[Community Fork] Blender 4.x/5.0 Compatible Version Available

[elasticdotventures]

👋 Community Announcement

Hi Phobos team! I wanted to inform the community about a Blender 4.x/5.0 compatible fork that may be useful for users who need to work with modern Blender versions.

🔗 Repository

https://github.com/elasticdotventures/phobos-4.0

📋 Background

With Blender 4.x introducing the new extension system and several breaking API changes, the original Phobos addon needed significant updates to work properly. Since there hasn't been active development on Blender 4.x compatibility in the main repository, I created a community fork to address this need.

✨ What's Been Done

Blender 4.x/5.0 Compatibility

• ✅ Full support for Blender 4.2+ extension system
• ✅ Proper namespace handling (bl_ext.UserRepository.phobos_4)
• ✅ Clean installation via Blender's native Extensions manager
• ✅ Tested and working in Blender 4.5 and 5.0

Integrated Community PRs

To reduce fragmentation, this fork has integrated several outstanding pull requests:

• PR Some fixes to pre_v2.1.0 #392 - Blender 4.x compatibility (by @lights0123)
• PR Blender .dae import issue #391 - Additional Blender 4.x updates
• PR URDF Import Error #390 - Export improvements
• Various bug fixes from other contributors

Technical Improvements

• Complete import refactoring for extension namespace compatibility
• Fixed resource path resolution (removed pkg_resources dependency)
• Improved error handling with diagnostic logging
• Module cache management for reliable updates
• Proper separation of phobos.common.defs and phobos.blender.defs

🎯 Purpose of This PR

This PR is informational only - not intended to be merged.

The purpose is to:

1. Inform the community about the availability of a Blender 4.x compatible version
2. Provide a reference for users searching for Blender 4.x support
3. Credit the original team and acknowledge that this is a community fork
4. Reduce duplicate efforts by centralizing Blender 4.x work

📦 Installation

Users can install from:

• Releases page
• Direct download of phobos_4.zip
• Install via Blender 4.x Extensions manager

🙏 Credits

This work builds directly on:

• The excellent original Phobos codebase by DFKI RIC
• Community contributions from various PRs
• Blender 4.x compatibility work by multiple contributors

💭 Future Direction

I'm open to:

• Merging this work back into the main repository if desired
• Continuing as a separate community fork
• Collaborating with the original team on Blender 4.x support
• Any other approach the team prefers

📞 Questions?

Feel free to reach out via:

• This PR discussion
• Issues on the fork repository
• GitHub discussions

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Note: Full details, documentation, and credits are in the BLENDER_4X_FORK.md file included in this PR.

Thank you for creating and maintaining Phobos - it's an invaluable tool for the robotics community! 🤖