
                       Blender V1.6x
						
                Not a Number, the Netherlands
						
						



--------------------- GENERAL INFORMATION----------------------------------

Blender is a free and fully functional 3D modeling/rendering/animation 
package for Unix systems. Blender is distributed without sources, 
it is exclusively developed and maintained by the Dutch company NaN.

This software is free to be applied for any purpose, excluding commercial
distribution. For more about this, read the copyright notice included 
in the download file.

Starting with release 1.6 Blender will unlock certain (new) features and
new development for paying users only. This is the C-Key system. For
only 95 Euro you get texture plugins, postproduction plugins, motion blur,
and much more.
					  
More information about Blender:
- The website:
	http://www.blender.nl
- The (sparse and a bit outdated) HTML manual: 
	ftp://ftp.blender.nl/pub/manual_1.02.tgz
- The tutor demo files, including README:	
	ftp://ftp.blender.nl/pub/tutor_1.01.tgz
- The Blender news-server: to post questions and contact other users:
	link at: http://www.blender.nl
- Bug reports can posted at the news-server as well.

The best resource is of course the printed Blender manual.
This wonderfully designed 312 pages book contains tutorials, examples 
and a complete description of every aspect of the interface. 
You can visit the shop page of the Blender site for more about this.

NaN wants to keep Blender free, and intends to make revenues with extra's
such as manuals, CDROMS or special features.

Thank you for getting Blender, I hope you will enjoy using it.

Ton Roosendaal
Not a Number
blender@blender.nl


----------------------BLENDER FOR SGI IRIX -----------------------------------



1.1 Installation for SGI Unix systems.

1 Uncompress 

  Move to the directory in which the blender installation
  directory should be created. Now type: 

  gunzip blender1.5x_SGI_.xxx.tar.gz
  tar xvf blender1.5x_SGI_.xxx.tar

  Now a directory ./blender1.5x_SGI_.xxx/ has been created. 
  It contains the executable, the license and this file.

2 Start Blender

  The executable can be copied to any location. You can start Blender
  with a shell terminal or by double clicking at its icon.
  
  When started for the first time, Blender writes a few files to the
  $HOME directory:
  - .B.blend  : user definable startup file
  - .Bfs	  : textfile, default directories
  - .Bfont	  : the default vector font
  
3 Drawing speed

  The OpenGL versions are generally faster at newer SGI systems, e.g.
  Indigo2-Impact, O2 and Octane. Use IrisGL for Indy and Indigo systems.


----------------------BLENDER FOR SUN SOLARIS-----------------------------------


1.1 Installation for Sun Solaris systems.

1 Uncompress 

  Move to the directory in which the blender installation
  directory should be created. Now type: 

  uncompress blender1.5x_Sun_.xxx.tar.Z
  tar xvf blender1.5x_Sun_.xxx.tar

  Now a directory ./blender.xxx/ has been created. 
  It contains the executable and the primary files to start with. 

2 Start Blender

  The executable can be copied to any location. You can start Blender
  with a shell terminal or by double clicking at its icon.
  
  When started for the first time, Blender writes a few files to the
  $HOME directory:
  - .B.blend  : user definable startup file
  - .Bfs	  : textfile, default directories
  - .Bfont	  : the default vector font
  



----------------------BLENDER FOR LINUX-----------------------------------

INSTALLATION

Prerequisites
=============

	* Minimal pc configuration:
	  PC with 32MB memory, 16bpp capable video card

	* Slackware 3.4 or Redhat 4.2/5.1
  	  ===============================
	  
	  Other versions may work, but have not been tested.

	* XFree86 3.3.x
	  =============
	  
	  Again, other versions may work, but have not been tested
	  
	* Mesa 3.0
	  ========	  
	  
	  The dynamic versions of Blender need installation of the Mesa 
	  Graphics Library (libGL.so / libGLU.so).
	  The static versions of Blender have it included.
	  
	  If you don't have Mesa-3.0, get it from:

		rpm: 	ftp://ftp.freshmeat.net/pub/rpms/mesa/

		source:	ftp://iris.ssec.wisc.edu/pub/Mesa/


1. Uncompress

Move to the directory in which the blender installation directory should be
created. Now type:

	tar zxvf blender1.5x_Linux_xxx.tar.gz

Now a directory 'blender1.5x_Linux_xxx' has been created.
It contains the executable and the primary files to start with.


2 Start Blender

  The executable can be copied to any location. You can start Blender
  with a shell terminal or by double clicking at its icon.
  
  When started for the first time, Blender writes a few files to the
  $HOME directory:
  - .B.blend  : user definable startup file
  - .Bfs	  : textfile, default directories
  - .Bfont	  : the default vector font
  

3. Mesa installation

Experiment with these variables for speed, see also the Mesa documentation


	1. Turn off dithering, 
		setenv MESA_NO_DITHER
		
	2. Explicitely specify your visual
		setenv MESA_RGB_VISUAL "TrueColor 24"

	3. Choose a swapbuffer method, real 24 bit visual don't have
	   proper optimisation in Mesa, in that case the Ximage method
	   will be extremely slow, then choose the Pixmap method.
	   
		setenv MESA_BACK_BUFFER "Pixmap"
		setenv MESA_BACK_BUFFER "Ximage"

	4. Test X at speed for 16 / 24 and 32 bits.



----------------------BLENDER FOR FREEBSD-----------------------------------

INSTALLATION

Prerequisites
=============

	* Minimal pc configuration:
	  PC with 32MB, 16bpp capable video card, 90Mhz Pentium

	* FreeBSD Version 2.2.6-RELEASE
  	  =============================
	  
	  Other versions may work, but have not been tested

	* XFree86 3.3.x
	  =============
	  
	  Again, other versions may work, but have not been tested
	  
	* Mesa 3.0
	  ========	  
	  
	  
	  The dynamic versions of Blender need installation of the Mesa 
	  Graphics Library (libGL.so / libGLU.so).
	  The static versions of Blender have it included.
	  
	  If you don't have Mesa-3.0, get it from the packages collection
	  ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/packages-2.2.6/All/Mesa-3.0.tgz
	  
	  After you have fetched the library type the following commands (as root):
	  
	  pkg_add Mesa-3.0.tgz

	  Or compile it yourself: get the tar.gz at ftp://iris.ssec.wisc.edu/pub/Mesa/beta/

1. Uncompress

Move to the directory in which the blender installation directory should be
created. Now type:

	tar zxvf blender1.5x_BSD_xxx.tar.gz

Now a directory 'blender1.5x_BSD_xxx' has been created.
It contains the executable and the primary files to start with.


2 Start Blender

  The executable can be copied to any location. You can start Blender
  with a shell terminal or by double clicking at its icon.
  
  When started for the first time, Blender writes a few files to the
  $HOME directory:
  - .B.blend  : user definable startup file
  - .Bfs	  : textfile, default directories
  - .Bfont	  : the default vector font

3. Mesa installation

If you use the dynamic version of Blender and you don't have the 
Mesa package installed, make sure that the  shared library version 
has version number 13.6, if it doesn't  (the default target for the 
Mesa make process makes version number 3.0), link your existing 
libraries as follows:

	ln -s libMesaGL.so.3.0 libMesaGL.so.13.6
	ln -s libMesaGLU.so.3.0 libMesaGLU.so.13.6

and then run 'ldconfig -m /your_library_path_for_Mesa'

Experiment with these variables for speed, see also the Mesa documentation


	1. Turn off dithering, 
		setenv MESA_NO_DITHER
		
	2. Explicitely specify your visual
		setenv MESA_RGB_VISUAL "TrueColor 24"

	3. Choose a swapbuffer method, real 24 bit visual don't have
	   proper optimisation in Mesa, in that case the Ximage method
	   will be extremely slow, then choose the Pixmap method.
	   
		setenv MESA_BACK_BUFFER "Pixmap"
		setenv MESA_BACK_BUFFER "Ximage"

	4. Test X at speed for 16 / 24 and 32 bits.

