Blender 2.79b

- Fire simulation was added along with many improvements in smoke simulation.
- In Cycles, motion blur, open shading language and anisotropic shading support was added.
- For mesh modeling, the bevel tool was much improved, a new symmetrize mesh tool was added, and new Laplacian smooth, decimate, and triangulate modifiers are available.
- In addition to the new features, over 200 bugs that existed in previous releases have been fixed.

- This release was targeted at improving Blender for the Mango open movie project, along with integrating branches and patches from the past years.
- The focus was on creating a full VFX pipeline, with improved motion tracking using a planar tracker, easier green screen keying, and a new mask editor.
- A new tile based compositing system was added, along with more advanced color management.
- Cycles rendering got dozens of smaller features and improvements resulting from its use in production.
- Sculpting now supports masks, and a skin modifier was added to quickly create a model from skeletons.
- The game engine got improved shadows and physics options, and Collada export now has more options to tune for exporting to other game engines.

- BMesh
- Sculpt Hiding
- Cycles Render
- Motion Tracker
- Addons
- Bug fixes
- More Features

- Cycles Render Engine
- Motion Tracking
- UV Tools
- "Carve" Booleans
- Remesh modifier
- Game Engine
- Collada
- Python API
- Add-ons
- Bug fixes

- Cycles Render Engine
- Motion Tracking
- Dynamic Paint
- Ocean Simulation
- Python API
- Add-ons
- Bug fixes

# 3D viewport
* fix: grease pencil did not decrement user count on adding new datablock to replace an existing one
* fix: camera can still move in viewport even when transforms locked
* fix: wrong hotkey hints in 3D View > View menu
* fix: interaction preset was using orbit rather than turntable 3d view preference, different from factory defaults.
* fix: vertex/edge/face selection buttons showing squashed in header
* fix: armature draw type wire combined with manipulator draw issue
* fix: disable rendering with transparency in edit mode
* fix: slow drawing of mesh with multiple materials and subsurf modifier
# Animation
* fix: armatures in wire draw mode not displaying in solid mode.
* fix: crash in adding a new pose to the pose library
* fix: delta keying sets not working correctly on operator redo
* fix: improve error message presented when trying to paste keyframe without f-curves selected
* fix: curve radius not keyable from the the 3d editor transform panel
* fix: select before/after current frame deselects all channels in graph editor
* fix: crash when moving keys in dopesheet editor
* fix: default f-curve handle types and theme settings for handle colors were incorrect
* fix: motion paths could be set to invalid start/end, and did not show good warning messages
* fix: NLA Strip modifiers got lost on save/reload
# Audio & Video
* fix: sequencer HD audio tracks within metastrips were not properly upgraded from 2.49 files, resulting in broken tracks.
* fix: 7.1 audio not working correct
* fix: color management issues generating proxies for float images
* fix: rendering video to flash not working
* fix: 16bit tiff save not working
* fix: issue saving images with relative paths
* fix: improvement for reading broken movie files
* fix: fix a crash in decoding of YUV video in sequencer
* fix: effect strip start and end frame should not be editable
* fix: incorrect alpha channel loading from video
* fix: seeking problem with RAW DV video
# Constraints
* fix: ChildOf constraint set inverse not working reliable
* fix: iTaSC solver crash on certain compilers/platforms, due to memory alignment issues.
* fix: parenting problem with tree IK for iTaSC and iksolver, where it would use the wrong bone as parent on branching.
* fix: follow path constraint subframes calculated incorrectly for motion blur
* fix: spline IK and auto IK on the same bone could crash
* fix: remove unneeded convert option from maintain volume constraint interface
* fix: issue with "set inverse" on child constraint
# Curves
* fix: 2d bezier still allowed editing tilt, and wrong shortcut was shown in toolbar
* fix: changing curve datablock did not respect curve dimension setting
* fix: wrong shortcut for Curve > Control Point > Tilt
# Files
* fix: file paths not remapped after making library datablock local
* fix: file browser can't handle extra periods in file name
* fix: crash running blender in background mode on Windows
* fix: background render with file not found rendered default scene
* fix: crash opening quit.blend
# Game Engine
* fix: logic bricks did not have unique names
* fix: object display bounds and game engine collision bounds are now separate properties to avoid confusion
* fix: changing game engine physics type from soft body to other physics types did not work correct
* fix: action actuator ping-pong was not consistent with previous behavior
* fix: setting frame on action actuator playing in reverse did not work correct
* fix: wrong default game engine backface culling when there is no material
* fix: game engine mouse raycast not working correct at certain angles
* fix: action actuator not working correct with animation from old file
* fix: wrong copy of game properties between linked objects
* fix: incorrect action actuator behavior with pulse mode (on the sensor) and continuous enabled
* fix: slow video texture rescaling, using non-power-of-two textures
# Graphics Cards
* fix: OpenGL renders on graphics cards which do not support non-power-of-two textures were stretched and the wrong size.
* fix: selecting with z-buffer hiding did not work when graphics card settings enabled antialiasing, overriding application settings.
* fix: last mesh triangle not drawn with VBO's enabled
* fix: workaround for half transparent windows when running blender-softwaregl with compiz
# Modeling
* fix: minimize stretch in UV editor has no continuous grab
* fix: vertex normals temporarily incorrect after deleting a face
* fix: mesh fill / beautify fill produced incorrect results in edge selection mode
* fix: set origin from geometry using bounds did not work
* fix: UV unwrap issue with meshes with inconsistent normals
* fix: 3D manipulator "active element" not supported for curves
* fix: crash using vertex paint fill
* fix: missing painting error message when opengl offscreen buffer could not be created
* fix: weight painting incorrect redistribution of weights with locked vertex groups
* fix: crash duplicating shape keys with long names
* fix: mesh without faces and modifier crashes when switching to sculpt mode
* fix: uv unwrap > project from view not enabled in header menu
* fix: vertex parent regression, objects not staying in place when parenting
# Modifiers
* fix: apply mirror modifier crash related to vertex groups
* fix: crash with mirror and solidify modifier
* fix: build modifier calculates wrong fraction of elements to use
* fix: crash multires baking in sculpt mode when sculpt mode is active and sculpt level is 0
* fix: multires baking now uses preview subdivision level in sculpt mode
* fix: crash using edge split modifier with certain mesh configurations
* fix: dupliframes start/end animation not working correct
* fix: material display error using VBO's, textured solid and a modifier
* fix: multires crash with meshes that had verts/edges not connected to any face
# Nodes
* fix: crash nodes loading old files with changed node sockets
* fix: confusing user interface for editing group node names
* fix: missing node editor update when assigning/removing materials on objects.
* fix: the factor buffer input was not used correctly in curve nodes
* fix: crash with certain invalid node sockets in old files
* fix: compositing nodes used in render even if use nodes is disabled
* fix: vector node socket default values can't be edited
* fix: issue navigating node add menu with keyboard arrows
* fix: clicking on overlapping nodes in the node editor would pass event to the wrong button
* fix: wrong event clipping in open node groups
* fix: crash when node group datablock was missing
* fix: missing GLSL/icon update when changing materials used in nodes
# Physics
* fix: particle rotation mode did load from some files correctly
* fix: secondary point caches for cloth did not get steps set to correct default, was 10 when supposed to be 1
# Rendering
* fix: crash in texture nodes, when no derivatives were available
* fix: material/texture nodes threading crash
* fix: cancelling volume precache at high resolution was too slow
* fix: rendering objects with negative scale could have wrong normals
* fix: crash unlinking texture datablock from material node in texture properties
* fix: material node "Texture" didn't use default texture coordinates when nothing was connected to the socket
* fix: world zenith up and down texture influence were not working correct
# User Interface
* fix: rendering and visibility icons in modifier panel move between clicks
* fix: missing updates when changing smoke flow settings.
* fix: sequence rendering now displays overall animation progress in the progress bar
* fix: incorrect undo pushes when changing user preferences
* fix: inconsistency with numpad zero and delete hotkeys in color and histogram menus
* fix: user interface region embossing was drawn misaligned
* fix: Mac trackpad scrolling did not work in text editor
* fix: text editor incorrect selection with mouse over scrollbar
* fix: incorrect user interface text alignment with international fonts
* fix: some outliner right click menu items not working
* fix: crash deleting objects in outliner
* fix: keyboard shortcuts for menus not displayed
* fix: Alt+N, enter in image editor cancelled rather than confirmed operation
* fix: multi-column menus not showing bottom-most elements when scrolling
* fix: modal keymap saving not working
* fix: missing umlauts and accents on capital letters

- FIXED - 3D window: Armature-bones with wire draw type were not displaying in solid view mode - r41113
- FIXED - 3D window header: After collapsing the pull-down menus, no icon available to make them show again. - r41117
- FIXED - Dopesheet: Fixed crash when moving keys in editor - r41128
- FIXED - Audio export: 7.1 export was being miscalculated - r41132
- FIXED - Game Engine: Action actuator breaks animation. IPO options can be set too frequently - r41134
- FIXED - 3D Window: missing updates when changing smoke flow settings - r41151
- FIXED - Node editor: missing updates when assigning/removing Materials on Objects - r41152
- FIXED - Adding a new pose to the Pose Library crashed - r41175
- FIXED - Fix for un-handled exception in audio library - r41203
- FIXED - Incorrect keying set names 'Scale' vs 'Scaling', where 'Scale' was hard coded in auto keyframe when 'Only Insert Needed' - r41211
- FIXED - Python: RNA/API, getting Event.ascii would crash - r41214
- FIXED - Addons / Exporter: Quake MAP export gives an error for UV textured geometry - r2504

- 3D audio
- UI translation
- Improved weight painting
- Lot of animation system updates