Blender 2.63 (32-bit)

What's new in this version:

BMesh:
- BMesh is the new Blender mesh system with full support for N-sided polygons instead of only triangles and quads.
- In particular there is a new Dissolve tool to remove vertices, edges and faces without making holes in the mesh, a new Inset tool to inset faces, and a much improved Knife tool which takes advantage of N-gons to generate clear cuts. Tools such as subdivide and loop cut will also generate clean topology because faces no longer have to be triangulated.

Sculpt Hiding:
- Portions of the mesh can now be hidden in sculpt mode to improve performance and sculpt parts of the mesh that would otherwise be difficult to access.

More Features:
- Other new features include a Movie Clip option for the Sequencer, a compositing node to output multiple files or multilayer EXR files, new tools for linking and detaching nodes, more particle rotation options, and Linux support for drag n' drop from external applications.

Cycles Render:
- Among the features added in this release are support for a panoramic camera, mirror ball environment textures, and float precision textures.
- Also new are render layer mask layers, a shadow render pass, ambient occlusion, and viewport display of background images and render layers.

Motion Tracker:
- Motion tracking got a few smaller improvements, mostly related to 2D stabilization and a few smaller tools.

Addons:
- Various options were added to imports and exporters, an Atomic Blender PDB exporter was added, and Renderfarm.fi now supports Cycles.

BUG FIXES:
3D View:
- fix #30455: orthographic grid alignment jumps/shifts when zooming - r44739
- fix #30508: there being no way to pause fly mode when using keyboard for navigation - r44779
- fix #30643: crasher on entering edit mode with VBOs enabled - r45280
- fix #30719: align view to selected has unexpected results on further view change - r45262
- fix #30842: blender's Measurement Units set to Metric, makes some Precision Flaws - r45499
- fix #30917: solid + glsl + textured solid in texture paint mode did not show textured solid as it should, was using glsl instead - r45575, r45578
- fix: corrected normals for flat-shaded non-VBO sculpt drawing - r44283, r44294
- fix: textured-mode drawing in editmode - r44685
- fix: update the sculpt menu to use the correct path to the unified paint settings - r44159

Animation:
- fix #30097: current frame indicator on motion paths drawn incorrectly - r44737
- fix #30438: x=zero not accepted for a bone tail - r45103
- fix #30716: clamp to constraint locks up blender after a while - r45263
- fix #30709: renaming a bone renames all drivers' targets using a bone of that name, regardless of the armature - r45291
- fix #30495: framerate goes crazy after changing sync mode from "frame dropping" to "no sync" while playing anim - r44979
- fix: alt+A animation playback not starting with the scene start frame - r44747

Armatures:
- fix #31008: IK armature resize goes ugly (Pose mode resize) - r45818
- fix #30937: Pose UI hack needed to be undone, alternate fix is needed - r45876

Collada:
- fix #29082: skeletal animation collada import for , and transform types - r44221
- fix #27022: collada export: add bone parenting of objects - r44231
- fix #30230: crash after importing collada file - r44251
- fix #29621: collada import of joints crashes blender - r44636
- fix #30440: collada import: no faces/uv after bmesh merge - r44683
- fix #27629: collada import does wrong transformations - r44935
- fix #29246: collada armature animation doesn't correctly import - r45085
- fix: collada export - fix no polylist after bmesh-merge - r44418
- fix: collada export - bone parenting is actually against the tail - r44419

Files:
- fix #30839: blender crashes while open/close a scene and deletes .blend-file - r45506

Game Engine:
- fix #30484: frame rate increases very high after game engine start with record animation enabled - r45408
- fix #29449: record Animation runs 1000+ fps on Mac OSX 10.6.8 64bit - r45408
- fix #30515: Sensor physics mode missing UI for use_actor option - r45656
- fix #30555: crash in Replace Mesh when physics shape is triangle mesh and new mesh has no collision faces - r45657

Image & Video:
- fix #30384: multilayer exr files not saving compressed correctly - r44580
- fix #30436: externally editing unsaved images fails - r44687
- fix #30467: image editor scope display wrong opacity values - r44734
- fix: replacing a generated image with a file, the image would stay generated - r44139
- fix: OpenEXR half float save function resulting in dark images saved - r44654

Mesh Editing:
- fix #25649: image editor paint icon missing until enter weight paint - r44192
- fix #30266: issue with weight painting - colors are black and grey and you can't draw weights - r44272
- fix #30281: left/right vertex weights flipped - r44299
- fix #30290: shape keys not working as expected propagating unwanted changes to other keys
- fix #30293: converting text to mesh crashes blender - r44433
- fix #30361: edge length will not be diplayed properly with clipping borders -r44515
- fix #30375: loop select should not become a redo history item - r44482
- fix #30435: torus batch building used different logic of how it's adding to scene layers than C-defined primitives - r44749
- fix #30489: loop cut by typing numbers is limited to 32 - r44741
- fix #30814: absolute Shape Keys not working in 2.6 - r45409
- fix #30848: edge Selection fails when both verts are outside the viewport - r45498

Modifiers:
- fix #30351: solidify modifier high quality normals fails - r44469
- fix #30395: boolean modifier - degenerated triangles from bmesh + difference - r44548
- fix #30496: bugs and crashes about "make links modifiers" function - r44834
- fix #30561: modifiers with use_apply_on_spline = True do not work on curve with shapekeys - r44921
- fix #30531: mirror modifier with vertex groups did not add both the left and right groups to merged vertices, only one - r45001
- fix #30398: mesh objects with curve modifiers render in thier 'rest' position, not thier 'pose' position - r45345
- fix: UI error - some curve settings were in the path panel and were greyed out when 'Path Animation' was disabled, but were infact used for the curve deform modifier - r44512
- fix #30406: hooks ignore automatic handles setting in curves - r44836
- fix #30647: error in wire drawing of subsurf when draw all edges is enabled - r45171
- fix #30966: remesh modifier crash mentioned in comments of bug - r45669

Motion Tracking:
- fix #30485: TRANSFORM / STABILIZE 2D: First row / column blackness - r44743
- fix: crash when re-tracking track used for rotation stabilization - r44183
- fix: Camera tracing search area was always centered to marker's position when tracking - r44295
- Various fixes of 2d stabilization and autoscale factor calculation - r44788
- fix: Disabling color channels for float images in clip editor now works fine - r45462

Nodes:
- fix #30405: combine HSVA node not working correct with fixed color instead of socket connected as input - r44589.
- fix #30627: delete node with reconnect (ctrl-x) is broken - r45089
- fix #30804 nodetree.links.new() incorrectly disconnected or allowed to connect multiple links to a socket when the arguments were passed in order (input socket, output socket) instead of (output socket, input socket) - r45426

Objects:
- fix #30231: drag and droping parenting from outliner giving unnecessary loop error - r44311
- fix #30306: crash duplicating object with action actuator but no animation data - r44381
- fix #30337: missed set origin for metaball - r44453
- fix #30419: median wrongly setting lattice vertex weights - r44599
- fix #30614: some display settings are uneeded for non-geometry/material object types, and armature have no boundbox - r45084
- fix #31072: Making texture single user was modifying textures of original material - r45887

Physics:
- fix #30098: particle rotation wrong / explode modifier - r44977
- fix #30298: fluid simulation from older files not working when loaded into 2.62 - r44377
- fix #30413: dynamic paint crash with texture slots with no texture assigned - r44592
- fix #30464: confusing lack of label for fluid "use" - r44735
- fix #30445: particle simulation, rekey crashes blender - r45026
- fix #30456: transforming object with a hair particle system, on a frame after the cache end frame would reset to the previous state on confirm - r44995
- fix #30954: fluid obstacle checkbox has no effect - r45655, r45832
- fix #30219: obstacle Simulation of Steering Actuator does not work with added objects - r45837
- fix #30298: fluid-system does not work when speed is set to 0 - r45853

Python:
- fix #30201: bpy_extras.image_utils.load_image always returns placeholder - r44138
- fix #30402: user-scripts modules dir missing from sys.path - r45251
- fix #30454: perspective_matrix not update in real time with bpy.ops.view3d.zoom - r44647
- fix #30589: RNA function descriptions not showing in python console on autocomplete - r45019
- fix #30729: custom property add/remove wasnt doing an undo push - r45277
- fix #30336: couldn't playback from python without having played back via logic bricks once - r44417
- fix #30326: calling e.g. bpy.ops.object.proxy_make(object = 'Lamp') would not pick the right object - r44387
- fix #30865: crash when browsing last operators in outliner (or by Python API) - r45482
- fix #30904: MovieClip.objects.new() segfault when no name is passed - r45528
- fix #30906: dict(prop) crashes if prop is a PropertyGroup with nested PropertyGroup - r45534
- fix #31036: image.gl_load() consistently segfault at gluBuild2DMipmaps - r45814

Render:
- fix #30415: motion blur option still had an effect on external engines / cycles - r44587
- fix #30416: python render_stats handler now also gets called when the saved file message is printed - r44588
- fix #30421: panorama option in camera properties always disabled - r44606
- fix #30512: external render saved render result after reporting error - r44830
- fix #30449: sampled motion blur not working with softbody - r44994
- fix #30173: render not working when initialized on frame 1 - r44225
- fix #30420: metaball shading inverted in raytraced reflection - r45029
- fix #30882: using an image sequence in the displace modifier did not update properly in animation rendering - r45508
- fix #30876, #30932: crash in material preview render after undo or file load, due to old material copies hanging around in the preview database - r45598

Render: Cycles:
- fix #30272: preview render not updating when changing particle emission from with instanced objects - r44300
- fix #30246: rendering multiple render layers with CUDA were not working - r44385
- fix #30140: multi GPU rendering with one device supporting full shading and the other not can't work correct, disabled - r44386
- fix #30439: node group conversion crash with certain node setups - r44669
- fix #30472: 3d view objects not rendered - r44820
- fix #30603: incorrect ray differentials when rendering with panorama camera, causing bump map issues - r45035
- fix #30551: passes combining did not always give identical result combined with antialiasing/defocus - r45246
- fix #30769: showing wrong image from active face in the uv editor, with multiple material slots - r45347
- fix #30710: wrong render time after pause/unpause in viewport - r45401
- fix #30835: cycles doesn't work with AMD Juniper GPU, compiller throws errors - r45490
- fix #30896: mask layer not working for objects without material assigned - r45535
- fix #30929: cycles rendering of object with scale 0 on some axis did not work correct with instancing - r45592
- fix #30376: cycles ignores camera override from sequencer - r45611
- fix #30955: render issue with lights that have shadow casting disabled - r45664
- fix #30966: cycles nan mesh vertices got set to (0, 0, 0), now remove them instead - r45678
- fix #31065: cycles render crash with large node groups - r45891
- fix rendering a material that mixes a transparent and glass BSDF would give a different result with/without using light passes - r45028

Sequencer:
- fix #30229, #30196: build proxy from meta and image strips used resolution used for display, not set by building job which leads to unusable proxies - r44177
- fix #30254: no red warning border on metastrips with Extend (E) - r44455
- fix #30196: proxies not visible in sequencer preview window until restart - r44358
- fix #30315: temporary proxy files are not erased and old proxys are not updated if the proxy is built more then once (windows) - r44363, r44545
- fix #28159: sequencer strip crop values on proxy not scene render size - r44946
- fix #29758: sequencer image offset error with render percentage - r29758
- fix #30499: video sequencer crashes when moving around within a sequence - r45055
- fix #30491: not updating scene strip length in video sequencer when changing length of scene - r45192

Transform:
- fix #30197: snapping: align rotation button for volumes does not make sense - r44429
- fix #30373: which part to snap in volume snapping is removed - r44798
- fix #30594: uv editor transform tools did not show help/pivot line to indicate transform center as it did in 2.49 - r44993

User Interface:
- fix #30616: inconsistency with delete and backspace of resetting values - r45063
- fix #30623: user-defined render presets bug lead to blender crash on path with non-ascii characters - r45073
- fix #30575: text gets wrongly clipped when using accented letters - r45080
- fix #30653: wrong image in image editor after loading new .blend file - r45161
- fix #30430: can only alt+scroll image buffer slot once - r45168
- fix #30708: pressing escape in the color picker popup did not reset to the previous color - r45293
- fix #30770: missing node editor redraw when changing active material by clicking on face in edit mode - r45340
- fix #30776: image editor pan not using continuous grab if enabled - r45346
- fix #28279: shift+S used twice in maya keyconfig - r45373
- fix #30323: graph view in the movie clip editor does not stay open - r44384
- fix #30760: edit text property: backspace was messing up with utf8 text - r45479
- fix #30925: successful import of keyconfig dependant on current object context - r45594
- fix #30858: UI losing buttons at some random moment after using Blender for a while - r45609
- fix #30948: add scene > copy settings did not copy settings like units, audio, game data, and tool settings - r45646
- fix #30958: right click menu and add shortcut for importers/exporters doesn't work - r45683
- fix #30977: error loading modal keymaps from keyconfiguration presets - r45715
- fix #30570: UI issue editing modal keymaps below operators using them - r45717
- fix #30998: copy to selected in properties editor not working for bones - r45775
- fix #31064: save confirmation stops showing - r45870