smooth by Angle" controls the edge
sharpness directly.
### Breaking API Changes
- `use_auto_smooth` is removed. Face corner normals are now used
automatically if there are mixed smooth vs. not smooth tags. Meshes
now always use custom normals if they exist.
- In Cycles, the lack of the separate auto smooth state makes normals look
triangulated when all faces are shaded smooth.
- `auto_smooth_angle` is removed. Replaced by a modifier (or operator)
controlling the sharp edge attribute. This means the mesh itself
(without an object) doesn't know anything about automatically smoothing
by angle anymore.
- `create_normals_split`, `calc_normals_split`, and `free_normals_split`
are removed, and are replaced by the simpler `Mesh.corner_normals`
collection property. Since it gives access to the normals cache, it
is automatically updated when relevant data changes.
Addons are updated here: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender-addons/pulls/104609
### Tests
- `geo_node_curves_test_deform_curves_on_surface` has slightly different
results because face corner normals are used instead of interpolated
vertex normals.
- `bf_wavefront_obj_tests` has different export results for one file
which mixed sharp and smooth faces without turning on auto smooth.
- `cycles_mesh_cpu` has one object which is completely flat shaded.
Previously every edge was split before rendering, now it looks triangulated.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/108014
Blender 4.0 requires OpenGL 4.3 which always support SSBO's.
Platforms that don't support enough SSBO bind points will be marked
as unsupported.
Users who start Blender on those platforms will be informed via a
dialog. This PR also updates the `--debug-gpu-force-workarounds`
to match our minimum requirements. Note that some bugs are still
there that should be solved in other PRs:
* Workbench only renders the object using a unit matrix this is because
there is a bug in the workaround for shader_draw_parameters
* Navigating with middle mouse button is not working. Unsure what the
cause is, but might be a missing feature check in the OpenGL backend.
Related to #112224
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/112572
Listing the "Blender Foundation" as copyright holder implied the Blender
Foundation holds copyright to files which may include work from many
developers.
While keeping copyright on headers makes sense for isolated libraries,
Blender's own code may be refactored or moved between files in a way
that makes the per file copyright holders less meaningful.
Copyright references to the "Blender Foundation" have been replaced with
"Blender Authors", with the exception of `./extern/` since these this
contains libraries which are more isolated, any changed to license
headers there can be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Some directories in `./intern/` have also been excluded:
- `./intern/cycles/` it's own `AUTHORS` file is planned.
- `./intern/opensubdiv/`.
An "AUTHORS" file has been added, using the chromium projects authors
file as a template.
Design task: #110784
Ref !110783.
Implements the rest of #101689, after 5e9ea9243b.
- `vdata` -> `vert_data`
- `edata` -> `edge_data`
- `pdata` -> `face_data`
- `ldata` -> `loop_data`
A deeper rename of `loop` to `corner` will be proposed as a next
step, and renaming `totvert` and `totedge` can be done separately.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/110432
A lot of files were missing copyright field in the header and
the Blender Foundation contributed to them in a sense of bug
fixing and general maintenance.
This change makes it explicit that those files are at least
partially copyrighted by the Blender Foundation.
Note that this does not make it so the Blender Foundation is
the only holder of the copyright in those files, and developers
who do not have a signed contract with the foundation still
hold the copyright as well.
Another aspect of this change is using SPDX format for the
header. We already used it for the license specification,
and now we state it for the copyright as well, following the
FAQ:
https://reuse.software/faq/
The goal is to solve confusion of the "All rights reserved" for licensing
code under an open-source license.
The phrase "All rights reserved" comes from a historical convention that
required this phrase for the copyright protection to apply. This convention
is no longer relevant.
However, even though the phrase has no meaning in establishing the copyright
it has not lost meaning in terms of licensing.
This change makes it so code under the Blender Foundation copyright does
not use "all rights reserved". This is also how the GPL license itself
states how to apply it to the source code:
<one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
Copyright (C) <year> <name of author>
This program is free software ...
This change does not change copyright notice in cases when the copyright
is dual (BF and an author), or just an author of the code. It also does
mot change copyright which is inherited from NaN Holding BV as it needs
some further investigation about what is the proper way to handle it.
Refactoring mesh code, it has become clear that local cleanups and
simplifications are limited by the need to keep a C public API for
mesh functions. This change makes code more obvious and makes further
refactoring much easier.
- Add a new `BKE_mesh.hh` header for a C++ only mesh API
- Introduce a new `blender::bke::mesh` namespace, documented here:
https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Source/Objects/Mesh#Namespaces
- Move some functions to the new namespace, cleaning up their arguments
- Move code to `Array` and `float3` where necessary to use the new API
- Define existing inline mesh data access functions to the new header
- Keep some C API functions where necessary because of RNA
- Move all C++ files to use the new header, which includes the old one
In the future it may make sense to split up `BKE_mesh.hh` more, but for
now keeping the same name as the existing header keeps things simple.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/105416
Subdivision surface efficiency relies on caching pre-computed topology
data for evaluation between frames. However, while eed45d2a23
introduced a second GPU subdiv evaluator type, it still only kept
one slot for caching this runtime data per mesh.
The result is that if the mesh is also needed on CPU, for instance
due to a modifier on a different object (e.g. shrinkwrap), the two
evaluators are used at the same time and fight over the single slot.
This causes the topology data to be discarded and recomputed twice
per frame.
Since avoiding duplicate evaluation is a complex task, this fix
simply adds a second separate cache slot for the GPU data, so that
the cost is simply running subdivision twice, not recomputing topology
twice.
To help diagnostics, I also add a message to show when GPU evaluation
is actually used to the modifier panel. Two frame counters are used
to suppress flicker in the UI panel.
Differential Revision: https://developer.blender.org/D17117
Pull Request #104441
Previously the UV unwrapping handling for subsurf modifiers used
`DerivedMesh`to implement the subdivision. Since we're trying to remove
`DerivedMesh` in general, and since this just made use of the `Mesh`
data anyway, it's relatively simple to remove it here. Combined with
D15939, this makes it possible to remove more `DerivedMesh` code.
Differential Revision: https://developer.blender.org/D16487
This commit replaces the `Mesh_Runtime` struct embedded in `Mesh`
with `blender::bke::MeshRuntime`. This has quite a few benefits:
- It's possible to use C++ types like `std::mutex`, `Array`,
`BitVector`, etc. more easily
- Meshes saved in files are slightly smaller
- Copying and writing meshes is a bit more obvious without
clearing of runtime data, etc.
The first is by far the most important. It will allows us to avoid a
bunch of manual memory management boilerplate that is error-prone and
annoying. It should also simplify future CoW improvements for runtime
data.
This patch doesn't change anything besides changing `mesh.runtime.data`
to `mesh.runtime->data`. The cleanups above will happen separately.
Differential Revision: https://developer.blender.org/D16180