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TPFC: http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=660 is on V2.48a

V2.49b Rev 8 is available.
Download: http://www.winpenpack.com/main/download.php?view.41
Download: http://portableapps.com/apps/graphics_p ... r_portable (Portableapps.com-Version called "Blender Portable" at V2.49b)

Offtopic: new eye for you, Checker. Nice! Is it Medusa's?

Thanks
No it isn't the eye of Medusa ... otherwise you will be a stone now
It's an eye within a spiderweb.

Always an eye in the web

Found a topic on Blender's website about native portability in response to an issue with the non-beta PA version. Its from 2009 an may not reflect the program's internal workings anymore.

webfork wrote:Found a topic on Blender's website about native portability in response to an issue with the non-beta PA version. Its from 2009 an may not reflect the program's internal workings anymore.

Blender is natively portable using this method, so you can change the entry to be native as the primary with Blender Portable and X-Blender listed as alternatives. We also updated our launcher and handler to support the official methods once the new version of Blender wasn't in beta anymore as they did change it from 2.4x to 2.5x.

JohnTHaller wrote:Blender is natively portable using this method

No, it isn't. You are not considering some "collaterals" as recent files, thumbnails folders, bookmars, and temporary files.

Many developer say "my software is portable" only 'cause they write some settings in the executable folders, forgetting all the rests...

Best regards
zandet2

zandet2 wrote:No, it isn't. You are not considering some "collaterals" as recent files, thumbnails folders, bookmars, and temporary files.

Many developer say "my software is portable" only 'cause they write some settings in the executable folders, forgetting all the rests...

I'm well aware of that. And I don't consider that portable either. But PortableFreeware.com has a different definition of portable and as long as the app and most of the settings are portable, that's considered a portable app. And the 'native' portable version trumps portable versions with launchers.

It's only when significant functionality breaks (VLC's media library for example) or the process is very complicated (Pidgin) that a launcher app will be listed as the primary before the native version.

TPFC follow its own rules for listing software, but I checked that:

1. The original version leave the .thumbnails directory in %UserProfile% and the temp files in C:\tmp. No bookmarks and recents paths are normalized.
2. Blender Portable leave the temp files in C:\tmp and is not full-path portable (no bookmarks and recents paths are normalized, please see http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... 533#p39533).
3. Currently between three versions only X-Blender is stealth (no traces in %UserProfile% and no temp files in C:\tmp) and full-path portable (all paths are correctly normalized in bookmarks.txt and recent-files.txt inside the config folder). Please note that X-Blender is now at 2.59 [rev12] version http://www.winpenpack.com/en/download.php?view.41

Danix wrote:TPFC follow its own rules for listing software, but I checked that

As discussed in the other thread, TPFC as well as Andrew himself will list 'native' portable versions first unless major functionality in the app itself is broken. Things like portablization of most recently used files and leaving behind thumbnails or temp files does not matter as long as the native version works portably and keeps its settings with it. It just means the listing will state that it is not 'stealth' and no path portability will be selected when the listing is changed.

Danix wrote:Blender Portable leave the temp files in C:\tmp and is not full-path portable (no bookmarks and recents paths are normalized, please see http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... 533#p39533).

Blender Portable fully portablizes both the the bookmarks.txt and recent-file.txt, so that is flat-out incorrect. It also uses a contained TEMP file on the local PC so that temp files get the nice fast local drive but are automatically removed on exit. In my testing, I saw no evidence of a C:\tmp, but if this is occurring, please let us know how you produced this behavior as we would fix that with a revision ASAP. Danix, please take the time to actually use our software before claiming it is broken as this is the second time you have made false claims in the last week.

Danix wrote:temp files in C:\tmp

Do you really mean that Blender creates the directory C:\tmp? Often the user doesn't even have sufficient privileges to create directories under C:\.

If you meant the %TEMP% directory, leaving files there is allowed in TPFC and doesn't even make the program non-stealth: http://www.portablefreeware.com/faq.php#stealth

Danix wrote: Please note that X-Blender is now at 2.59 [rev12] version http://www.winpenpack.com/en/download.php?view.41

Thanks. Entry updated.

I also added a note about ability to make Blender natively portable. I didn't switch the entry, because I'm not a Blender user and don't want to mess with this.

JohnTHaller wrote:Blender Portable fully portablizes both the the bookmarks.txt and recent-file.txt, so that is flat-out incorrect. It also uses a contained TEMP file on the local PC so that temp files get the nice fast local drive but are automatically removed on exit. In my testing, I saw no evidence of a C:\tmp, but if this is occurring, please let us know how you produced this behavior as we would fix that with a revision ASAP.

Try to use the render function, and you will find the "c:\tmp" folder (yes, "c:\tmp" and not TEMP dir) full of files.

And as stated, your wrapper doesn't fix all the paths, but only change the drive letters in a path; so if you move the Blender folder in another position on the same drive it doesn't work.

This is the test on your release:

1) after the first run in D:\BlenderPortable
Data\settings\BlenderPortableSettings.ini

[BlenderPortableSettings]
LastDrive=D:
LastDirectory=\BlenderPortable

Data\user_config\bookmarks.txt

[Bookmarks]
D:\BlenderPortable\Data\user_datafiles\
[Recent]
D:\BlenderPortable\Data\user_datafiles\

Data\user_config\recent-files.txt

D:\BlenderPortable\Data\user_datafiles\test.blend

2) after the second run in D:\MOVED\BlenderPortable
Data\settings\BlenderPortableSettings.ini

[BlenderPortableSettings]
LastDrive=D:
LastDirectory=\MOVED\BlenderPortable

Data\user_config\bookmarks.txt

[Bookmarks]
D:\BlenderPortable\Data\user_datafiles\
[Recent]
D:\BlenderPortable\Data\user_datafiles\

Data\user_config\recent-files.txt

D:\BlenderPortable\Data\user_datafiles\test.blend

As you can see, no one path has been changed.

Danix, please take the time to actually use our software before claiming it is broken as this is the second time you have made false claims in the last week.

Is our practice to check, before to speak.

Best regards.
zandet2

Hi JohnTHaller,

JohnTHaller wrote:

Danix wrote:TPFC follow its own rules for listing software, but I checked that

As discussed in the other thread, TPFC as well as Andrew himself will list 'native' portable versions first unless major functionality in the app itself is broken. Things like portablization of most recently used files and leaving behind thumbnails or temp files does not matter as long as the native version works portably and keeps its settings with it. It just means the listing will state that it is not 'stealth' and no path portability will be selected when the listing is changed.

Danix wrote:Blender Portable leave the temp files in C:\tmp and is not full-path portable (no bookmarks and recents paths are normalized, please see http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... 533#p39533).

Blender Portable fully portablizes both the the bookmarks.txt and recent-file.txt, so that is flat-out incorrect.

I am not a Blender user, so I tried a simple path normalization test (absolutely analogous at what already depicted in the thread regarding Inkscape Portable) limited to the recents. Here are the repeatable steps, performed on the Blender Portable currently downloadable http://portableapps.com/apps/graphics_p ... r_portable .

1) Install Blender Portable under C:\ZioZione\testApp\BlenderPortable
2) Execute BlenderPortable.exe
3) Create a file and save it under C:\ZioZione\testApp\BlenderPortable\Data\file1.blend
4) Close Blender
5) Execute BlenderPortable.exe again
6) File|Open Recent... shows file1.blend
EDIT: I forgot this one... 6b) Close Blender
7) (the critical one) MOVE (not copy) \BlenderPortable folder with all its contents under F:\test\BlenderPortable
8 ) Execute BlenderPortable.exe
9) File|Open Recent... shows "No recent files"
10) Close Blender
11) Examine file \Data\user_config\recent.files.txt: it contains one row "C:\ZioZione\testApp\BlenderPortable\Data\file1.blend"
12) Execute BlenderPortable again
13) Create a file and save it under F:\test\BlenderPortable\Data\file2.blend
14) Close Blender
15) Execute BlenderPortable.exe again
16) File|Open Recent... shows file2.blend
17) Close Blender
18) Examine file \Data\user_config\recent.files.txt: now it contains the row "F:\test\BlenderPortable\Data\file2.blend", while under \Data there are both file1.blend and file2.blend

I think that at this point you could agree that there is some problem. You can do an analogous test for the bookmarks without any problem.
Hope this helps.
Best Regards
ZioZione

JohnTHaller wrote:

webfork wrote:Found a topic on Blender's website about native portability in response to an issue with the non-beta PA version. Its from 2009 an may not reflect the program's internal workings anymore.

Blender is natively portable using this method, so you can change the entry to be native as the primary with Blender Portable and X-Blender listed as alternatives. We also updated our launcher and handler to support the official methods once the new version of Blender wasn't in beta anymore as they did change it from 2.4x to 2.5x.

Thanks John. I'll update to the native entry format hopefully in the next few days.

Well, it would seem that I am an idiot! I was testing using my local copy of 2.59 Rev 2 instead of the current release of 2.59. I completely forgot that it was done and hadn't gone out due to some pressing platform work and assumed I was using the release 2.59 version in my testing and never even opened the appinfo.ini to confirm it. 2.59 went out with a typo in the BlenderPortable.ini with user_config written as user-config, meaning that neither bookmarks nor recent files are updated for paths or for drive letters. I was a bit thrown because it was reported that drive letters were portablized but paths were not, so I'd assumed that an older Blender Portable was being tested as that did have that issue.

I'd like to apologize to Danix for stating that he was incorrect about Blender Portable. While my other points raised in other threads regarding incorrect/misleading statements about LibreOffice and our other apps stand, I was absolutely in the wrong on this one and I apologize for my error and not double-checking my facts. I should know better by now to be absolutely sure and re-grab the current release before running my big mouth off.

The tmp directory was missed due to the fact that only admins can create that file on most PCs and most users are logged in as standard users. That plus the fact that Blender on Windows has a bug where it doesn't properly use the TEMP or TMP directory variables nor the BLENDER_TEMP listed in the source code nor properly follow the variable set within the FILE section of Options for temporary files created during rendering.

I'll have a revision posted later today to fix both issues. You can fix portablization in your local copy immediately just by searching and replacing user-config with user_config in the BlenderPortable.ini.

UPDATE: Blender Portable 2.59 Rev 2 is available with the above-mentioned fixes.

JohnTHaller wrote:Well, it would seem that I am an idiot! ...SNIP

Not at all guy! sometimes can happens we are sure about something that's not true...

JohnTHaller wrote:I'd like to apologize to Danix for stating that he was incorrect about Blender Portable.
...SNIP... I was absolutely in the wrong on this one and I apologize for my error and not double-checking my facts. I should know better by now to be absolutely sure and re-grab the current release before running my big mouth off.
SNIP
UPDATE: Blender Portable 2.59 Rev 2 is available with the above-mentioned fixes.

these are clever man's words! lovely!
I'm really happy to see both your projects (and TPFC too!!) are taking advantage from this kind of "strange cooperation" and exchange of "suggestions". Your posts are not always so "friendly" but at least really positive for us (end-users)