Bongo 2 Service Release 7 is available at:
https://www.rhino3d.com/download/bongo/2.0/release
No big changes, minor bugfixes and support for Rhino 6 added.
Hi Marika, we’d like to get Bongo for some Octane animation work we are doing. Is Bongo 3 coming out soon? Trying to decide if we can wait or we need to buy 2 now and upgrade later.
Also, if we run our licenses in Cloud Zoo, can any of the Rhino licenses run the Bongo license? How would that work if we have 4-5 Rhino license and only one Bongo license? cc. @aj1
Thanks!
G
@gustojunk, it would work (Kinda–only one user would be able to use Bongo at any given point in time). If you add more Bongo licenses, then more people can use Bongo simultaneously 
@gustojunk, Bongo 3 typing hasn’t started in full earnest yet, although some development has already happened. I’m quite confident you’ll have at least a year of good Bongo 2 usage before you get the chance to upgrade to Bongo 3.
/Nathan
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Thanks Nathan, that’s good to know. We are also seeking that we make Bongo melt a little with our files, so we were hoping that performance would be better in Bongo 3? Is that one of the goals of the upgrade? …let us know if you want us to share our bongo-melting files, just for your tormenting, and our pleasure. 
G
The roadmap is still forming, some cool stuff is planned, discussions on UI and workflow have started last year. I hope to bring some useful experience from my participation in shortfilm animation (both full CGI as work with live action footage) to the table as well.
You are always invited to share these real-world files. They help formulating solutions to problems.
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That’s great to hear Nathan. I had tried Bongo 1.0 many years ago and it was so bad I never even considered it again as a valid option.
This month we had to do some animations and needed the geometry to stay in Rhino and render in Octane. So we have it a go again, as we were please try surprise how useful it is. Even with some shortcoming like the extremely slow animation export to a Octane, we can see how we can at least use it for other things, even viewport animations where we need something more choreographed than what Snapshots can do.
I need to learn to forgive and forget quickly the first impression of some of McNeels products, since eventually you all seem to figure out how to make stuff that’s good!
Thanks for that!
Gustavo
Bongo is definitely useful, although the UI could be improved.
But what I regret the most is that I cannot programmatically (using C#) set the joints and parameters and run it from GrassHopper. I have a project right now that would have use of that. So now I will have to make my own IK components in GrassHopper.
A Bongo SDK (C#) is high up on my wishlist. 
RhinoCommon SDK + GrassHopper SDK + Bongo SDK = (breathtaking power)
// Rolf
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You are such a nerd Rolf 
… I think also some more basic grasshopper integration would be nice. And even more importantly:
-
FBX round trips so we can animate alsonin other packages and bring it to Rhino.
-
control point (Nurbs, Polys and SubD)/cage points animation
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Morph maps and blending between them.
G
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We must not forget the 
// Rolf
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Yes, and if you want to float on top of a surface with “ever changing control points”, you can do that too.
This is nerdy, I know, but I just had to try it… :
// Rolf
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Very cool guys! I didnt know it was posible already. I just installed it, need to spend a bit of time with it.
@gustojunk Agreed. There is virtually zero integration between grasshopper and bongo at the moment, so would be awesome to see them used in collaboration.
In my opinion Bongo’s biggest downfall at the moment is its inability to import/export animated files from other programs i.e. Alembic files etc. I work at a company which is involved with a lot of kinetic sculptures/artworks so I usually create the motion of these pieces in other 3D programs more catered towards fluid surface/particle animations.
I then articulate the structure of these sculptures using the power (and my love) of grasshopper. But at the moment I have to export 1 frame of my animation for modelling up in Grasshopper, whereas ideally i would be able to import the complete .ABC file into either Bongo or Grasshopper that I could then build referenced GH geometry atop of.
Here is what currently happens when i attempt to do this:
The red surface is the surface I’ve animated in Bongo, as you can see once it starts rendering, the green balls referenced from grasshopper are stuck on the first frame.
Is it possible to get this working in future releases so that it updates with each frame of the animation ? or even potentially integrating a GH slider component that would allow you to scroll through frame by frame and preview bongo/imported animations?
Thanks,
Jack
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This would be very useful. Recently we had to do an animation of a grasshopper slider and we had to do it frame by frame and capturing screenshots, then assembling in After Effects, like animals.
We need some animal welfare improvements here.
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I’ve downloaded the CURRENT Bongo-2 for RH-6. I also - for continuity reasons still have -5 installed with ITS BONGO. Will the CURRENT download replace that and be available in BOTH my -5 & -6 ?
Thanks -
C. Fee
Yes, it will.
Luc
Luc -
Thanks !
More as it develops ( ;=) ! )
-C.
Hi. I have Bongo V1.0 and want to upgrade to V2 for Rhino6. I don’t see and upgrade path, so does this mean I need to purchase a completely new licence for B2?