READ FIRST PLEASE - THIS GITHUB IS NOT MONITORED BY ANYONE SO DON'T BOTHER POSTING AN ISSUES, READ THIS INSTEAD!

[Yusarina]

This GitHub is not monitored by anyone, so please, for the love of God, don't post issues, and please keep this issue on top so users can find it. I will personally no longer be checking this GitHub and replying to users who can't be bothered to simply read the top issue before there post one. All the information you need about the current state of Cats will be in the post.

READ THIS FULLY BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING, PLEASE!!!!!

First of all, if you want to download a version of Cats that works for your Blender version, I highly suggest you use this website. This is an unofficial website run by the Neoneko team, who currently maintain the Unofficial Cats version, which works with Blender 4.x: https://catsblenderplugin.xyz

Now that we've got that out of the way, why isn't the Official Cats updated?

Simply put, the original owner vanished in 2021 and has not been active, even in the Official Cats Discord server, since then. I also believe there wasn't really contributing to the project for longer than that. Since at least 2021, it was the community keeping the project alive. However, this slowed down, and since the last 2 years, not many new features or bug fixes were added to the dev version. The main branch has been untouched for 3 years, and there has not been an official release since 2021. Due to this and the fact that there has not been an official response since 05/04/2023, I think we can confirm Cats has been abandoned. You can see the official announcement from the Cats Discord server below:

"Due to problems beyond our control, we cannot give an estimate of when there will be an official update. This is due to many reasons, one of which is that the only reason why the addon gets any support anyways is because of the community. Because the community doesn't own the project, we cannot do anything to release an update. We can push code and update development and sometimes master, but since the owner has kind of gone on a hiatus we have no idea when or even if they will return. The owner is the only one capable of pushing a release thing that everyone loves downloading. The code thankfully is able to work without being compiled, so that is a big reason why we can happily give people the latest version without the owner's involvement. The programmers, translators, and contributors to the plugin are in the same boat.
What I can unveil is that negotiations are ongoing, and Hotox is working every day to gain the permissions to release updates and get the train rolling.
So sit back. Asking isn't gonna make it go any faster. Probably..."

As of 18/06/2024, there isn't an official response from either Givemeallyourcats (Original Dev) or Hotox, who is supposedly the other main dev. However, the Patreon is still up, and they are still getting money from unsuspecting users. I highly advise that if you are subbed to the Cats Patreon, unsubscribe, as you will never get a new version of the Official Cats.

Is there an alternative to CATS?

Yes, there is. Team Neoneko has been formed and is working on the Unofficial Cats version. This team was formed to try and avoid the mistakes of the past, and we hope to avoid the "If someone vanishes issue" like the original Cats has.

• You can find the Unofficial Cats webstie here: https://catsblenderplugin.xyz/
• You can fun the Unofficial Cats FAQ here, this will also answer some further questions you may have: https://catsblenderplugin.xyz/faq.html
• You can find the Unofficial Cats Github here: https://github.com/unofficalcats/Cats-Blender-Plugin-Unofficial-
• If you want the bake and decimation features the released version of Cats has, we suggest you use Tuxedo which has the old bake features, which you can find their Github here: https://github.com/feilen/tuxedo-blender-plugin
• You can also find material combiner here: https://github.com/Grim-es/material-combiner-addon

Okay, that's all cool and all, but I don't like using an unofficial one, so what can I do?

Well, you have to use Blender 3.5.x or 3.6.x (excluding 3.6.0, as that's a buggy mess). Do not use the main branch or a released version unless you are using Blender 2.9x or below. (Don't use the main branch on Blender 3.0 or above, please listen to this).

On Blender 3.5.x or 3.6.x (excluding 3.6.0, as that's a buggy mess), you can use the dev branch:

You can find the dev version here: https://github.com/absolute-quantum/cats-blender-plugin/tree/development
Direct zip download: https://github.com/absolute-quantum/cats-blender-plugin/archive/refs/heads/development.zip

I get this issue below:

That's because you didn't read what I put whatsoever. I said DO NOT USE THE MAIN BRANCH OR A RELEASED VERSION ON BLENDER 3.0+, use the dev branch.

Why can't I use the main branch on Blender 3.0+?

Because the main branch has not been updated in years and does not contain the many fixes and improvements the dev branch has for these versions of Blender.

Why can't I use Blender 4.x+?

Blender 4.x has quite a few API changes which break some functions in CATS and MMD Tools. You will find certain functions like the Fix Model button and some other functions will give you errors. This will only get worse with Blender 4.1 and above, as Blender is changing a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff. Therefore, even though Cats semi-works on 4.0, from 4.1 onwards, Cats will most likely completely break.

You keep talking about these MMD Tools. What is this?

MMD Tools is a 3rd party plugin that Cats uses for several things, including importing MMD/VRM stuff, etc. It's a key component of Cats, and several features would not work without it. Hence, CATS is reliant on MMD Tools to be updated for Cats to work 100%.

But I must have the official version for Blender 4.0!

If you MUST have the official Cats work on Blender 4.0 (even though I've done all the work for you and more on my version), then you can try to apply the changes from pull request #648 to the dev version of Cats. DON'T USE ANY OTHER PULL REQUEST, AS MOST ARE FOR THE MAIN BRANCH, AND DO NOT USE A RELEASED VERSION OR MAIN BRANCH OF CATS.

You can then also download and manually update Cats' version of MMD Tools as well. To update MMD Tools, you can do the following:

1. Delete the mmd_tools_local folder in the extern_tools folder.
2. Paste the updated mmd_tools folder into the root of the project.
3. Refactor the folder name "mmd_tools" to "mmd_tools_local" and update all references in all files for MMD Tools.
4. Move the mmd_tools_local folder into the extern_tools folder.
5. Search for "show_backface_culling" and set it to False in view.py.
6. Done

Please note that although the above guide works on Blender 4.0, if Cats functions break, there is no fix for this.

But I must have the official version for Blender 4.1+!

Blender 4.1 and above have further changes that cannot be explained easily how to fix. You're better off just using the Unofficial Cats at this point. The Unofficial Cats has A LOT of fixes and changes which improve the overall experience. And when it comes to Blender 4.2, that's a whole different ball game.

Do not use the main branch for 4.x. You will find more and more issues on the main branch which are fixed in the dev version.

As more frequent questions come in, I will update this. If the above hasn't answered your question, then post an issue. HOWEVER, don't expect anyone to answer, as again, this GitHub has basically been abandoned at this point.