>> There is blender-2.78.c out there. I renamed the 2.78a-r1 ebuild and even >> appended PYTHON_COMPAT=( python3_6 ) and not just it >> compiled ok, but works too. Is there a reason to limit blender to Python 3.5? I open here a new ticket for the request in https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=608938#c3 There are several positive reports about Python 3.6 compatibility: http://sinestesia.co/blog/tutorials/building-blender/ The Blender wiki https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Doc/Building_Blender/Linux/Dependencies_From_Source mentions only Python 3.5
Here is a statement via IRC #blendercoders mont29: We did quick tests with py3.6, Blender seems to work OK... but we won’t support e.g. bugreports comming from those mont29: 2.79 will officially use 3.5 too, we then probably switch to 3.6 for blender 2.8 Perhaps one could add an einfo that 3.6 is not officially supported yet, and add the Python 3.6 dependency as alternative to 3.5. The blender wiki page was updated to for clarification """ Newer Python Versions Usually, Blender does build and work nice with newer Python versions. However, we do not officially support those, so if you want to be on the cutting edge you are on your own… """ https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Doc/Building_Blender/Linux/Dependencies_From_Source
I can confirm that Blender-2.78c with Python3.6 sometimes is buggy and slow and it's interfaces becomes all messed up. Better stick with 3.5 for 2.78*. Otherwise the 2.78c is stable enough to bump the existing ebuilds.
Blender 2.79 is out with support for Python 3.6, so I'm keeping 2.78 as python 3.5 only. I'm thinking of removing them anyways and focus on 2.79 and above for stable as I added a new features to 2.79, like OSL support. OSL can do insanely cool things.