Blender Changelog

What's new in Blender 3.6.10 LTS

Mar 20, 2024
  • Migration of libraries to Git LFS. [#108978]
  • install_linux_packages: Add git-lfs to ‘build essentials’. [888c41316f]
  • Deleting an unused light group caused the environment light group to render to another light group. [#117586]
  • Crash on attempting to rename linked object from the NLA. [#118225]
  • Fix #107228: AttributeGroup.new crash when layer cannot be created. [#118378]
  • Crash when delete linked object in scenes outliner. [#105968]
  • image > copy, adds 3 white pixels on the left, deletes 3 pixels on the right. [#118351]
  • GPencil: Blender crash when file open. [#102930]
  • Fix: Cycles incorrect rendering of certain negative strength lights. [a3702760609]
  • Cycles: Improve reporting of HIP texture allocation failures. [5fc714999bf]
  • Fix: Cycles HIP incorrect rendering of clip image textures. [89d8f12730c]
  • Cycles Crash on deleting/hiding all mesh objects with HIP RT (Experimental). [#112983]
  • Cycles: HIP search for ROCm 6 driver. [0ea4ac2ef39]
  • Blender crashes at OpenGL render if viewport.lock_rotation is True. [#119058]
  • Blender Crashes when trying to create a Pivot Constraint for armature. [#104657]
  • blender crash itself while importing a dae (collide) file. [#102860]
  • Collada export crashes (when relative “//” is in `Preferences` > `File Paths` > `Temporary Files`). [#95411]
  • Specific Rig Crashes blender when going into pose mode. [#84848]
  • Able to link an external collection inside another linked collection, causes data loss. [#119142]
  • ‘Set Action’ in outliner does not correctly update the animation. [#119106]
  • Segmentation fault when selecting context.area.type before applying operator (scripting). [#54468]
  • Copy material to selected causes crash when receiving object doesn’t have a material slot. [#114552]
  • Outliner (Data API mode) crash trying to display a MeshSkinVertex in editmode. [#79961]
  • Build: upgrade Intel Graphics Compiler on Linux. [95c42a9d]
  • Build: Upgrade Intel Graphics Compiler to 1.0.15468 on Linux. [d8cca36c788]
  • Possible crash with Motion Blur with changing curves count. [#117485]
  • Crash loading certain .exr file in compositor. [#101227]
  • IMB: Read single-layer XYZ channels as a combined image. [23df139aafb5f31c0b370c0c5fa9bf2ec22d026a]
  • IMB: Support rgba and V channels in single-layer EXR. [b54a26ede47668a3aba537e1f57d6b60d54f1778]
  • liboverride_troubleshoot_operation(): fails with context incorrect, even with screen.areas.type == ‘OUTLINER’. [#118299]
  • library override causes incorrect parenting (and subsequent problems). [#118300]
  • Fix LibOverride asserting when same RNA path changes type. [2c4589ca82]

New in Blender 3.3.17 LTS (Mar 20, 2024)

  • install_deps: Add git-lfs to ‘build essentials’. [d78a01b8a9]
  • Blender 3.3: Switch SVN to Git submodules using Git-LFS. [6481bf32b37]
  • Deleting an unused light group caused the environment light group to render to another light group. [#117586]
  • Possible crash with Motion Blur with changing curves count. [#117485]
  • Crash loading certain .exr file in compositor. [#101227]
  • IMB: Support rgba and V channels in single-layer EXR. [387d38366638656ca82560b744841d51b9c38a92]
  • IMB: Read single-layer XYZ channels as a combined image. [a7ae75235f50b1b9d4293b2e220a520ecc2adfa8]
  • Crash on attempting to rename linked object from the NLA. [#118225]
  • Crash when delete linked object in scenes outliner. [#105968]
  • GPencil: Blender crash when file open. [#102930]
  • Cycles: Improve reporting of HIP texture allocation failures. [25cee646ad5]
  • Fix: Cycles HIP incorrect rendering of clip image textures. [a3445a45290]
  • Crash when opening the Compositor in an old file. [#117795]
  • Able to link an external collection inside another linked collection, causes data loss. [#119142]
  • ‘Set Action’ in outliner does not correctly update the animation. [#119106]
  • Copy material to selected causes crash when receiving object doesn’t have a material slot. [#114552]

New in Blender 4.0.0 (Nov 15, 2023)

  • Animation & Rigging:
  • Pose Library:
  • The pose library uses the newly introduced asset shelf to make pose assets available in the 3D viewport.
  • Pose library in the asset shelf:
  • Bone Collections and Colors:
  • New bone collections replace both legacy numbered layers and bone groups. Bone collections can be named and are no longer limited to a fixed number. Colors are now specified individually for each bone, replacing bone group colors. (Design #108941, 998136f7a7)
  • Bone colors can be defined on the armature (edit mode) bones, as well as on the pose bones (also see Gotchas: edit bones, pose bones, bone bones). The "edit mode" colors are shared between all users of the armature, and are available in edit mode as well as pose mode. The "pose mode" colors can be different per armature object (in the same way that each armature object has its own pose), and thus allow per-character customization of colors. The pose mode colors work as override on the edit mode colors; setting the pose color to "default" will show the edit mode color. (042c5347f4)
  • The Select Grouped operator (Shift+G) can now select by bone color and by bone collection. This works based on the active bone; it selects all the other bones with the same color resp. sharing one or more bone collections. This is slightly different than before, where all selected bones were taken into account. (e41fbfd6e9, c230c52626, d5329eeea2, e59944dba4, 62639080bc)
  • The Bone Layer operators (M, Shift+M) have been replaced by bone collection operators. (b48031df8e)
  • Bone collections can be added to linked armatures via library overrides.
  • The Armature property show_group_colors has been renamed to show_bone_colors. (f78ed7b900)
  • The "Skeleton" panel in the Armature properties has been renamed to "Pose". (007cea4653)
  • See Bone Collections & Colors: Upgrading for an overview of how to change Python code from armature layers & bone groups to bone collections.
  • Bendy Bones:
  • A new method of mapping vertices to B-Bone segments for deformation that takes the rest pose curvature into account has been added. (0055ae01ab, Wiki)
  • The new mapping is slower to compute, but produces better deformation when the B-Bone is strongly curved in the rest pose, e.g. in a corner of the mouth.
  • Preserve Volume:
  • The long standing issue with Preserve Volume causing distortion when rotation is combined with scaling has been fixed. (f12e9f32b5, dee29f4e81)
  • NLA Editor:
  • NLA Strips can now be vertically re-ordered. Strips can vertically be dragged through existing strips, and locked tracks. (4268ac0ed9)
  • Vertically clamp scrolling to view. Preventing infinite scrolling. (7146371964)
  • Graph Editor:
  • Editing:
  • Interactive sliders for Match Slope, Blend To Ease, Blend Offset, Shear Keys, Scale Average, Time Offset, Push/Pull. (PR #110567, PR #110566, PR #110544, PR #111735, PR #111744, PR #110540, PR #112388)
  • Butterworth Smoothing filter. (PR #106952)
  • Select/deselect handles from current selection. (PR #111143)
  • Performance:
  • The performance of the Graph Editor has been greatly enhanced for when it comes to dense key data. (PR #110301, PR #110764, PR #110788, PR #112126,
  • In the following test setup with 6000 keys per channel on 62 bones, performance was improved between 5x and 10x depending on the zoom level.
  • Animation playback timing was improved, to avoid jitter between frames. (#111579)
  • Weight Paint:
  • Add loop select for faces. (PR #107653)
  • User Interface:
  • Channel list background colors have moved from covering the entire background (making text hard to read) to a small rectangle. The channel background color is also more subtle and blends in better. As the feature now no longer causes hard to read text, the "Channel Group Colors" option in the preferences has been enabled by default. (c524fbe623)
  • Improved drawing of locked FCurves. (PR #106052)
  • Multi Editing for FCurve modifiers. (PR #112419)
  • Support adjusting the number of samples used for FPS playback display in the preferences. (b150b47720)
  • Rename "Bake Curve" to "Keys to Samples". (PR #111049)
  • Rename "Sample Keyframes" to "Bake Keyframes". (PR #112148, PR #112151)
  • Keep icons aligned when curves are baked. (PR #108518)
  • Breaking Changes:
  • 1-9 hotkeys for switching collection visibility have been removed from Pose Mode. (PR #105120)
  • Certain Graph Editor Slider tools had their range changed from 0-1 to -1/1: Blend to Neighbor, Breakdown, Ease. (PR #107173)
  • Making Make Vertex Weight Edit modifier Group Add / Remove threshold inclusive. 1837bda030
  • The "Push Rest Pose" and "Relax Rest Pose" operators have been merge into "Blend Pose with Rest Pose". (PR #108309)
  • Update NLA "Duplicate hotkey" to be "Duplicate Linked" by default. (8183f21258)
  • The "Tab" shortcut to enter tweak mode in the NLA now defaults to "full stack evaluation". (b95cf5ff0f)
  • The Preserve Volume deformation fix may change deformation in existing rigs (see above).
  • Snapping for the Graph Editor, NLA and Dope Sheet have moved to the scene. (PR #109015)
  • Armature Layers and Bone Groups have been removed, and replaced with Bone Collections and per-bone colors (see above).
  • Bones influenced by an Inverse Kinematics (IK) constraint can now be keyed visually. This means that when the 'Use Visual Keying' preferenced is enabled, visual keying is used on such bones (where in Blender 3.6 and older still would create regular keys). (eab95fa2aa)
  • Geometry Nodes:
  • Node-Based Tools:
  • Node tools are an accessible way to expand Blender and customize tools without requiring Python.
  • Geometry node node groups can now be used as operators from the 3D view menus.
  • Specific nodes are available for controlling tool-specific data:
  • Edit mode selection is accessible with the Selection and controllable with the Set Selection node.
  • Sculpt face sets are accessible as well with the Face Set and Set Face Set nodes.
  • The 3D Cursor node gives access to the 3D cursor location and rotation.
  • General:
  • The new Repeat zone allows repeating nodes a dynamic number of times. See Manual. (3d73b71a97, c8cc169d6f)
  • The mesh sharp edge status is accessible in builtin nodes. (4e97def8a3)
  • The Mesh to Volume node now generates a proper fog volume rather than a converted SDF. (700d168a5c)
  • The "Exterior Band Width" and "Fill Interior" options have been removed.
  • The Points to Curves node groups point cloud points into curves and sorts each curve's points based on a weight. (48b08199d5)
  • A new debug utility helps to check procedural systems for bad index dependence. (cc7da09c1b)
  • Rotation sockets and eight new rotation nodes are available for simpler processing. See Manual. (34e4bedcd8).
  • Axis Angle to Rotation
  • Rotation to Axis Angle
  • Quaternion to Rotation
  • Rotation to Quaternion
  • Euler to Rotation
  • Rotation to Euler
  • Rotate Vector
  • Invert Rotation
  • Simulation zones can now be baked individually. (ad169ba67a)
  • The Simulation Output node has a new Skip input. (dd515ebc1d)
  • Modifiers:
  • The "Add Modifier" menu has been changed to a standard menu and is extended with custom modifiers from geometry node group assets. (6da4b87661)
  • When geometry node groups are marked as assets and the "Is Modifier" property is enabled, the asset catalog path is used to dynamically create the modifier menu.
  • Assets unassigned to any node group are displayed in a separate "Unassigned" category. (d2d4de8c71)
  • Two new options help to clean up the modifier interface
  • The node group selector can be disabled, which happens by default for node group asset modifiers. (0783debda8)
  • Inputs can be forced to be single values to remove the attribute toggle. (6875925efa)
  • This also removes the attribute toggle in the node tool redo panel.
  • Performance:
  • The Curve to Mesh node is significantly faster when the profile input is a single point.
  • When the input point is at the origin, tangent, normal, and radii calculations are skipped, giving a 2x improvement. (6e9f54cbda)
  • Handling with many point-domain attributes is improved, with an observed 4x improvement. (48fad9cd0c)
  • Further improvements avoiding copying attributes entirely are possible when all curves are poly curves. (bef20cd3f1)
  • Modeling:
  • Modifiers:
  • The Add Modifier menu has been changed to a standard menu and now includes geometry nodes assets.
  • A new "Shift A" shortcut opens the Add Modifier menu in the properties editor.
  • Snap and Navigation:
  • You can now press B to set base point when you transform objects. This allows for a fast and precise snap from vertex to vertex.
  • Additionally you can navigate while transforming while holding Alt, and there are different snap symbols for the different snap types (vertex, mid-point, perpendicular, ...).
  • It is now possible to navigate while transform (Move, Rotate, Scale, Edge Slide, Vert Slide, and Shrink/Fatten), by default you have to hold Alt and navigate. (33c13ae6e3, 017d4912b2).
  • Transform operations now have a new feature to edit the 'Snap Base' (3010f1233b).
  • Bones now support snapping with "Align Rotation to Target" (dea93845af and 4d1593c4ad).
  • New snap symbols (9c2e768f5b, fb556c75df).
  • User Interface:
  • The snapping menu has been reworked (8e059b569b).
  • Snap With was moved to the beginning of the popover
  • Align Rotation to Target and Backface Culling were moved closer to the snap targets
  • Snap With, Target Selection and Align Rotation to Target are no longer hidden by varying the mode and options
  • Project Individual Elements has been replaced with the Face Project option
  • Face Nearest has been moved to stick together with the Face Project option
  • Shape Keys:
  • The Blend From Shape and Propagate To Shapes operators now respect X symmetry (0bd95dd963, 4d0dbab5b1)
  • UV Editor:
  • Add Invert Pins operator.
  • Sculpt, Paint, Texture:
  • Enhancements:
  • Vertex Paint: Add set vertex colors option to lock alpha (PR #111002)
  • Sculpt: Remove dynamic topology "Smooth Shading" option (PR #110548)
  • Sculpt: Expand Mask inverted fill (PR #111665)
  • Weight Paint: Allow setting weights (Ctrl+X) without paintmask enabled (0b1d2d63fe)
  • Shading & Texturing:
  • Principled BSDF:
  • The Principled BSDF node has been revamped to support a wide ranger of material types.
  • Sheen uses a new microfiber shading model, and is the top layer above emission and coat. Traditionally sheen has been used for fuzzy cloth, but now it can also be used for dust on arbitrary materials.
  • Coat was placed above the emission layer. This can be used to simulate for example an emissive phone screen behind glass. Coat tint and IOR inputs were added, so that it can be used for more than a white clearcoat.
  • Subsurface scattering uses the base color instead of a separate color input. There is a new subsurface scale input to adjust the RGB radius.
  • Specular reflection and transmission are now primarily controlled by a single index of refraction input. For texturing, a new IOR Level input adjust the amount of specular reflection. For artistic purposes, specular tint be can set to an arbitrary color.
  • Metallic surfaces gained edge tinting using the specular tint input. This is an artist friendly parameter to render complex index of refraction, based on the F82 tint model.
  • Multiple scattering GGX is more efficient to render in Cycles, and now used by default. Layering of the components as a whole is more energy conserving, which means existing materials can render slightly darker or lighter depending on the scene.
  • BSDF Nodes:
  • The Glossy and Anisotropic BSDF were merged into a single Glossy BSDF with anisotropy control. When opening files saved in 4.0 in older versions, all "Glossy BSDF" nodes will show up as Anisotropic BSDF nodes. (8cde7d8f8a)
  • Normal Map now has better interpolation for the Strength input for tangent space normal maps, avoiding the normal going below the surface for strength larger than 1. This changes the looks of existing renders where Strength was not 1. (PR #109763)
  • The Velvet BSDF node has been renamed to Sheen BSDF, and a new shading model ("Microfiber") has been added as the default option. The previous model is still available as "Ashikhmin", so existing files remain unchanged. (PR #108869)
  • The new model is an implementation of "Practical Multiple-Scattering Sheen Using Linearly Transformed Cosines" by Tizian Zeltner, Brent Burley and Matt Jen-Yuan Chiang, which approximates the effect of multiple scattering between normal-oriented microscopic fibers using LTC distributions.
  • This BSDF is only supported in Cycles so far, in EEVEE it will be rendered as a diffuse BSDF.
  • Texture Nodes:
  • Noise Texture:
  • New inputs for the Noise Texture node, which generates fractal Perlin noise. (0702c24a36)
  • Normalize: normalize output to be within 0..1 range. This is most useful for colors or blending factors, while bump or displacement does not need it.
  • Lacunarity: the factor each successive layer is scaled with.
  • Voronoi Texture:
  • The Voronoi Texture node has support for fractal noise now, to add multiple layers of details. There are 3 new inputs. (144ad4d20b)
  • Detail: number of layers to compute.
  • Roughness: how much influence the higher layers have on the final output
  • Lacunarity: the factor each successive layer is scaled with.
  • Additionally a "Normalize" property was added, which if checked will remap the Distance and Color outputs to a [0.0, 1.0] range.
  • Lights:
  • Light UV is now available for all light sources in Image Texture node (#108691)
  • Light sources have slightly different behaviours than before for energy preservation and better compatibility with other renders #108505, including:
  • Point light and spot light are changed to double-sided sphere lights (#108506 #109329). Besides, the light normal now points from light center to the sampled/intersected position on the sphere, any pipeline that was using the light normal should use the Incoming socket of the Geometry shader node instead.
  • Sun light behaves better at large angular diameters, and gives the same intensity regardless of the angular diameter. (#108996)
  • Corrected conversion factor for area lights (482211b7e0)
  • Cycles:
  • Light and Shadow Linking:
  • With light linking, lights can be set to affect only specific objects in the scene. Shadow linking additionally gives control over which objects acts as shadow blockers for a light. (ba3f26fac5)
  • This adds more artistic control for lighting by breaking the laws of physics. For example the environment and characters in a shot might have different light setups. A character could have a dedicated linked rim light to make it stand out, and shadow linking could be used to ensure no objects from the environment block it.
  • In a future version we plan to support linking to the world lighting, and add a more convenient user interface to view and manage all light links in a scene.
  • Path Guiding:
  • Path Guiding now works on glossy surfaces in addition to diffuse surfaces. This can significantly reduce noise on glossy surfaces, and find otherwise missing glossy light paths. (PR #107782)
  • Multiple Scattering GGX:
  • The Multiscattering GGX implementation was replaced by an approximation based on "Practical multiple scattering compensation for microfacet models" by Emmanuel Turquin. (888bdc1419)
  • This removes the performance and noise disadvantage that used to be associated with Multiscattering GGX, making it a safe default pick.
  • While the directional distribution is no longer theoretically ideal, which can lead to slight differences in rendered images, the overall effect of the multiscattering correction (preserving energy, avoiding darkening at high roughness, and increasing saturation at high roughness) still applies.
  • For highly anisotropic materials, the compensation might not be perfect. This is a limitation of the currently known approximation methods.
  • Principled Hair BSDF:
  • A new variant called "Huang" is added, based on the paper A Microfacet-based Hair Scattering Model by Weizhen Huang, Matthias B. Hullin and Johannes Hanika (PR #105600). The previous Principled Hair BSDF is now the "Chiang" variant.
  • Supports elliptical cross-sections, adding more realism as human hairs are usually elliptical. The orientation of the cross-section is aligned with the curve normal, which can be adjusted using geometry nodes. Default is minimal twist.
  • This is a far-field model, as opposed to the near-field Principled Hair BSDF model. The hair is expected to be less noisy, but lower roughness values takes longer to render due to numerical integration along the hair width. The hair also appears to be flat when viewed up-close.
  • Gives nicer focused reflection when viewed against the light.
  • Open Shading Language:
  • Most Cycles-specific microfacet closures were removed since they are redundant now that Cycles implements the generic microfacet() closure of the OSL standard. (888bdc1419)
  • Specifically, the microfacet() closure supports the distributions beckmann, sharp, ashikhmin_shirley, ggx, multi_ggx and clearcoat. The refract argument supports 0 for pure reflection, 1 for pure refraction, and 2 for both (based on dielectric Fresnel according to the specified IOR).
  • Additionally, the three MaterialX microfacet closures dielectric_bsdf(), conductor_bsdf() and generalized_schlick_bsdf() are provided. These only support beckmann, ggx and multi_ggx distributions.
  • Two Cycles-specific closures remain, but they are for internal use and should not be relied upon by user-created OSL shaders.
  • Metal Hardware Raytracing:
  • The new Apple M3 processor supports hardware ray-tracing. Cycles takes advantage of this by default, with the MetalRT in the GPU device preferences set to "Auto".
  • For the M1 and M2 processors MetalRT is no longer an experimental feature, and fully supported now. However it is off by default, as Cycles' own intersection code still has better performance when there is no hardware ray-tracing.
  • Other:
  • Performance improvements to geometry upload from Blender 3.6 continued, with a 1.76x improvement measure for a large mesh (2fac2228d0).
  • Metal AMD GPU rendering has a significant performance regression in scenes that use the Principled Hair BSDF, in addition to existing lack of support for the light tree and shadow caustics. Due to GPU driver limitations that are unlikely to be fixed, it is expected that AMD GPU rendering on macOS will be disabled entirely in a future release.
  • Support for rendering with AMD RDNA2 and RDNA3 APUs is added.
  • Color Management:
  • AgX View Transform:
  • The AgX view transform has been added, and replaces Filmic as the default in new files. (a9053f7efb)
  • This view transform provides better color handling in over-exposed areas compared to Filmic. In particular bright colors go towards white, similar to real cameras. Technical details and image comparisons can be found in PR #106355.
  • HDR Display on macOS:
  • A new High Dynamic Range option was added in the Color Management > Display panel. It enables display of extended color ranges above 1.0 for the 3D viewport, image editor and render previews. (2367ed2ef2)
  • This requires a monitor that can display HDR colors, and a view transform designed for HDR output. The Standard view transform works, but Filmic and AgX do not as they were designed to bring values into the 0..1 range for SDR displays.
  • New Color Spaces:
  • New linear spaces and display devices were added, together with some renaming to improve clarity. Forward compatibility code is included into Blender 3.6. (6923f7a153)
  • Removed Features:
  • Textures and other areas of Blender now always considers the color management is enabled. This used to be a compatibility option for the "No Color Management" setting in Blender pre 2.64. To achieve the same functionality the images need to be set to Non-Color space. (63e2832057)
  • Unused color spaces and display devices were removed from the OCIO configuration (b2b7b37139)
  • The XYZ display was only used to output images in XYZ space, for which there is now an option in the image output settings. Instead of the None display use Raw vie of the sRGB display. There is a versioning code in place to migrate the display settings to the new notation.
  • Compositor:
  • Viewport Nodes:
  • The following nodes are now supported in the Viewport Compositor:
  • Movie Distortion
  • Sun Beams
  • Keying
  • Kuwahara (classic and anisotropic)
  • Inpaint
  • Double Edge Mask
  • Kuwahara Filter:
  • Kuwahara filter node for the compositor, to give images a painterly look. (f3cb157452)
  • User Interface:
  • The compositor nodes add menu has been re-organized for consistency with other editors. (75919610b4)
  • Node preview images have been moved to an overlay displayed above the node. The overlays menu has an option to show and hide all previews (PR #108001).
  • Sequencer:
  • Interactive Retiming:
  • A new system for interactively retiming strips was added in the sequencer. (e1f6587f12, 4dc026ec8e), 6d215b87ce, f4d6edd476), 86a0d0015a)
  • Adjust the speed of strips by dragging retiming keys. Additional keys can be added by pressing the I key. The keys can be edited by pressing the Ctrl + R shortcut.
  • Retiming also supports smoothly transitioning from one speed to another. Transitions can be created by right clicking on a key, or from retiming menu and choosing Add Speed Transition. Freeze frames can be added similar to transition keys.
  • The speed of whole strips or a retimed segment can be set by using Set Speed operator from retiming menu.
  • Retiming keys can be hidden by turning off the retiming overlay.
  • Sound Strips:
  • Sound strip waveforms are now processed much faster. (b11540a65f)
  • New equalizer modifier for sound strips. (1015bed2fd)
  • Breaking Changes:
  • The Depth socket was removed from the non-multilayer image node, viewer, and composite output nodes. This was a legacy feature, replaced by more general multilayer OpenEXR output. (e1b60fdb91)
  • The "Distort" socket was renamed to "Distortion" in the Lens Distortion compositing node. (fe62eebba4)
  • Import & Export:
  • USD:
  • Skeleton and blend shape animation import through UsdSkel. (PR #110912)
  • Generic mesh attribute import and export for meshes. (PR #109518)
  • Light import and export improvements to follow USD conventions more closely. (PR #109795)
  • Camera import and export improvements. (PR #112905)
  • Export can now be extended with Python scripts through hooks. See the USDHook API documentation for details and example code. (PR #108823)
  • 3DS:
  • Export Animation:
  • The 3ds exporter now got the property to export animation keyframes. (PR #104613)
  • Keyframe export is optional to avoid crashing any importers wich can not handle the keyframe section. (585a682ef8, da9bb97bea)
  • Export Hierarchy:
  • 3ds objects now got hierarchy chunks to preserve the object tree. (PR #104682)
  • The object tree can now be exported without the keyframe section needed. (0d26a2a017)
  • Export Scale:
  • Global scale for exporting a 3ds can now be setted. (PR #104767)
  • Since many applications are using millimeters, this option is useful to convert the measure units. (17f142e55d)
  • Convert Measure:
  • The 3ds importer and exporter now got the ability to converts the unit measure for all metric and imperial units. (PR #104769)
  • Many 3ds files were exported in millimeter unit scale, this option converts too big meshes to Blender meter scale. (675987e938)
  • Object Filter:
  • Both, the importer and the exporter got the new option to filter objects for import and export. (PR #104778, PR #104782)
  • Volume, fog, gradient and background bitmap:
  • Atmosphere settings, layerfog parameter and background image can now be imported and exported. (PR #104795, 6fad9e9725)
  • Gradient and fog chunks can now be imported and exported. (PR #104811, a53788722b, 7cd6969b3e)
  • Spotlight aspect and projector:
  • If a spotlight includes a gobo image, it will be exported in the light bitmap chunk and imported the same way. (PR #104813, f1e443f119)
  • The x/y scale of a spotlight can now be exported in the aspect ratio chunk, the importer calculates the aspect back to x/y scale. (PR #104815, 7e2f96796a)
  • Cursor location:
  • The 3D cursor can now saved to a 3ds file and imported again. (PR #104797, 75ea7633f6)
  • New Principled BSDF material support:
  • Moved specular texture to specular tint. (PR #104918, fef728a568)
  • Added transmission and coat weight parameters. (a5d3364c33, d82ce1770f, 9d57b190b8, 8f6d8d9fc9)
  • Added tint colors for coat and sheen. (ec069c3b6a)
  • FBX:
  • FBX binary file reading and parsing speed has been improved. (890e51e769, a600aeb2e2)
  • Animation import performance was made faster. (abab1c9343, e7b1962893)
  • Animation export performance was made faster. (73c65b9a44, 461e0c3e1e)
  • Vertex Group export performance was made faster. (63d4898e1d)
  • Armature data custom properties can now be imported and exported. (2b8d9bf2b8).
  • Shape keys can now be exported when Triangulate Faces is enabled or when Objects have Object-linked materials. (bc801d7b1d)
  • OBJ and PLY:
  • The OBJ and PLY I/O add-ons have been removed. Importing and exporting this format is now implemented natively in Blender, with significantly better performance. (#104504, 67a4aab0da, #104503, 67a4aab0da).
  • Collada:
  • Armatures exported to Collada now include the armature's bone collections, including their visibility (83306754d4). More info about bone collections.
  • Core:
  • Blend File Compatibility:
  • The new blendfile compatibility policy has been implemented. (#109151, PR #110109)
  • Very early 2.80 development 'scene collection' compatibility code as been removed. This does not affect any file produced by a released version of Blender. (#110918, PR #110926, 23835a393c)
  • Data-Blocks:
  • Custom Properties can now be defined from the UI to store references to other data-blocks (b3c7f3c8a9). Previously, this was only doable through Python API.
  • Library Overrides:
  • Many fixes and improvements were made, as part of the Blender Studio's "WING IT!" production. (PR #109704)
  • Parenting-related Object properties (the parent inverse matrix, parent type, parent sub-target) will now be reset to the linked reference data when parent pointer itself is modified in library file and updated during resync process (9ed5177055, 4842424220).
  • Cleanup-code pruning unused liboverride operations during RNA diffing would not always work properly, leading to accumulated invalid operations that could, under certain circumstances, end up severely breaking especially collections/objects hierarchies of liboverrides (784d09a87c).
  • Resync Enforce tool would not always work properly with collections of IDs (affecting especially Collections/Objects relationships) (2dfbd653a0, 1c0ffa1e18).
  • Code trying to fix invalid liboverride hierarchies was over-enthusiastic, which could pull data out of their valid original hierarchy into some more local, undesired one when production files start to become messy (bf93fb0f46).
  • Handling of lookup of items in RNA collections has been improved, to alleviate issues when there are name collisions between items (a05419f18b).
  • As a second approach to work around issue described above, changes were made to liboverride IDs naming, such that when created, they either get the exact same name as their linked reference, or they get a name that does not collide with any other linked override reference (b9becc47de, e11da03e7a).
  • Breaking Changes:
  • The Depth pass support was removed from OpenEXR (the non-multilayer case) and Iris (e1b60fdb91)
  • Unused linked data is no longer kept when saving and re-opening a blendfile. This was already partially the case in previous releases.
  • The 'Fake User' setting is now fully irrelevant for linked data, and systematically cleared on load or link.
  • When an unused (as in, having zero users) linked data-block needs to be kept in a blendfile, users are expected to reference them through a Custom Property (e.g. from a Scene, Collection or Object data-block).
  • See #106321 and the related commits b3c7f3c8a9 and f052b18a65.
  • Keep some animation data from library overrides when no animation data existed originally in the linked reference, but it got added later on in the library file. Previously, any change related to animation done in the liboverride data would have been lost (#110067, PR #110900, f188d6709f).
  • User Interface:
  • Search:
  • All regular dropdown and context menus can be searched by pressing spacebar. (35d3d52508).
  • Add menus can be searched by immediate typing. (b688414223).
  • Recently searched items are now at the top of search lists, with an option in the Preferences for disabling it. (8362563949).
  • Text:
  • Default user interface font changed to Inter. (f58f6d0338).
  • Text output now more pleasing and typographically correct. (a0b4ead737)
  • New user preference added for "subpixel anti-aliasing" for text output. (82bfc41d0c)
  • Chinese, Japanese, and Korean punctuation characters now recognized in word selection. (6d64c6dcd7)
  • Use multiplication symbol instead of letter "x" where appropriate. (9b4749e7c7)
  • Elements:
  • Consistent top-down content ordering in menus. Menus no longer reverse order if opening upward. (b122faf705)
  • All rotational inputs now shown with maximum precision. (b34ece48f8)
  • Tree-view UIs draw hierarchy lines to visually communicate the nesting levels better. (71273df2d5)
  • Many lists now highlight the currently-selected item. (9f4b28bba8).
  • List items that are not multiple select are now shown as radio buttons. (6dd3c90185).
  • Resizing the toolbar no longer breaks snapping when dragged beyond the maximum available size. (248b322896)
  • Windows and Linux: Color Picker can now pick outside of Blender windows. (5741a5d433, e5a0d11c4e)
  • The Color Picker size has been increased. (0c7496f74d)
  • Improvements to Color Ramp drawing. (8a3766e241)
  • Fix sidebar scrollbar overlapping category tabs when zooming. (080a00bda2)
  • Fixed scrollbars being highlighted while outside of their region. (4f6785774a)
  • Progress indicators now exposed to Python, including new ring version. (c6adafd8ef).
  • Allow transparency when editing text in widgets. (2ec2e52a90)
  • UI element outlines have changeable opacity, allowing for flat or minimalistic themes. (c033e434c5)
  • Window:
  • Window title improved order and now includes Blender version. (636f3697ee).
  • New Window now works while having an area maximized. (bb31df1054).
  • Save Incremental in File menu, to save the current .blend file with a numerically-incremented name. (a58e5ccdec)
  • Small changes to the File and Edit menus. (347e4692de)
  • Files and Asset Browsers:
  • File Browser side bar now showing Bookmarks, System, Volumes, Recent. (9659b2deda)
  • File and Asset Browser show a wait icon while previews are loading (4a3b6bfeac)
  • Thumbnail views now allow any preview size from 16-256. (fa32379def)
  • Image previews in File Browser now have checkerboard background if transparent. (e9e12015ea)
  • File Browser now shows thumbnail previews for SVG images. (565436bf5f)
  • Splash:
  • Splash screen changes to make it easier for users to bring previously saved settings into a new install. (13f5879e3c)
  • Text Editor:
  • Support auto-closing brackets around the selection (96339fc313)
  • Removed syntax highlighting support for LUA (95ca04dc20)
  • Python Console:
  • Support cursor motion, selection & more text editing operations (18e07098ef)
  • Support tab-stops instead of expanding to spaces (a5cd497543)
  • Other Editors:
  • Preferences: layout and style tweaks (d0aa521ea8)
  • Timeline: Invalid caches now show with striped lines. (8d15783a7e).
  • Outliner: Drag & Drop now works between multiple windows (d102536b1a).
  • Outliner: Select Hierarchy now works with multiple selected objects (594dceda7f).
  • Top Bar and Status Bar colors now exactly match their theme colors (d86d2a41e0).
  • Windows Integration:
  • Blend File association can now be done for all users or just the current users in the preferences. Unassociate is now available as well. Support for side-by-side installations was improved. (9cf77efaa0)
  • Recent file lists are now per Blender version.
  • Pinning a running Blender to the taskbar will properly pin the launcher.
  • Multiple Blender version are available for Open With in Windows Explorer.
  • Explorer "Quick Access" items added to File Browser System List (f1e7fe5492).
  • Translations:
  • The Catalan language is now one of six languages with complete coverage.
  • 3D Viewport:
  • Overlays:
  • New preference to toggle fresnel in Edit Mode.
  • Wire Color is now available for all shading modes.
  • Object/mode-specific overlays have been moved into their own popover. (4fa4f5432d)
  • Statistics: Ability to see per-item, and per-selection counts while in Object mode (6e20beba22).
  • User Interface:
  • Canvas selector in the header in paint modes. (3b5df8a7ea)
  • Tool settings headers in the 3D View and Image Editor draw with a fully transparent background (with the region overlap preference enabled) and the theme's region background behind clusters of buttons (55eaa755e3, ff78d33bb4).
  • The 3D Viewport background is now set to single-color in the default theme, since the vignette effect can lead to glitches in certain hardware according to community feedback (eef2b61e9)
  • 3D viewport header can now be made transparent (along with tool header) with theme color alpha change (d308f35896).
  • Tweaks to the Object Types visibility popover (7405993cb7).
  • Status text for modal operators now shown in the Tool Settings bar if visible (ca00c9aa3e).
  • The Options panel accessed in Object mode and Mesh Edit mode has been reorganized. (560e9c654b)
  • Other:
  • Text object selection can now start outside of the text block. Improved selection with text boxes and when on curves (5b3ce7b740).
  • Numpad Return key can add new line while editing Text Objects. (ff6b25a200).
  • Walk Navigation: New modal keymap to adjust jump height (f418e4f648).
  • Node Editor:
  • Node Panels:
  • Node panels feature for node groups and built-in nodes (#108895)
  • Panels can be used to group sockets in a collapsible section. They can be added to node groups and to built-in nodes.
  • Group sockets are managed in new UI tree view together with panels. Drag-and-drop support for ordering sockets and inserting into panels.
  • Node group API has breaking changes, see Python API for details and migration help.
  • Editing:
  • The "Make Group" and "Ungroup" operators are no longer available from the add menu. (7c2dc5183d)
  • Node group assets unassigned to any node group are displayed in a separate "No Catalog" add menu submenu. (d2d4de8c71)
  • Other:
  • In Preferences → Editing, a new panel was added to group all Node Editor specific settings (eb57163f).
  • Improvements to Node links to help readability at different zooms and monitor DPI (899d723da8).
  • Node snapping grid no longer changes size with changes to line width (04285c2d0e).
  • Keymap:
  • General:
  • Markers: it is now possible to rename markers with double left-click, for consistency with other areas in Blender. (26dcc961)
  • Tweak Tool: can now click-drag multiple objects at once in the 3D-viewport & UV-editor (618f39fca2)
  • The Preferences window can now be opened with Ctrl+Comma. (86f659ad96)
  • Pose Mode: 1..0 for switching between scene collections has been removed (adef3a4556)
  • Sculpt, Paint, Grease Pencil:
  • For Blender 4.0 various updates were made to the keymap. This will allow us to better support current and future features and only affects sculpting, painting and grease pencil related modes.
  • This is an overview of all changes that may affect users.
  • Left Click Select:
  • Better support for selecting individual faces/vertices while a brush is used (vertex/weight/texture painting). (fb54d3f865)
  • Alt LMB = Select
  • Shift Alt LMB = Select Extend/Toggle
  • Face Loop selection shortcuts (98d48c16a3) are only available if any selection tool is used.
  • 3 Mouse Button Emulation:
  • Selecting individual faces/verts is now supported and available from the selection tools (not while a brush is used). (fb54d3f865)
  • Selecting single bones is possible using Ctrl-Shift-LMB. (69e290d2fe)
  • Right Click Select:
  • More Mesh Sculpt Mode shortcuts are now properly supported:
  • W = Context Menu
  • Shift Ctrl LMB = Lasso Masking (PR #110960)
  • Shift Alt Ctrl LMB = Lasso Unmasking/Selecting (PR #110960)
  • Removed Shortcuts:
  • More space on the keyboard is now freed for user customization. If needed, any of these shortcuts can be added back by right clicking on the related UI button and using “Assign Shortcut”.
  • Some brush shortcuts are removed in Sculpt Mode and Grease Pencil. (a7dd864dcf) (fa27e6561e)
  • D = Gpencil: Draw brush
  • L = Mesh Sculpt Mode: Layer brush
  • Various unused or niche shortcuts have been removed. (a7dd864dcf)
  • Ctrl M = Mesh Sculpt Mode: Mask Overlay
  • Ctrl D = Mesh Sculpt Mode: Dyntopo toggle
  • Ctrl Alt R = Mesh Sculpt Mode: Quadriflow remesher on
  • Shift L = Gpencil: Alternate selection
  • Gpencil Draw Mode: 13 individual Guides shortcuts on Draw brush
  • Common Shortcuts:
  • Various shortcuts are now more consistent and shortcut conflicts are fixed. More features are now better supported.
  • 1,2,3 = Selection Modes (if available) (827918c925)
  • Full brush support in vertex/weight paint modes(6de6d7267f)
  • Shift LMB = Smooth stroke
  • Ctrl LMB = Inverted Stroke
  • Color & Weight painting shortcuts(6de6d7267f)
  • X = Flip Color (Not supported yet in Grease Pencil Draw Mode)
  • Shift X = Sample color/weight
  • Ctrl X = Fill color/weight
  • Shift Ctrl X = Weight Paint Mode: Sample Vertex Group
  • Other (6de6d7267f)
  • Alt E = Stroke Type Menu
  • Mesh Sculpt Mode:
  • Changed some brush shortcuts to more commonly used brushes and to avoid shortcut conflicts (fa27e6561e)
  • V = Draw Brush (previously on X)
  • S = Smooth Brush (previously on Shift S)
  • C = Clay Strips Brush (previously Clay)
  • Shift T = Scrape Brush (previously Flatten)
  • Other shortcuts (6de6d7267f)
  • Alt W = Face Set Edit pie menu
  • H = Hide Active Face Set
  • Shift H = Hide Inactive Face Sets / Show All
  • Alt 1 / Alt 2 = Increase/decrease Multires Levels
  • Ctrl R = Dyntopo flood fill if Dyntopo is enabled
  • Shift RMB = Set the Pivot Point for Transform Gizmos
  • Weight Paint Mode:
  • Ctrl-Shift-LMB = Selecting bones (69e290d2fe)
  • Shift A & Shift Alt A = Weight Paint Gradients (6de6d7267f)
  • Grease Pencil:
  • Alt I = Grease Pencil Delete Active Frame (6de6d7267f)
  • Gpencil Draw Mode: Box Delete and Lasso Delete shortcuts are easier to access.(a7dd864dcf)
  • The shortcuts on B and Ctrl Alt RMB were previously only available on the Draw brush. Now they are are accessible in the entire Draw Mode.
  • Grease Pencil shortcuts to select entire strokes are now consistent with Select Linked shortcuts on L & Shift L (PR #110960)
  • It’s also better supported to change to stroke selection mode and select stroke any time with mouse clicks.
  • Industry Compatible Keymap:
  • Many shortcuts of this keymap have been added and fixed for modes related to painting, sculpting and grease pencil. (8814101a20)
  • This will will help maintain and further support the keymap in the future. If any shortcut isn't mentioned, that means it is unchanged.
  • Removed Shortcuts:
  • All brush shortcuts have been removed for free custom mapping
  • Redundant shortcuts have been removed such as
  • Line Session drawing (In GP Draw Tool)
  • Select Alternate in GP
  • Quadriflow Remesh (In Mesh Sculpt Mode)
  • Box Hide (In Mesh Sculpt Mode)
  • Dynamic Topology Toggle (In Mesh Sculpt Mode)
  • Mask Overlay (In Mesh Sculpt Mode)
  • Removed Lasso Mask/Select shortcuts (This keymap is mainly using the Tools instead. Easy to add back if needed.)
  • Mode Switching:
  • Easier mode switching access for any workflow. The previous shortcuts heavily favored modeling. (a3d0006ac1)
  • 123 = Switch selection/mask modes for the current mode. If in object mode, it will first switch to edit mode (Previously this would always switch to edit mode)
  • 5 = Mode switching pie menu (previously 5-7 for individual modes)
  • Tilde = Transfer Mode (Previously not mapped. Useful for instant object switching while keeping the current mode)
  • 6-0 = Unassigned
  • Brush & Selection:
  • Multiple Modes were missing these shortcuts.
  • Shift LMB = Smooth Brush
  • Ctrl LMB = Inverted Brush
  • Shift Alt LMB = Set Selection
  • Shift Alt Ctrl LMB = Toggle-Extend Selection
  • Brush Size & Select Linked:
  • These were previously in direct conflict. Now they are both distinct and based on other DCC software.
  • [ = Decrease Brush Size
  • ] = Increase Brush Size
  • Alt dbl LMB = Select Linked Pick
  • Ctrl Alt dbl LMB = Deselect Linked Pick
  • Ctrl L = Select Linked
  • Select & Mask:
  • Q = Cycle Masking/Selection Tools
  • Ctrl A = Mask Pie Menu (Mesh Sculpt Mode)
  • Alt A = Auto-Masking Pie Menu (Mesh & GP Sculpt Mode)
  • Shift A = Expand Mask (Mesh Sculpt Mode) / Grow Selection (Curve Sculpt Mode)
  • Shift Alt A = Expand Mask by Normals (Mesh Sculpt Mode)
  • Face Sets & Visibility:
  • Previously missing shortcuts.
  • Shift W = Face Set Expand
  • Shift Alt W = Active Face Set Expand
  • Ctrl W = Face Set Edit Pie Menu
  • Page Up = Grow Active Face Set
  • Page Down = Shrink Active Face Set
  • H = Hide Active Face Set
  • Shift H = Hide Inactive Face Sets / Show everything
  • Ctrl H = Hide Masked Geometry
  • Transforming:
  • For Sculpt and Weight Painting modes. Previously missing
  • C = Cursor Tool
  • W = Move Tool
  • E = Rotate Tool
  • R = Scale Tool
  • T = Transform Tool
  • Shift RMB = Set Cursor / Set Transform Pivot in Sculpt Mode
  • Sculpting:
  • Consistent and easier to access shortcuts for remeshing and subdiv level .
  • Shift D = Subdivision level Down (Previously on Pg Down)
  • D = Subdivision level Up (Previously on Pg Up)
  • Shift Ctrl D = Voxel Size / Dyntopo Size
  • Ctrl D = Voxel Remesh / Dyntopo Flood Fill
  • Adding missing shortcuts:
  • Painting:
  • Fixing various missing or inconsistent shortcuts.
  • Backspace = Set Color/Weight
  • I = Sample Color/Weight
  • Alt I = Sample Vertex Group
  • Alt Ctrl I = Vertex Group Lock Pie
  • X = Swap Colors (Previously missing in Sculpt Mode)
  • Grease Pencil:
  • Adding many missing shortcuts.
  • Shift S = Animation Menu (Previously on I and missing outside of Draw Mode)
  • Shift Alt S = Insert Blank Keyframe
  • Alt H = Unhide Layers
  • Ctrl H = Hide Active Layer
  • Shift H = Hide Inactive Layers
  • Y = Active Layer Menu
  • Shift Y = Merge Layer Down
  • Alt Y = Material Menu
  • Backspace/Delete = Delete Menu (Now in all modes)
  • Shift Backspace/Delete = Delete All Keyframes (Previously on D Backspace/Delete)
  • Mesh Edit Mode:
  • Ctrl Shift Alt LMB = Region Selection (a3d0006ac1)
  • Other:
  • Adding missing shortcuts.
  • MMB for panning in the User Interface (Highly requested)
  • Shift F = Center View to Mouse (Replacing Frame Selected(All Regions) shortcut)
  • D = Annotate
  • L = Toggle Stabilize Stroke (Previously on Shift S)
  • Ctrl F = Weight radial control in weight painting modes
  • Generally improved consistency for region shortcuts and linked selection in all editors (a0e5b03126)
  • Ctrl L = Select Linked
  • Ctrl [ = Toggle Toolbar/Channels
  • Ctrl ] = Toggle Sidebar
  • Shift Spacebar = Toggle Asset Shelf
  • Add-ons:
  • Hydra Storm:
  • Storm is a realtime renderer part of USD. When enabling the add-on, it can be chosen as an alternative to Cycles, EEVEE or Workbench. (5ec7ca8f12)
  • Compared to EEVEE its capabilities are limited, as it was designed mostly for previews. It serves two main purposes:
  • In production pipelines where Blender outputs USD files, it provides a preview of how the scene will be exported to other applications. Tools such as usdview use Storm as their default renderer, and other 3D apps often provide an option to use Storm as well.
  • As a reference for Blender, add-on and studio pipeline developers to validate USD and Hydra integration.
  • When enabling "Developer Extras", there is an option to export the scene through USD instead of Hydra. Hydra provides fast interactive updates, but it currently does not match USD export exactly. USD gives an accurate preview of how the file would be loaded into another application. Work to improve this consistency is ongoing.
  • Rigify:
  • The old interface for configuring layer names and defining the layer visibility panel toggle button layout, as well as the interface for specifying additional layers in rig component properties have been rewritten to use the new bone collections. Old metarigs have to be upgraded by clicking a button. (5ec3aa7d9d, Manual 1, Manual 2)
  • The layer visibility button layout can now be modified through a visual editor sub-panel rather than through changing obscure number values. (5ec3aa7d9d, Manual)
  • Re-generating the rig now preserves the visibility settings for bone collections that already existed in the target rig. (729dc2b284)
  • The feature set list now contains ghost entries for the feature sets mentioned in the manual, containing brief descriptions and web links, even if they are not installed. (08af2f5035)
  • The new Curved B-Bone vertex mapping is now applied by the face upgrade operator for the mouth corners. (ce6775b50d)
  • The following rig features have been promoted from the experimental feature set to the core add-on:
  • The leg rig now has an alternative IK to FK snap operator button that can use the heel roll control to avoid rotating the main IK control around certain local axes from its current orientation (by default it tries to keep the IK control parallel to the same imaginary ground plane). (8f16645901, Manual)
  • The leg rig can optionally generate a slider to perform forward roll around the tip of the toe rather than its base. (8f16645901, Manual)
  • There is a new built-in spline tentacle rig based on Spline IK. (621149bb57, Manual)
  • glTF 2.0:
  • Importer:
  • Implement EXT_mesh_gpu_instancing import (01b30876b1)
  • implement EXT_texture_webp import (332839d7ab)
  • Better rigging roundrip when import then export (e7a7626052, c95149d351, 9b77553c6e)
  • Fix, and add some conversion for custom attribute types (9d5c1cc74a, 9ccd934d19)
  • Manage new Principled BSDF node (7bc4614eff, 53f0f57ddf
  • Fix missing Volume extension in list of managed extensions (62cf7b53c1)
  • Exporter:
  • Manage new Principled BSDF node (Really long list of commit, see history for details)
  • Use sparse accessors when it leads to small files (ceac431492)
  • Add option to choose number of bone influence (a75b59baa3)
  • Better rigging roundrip when import then export (e7a7626052, c95149d351, 9b77553c6e)
  • Implement EXT_mesh_gpu_instancing export (01b30876b1)
  • Manage UVMaps outside of materials and using Attribute as UVMap (bd7fea9ca3)
  • implement EXT_texture_webp export (332839d7ab)
  • Remove embedded gltf option (097bf234f6)
  • Allow normalization in gather_attribute_change user extension (1925b33827)
  • Round tangents to avoid not determinist exports (7f9569e672)
  • Texture: Use default value when merging channels (dbcc17eb97)
  • Single Armature with no animation data will not export all anims (15780ade32)
  • Fix after API changes for nodegroups (0cddda9150, 4df6f7c66d)
  • Fix crash when user try to merge identical tracks (5180d77b7a)
  • Fix crash on not valid meshes (e3268f67c7)
  • Fix wrong detection of Basis Shape Key (0cc8764795)
  • Fix check in texture image (3f13ac814f)
  • Fix crash on extra channels when not sampled (a4dd07ee34)
  • Fix crash in animation export in track mode (a6cc6a16cb)
  • Fix restore of track mute during track mode export (462064c396)
  • Fix Real children of instance collection visibility check (5a505e38ee)
  • Export UV Layout:
  • UV Tiles can now be exported using the UDIM or UVTILE numbering schemes. (122534edfb)
  • Collection Manager:
  • Added support for the new alpha property in theme outlines to the QCD Move Widget theme overrides. (acb39e7ad5)
  • Python API:
  • Breaking changes:
  • Asset System:
  • context.asset_file_handle is removed. Use context.asset instead.
  • Note that it returns a AssetRepresentation, not a FileSelectEntry, but should provide access to the same information. When not (e.g. because an asset's preview icon-ID is needed), context.active_file may be available instead. (f6a6b27ac1)
  • context.selected_asset_files is removed, use context.selected_assets instead. The same note as for context.asset_file_handle applies.
  • FileSelectEntry:
  • .id_type was removed. For assets, use AssetRepresentation.id_type instead. (d973cc7992)
  • .local_id was removed. For assets, use AssetRepresentation.local_id instead. (d973cc7992)
  • AssetHandle:
  • get_full_library_path() was removed. Use AssetRepresentation.full_library_path instead. (d973cc7992)
  • local_id was removed. Use AssetRepresentation.local_id instead. (d973cc7992)
  • Occurrences of the name asset_library_ref were replaced by asset_library_reference throughout the API (974d70918b).
  • FileAssetSelectParams.import_type was renamed to FileAssetSelectParams.import_method (ca2a8be15f).
  • Note: AssetHandle should now only be used to provide a collection custom property for UILayout.template_asset_view().
  • Window Manager:
  • Operator.bl_property no longer defaults to "type" (7bc34283ea)
  • Mesh:
  • The mesh format changes from previous versions are now included in the Blender file format, reducing overhead when saving files and decreasing file sizes (1b63a290c6).
  • Blender 3.6 can read files from 4.0, but earlier versions cannot.
  • Blender 3.6 can be used to save files from 4.0 in a format that is compatible with older versions.
  • Face Maps have been removed, with their values converted automatically to an integer attribute (46cf093270).
  • Bevel weights have been moved to generic attributes with the names bevel_weight_vert and bevel_weight_edge (2a56403cb0).
  • Existing access to bevel weights (MeshEdge.bevel_weight) has been removed in favor of the attribute API.
  • Forward compatibility is not preserved, though old versions will read the new generic attribute.
  • Vertex and edge crease have been moved to generic attributes as well, with the names crease_vert and crease_edge (e5ec04d73c).
  • The MeshEdge.crease property has been removed.
  • The mesh properties vertex_creases and edge_creases now return attributes directly.
  • New functions {vertex/edge}_creases_ensure and {vertex/edge}_creases_remove create and remove the attributes with the proper domain and type.
  • The sculpt_vertex_colors API has been removed, replaced by mesh.color_attributes (6805657a39).
  • Other mesh custom data functions redundant with the attribute API have been removed: vertex_layers_float, vertex_layers_int, vertex_layers_string, polygon_layers_float, polygon_layers_int, polygon_layers_string (d41021a7d4).
  • Mesh.calc_normals is no longer needed and has been removed (ab5fc46872).
  • bmesh_from_object and BVHTree FromObject now require an evaluated dependency graph to retrieve the final mesh (e64b3c8212).
  • A deprecated argument has been removed from the split_faces function (efbcfd8703).
  • Curves:
  • The curves.select_end operator is now named curves.select_ends. It has a amount_start and amount_end property to select points from both the front and back.
  • Nodes:
  • The unused width_hidden property has been removed (30a20b4def).
  • NodeItem and NodeCategory definitions have been removed for shader and compositor nodes (15f5dfd45d).
  • The add menus can be extended the standard way from the Python API, with the ID names NODE_MT_shader_node_add_all and NODE_MT_compositor_node_add_all.
  • node.inputs[xxx] and node.outputs[xxx] take socket identifiers and availability status into account (e4ad58114b).
  • Shader Nodes:
  • The Glossy BSDF and Anisotropic BSDF nodes have been merged (8cde7d8f8a). In the Python API, the resulting node is referred to as ShaderNodeBsdfAnisotropic. When creating nodes, ShaderNodeBsdfGlossy is still accepted as an alias, but it will result in a ShaderNodeBsdfAnisotropic being created. Add-ons and scripts should replace usage of ShaderNodeBsdfGlossy with ShaderNodeBsdfAnisotropic, which will also work with previous versions all the way to pre-2.80.
  • The Principled BSDF node has been revamped and now aligns more closely to Standard Surface and OpenPBR. Various sockets were renamed:
  • Subsurface -> Subsurface Weight
  • Subsurface Color removed, use Base Color instead
  • Specular -> Specular IOR Level
  • Specular Tint changed from float to color
  • Transmission -> Transmission Weight
  • Coat -> Coat Weight
  • Sheen -> Sheen Weight
  • Emission -> Emission Color
  • Lights:
  • Light properties for falloff, attenuation and shadow buffers were removed. These were not used by Cycles or EEVEE. (57d85b32a9)
  • Particle System:
  • ParticleSystem.child_nbr has been renamed to child_percent e82ca9b5ff.
  • Blender Application (bpy.app):
  • Remove deprecated bpy.app.version_char (345fc2b1f6)
  • Blender Operators (bpy.ops):
  • Remove the context override argument to bpy.ops in favor of context.temp_override(..) (ac263a9bce)
  • Font Module (blf):
  • blf.size() dpi argument has been removed (9357f7b606).
  • GPU Module (gpu):
  • - Remove deprecated 2D_ / 3D_ prefix for built-in shader names (9a8fd2f1dd).
  • Animation:
  • FCurve.update() now also deduplicates the F-Curve's keys (6452eccc80).
  • Action.frame_range now accurately reports zero-length frame ranges (49eab72141). Previously, it was special-cased to construct and report a 1-frame-length range if and only if the action was exactly zero length (not e.g. 0.001 length). This was confusing and easily misinterpreted as being a minimum 1-frame-length range or as being an exclusive-on-the-right range, neither of which have ever been the case. The new behavior simply reports the actual frame range as-is in all cases.
  • Armatures:
  • Layers and bone groups have been removed with all associated properties and methods. Bone collections have been added instead. (998136f7a7 and many subsequent commits). See Bone Collections & Colors: Upgrading for an overview of how to change Python code to the new API.
  • Now edit_bones.new() behaves similar to object creation, and does not automatically add the created bone to any collections. To emulate the behavior of the add bone operator, manually assign the bone to arm.collections.active if it is not None. (ab67d410a9)
  • The deprecated use_inherit_scale bone property has been removed. (2abd026cfe)
  • Node Groups:
  • Node groups API moves from NodeTree to NodeTree.interface.
  • Asset Bundles:
  • Human Base Meshes:
  • The Human Base Meshes bundle got an update with new models, improved topology, and various fixes. Download it from the Demo Files page.
  • New Assets:
  • Planar Head:
  • For reference or as a sculpting base
  • Generic base topology for flexible deformation
  • Generic Head Topology:
  • Generic base topology for flexible deformation and sculpting/modeling base
  • Includes various shape keys for various example head shapes
  • Various Primitive Assets:
  • For quick start into new character design sculpts
  • Stylized and realistic assets
  • Body and head assets
  • Separated into multiple objects with parenting for fast non-destructive object posing
  • Linked object data between left and right side objects.
  • Includes subdiv modifier
  • Replaced Realistic Male Body:
  • Based on scan data for increased realism
  • Fixes:
  • Tooltips now are now added via the asset description
  • Improved eye scale on realistic assets
  • Various small fixes and improvements to existing assets
  • Compatibility:
  • Blend Files:
  • The mesh format changes from previous versions are now included in the Blender file format.
  • Blender 3.6 LTS can read files saved with 4.0, but earlier versions cannot.
  • Blender 3.6 LTS will save meshes in a format compatible with older versions of Blender, so it can be used as conversion tool if needed.
  • See the section in the Python API section for more details.
  • The new blendfile compatibility policy (#109151) has been implemented (see PR #110109).
  • Unused linked data is not kept anymore when saving and re-opening .blend files. See the core page for details.
  • Graphics Cards:
  • The minimum required OpenGL version has been increased to 4.3 for Linux and Windows. (3478093183)
  • On macOS only Metal is supported now, and the OpenGL backend has been removed. A GPU with Metal 2.2 support is required. Intel Macs without an AMD GPU require a Skylake processor or higher. (cdb8a8929c)
  • Due to driver issues, support for Intel HD4000 series GPUs has been dropped.

New in Blender 4.0.0 RC (Nov 14, 2023)

  • 1-9 hotkeys for switching collection visibility have been removed from Pose Mode.
  • Certain Graph Editor Slider tools had their range changed from 0-1 to -1/1: Blend to Neighbor, Breakdown, Ease.
  • Making Make Vertex Weight Edit modifier Group Add / Remove threshold inclusive.
  • The "Push Rest Pose" and "Relax Rest Pose" operators have been merge into "Blend Pose with Rest Pose".
  • Update NLA "Duplicate hotkey" to be "Duplicate Linked" by default.
  • The "Tab" shortcut to enter tweak mode in the NLA now defaults to "full stack evaluation".
  • The Preserve Volume deformation fix may change deformation in existing rigs.
  • Snapping for the Graph Editor, NLA and Dope Sheet have moved to the scene.
  • Armature Layers and Bone Groups have been removed, and replaced with Bone Collections and per-bone colors.
  • Bones influenced by an Inverse Kinematics (IK) constraint can now be keyed visually. This means that when the 'Use Visual Keying' preferenced is enabled, visual keying is used on such bones (where in Blender 3.6 and older still would create regular keys).

New in Blender 3.6.0 (Jun 27, 2023)

  • Animation & Rigging:
  • General:
  • Slider Operators are now available with hotkeys. ALT+S for smoothing operators and ALT+D for blending operators. PR #107866 Animation: change Slider Popup menu hotkeys
  • The iTaSC IK solver now supports keeping root bones (i.e. without parent) positioned where they are, instead of always moving them to the armature's origin. For backward compatibility the old behavior is retained; new armatures will get the new behavior. This can be controlled via the new "Translate Roots" checkbox. (51c2a0f816)
  • Ctrl-LMB shortcut for channel renaming is removed. It is now used for Extend channel selection (6c4da68ad2).
  • Extend Paint Mask Selection:
  • Add the option to grow/shrink the selection just as in Edit Mode. PR #105633 PR #105607
  • Duration Display in the Status Bar:
  • It is now possible to display the scene duration in the status bar. The format is the following: Duration: <timecode> (Frame <current frame>/<total frames>) The timecode format follows the user preferences. PR #104882
  • Frame Channels Operator:
  • Allows to frame onto the contents of a channel, or a selection of channels. Works in the Graph Editor and the Dope Sheet. PR #104523 It is called with "." on the numpad or right click the channels and choose the "Frame Selected Channels" option. Alternatively press ALT+MMB to frame the channel under the cursor.
  • Copy Global Transform:
  • The Copy Global Transform add-on can now also mirror the transform (606e4b35f2).
  • Object but no bone name: the transform will be mirrored relative to the object
  • Object and bone name: the transform will be mirrored relative to that specific bone of that specific armature
  • Bone name but no object: the transform will be mirrored relative to the named bone of the current armature
  • Bone Relation Lines:
  • Instead of always drawing the relationship line from the head of the child to the tail of the parent, there is now choice for the parent side of the line. This can be toggled between the head and the tail of the bone, where the tail is Blender's original behaviour and is retained as default value (45c1deac4f).
  • Context properties:
  • PR #105132 Drivers: Introduce the Context Properties
  • A special type for driver variable has been added: the Context Property.
  • The property is implicitly referring to either a scene or a view layer of the currently evaluating animation system. This is a weak reference which does not lead to the scene or view layer referenced from the driver to be linked when linking animation data.
  • An example when such properties comes in play is referring to a transformation of the active camera. It is possible to setup driver in a character file, and make the driver use the set camera when the character is linked into a set.
  • New Parent Space transformation:
  • PR #104724 Animation: New parent space transformation aligns child objects / armature bones to parent space.
  • Graph Editor:
  • Settings moved to the User Preferences:
  • Two view options in the Graph Editor have been moved to the User Preferences (Only Selected Curve Keyframes, Use High Quality Display). (PR #104532 Animation: Move Graph Editor settings to User Preferences)
  • Key menu cleaned up:
  • The "Key" menu in the Graph Editor has been cleaned up. Things that have to do with channels were moved into the "Channels" menu. The rest has been grouped into sub-menus where possible. PR #106113 Animation: Clean up "Key" menu in Graph Editor
  • Gaussian Smooth Operator:
  • PR #105635 A new operator to smooth keyframe data. It improves on the current implementation in the following ways.
  • Supports modal operations
  • Is independent of key density
  • More options in the redo panel
  • Smooths sudden spikes more predictable
  • Keyframes:
  • Add option to insert keyframes only on the active F-Curve. PR #106307
  • Pasting keys in the Graph Editor now has value offset options. PR #104512
  • Small Tweaks:
  • When hitting normalize, the y extents of visible F-Curves are frame automatically. PR #105857
  • When the view is normalized, the area outside of -1/1 is drawn slightly darker. PR #106302
  • Ignore hidden curves when jumping to keyframes in the Graph Editor. PR #108549
  • Dope Sheet:
  • Added the pin icon to the channels in the Dope Sheet rB49ad91b5ab7b
  • Clamp the viewport in the Dope Sheet so channels cannot go off screen. PR #104516
  • NLA:
  • Clicking the NLA/Graph Editor search box no longer scrolls the items below it. (d1219b727c).
  • NLA track Solo button has been moved on the to be right aligned to group it logically with Mute, Lock track buttons.(d8024135a5).
  • NLA strips can now be dragged horizontal through other strips on the same track (8833f5dbf9).
  • Python API:
  • FCurve key deduplication + exposing the innards of fcurve.update()
  • New functions on fcurve.keyframe_points (85ed2e8c36):
  • - deduplicate(): Removes duplicate keys (i.e. when there are multiple keys on the same point in time) by retaining the last key of those duplicates based on their index in the fcurve.keyframe_points array. - sort(): Ensure the keys are chronologically sorted. - handles_recalc(): Recalculate the handles, to update 'auto'-type handles.
  • Calling fcurve.update() actually performs sort() and then handles_recalc(), and now those two steps are exposed as individual functions as well.
  • Note that in Blender 4.0 fcurve.update() will also be calling the deduplicate() function.
  • Core:
  • Library Overrides:
  • Major improvements to the resyncing process:
  • When resyncing liboverrides, a missing root of the liboverride hierarchy (i.e. if the hierarchy root linked reference ID is missing) will prevent any attempt to resync any data in that liboverride hierarchy. This is done to prevent resync code breaking existing overrides upon missing linked data (5f67b25c28).
  • Fixed several issues with liboverride partial resync process which could lead to some needed resync to be skipped (9ea2170cce, ba9ca7afb6, 5574a1bfc1, b724015840, 370a2bb416).
  • Refactored parts of the liboverride partial resync process to address known error reports (40d79e3d2b, 07dfc6eccc).
  • Potential local references to virtual linked liboverrides are now restored 'as best as possible' on resync (PR #107144, 527b21f0ae). Note that in general user should avoid such referencing to linked data generated from the recursive process, as it is by definition very 'unstable' and does not actually exist in any file storage.
  • Geometry:
  • Data arrays are now shared between copies, resulting in an overall memory usage reduction of at least 25% with large geometries (7eee378ecc, dcb3b1c1f9).
  • Collections:
  • A hash is now used for Collection object lookup, speeding up object linking & unlinking (ea97bb1641).
  • Custom Properties:
  • Float custom properties can now have sub-types (e.g., distance, angle etc.) (6e2721da30)
  • EEVEE & Viewport:
  • Transparent Render Pass:
  • The new Transparent pass contain alpha blended surfaces, so they can be adjusted in the compositor and later mixed with opaque passes.
  • This pass only supports monochromatic opacity. Colored opacity will show differently than in combined pass.
  • Viewport Compositor:
  • The following nodes are now supported in the Viewport Compositor:
  • Convert Color Space
  • Plane Track Deform
  • Denoise
  • Stabilize 2D
  • Mask
  • Corner Pin
  • Texture
  • ID Mask
  • Map UV
  • Fog Glow Glare
  • Displace
  • Z Combine
  • Anti-Aliasing
  • Additionally, the following features are now supported:
  • Bicubic Interpolation
  • Repetition along a single axis
  • Multi-layer EXR images
  • Finally, the following changes were implemented:
  • Viewer nodes now take priority over Composite nodes as the active output if multiple output nodes exist.
  • Grease Pencil:
  • Weight Paint:
  • New Blur, Average, and Smear tools have been added to Weight Paint mode. (397a14deff)
  • Modeling:
  • UV Editing:
  • UV Packing:
  • The UV Packing engine was upgraded, dramatically improving performance on large meshes and improving support for non-square materials.
  • On many real world cases, efficiency of the layout has also been increased.
  • In addition, many new features were implemented:
  • Added an option to choose the shape of the UV Packing approximation ("Bounding Box", "Exact Shape" and "Convex Hull"), giving layouts which use much more of the available space (e0d05da826).
  • Added new UV Packing option "Merge Overlapped", where overlapping islands stick together during UV packing (b601ae87d0).
  • Added new UV Packing option "Pack To > Original Bounding Box", where islands are packed back into the original bounding box of the selection. (957ac41237).
  • Improvements:
  • Further UV changes include:
  • Unwrapping like an orange-peel. Careful seam placement allows an extended unwrap using the new manual seam placement feature in UV Sphere Projection.
  • UV Sphere Projection and UV Cylinder Projection now support manual placement of seams (6b8cdd5979).
  • The UV Select Similar operator has new options for Similar Winding and for Similar Object. (2b4bafeac6).
  • Performance:
  • Conversion from edit meshes to object mode meshes has been parallelized, leading to better performance when exiting edit mode (5669c5a61b).
  • The conversion's performance was also improved by around 75% when there are multiple UV maps (0fe0db63d7).
  • Face corner "split" normal calculation performance is improved by up to 80%, with improvements in memory usage as well (9fcfba4aae, 3c43632651, 9292e094e7).
  • With custom split normals data, performance has been improved by up to 44% in addition (17d161f565).
  • Subdivision surface performance is slightly improved on large meshes with no loose vertices (3507431c30).
  • Extracting UV map data for viewport drawing can be up to 3x faster (63a44e29ac).
  • Compatibility:
  • When baking normals with custom normals data, behavior may be different if the auto smooth angle is not 180 degrees (#107930).
  • Nodes & Physics:
  • Geometry Nodes:
  • Simulation Nodes:
  • Geometry nodes now has support for simulations (0de54b84c6).
  • Simulations are created with the new Simulation Input and Simulation Output nodes.
  • On the first frame, the inputs of the Simulation Input node are evaluated. In later frames the inputs aren't evaluated anymore. On later frames, the node outputs the result of the previous frame.
  • The Simulation Output node saves the state for the next frame.
  • The simulation's results can be cached or baked to storage, which is controlled with a new panel in the physics tab in the property editor and visualized in the timeline.
  • All baked data is stored on disk in a folder next to the .blend file.
  • The timeline indicates which frames are currently cached, baked or cached but invalidated by user-changes.
  • Simulation Nodes and Index of Nearest demo file.
  • General:
  • A new Index of Nearest node gives index of the closest "non-self" element (15f9e42c4f, d8f4387ac9, 4346314351).
  • The legacy read-only "normal" attribute has been removed from the spreadsheet (300c673a64).
  • Confusing units have been removed on some inputs to the String to Curves node (4f08eeae9c).
  • Performance:
  • Blender and geometry nodes make use of a new system to avoid copying large data chunks, called "implicit sharing" (7eee378ecc, dcb3b1c1f9).
  • Generally copying geometry to change part of it is much faster, and overal memory usage can be significantly better as well (at least 25% in simple situations).
  • Avoiding copies when converting geometry types can make the Instance on Points, Instances to Points, Points to Vertices and Mesh to Points nodes at least 10x faster (e45ed69349).
  • Copies can also be skipped when duplicating attributes with the Store Named Attribute and Capture Attribute nodes (b54398c16c).
  • Blender now caches loose edges and loose vertices for meshes, making drawing large meshes in the viewport and other operations faster after some node setups.
  • The Subdivision Surface node tags meshes with no loose edges/vertices (54072154c5).
  • Primitive nodes, the Realize Instances node, and the Curve to Mesh node now use precomputed this data too, saving hundreds of milliseconds for large setups (8e967cfeaf, 00bb30c0e9, 63689e4756).
  • The mesh bounding box is pre-calculated for primitive nodes, saving time calculating it later (a1f52a02a8).
  • Recomputing bounds can be skipped after translating a mesh (59c0e19db2)
  • Drawing curves selection data in edit mode is up to 3.8x faster (70d854538b).
  • Improvements to the Mesh to Curve node improved FPS in a test by 10% (98ccee78fe).
  • The Curve to Mesh node is a few milliseconds faster in a test with 1 million curves (52eced3eef).
  • Node Editor:
  • A shortcut to the Online Manual is now included in the node context menu (e95ba8a70e).
  • A new dropdown allows select group socket subtypes (e7f395dd20).
  • Link drag search can now move data-block default values when creating group inputs and the Image node (9726e4a0ad).
  • Link drag search can copy values of basic socket types like vectors as well (71e4f48180).
  • Pipeline, Assets & I/O:
  • Assets:
  • It is now possible to use relative path when importing assets.
  • The option exists in the Preferences per asset library (5d0595fded).
  • Stanford PLY:
  • New C++ based PLY importer and exporter (43e9c900, 6c6edaf5, 48496f14). About 4x-20x faster export, 8x-30x faster import compared to the Python addon. It also fixes and improves some things:
  • Importing point clouds with vertex colors now works
  • Importing PLY files with non standard line endings
  • Exporting multiple objects (previous exporter didn't take the vertex indices into account)
  • The importer has the option to merge vertices
  • The exporter supports exporting loose edges and vertices along with UV map data
  • Vertex colors can be treated as either sRGB or Linear color space.
  • Importer supports models that use "tristrips" element instead of "face".
  • USD:
  • Path Mask import option now supports multiple primitive paths (239af1705d).
  • Author opacityThreshold USD Preview Surface material attribute when exporting USD (3c74575dac).
  • Fixed incorrect texture alpha mapping when exporting USD Preview Surface materials (109c1b92cd).
  • New Prim Path USD export option to add a root transform primitive to the stage (42342124f8).
  • Set emissiveColor USD Preview Surface material input when exporting USD (ce83b26a33).
  • Fixed bug creating duplicate shader nodes when importing USD (74b5e62d2a).
  • New Curves/Hair Export Support (1164976dd8).
  • FBX:
  • Geometry export performance was made faster by using Python's numpy (994c4d91, 6054d1be, aa7d1d71, 4269b4ad, d1556507, 3e783620, 58740ec8, 2a0791a4). E.g. exporting Snow (without any animation) is about twice as fast as before.
  • Geometry import performance was made faster by using Python's numpy (47da0ad56b, 5da3d41c27, 66390ced12, 9859e253b5, 2438ae5c27).
  • It is now possible to export the active color layer in first position, in case other software only import one of these (4c397ede).
  • glTF 2.0:
  • Import:
  • Fix zero sum weights for skinning (83357ab3b9)
  • Fix empty shapekey names (6ac724926a)
  • Fix custom attribute import when vertices are merged or shared accessors (2403f4c6b9, 45bfb99ffe)
  • Export:
  • Big animation refactoring (8dfe73800d)
  • Export right materials when changed by modifiers (8b57a74629)
  • Fix normal normalization (0920b3e329)
  • Reset sk values when switching sk action (0086ce9d67)
  • Add hook to change primitive attribute order (874240f275)
  • Fix uri encoded, only for uri, not filename (8c77651799)
  • Convert light option was not saved (17f1e4d848)
  • Avoid crash when sequence image (not managed by glTF) (789a200cd7)
  • Fix exporting children of instance collections (932ea1d719)
  • Avoid crash when collision name in attributes (e2b556cbe8)
  • Initialize filter when user saved export preferences (776b4a3a3f)
  • Add a hook for node name (f12999046e)
  • Python API & Text Editor:
  • Custom Script Directories:
  • Multiple script directory paths can now be configured in the Preferences (File Paths section). Each of these directories supports the regular script directory layout with a startup file (or files?), add-ons, modules and presets. (ba25023d22)
  • Compatibility notes:
  • bpy.types.PreferencesFilePaths.script_directory is deprecated. The directories are exposed in bpy.types.script_directories now.
  • bpy.utils.script_path_pref is removed, use bpy.utils.script_paths_pref instead.
  • Blender Handlers:
  • Added bpy.app.handlers (save_post_fail, load_post_fail), so the *_pre handles will always call a *_post handler, even on failure (46be42f6b1).
  • File load handlers (save_{pre/post/post_fail}, load_{pre/post/post_fail}) now accept a filepath argument so the file being loaded or saved is known (46be42f6b1)
  • Internal Mesh Format:
  • The mesh data structure refactoring from earlier releases has continued in 3.6. See the similar sections in the 3.4 and 3.5 release notes.
  • The vertex and edge indices stored for mesh face corners (MeshLoop/MLoop) are now stored as separate attributes, named .corner_vert and .corner_edge (16fbadde36).
  • Mesh faces (polygons) are now stored with a single integer internally, rather than the MPoly type.
  • This means that the order of faces is always consistent with the order of face corners (loops).
  • The MeshPolygon.loop_total property is no longer editable. Instead the size of each face should be changed with the next face's loop_start property.
  • Mesh edges are now stored in a generic attribute named .edge_verts (2a4323c2f5).
  • A new 2D integer vector attribute type is added to store edge data (988f23cec3).
  • UV seams are now stored as a generic attribute, accessible with the .uv_seam name on the edge domain (cccf91ff83).
  • The smooth/sharp status for faces is now stored as a generic attribute with the sharp_face name (5876573e14).
  • In some cases, meshes are now smooth by default (when created from scratch, without from_pydata).
  • To simplify getting the previous behavior, new API functions Mesh.shade_flat() and Mesh.shade_smooth() have been added (ee352c968f).
  • Other Changes:
  • New bpy_extras.node_utils.connect_sockets() function to allow creating links between virtual sockets (grayed out sockets in Group Input and Group Output nodes) (81815681d0).
  • New action_tweak_storage property in AnimData, which exposes the temporary storage used to stash the main action when tweaking an NLA clip (997ad50b49).
  • Cycles:
  • GPU Rendering:
  • AMD:
  • Experimental support for AMD hardware ray-tracing acceleration on Windows, using HIP RT. (557a245)
  • This improves performance on GPUs with ray tracing acceleration - RX 6000 and RX 7000 series, as well as W6000 and W7000 series workstation GPUs.
  • Driver version 22.40.51.06 for Blender 3.6 Beta needs to be installed, along with enabling HIP RT in Preferences > System.
  • Known limitations:
  • No Linux support, as HIP RT is Windows only still.
  • Degenerate triangles may causes crashes or poor performance.
  • Shadows in hair are not rendering accurately.
  • AMD GPUs now also support light trees. (d5757a0)
  • Intel:
  • Hardware ray-tracing acceleration for Intel® Arc™ and Data Center GPUs, using Embree 4. (3f8c995109)
  • Apple:
  • Apple Silicon GPUs now support NanoVDB for Metal, reducing memory usage of volumes. (02c2970983)
  • Performance:
  • Light trees now use less memory and are faster to build, through instancing and multi-threading. (bfd1836861, 23c5e06932)
  • Loading large geometries into Cycles is much faster, meaning rendering can start more quickly after geometry changes or switching to rendered view.
  • Loading large meshes 4-6x faster, and mesh attributes are copied up to 10x faster (or even 60x faster for an extreme example with UV maps) (4bcd59d644, 8d0920ec6d).
  • Loading point clouds can be 9x faster (aef0e72e5a).
  • Loading curves can be 10x faster (ae017b3ab7).
  • Other Improvements:
  • OSL: support for new standard microfacet closures from MaterialX (dielectric_bsdf, conductor_bsdf, generalized_schlick_bsdf).
  • Byte color attributes are now supported for point clouds and curves (5a86c4cc88).
  • Improved Fresnel handling of the Glass BSDF for better energy preservation and accuracy of results at high roughness. (D17149)
  • Sculpt, Paint, Texture:
  • Features:
  • Add support for "Adjust Last Operation" panel to mesh & color filters (c352eeb213) (b4ee936627)
  • Transform, Trim, Project, Fairing and Filter operations are now also available in the header menu (da65b21e2e)
  • This makes it possible to easily assign these operation a shortcut or add them to the Quick Favorites menu for faster access.
  • Repeated use is possible with Repeat Last (Shift+R).
  • Added trim orientation to Box Trim UI. Previously only available in the Lasso Trim tool (a843a9c9bb)
  • User Interface:
  • Tabs in the Properties editor show the name of the tab in a tooltip, quicker than the usual tooltips. (1b94e60fb0).
  • Drag & drop inside Blender now supports Esc or RMB Template-RMB.png to cancel dragging. (d58e422ac3).
  • Hover highlighting of UIList rows. (7216eb8879).
  • Some search boxes are widened if needed, for example if there is a linked scene. (cfb112edcb).
  • Outliner now allows the filtering of Grease Pencil objects. (b558fff5b8).
  • Resetting to defaults, eyedropper, and other operations working correctly in popovers. (c402b3f52f).
  • The "Open Recent" menu list default size increased to 20 items. (19ca2e905e).
  • Fallback font "Noto Emoji" updated with new Unicode 15.0 emojis. (2215ee9358).
  • Color Picker can now adjust position to better fit within available space. (fa13058fa6).
  • Searching for nodes with a slash character in their names works correctly now. (2b565c6bd0).
  • Alt-click support to edit string properties for multiple objects. (43eb3fe21a).
  • Better positioning of text with Measure/Ruler tools. (b367a2b5f9).
  • Clicking the NLA/Graph Editor search box no longer scrolls the items below it. (d1219b727c).
  • Node Editor supports Smooth View. (2f0b166dce).
  • Support operator enums in Quick Favorites. (04d50f4b23).
  • More Context Menus open with last-used option. (eac3d37ab1).
  • Many Operator confirmations can be now be disabled with the "Confirm" checkbox (on by default) in the keymap. (6ae44c4770).
  • Asset Browser:
  • Assets now shows tooltips with the full name and description. (0ee0e8c0d4).
  • Meta-data fields in the sidebar are not shown if blank and read-only. (199c7da06d).
  • Clear Asset now works for all selected assets (20f54a5698).
  • File Browser:
  • File Browser list mode items can now be dragged by the full name, not just by the icon. (c3dfe1e204).
  • File Browser items now have "External" menu for opening and other operations outside of Blender. (694f792ee1).
  • Platform-Specific Changes:
  • MacOS: recently opened/saved files will now show in Dock context menu and in App Expose. (f04a7a07e3).
  • MacOS: double-clicking a blend file will now always load even if Blender loses focus while launching. (ed4374f089).
  • Windows: autofocus child windows on hover. (defd95afcd).
  • Windows: Image Editor can now copy/paste images with other applications. (39bcf6bdc9).
  • 3D Text Objects:
  • Text selection by mouse dragging. Word selection by double-click. (68f8253c71).
  • Nicer control and feedback for text styles. (f7ba61d3a6).
  • "To Uppercase" and "To Lowercase" now supports most languages. (e369bf4a6d).
  • Operators to move the cursor to the top and bottom. (6d2351d26b).
  • Transform Settings:
  • Proportional Size can now be set in the Proportional Editing popover (6b5b777ca3).
  • Add-ons:
  • Storypencil:
  • It is now possible to create many scene strips at once. 27970e4b8b
  • Support to render meta strip as one video. Previously, a video was generated per scene in the meta strip.
  • New: VDM Brush Baker:
  • A new add-on to easily create VDM brushes has been added. Previously available as part of a demo file.
  • New: 3DS I/O:
  • Support for importing and exporting the legacy 3ds format is back since it is still used by many applications and was missed by many Blender users. (PR #104493)
  • Animations and almost all 3ds definitions can be imported and exported. (2dc2c1c3e4, 6525a57a32, febc4b4433, 859a2c1b9a)
  • All backporting changes are listed in the commit details.
  • Collection Manager:
  • Ported the QCD Move Widget to solely use the gpu API for drawing, replacing the deprecated bgl API. (be6cbe0222)
  • Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed the QCD Move Widget not dragging. (14595effe5)
  • Fixed an error when toggling off the only QCD slot that contains the active object. (bee6a356c6)
  • Fixed an error when restoring disabled objects. (06328e8aea)
  • Asset Bundles:
  • Human Base Meshes:
  • These are various human base meshes that are provided by the Blender community and the Blender Studio. They can be used as a base for various tasks (sculpting, modeling, texturing, rigging, simulation, etc) and include:
  • Quad topology for subdividing
  • Closed volumes for voxel remeshing
  • Face sets
  • UV maps (including UDIMs)
  • Multi-resoluton details for realistic assets
  • Creased edges and Subdiv modifiers for planar assets

New in Blender 3.5.0 (Mar 29, 2023)

  • Animation & Rigging:
  • General:
  • The old (pre-3.0) pose library has been removed (rB48b5dcdbe857). They are now seen by Blender as simply Actions with named markers. It is recommended to convert them to pose assets.
  • Fixed an old bug where the effect of the Invert Vertex Group toggle of the Armature modifier was inverted when Multi-Modifier was active. Old tutorials explaining the usage of the Multi-Modifier option will need updating. (rBea1c31a24438)
  • Added the pin icon to the Dope Sheet to pin channels. (rB49ad91b5ab7b)
  • Added "Select Linked Vertices" to weight paint mode. (rB04aab7d51620)
  • Take subframes into account when jumping to next/previous keyframes. (rB5eab813fc078)
  • Motion paths have a new frame range option "Manual Range" to ensure the frame range is never changed on update (rBd72c7eefd1c5). In other modes ("All Keys", "Selected Keys", "Scene Frame Range") the start/end frame are still editable, but greyed out.
  • Adding F-Curve modifiers to multiple channels at once is now easier to access (rB0f51b5b599bb).
  • Asset Browser and Pose Library:
  • The Pose Library went through a few usability changes to unify the experience of the other asset types (rBAc164c5d86655).
  • The Pose Library functionality in the asset browser were moved to a new Asset menu, as well as the pose asset context menu.
  • In the viewport, a few options were removed:
  • The option to Create Pose Assets is no longer there - use instead the Action Editor or the Asset Browser.
  • The Flip Pose check-box is gone - flipped poses can be applied directly via the context menu. When blending, keep CTRL pressed to blend the flipped pose.
  • The poselib.apply_pose_asset_for_keymap and poselib.blend_pose_asset_for_keymap operators are gone. If you have assigned these in your keymap, use the regular apply/blend operators (poselib.blend_pose_asset and poselib.apply_pose_asset) instead.
  • Other improvements are:
  • A pose asset can now be "subtracted" while blending. Drag to the right to blend as usual, drag to the left to subtract the pose (rc82311bb8efd24abec6f50a18256c636b78ef626).
  • While blending, keep Ctrl pressed to flip the pose (rBbd36c712b928f).
  • Blending can now also exaggerate a pose, by pressing E (for Extrapolate) and applying a pose for more than 100% rB74c4977aeaa3.
  • Graph Editor:
  • Ease Operator:
  • The Graph Editor got a new Operator, "Ease" (76a68649c1c1), that can align keys on an exponential curve. This is useful for quickly making an easing transition on multiple keys. It can be found under Key » Slider Operators.
  • Pose Mode:
  • Propagate Pose:
  • The Propagate Pose Operator has been updated (200a114e1596). Previously it used to evaluate each FCurve individually to find the target key. That resulted in undesired behavior when the keys where not on the same frame. Now it finds the frame first by checking all FCurves in question and then propagates the pose to it. It will add a keyframe to it in case it doesn't exist.
  • Core:
  • Custom Properties:
  • Custom properties can now have a boolean type (rBef68a37e5d55).
  • Datablocks:
  • 'Fake User' on linked data will now always enforce that linked data-block to be considered as 'directly linked', i.e. never automatically cleared by Blender on file save. See #105786 and 133dde41bb for details.
  • EEVEE & Viewport:
  • Viewport Compositor:
  • A new Viewport Compositor shading option was added that applies the result of the Compositor Editor node-tree directly in the 3D Viewport. This feature is a work in progress and not all compositor setups are supported. Refer to #99210 for the status of the project.
  • Metal Viewport:
  • When running on a MacOS device Blender will now use the Metal back-end for the user interface and 3D viewport. Metal provides improved performance, better stability and on par compatibility compared with other platforms.
  • Improved performance affects rendering as well as animation playback.
  • Grease Pencil:
  • Operators:
  • Sculpt Auto-masking moved to Global setting. (4c182aef7ce0)
  • Added new Auto-masking pie menu using Shift+Alt+A. (4c182aef7ce0)
  • Interpolate Sequence by default can now use all different keyframes types as extremes and a new option Exclude Breakdowns was added to allows users exclude this type of keyframes from the interpolation as with the old behavior. (56ae4089eb35)
  • Interpolate Sequence by default can now use all different keyframes types as extremes and a new option Exclude Breakdowns was added to allows users exclude this type of keyframes from the interpolation as with the old behavior. (56ae4089eb35)
  • Copy & Paste now works in multiframe mode. (a5d4c63e867e)
  • UI:
  • Vertex Opacity parameter now is visible in Overlay panel in Sculpt mode. (1aff91b1a707)
  • Radial control now displays the correct size when resizing brush size. (0fb12a9c2ebc)
  • Create new layer using Y menu in Drawing mode allows to enter new layer name. (f53bb93af937)
  • Material popover now display Fill color for Fill materials. (e144af1f7cd3)
  • Modifiers:
  • Add offset (Location, Rotation, Scale) by Layer, Stroke and Material to the Offset Modifier. (7d712dcd0bbd)
  • New Natural Drawing Speed mode in Build Modifier timing property that replay drawings using the recorded speed of the stylus, giving it a more natural feel (250eda36b8f9)
  • Modeling:
  • A new Set Attribute operator allows basic control over generic attribute values in edit mode (6661342dc549a84).
  • A new Flip Quad Tessellation operator allows control over the tessellation orientation of quads (328772f2).
  • Edit mesh conversion to evaluated meshes has been parallelized and can be over twice as fast depending on the mesh and CPU (ebe8f8ce7197)
  • UV Editing
  • Copy/Paste
  • The most anticipated UV feature in this release is UV Copy and UV Paste.
  • For low poly modeling and game assets, you can now select connected faces, select from the menu "UV > Copy UVs", this will make a copy of the UVs in a separate clipboard.
  • Next, select different faces that have the same topology. They can be on a different mesh, a different UV channel, or even a different .blend file. Choose "Paste UVs", and the UVs will be pasted over. (721fc9c1c950)
  • Improvements:
  • The Constrain to Image Bounds feature received fixes for the Shear Operator, and to improve robustness on unusual inputs. With this change, all of the UV operators should now correctly support Constrain to Image Bounds and it can now be considered feature complete. (3d1594417b0e and 0079460dc79a)
  • UV Sphere Projection and UV Cylinder Projection now have better handling of UVs at the poles. In addition, you can now specify whether to "Fan" or "Pinch" the UVs. All the projection options are now fully supported in all modes. (280502e630e9)
  • Fixes:
  • Bring back the missing UV overlay in Texture Paint Mode. (4401c93e452f)
  • Select Similar now has support for Similar Object and Similar Winding (2b4bafeac68e)
  • Fix UV Unwrap for quads with Reflex Angles. (f450d39ada1f)
  • Fix UV Unwrap broken for n-gons with 3 shared vertices. (644afda7eb6c)
  • Nodes & Physics:
  • Geometry Nodes:
  • General:
  • A new Image Info node allows retrieving various information about an image (rBefcd587bc28d).
  • There is a new Image input node (rBa3251e66a723).
  • The Named Attribute input node now has an "Exists" output to tell whether the attribute exists (rB0d3a33e45eb3).
  • A new Blur Attribute nodes allows mixing attribute values of neighboring elements (rBd68c47ff347bb).
  • The Store Named Attribute node can now store 2D vector attributes (rBf0dc4d67e56db).
  • The Image Texture node has a new mirror extension type (rBa501a2dbff797).
  • Field utility nodes have been renamed (rB4961e5f91d98).
  • Interpolate Domain -> Evaluate on Domain
  • Field at Index -> Evaluate at Index
  • The modifier user interface has been improved in various ways
  • Exposed properties from node groups no longer have hard min and max values (rBcb92ff7b2d50).
  • Checkboxes are used for exposed boolean sockets (rB2ea47e0def6a).
  • The "Use Attribute" toggles have moved to the right edge of the panel (rB68625431d5d0).
  • Drag and drop is supported for geometry node group assets in the viewport (bfa7f9db0e797a1).
  • A new operator "Move to Nodes" creates a new node group wrapping the modifier's group (5ca65001ea9e90c).
  • Curves:
  • New Interpolate Curves node allows generating child curves between a set of guides (rB85908e9edf3df).
  • The Trim Curves node now has a selection input (rB11f6c65e61a2).
  • Making simple procedural changes can be much faster in some cases, and non-topology changing sculpt brushes are slightly faster (rB7f958217ada2).
  • Mesh:
  • The new Edges to Face Groups node finds groups of faces surrounded by selected edges (50dfd5f501d3e07)
  • The mesh primitive nodes now output a UV map (previously that was stored as named attribute with a hard-coded name (rBf879c20f72d9c).
  • The Split Edges node is over two times faster (rBe83f46ea7630).
  • For mesh objects, applying modifier will now give an error message if the geometry it creates doesn't contain a mesh (rBb1494bcea7b6).
  • Instances:
  • Caching of geometry bounds can make viewport display of many geometry instances 2-3x faster (rBe8f4010611e7).
  • Node Editor:
  • User Interface:
  • The context menu has been significantly improved, giving quick access to more features (rB2c096f17a690).
  • Automatically attaching nodes after adding or moving them can be disabled by holding Alt (rBae886596a0f1).
  • For Copy & Paste, nodes are placed at the mouse position rather than their original locations (rB7355d64f2be5).
  • The Geometry Nodes add menu is reorganized to make it easier to explore (rBd4e638baac43, rB789e549dbae8).
  • Node links can be swapped between sockets by holding Alt while connecting them (rB89aae4ac82e0). This replaces the auto-swapping behavior.
  • Cloth Simulation:
  • Self-collision was optimized with a 25% overall fps gain on some collision-heavy tests (rB0796210c8df3, rBa3ac91da27dd, rBe1df731c91bc).
  • Pipeline, Assets & I/O:
  • USD:
  • Support for import (cdef135f6f) and export (0c67a90e4f) of USDZ (compressed version of USD) was added.
  • USD export changes to pass usdchecker (b67b84bd5d).
  • Add scale and bias for exported USD Preview Surface normal maps (c79b55fc05).
  • Convert USD camera properties to mm from USD units (f359a39d11).
  • Support importing USD Shapes (72a85d976a).
  • Author extents on exported UsdGeomMesh (5040c39d1a).
  • OBJ:
  • New OBJ importer got "Split by Objects" and "Split by Groups" import settings, just like the old Python based addon had (rBb59982041).
  • New OBJ importer can now import polylines with more than 2 vertices (rBcfe828b452e6).
  • Removing incorrect edge recalculation made the OBJ exporter up to 1.6x faster (rB455d195d5504)
  • Assets:
  • New "All" asset library (35e54b52e6). Displays contents from all other asset libraries. This asset library is shown in Asset Browsers by default (7ba59c8a62).
  • New "Essentials" asset library (b3fb73f325) containing a number of assets that are now shipped with Blender. It includes a number of hair node groups for use with geometry nodes.
  • The user interface for setting up asset libraries in the Preferences has been revamped. (0d798ef57c)
  • A default import method (Append, Append (Reuse Data), Link) can now be set per asset library in the Preferences. (ae84a2956e). Asset Browsers follow this setting by default, but there's an option to override it.
  • Import Type has been renamed to Import Method. (972f58c482)
  • glTF 2.0:
  • Find the changelog in the Add-ons section.
  • Python API:
  • Breaking changes:
  • BGL Deprecation:
  • BGL is a direct wrapper around OpenGL calls. The BGL module is deprecated for and since Blender 3.4 has been replaced with the gpu module. From this release it will not work when using the Metal backend. Add-ons and scripts that uses the bgl module are warned about the deprecation and should use the gpu module in stead.
  • Class Registration
  • Registering classes with the names matching existing built-in types now raises an error (52f521dec4491fe).
  • Node Group Sockets:
  • Virtual sockets are the extra sockets added to group input and output nodes. Previously connecting a link to them would create an input or output in the corresponding node group. That feature was meant as a UI/UX feature though, and is now implemented differently in Blender and doesn't happen automatically. The correct way to add a group input from Python is to use node_tree.inputs.new(...) (70260960994d).
  • Grease Pencil
  • Auto-masking settings were moved from brush to tool settings, for details see 4c182aef7ce0.
  • Motion Tracking:
  • The internal storage of the optical center (principal point) has been changed in 7dea18b3aa to a normalized space.
  • The normalized space refers to coordinate (0, 0) corresponding to the frame center, (-1, -1) the left bottom frame corner, (1, 1) is the top right frame corner. This notation is available via clip.tracking.camera.principal_point property.
  • For some algorithms it is convenient to operate in the pixel space. For those usecases the new clip.tracking.camera.principal_point_pixels property has been added.
  • The old clip.tracking.camera.principal has been removed to avoid ambiguous naming in the API.
  • Armature Modifier:
  • An old bug where the effect of the Invert Vertex Group toggle of the Armature modifier was inverted when Multi-Modifier was active was fixed. (rBea1c31a24438)
  • Scripts creating complex armature modifier setups need updating to check the exact blender version:
  • modifier.use_multi_modifier = True
  • if bpy.app.version_file < (3, 5, 8): # Blender bug T103074
  • modifier.invert_vertex_group = True
  • Data Transer:
  • For bpy.ops.object.datalayout_transfer operator, VCOL has been split into COLOR_VERTEX and COLOR_CORNER for different color domains (93d84e87b26c, eae36be372a6).
  • Internal Mesh Format:
  • The mesh data structure refactoring from earlier releases has continued in 3.5. See the similar section in the 3.4 release notes.
  • The active and default (for render) color attributes are now stored as strings, making it easier to change them and access the correct attributes (rB6514bb05ea5a).
  • Mesh vertex positions are now accessible via the builtin position attribute (rB1af62cb3bf46).
  • UV layers are now stored as generic 2D vector attributes on the face corner domain (rB6c774feba2c9)
  • The MeshUVLoop Python type is deprecated and will be removed in 4.0. Its data collection member is also deprecated, replaced with separate collection members named uv, vertex_selection, edge_selection, and pin. Accessing the data member is emulated for backwards compatibility for now, but the emulation comes with a performance penalty (rBa82c12ae32d9).
  • The sharp edge property is now stored as a generic attribute, accessible with the sharp_edge name (rBdd9e1eded0d4).
  • Loose edge status is stored separately internally (rB1ea169d90e39).
  • The MeshEdge.is_loose property is no longer editable.
  • Loose edge status can be recalculated with Mesh.update(calc_edges_loose=True)
  • Data access is generally faster than before when accessed with the attribute API (i.e. `mesh.attributes["sharp_edge"]), but slightly slower than before when accessed with the old properties.
  • Bundled Libraries:
  • Python bindings for the following libraries are now bundled with Blender, and available to use by add-ons.
  • USD
  • OpenVDB
  • OpenImageIO
  • OpenColorIO
  • MaterialX
  • Other Changes:
  • The users site-packages are now available by default without having to use --python-use-system-env (72c012ab4a3d2a7)
  • New ModifierData.execution_time property that can be used for profiling and optimization. It's not exposed in the UI yet (8adebaeb7c3c663).
  • New object.modifiers.move() method for reordering modifiers without using operators. (rBf7dd7d545472)
  • The active catalog of Asset Browsers can be changed via bpy.types.FileAssetSelectParams.catalog_id, it's no longer read-only. (rB80249ce6e4f9)
  • Custom node tree now have a default name set to NodeTree.bl_label. (59ce7bf)
  • Cycles:
  • Light Sampling:
  • Cycles now uses a light tree to more effectively sample scenes with many lights. This can significantly reduce noise, at the cost of a somewhat longer render time per sample.
  • Light tree sampling is enabled by default in new scenes. It can be disabled in the Sampling > Lights panel.
  • If the light tree yields different render results, the most likely cause is light clamping. Clamping is a biased method that depends on the sampling strategy. Generally if the light tree works well, there will be less clamping and the render will be closer to the unbiased result.
  • The light tree works best in scenes with physically correct lighting, that is no custom falloff or ray visibility tricks. These may interfere with heuristics used in the light tree.
  • Materials with emission now have a new Emission Sampling setting, replacing the previous Multiple Importance Sample toggle. Auto is the new default, and uses a heuristic to estimate the emitted light intensity to determine of the mesh should be considered as a light for sampling. For single sided emitters or closed meshes, setting this to Front faces only can reduce noise with the light tree.
  • The light tree is currently disabled for AMD GPUs on Windows, Linux and macOS. We hope to resolve this in the next release.
  • Open Shading Language:
  • OSL can now be used with OptiX on the GPU, in addition to existing support with CPU rendering.
  • There are some limitations currently, in particular for image texture, AO and bevel nodes. See the OSL documentation for details.
  • Apple Metal:
  • GPU rendering performance on Apple devices was improved, without various incremental changes and tunings.
  • The big change is kernel specialization for shaders. This works transparently: rendering starts quickly with a generic shader and optimized shaders are compiled in the background and used when ready. This optimization can be configured in the preferences.
  • Changes:
  • Improved adaptive sampling for overexposed scenes, reducing render time by taking into account absolute light intensity. (857bb1b)
  • This can negatively affect some scenes where compositing or color management are used to make the scene much darker or lighter. For best results adjust the Film > Exposure setting to bring the intensity into a good range, and then do further compositing and color management on top of that. Note that this setting is not the same as Color Management > Exposure.
  • Spot lights support for non-uniform object scale. (b454416)
  • Area lights with ellipse shape and spread have much reduced noise. (53ef52f)
  • Fix Anisotropic BSDF with Beckmann roughness using isotropic sampling (eb657633ed85)
  • Sculpt, Paint, Texture:
  • New Features:
  • Support for Vector Displacement Map (VDM) brushes for the Draw brush (39f63c8c086dd9d)
  • Added Extrude Mode for Trim tools. See manual for Box Trim, Lasso Trim. (rB88e9826529d1)
  • User Manual:
  • Visit the user manual at blender.org/manual
  • The user manual got a major rewrite of many pages. (rBM9824)
  • Individual tool pages were rewritten and restructured. (rBM9839)
  • Additions and rewrites for Editing pages (rBM9885)
  • This adds:
  • A multi-page Introduction section to sculpting
  • User oriented sorting and more visual examples
  • Fixing various out of date, missing or false information
  • A new page for Expand to explain many use cases
  • Shortcut Changes:
  • The shortcuts Shift R and Shift D to define density in sculpt mode have been remapped to R (rB3e9039091870)
  • This change was done to prevent shortcut conflicts with Redo. Based on community feedback, not only this improves consistency across Blender, but the benefits of being able to redo certain operations outweigh the muscle memory adjustment.
  • This change affects the Voxel Remesher, Dynamic Topology and the Hair Density brush.
  • User Interface:
  • General:
  • The icon preview shown in the material slots and material search menu will no longer be rendered for linked in materials. This would cause slowdowns and UI freezes every time the file is reloaded, since the preview is never stored in files. (rB571f373155cb)
  • More menus align their item labels when some items include an icon and some don't (58752ad93c).
  • Font previews now differentiate better between Korean, Japanese, Simplified & Traditional Chinese (rB485ab420757b)
  • Viewport:
  • Cancelling viewport orbit/pan/zoom & dolly is now supported (by pressing RMB), this allows orbiting out of camera or orthographic views temporarily. (rB0b85d6a030a3f)
  • VFX & Video:
  • Optical Center in motion tracking:
  • The internal storage of the optical center has been changed in the 7dea18b3aa.
  • The change allows to change the underlying movie clip resolution (for example, when going from 4K footage to manual 2K proxy) without loosing the non-frame-centered optical center. This effectively fixes an issue when changing the media file would reset the optical center to the frame center.
  • On a user interface the optical center is now refered in a normalized space: coordinate (0, 0) corresponding to the frame center, (-1, -1) the left bottom frame corner, (1, 1) is the top right frame corner. Another change in the interface is the removed Set Principal to Center button. Such dedicated button is not needed anymore since backspace on the optical center properties will do just that.
  • Sequencer:
  • Sequence transform has a new filtering mode "Nearest (3x3)". This mode will use "Nearest" filtering when working in the sequencer, but during rendering it will perform a 3x3 sub-sampling, improving the quality of the final image.
  • Copy drivers when strips are duplicated or pasted 4e9c6929c1d0.
  • Added "Update Scene Strip Frame Range" operator 90e940686692060.
  • Add-ons:
  • Rigify:
  • Ported the ability to generate Action Constraint layers from Cloud Rig (D16336, rBAdddf346f1adf).
  • Storypencil:
  • UI Refactor: New Mode selector and settings for more discoverability of the add-on two main modes (Switch and New Window).
  • In Switch Mode the audio file in the video sequencer is copied temporarily to the source scene allowing to keep audio in sync. This can be disabled in the Storypencil settings panel.
  • IN/OUT strip range markers ar now showed in Switch Mode.
  • TAB key can be used now to edit the strip scene under the timeline cursor.
  • Bugs Fixed. (rBA6fcd157f2497)

New in Blender 3.4.0 (Dec 8, 2022)

  • Animation & Rigging:
  • Redo Panel:
  • The NLA, Dopesheet, and Timeline editors now have a Redo panel (rB1f828a5a, rB3132d275). Some properties shown in these redo panels may be superfluous (like having a Z-axis when moving keys around); this is a known limitation.
  • NLA:
  • Draw track background based on strip's extrapolation type (rB2310daed).
  • Adding an action clip now fails immediately if no NLA track is selected (rBddfce277). Previously this only failed after you selected a specific action to add.
  • Removed the "Edited Action" tab for selected Action strips in the NLA editor (rBb6ebd559). It is still available in the Action editor, where it is actually suitable/usable. Having it in the NLA got in the way of the actual NLA strip properties. These are now available immediately by default.
  • Pushing down an action to a new NLA track now automatically names that track after the Action (rB78fe6d7a).
  • Driver Mute:
  • The driver editor and the "Edit Driver" popover now have a checkbox that can mute the driver (rBc592bff0). This is the same functionality as the checkbox in the driver editor's channel list, but then exposed in a different place in the UI. This is for convenience, such that a driver can now be muted by right-clicking on the driven property, choosing "Edit Driver", then muting it there. The same checkbox was added to the regular driver editor's header for consistency.
  • Core:
  • Overriding Resource Directories:
  • It is now possible to override all USER and SYSTEM paths using environment variables:
  • BLENDER_USER_RESOURCES (accessed via bpy.utils.resource_path('USER')).
  • BLENDER_SYSTEM_RESOURCES (accessed via bpy.utils.resource_path('SYSTEM')).
  • Previously, sub-directories could be overridden via environment variables such as BLENDER_USER_CONFIG and BLENDER_SYSTEM_PYTHON (see the --help message for a full list). However there was no way to override the top level directories which scripts could access via bpy.utils.resource_path. Now the top-level directories can be overridden so the default USER or SYSTEM resource paths aren't used by accident (bf4926b30c).
  • Fonts:
  • New stack of fonts for improved language and symbol coverage (e9bd6abde3).
  • FreeType caching to allow more simultaneous fonts with less resources and increased performance. (d39abb74a0)
  • Avoid loading fonts that are not actually used (c0845abd89).
  • Font sizing now always assumes 72 DPI, simplifying code. DPI argument to blf.size() is now optional and deprecated. (cd1631b17d)
  • Gamma correction for text output for improved anti-aliasing. Result is also slightly fuller and brighter. (d772e11b5a)
  • Performance:
  • Create preview thumbnails of WebP images a little quicker while using much less RAM. (8851790dd7)
  • View layer sync operations are now postponed until the sync results are needed. This greatly speeds up scripts that create many objects in a single operation (rB68589a31).
  • Depsgraph: Optimize evaluation of dependencies of disabled modifiers (f12f7800c2)
  • Others:
  • Metaball objects are now evaluated as meshes. Render engines now only need to process the corresponding evaluated mesh object and can skip the evaluated metaball object. (rBeaa87101).
  • Support extracting frames from WebM videos that dynamically change resolution. (d5554cdc7c).
  • Video rendering: Support FFmpeg AV1 codec encoding. (rB59a0b49c).
  • libOverride: RNA API: Add option to make all overrides editable in override_hierarchy_create (rBa67b33ac).
  • EEVEE:
  • Headless rendering is now supported under Linux (3195a38120)
  • Grease Pencil:
  • Operators:
  • Now SVG import allows to import several files in one operation. Also, the name of the .SVG is used as Blender name. (670ced9758)
  • New Outline operator to convert strokes to perimeter. (aa7b2f1dd9)
  • New Outline option at brush level to convert to outline the last stroke drawn. (613b6ad9e5)
  • New Set Start Pointoperator to define the start point for cyclic strokes. (98c4e1e590)
  • New Offset parameter in reproject operator for surface mode. (5c33704ffa)
  • Tools:
  • Fill tool has been improved adding a new algorithm to close gaps. (468f2ccc0e, dd0ef74887, 742268c50b, bdbf24772a, 392855ce50, fe19de5fcc)
  • Fill tool extend lines now are clipped when there is a collision. (5c13c7cd30)
  • New option to check if extension collide with normal strokes (not extensions). If enabled, if the extension collide, the color will be blue. Only blue extension will be used to limit fill area.
  • Use S key to toggle extend method from Extend->Radius->Extend.
  • Use D key to toggle stroke collision check.
  • Modifiers:
  • New Outline modifier to generate perimeter stroke from camera view. (5f7259a001)
  • LineArt: New "Forced Intersection" option that allows objects to always produce intersections even against objects that are set as "No Intersection". This allows more flexible configuration of more complex scenes. (0bdb5239c1)
  • New Chain mode in Time Offset modifier that allows run one after another different Offset types. (b0d70a9c80)
  • Python API:
  • New Trace Frame parameter in Trace operator. (903709c4eb)
  • The default trace can only trace an image or a sequence, but it was not possible to trace only selected frames in a sequence. This new parameter allows to define what frame trace. If the value is 0, the trace is done as before. The parameter is not exposed in the UI because this is only logic if it is managed by a python API.
  • Modeling:
  • Modifiers:
  • The Subdivision Surface modifier and node's performance has been improved when many loose edges are subdivided. (12c235a1c5)
  • UV Editing:
  • Sculpt Tools:
  • The big new change in the UV editor for Blender 3.4 is the addition of a new geometry-based relax brush. This improves the quality of the UV mapping by making the UVs more closely follow the 3D geometry. As this is a brush, the user can drive the relaxation process. (74ea0bee9c)
  • To support the new relax brush mode, there has been additional UV Sculpt and UV Relax tool improvements:
  • Fix boundary edges for UV Relax tool. (3c351da89f)
  • UV Sculpt tools now respect pinned vertices. (3c351da89f)
  • UV Sculpt tools now work with constrain to bounds. (66822319d3)
  • UV Sculpt tools now ignore winding, preventing orphaned islands. (dcf50cf046)
  • UV Grab tool now supports Live Unwrap. (836c07f29c)
  • UV Packing:
  • Specify exact margin when packing. (c2256bf7f7)
  • Add option to use Blender 2.8 margin calculation. (c2256bf7f7)
  • Many UV Packing operations now work with non-manifold geometry. (many commits)
  • UV Grid and Selection:
  • Allow non-uniform grids. (b7decab07e)
  • Add option to use pixel spacing for UV Grid. (Also b7decab07e)
  • Show UV grid over the top of the image. (c50335b359)
  • Rename "UV Snap To Pixels" -> "UV Round To Pixels". (b5115ed80f)
  • New Operators:
  • Additional new operators have been added affecting island rotation:
  • Add new operator, Randomize Islands. (de570dc87e)
  • Add new operator, UV Align Rotation. (20daaeffce)
  • Other Improvements and Fixes:
  • Rotation operator supports constrain to bounds. (d527aa4dd5)
  • Respect UV Selection in Spherical Project, Cylindrical Project, Cube Project and Smart UV Project.(a5c696a0c2)
  • Fix UV Island calculation with hidden faces. (8f543a73ab)
  • Fix bugs in UV Island calculation when in edge selection mode. (178868cf42)
  • More options for UV Select Similar operator, Face, Area and Area UV. (a581460728)
  • Fix UV Unwrap with degenerate triangles. (94e211ced9)
  • Geometry Nodes:
  • Viewer Node:
  • The Viewer Node now has the ability to preview geometry and attributes in the viewport as well as the spreadsheet (rBc55d38f0).
  • When a field is linked to the second input of the viewer node it is displayed as an overlay in the viewport.
  • A viewer node is activated by clicking on it.
  • The attribute overlay opacity can be controlled with the "Viewer Node" setting in the overlays popover.
  • A viewport can be configured not to show intermediate viewer-geometry by disabling the "Viewer Node" option in the "View" menu.
  • Viewer nodes now have a domain dropdown. It determines which domain the field will be evaluated on.
  • General:
  • The Self Object retrieves the current modifier object for retrieving transforms (dd5131bd70).
  • The Transfer Attribute node has been removed and split into multiple more specific nodes (dedc679eca).
  • The Sample Index node retrieves data from specific geometry elements by index.
  • The Sample Nearest node retrieves the indices from the closest geometry elements
  • The Sample Nearest Surface node interpolates a field input to the closest location on a mesh surface.
  • Meshes:
  • The new Face Set Boundaries node finds the edges between different patches of faces (3ff15a9e23).
  • Access to mesh topology information has been improved, with new nodes and other changes .
  • Corners of Face Retrieves corners that make up a face (482d431bb6).
  • Corners of Vertex Retrieves face corners connected to vertices (482d431bb6).
  • Edges of Corner Retrieves the edges on boths sides of a face corner (482d431bb6).
  • Edges of Vertex Retrieves the edges connected to each vertex (482d431bb6).
  • Face of Corner Retrieves the face each face corner is part of (482d431bb6).
  • Offset Corner in Face Retrieves neighboring corners within a face (482d431bb6).
  • Vertex of Corner Retrieves the vertex each face corner is attached to (482d431bb6).
  • The Edge Vertices node now has an index input so it can be more easily combined with the other nodes (4ddc5a936e).
  • The new Sample UV Surface node allows getting an attribute value based on a UV coordinate (e65598b4fa).
  • Curves:
  • The Trim Curves node now supports cyclic curves (eaf416693d).
  • New nodes give access to topology information about the mapping between curves and points.
  • Curve of Point Retrieves the curve a control point is part of (482d431bb6).
  • Points of Curve Retrieves a point index within a curve (482d431bb6).
  • Offset Point in Curve Offset a control point index within its curve (8a6dc0fac7, (248def7e48)).
  • The Set Curve Normal allows choosing the normal evaluation mode for curves (748fda32ed).
  • The Sample Curve node now has inputs for the curve index and a custom value to sample (rB5f7ca546).
  • Volumes:
  • The Distribute Points in Volume node creates points inside of volume grids (b6e26a410c).
  • Instances:
  • Attributes of instances created via geometry nodes are now accessible from materials through the Instancer mode of the Attribute node (2f7234d3e1).
  • Performance:
  • Geometry nodes has a new evaluation system (4130f1e674).
  • The evaluator can provide better performance when many complex node groups are used.
  • Performance can be increased when there are very many small nodes (5c81d3bd46).
  • The Trim Curves node has been ported to the new data-block and can be 3-4 times faster than in 3.2 or 3.3 (eaf416693d).
  • Mesh and curve domain interpolation can be skipped for single values (e89b2b1221, 535f50e5a6).
  • Node Editor:
  • Assets:
  • Node group assets are visible in the add menus of the node editor (bdb5754147).
  • User Interface:
  • Show data-block use count in the Context Path and Group node header (84825e4ed2).
  • Node links have been tweaked to make them fit better with the overall look of the node editor (9a86255da8).
  • Link curving has been adjusted to make vertical links look better (67308d73a4).
  • Input sockets are reused when creating new node groups (rB14e4c96b).
  • Duplicate Linked:
  • Duplicate Linked operator and user Preference option for Node Tree data duplication (rB6beeba1e).
  • Pipeline, Assets & I/O:
  • OBJ:
  • Support for "PBR" extensions in .mtl files (rBa99a6223). This adds roughness, metallic, sheen, clearcoat, anisotropy, transmission parameters of Principled BSDF materials. Use "PBR Extensions" toggle in export settings to enable it.
  • Global scaling factor was added to the OBJ importer (rB42b1a7d4).
  • glTF 2.0:
  • glTF I/O is an python addon, change logs can be retrieved on Addon page
  • Python API & Text Editor:
  • Blender as a Python Module:
  • Various changes have been made to improve support for running Blender as a Python module.
  • bpy 3.4.0 is available on PyPi, and can be installed through pip install bpy. Note that this requires Python 3.10 (matching Blender releases), other versions do not work.
  • bpy.app.program_path defaults to an empty string which can be written to, allowing scripts to point to a Blender binary (f7a4ede79f).
  • The module is now built as a self contained Python-package "bpy" (81558783e4).
  • GPU rendering via (EEVEE / WorkBench) is now supported on Linux (3195a38120).
  • Additions:
  • New GPU built-in shader enums that work for both 2D and 3D. The 2D and 3D versions are deprecated. (8cfca8e1bd)
  • New function bmesh_utils.bmesh_linked_uv_islands to access UV islands from a BMesh (de570dc87e).
  • File select dialogs will now call the update callbacks of the attached operator's directory, filename and filepath properties (48d7ff68f0). This will allow for much more interactive dialogs since, for example, operators can now present different options based on what file is currently selected.
  • Internal Mesh Format:
  • The internal data structure for meshes has undergone significant changes, mainly by splitting up data to be stored in separate arrays. More information is available on the a design task. More mesh data is now accessible with the generic attribute system, accessible with Python as mesh.attributes[name]. The existing API to retrieve this data remains, but it will be slower. The new methods should be faster in most situations. The attributes may not exist, so they must be created first.
  • The "hidden" status of Mesh vertices, edges, and polygons is now stored in separate generic boolean attributes (2480b55f21).
  • The attribute names are .hide_vert, .hide_edge, and .hide_poly, and have BOOLEAN type.
  • Similarly, mesh selection has also been moved to generic attributes (rB12becbf0).
  • The attribute names are .select_vert, .select_edge, and .select_poly and have BOOLEAN type.
  • Mesh polygon material indices are now stored in a generic attribute (f1c0249f34).
  • The attribute name is material_index, with the INT type.
  • Sculpt face sets are stored in a generic attribute, now accessible with the Python API (rB060a5341).
  • The name is ".sculpt_face_set", with the INT type.
  • Internally, bevel weights are now stored optionally in separate arrays, though the attribute for accessing them remains unchanged (rB291c313f).
  • The use_customdata_vertex_bevel and use_customdata_edge_bevel properties have been replaced with operators for removing and adding the layers: MESH_OT_customdata_bevel_weight_{vertex,edge}_{add,clear}
  • Subdivision surface edge creases are now stored optionally in a separate array (rBa8a45428).
  • Meshes have a new edge_creases property used to access crease values separately from edges (which is faster).
  • The properties use_customdata_vertex_crease and use_customdata_edge_crease have been removed. They can be replaced by the API above or the MESH_OT_customdata_crease_{vertex,edge}_{add,clear} operators.
  • Breaking Changes:
  • The unused node "add and link node" operator NODE_OT_add_and_link_node was removed (rB543ea415).
  • Unused operators MESH_OT_vertex_color_add, MESH_OT_vertex_color_remove, MESH_OT_sculpt_vertex_color_add, and MESH_OT_sculpt_vertex_color_remove were removed.
  • These operators can be replaced with the Mesh.vertex_colors.new() and .remove() functions (which are also deprecated), or with the attribute API (Mesh.attributes).
  • The Mesh properties use_customdata_vertex_bevel, use_customdata_edge_bevel, use_customdata_vertex_bevel, and use_customdata_edge_crease have been replaced with has_bevel_weight_edge, has_bevel_weight_vertex, has_crease_edge, and specific operators for adding and clearing the layer: MESH_OT_customdata_bevel_weight_{vertex/edge}_{clear/add}, and MESH_OT_customdata_crease_{vertex,edge}_{add,clear} (291c313f80, rBa8a45428).
  • Leak Size for Grease Pencil Fill tool has been removed. (bdbf24772a)
  • Added new methods to define how the lines are extender for Grease Pencil Fill tool (172b0ebe6a).
  • UV editing rounding mode, Snap to Pixels has been renamed Round to Pixels (b5115ed80f).
  • UV custom grid subdivisions can now be set for X and Y axis separately (a24fc6bbc1).
  • Geometry nodes do not use the NodeItem system anymore (rB837144b4).
  • Functions like nodeitems_utils.node_items_iter will not retrieve them anymore. Instead, one should iterate over node types directly.
  • Adding/removing/moving sockets on built-in node types is not possible anymore (rB52bd1981).
  • Render Engines Passes:
  • Render results by default now only have a Combined pass, and render engines need to explicitly specify all other passes they produce. Blender queries the render engine's update_render_passes function and adds all render passes that the engine specifies using register_pass. (3411a96e74)
  • Previously, a number of built-in render passes were automatically added when the corresponding ViewLayer.use_pass_* property was enabled. If a render engine relied on this, the pass now needs to be explicitly added in update_render_passes.
  • Cycles:
  • Path Guiding:
  • Path guiding was integrated (75a6d3abf7) into Cycles using Intel's Open Path Guiding Library.
  • This feature improves the sampling quality of individual paths reducing the noise in complex lighting scenarios such as; long indirect light bounces, indirectly illuminated shadow areas, or reflected light sources.
  • Note: While Path Guiding helps to render scenes containing simple caustics (e.g., water surface), it is not designed to be a caustic solver, such as MNEE, meaning it might not help render scenes containing complex caustics.
  • During rendering, path guiding learns an approximation of the scene's light distribution (direct and indirect). This information is then used to guide paths into important directions that might not be explored well using standard directional sampling methods that only consider the local material or the directly visible light sources.
  • More details about path guiding, how it works, and how it is integrated into Cycles are presented in the BCON2022 talk Follow the light: introducing path guiding in Cycles.
  • At the moment, path guiding is only available for CPU rendering and can be enabled in the render properties panel under ‘Sampling->Path Guiding’. The current implementation supports guiding on surfaces with diffuse BSDFs components as well as inside volumes.
  • The following images show the effects of path guiding in practice when applied in different scenes with complex lighting scenarios. Each comparison is rendered at an equal time.
  • Improvements:
  • Attribute node: support for using attributes of geometry nodes instances. Additionally, boolean and integer array attributes can be read from objects. (2f7234d3e1, 554afabf75)
  • Attribute node: new View Layer mode for accessing attributes of the current View Layer, Scene or World (f61ff22967)
  • Baking: new option to bake specular effects from the active camera view, instead of above the surface. This may be useful when baking textures that will be viewed from a fixed position or with limited camera motion. (b475506b47)
  • Sampling: improved patterns to reduce noise in some scenes, particularly for volumes and long area lights. (50df9ca50d, a06c9b5a06)
  • GPU Rendering:
  • AMD HIP:
  • AMD Radeon RX 7000 series graphics cards (RDNA3 architecture) now supported.
  • On Linux, upgrade to ROCm 5.3 or newer to fix issues with textures on Vega and RDNA1 graphics cards.
  • Apple Metal:
  • Shadow caustics enabled.
  • Intel GPUs now supported starting with macOS 13.
  • Intel OneAPI:
  • Upgrade to driver version 101.3430 or newer to fix user interface crashes.
  • Open Shading Language:
  • Open Shading Language was upgraded to version 1.12.6.
  • This comes with change in behavior for input parameters with a non-constant initializer. For such parameters, the input socket on the node now shows no editable value, it can only be linked. This can also be specified through metadata.
  • Sculpt, Paint, Texture:
  • Performance:
  • Performance and memory usage have been improved when face sets, hiding, and masking aren't used (b5f7af31d6).
  • Significant performance improvement for reprojecting attributes when using the voxel remesher (bad55d56bc).
  • Auto-Masking:
  • New popover in the 3D Viewport header to manage all auto-masking options (db40b62252).
  • This UI makes the auto-masking toggles more accessible and discoverable. Each setting is now properly ordered. For even faster access use the pie menu shortcut Alt-A.
  • The same UI is used for the brush settings as well. Any brush auto-masking toggle of the active brush will override the mode auto-masking toggles.
  • Cavity auto-masking toggles in the options and brush settings (0156a677c7).
  • Instead of manually creating a cavity mask, this auto-masking option provides a faster way of painting and sculpting with Cavity.
  • "Inverted", "Factor", "Blur" and a "Custom Curve" give extra control to fine tune the cavity mask. Use the "Create Mask" button to convert the auto-mask into a regular mask attribute (To edit it further or just visualize it).
  • This includes a new "Mask From Cavity" operator, which replaced the old "Dirty Mask" menu operator.
  • Area and View Normal auto-masking toggles in the options and brush settings (0156a677c7).
  • These auto-masking options are great for selectively painting/sculpting from specific angles. "View Normal" uses the viewing angle, while "Area Normal" uses the normal direction of the brush cursor from the start of the stroke.
  • "Limit" & "Falloff" define how many angles are included in the auto-mask and how soft the mask is.
  • An additional "Occlusion" toggle allows more precise projection painting at the cost of performance.
  • For more information see auto-masking documentation in the manual.
  • Other:
  • Face Sets are now opt-in, meaning that primitive objects do not have a Face Set attribute by default. As a result when objects are joined or modeling changes are made in Edit Mode, any new geometry will not automatically be assigned a Face Set, improving performance and removing visual clutter when not used. (e8291f4504)
  • Weight and Vertex painting will use the whole modifier stack if it produces no topology changes, to allow painting with weight layering using Geometry Nodes or Weight Mix modifiers. (9823a8f72b)
  • User Interface:
  • Outliner:
  • Searching by name isn't possible anymore in the Hierarchies view of the Library Overrides display mode. This is to workaround big performance issues in complex scenes. (rB21b92a5f)
  • The data-block type filter was removed from the Properties view of the Library Overrides display mode. It isn't needed anymore since data-blocks are now grouped by type anyway. (rBb5fc8f61)
  • The context menu doesn't show whole sections of operations that cannot operate on the selected elements anymore. (rB7eda9d8d)
  • Improved element count display with better readability and higher numbers.(rBa5d3b648, 84825e4ed2).
  • Viewport:
  • The select menu (accessed by holding Alt while picking objects & bones) now orders results by distance (nearest first) (47d3e76567).
  • Improved display of text caret and selection when editing 3D Text Objects (a1e01f4c02).
  • General:
  • Added shortcuts PageUp and PageDown to the console to scroll entire pages, as well as ↖ Home to reset scrolling to the bottom. (rB82fc52ff)
  • Detect existing file and add +/- auto-increase for output filepaths (render filepath and File Output node for now) (rB78bfaf1a).
  • Font thumbnails now preview languages, shapes, content, and intended use better. (4e7983e073).
  • Improved editing of text that contains non-precomposed diacritical marks. (12fdf9069a).
  • Add-ons:
  • Image import as Plane:
  • Update improving the UI and adding several common material settings (D15744, rBA2ec6aba).
  • New add-ons:
  • New Storypencil add-on for Storyboarding in addons-contrib. (T100665)
  • glTF 2.0:
  • Importer:
  • Fix import SK when there is no target on each primitives (rBA70ee1a5)
  • Code cleanup (rBAb9c0e28)
  • Add hook before glTF import (rBAa1706bd)
  • Tweaks vertex color import (rBAcd2d9df)
  • Fix ortho camera frame import/export (rBA8a24438)
  • Import/Export lights using correct units (rBA9d903a9)
  • Exporter:
  • Reset pose bone between each action (rBAe77b55e)
  • Option to export Active Collection only / with or without nested (rBA90732dd, rBA712f007)
  • Big refactoring of primitive extraction, manage custom attributes (rBA51e15a9, rBA33e8782, rBA7e2fa37, rBA4be7119)
  • Fix object parented to bone when using rest pose (rBA4cb6ebd, rBA106cb51, rBAeb07144)
  • Manage delta transforms animations (rBA58db76b, rBA726d08c)
  • Avoid crash when using apply modifiers + shapekeys (rBAbb77e69)
  • Fix scene evaluation (rBA3c19be6)
  • Fix resolve UVMap (rBAbccd6c6)
  • Better skin checks (rBA97bb515)
  • Clamp base color factor to [0,1] (rBAe890169)
  • Various hooks & fixes for animation (rBAeb3dcfc)
  • Avoid adding multiple neutral bone on same armature (rBA8466799)
  • Fix TRS when parent is skined (rBA83290c6)
  • Fix ortho camera frame import/export (rBA8a24438)
  • Import/Export lights using correct units (rBA9d903a9)
  • Non active action objects TRS is now restored at end of actions (rBA5dbcd4a)
  • When user don't export SK, driver corrective SK animations must not be exported (rBAc4dddb8)
  • Do not export special attributes, used internally by Blender (rBAaddeb64)
  • Export SK on no modifiers objects even if 'apply modifier' is on (rBA896ee46)
  • Fix Traceback in Variant UI (rBA61ff4fa)
  • Fix exporting skined mesh without armature (rBA0b4844e)
  • Fix crash with weird missing datablock node group (rBAb665525)

New in Blender 3.3.0 (Oct 5, 2022)

  • HAIR WE GO:
  • The first milestone of the new hair grooming system has landed in Blender 3.3 LTS. The most flexible system yet, featuring Sculpt mode and support for Geometry Nodes. The possibilities are endless.
  • SCULPT IT:
  • The new Sculpt mode for curves gives you unprecedented control for grooming hair.
  • The list of tools includes:
  • Add/Delete, Density, Comb, Snake Hook
  • Pinch, Puff, Smooth, and Slide.
  • FEATURING:
  • Sculpt on top of curves deformed with Geometry Nodes
  • Snap to nearest or deformed mesh surface
  • Supports EEVEE and Cycles
  • Curves sculpt mode supports selecting control points or curves
  • Spreadsheet Editor filter by selected Curves or Points
  • Symmetry support in X, Y, Z axes
  • Select Random, Select Endpoints, and Grow/Shrink selection operators
  • PROCEDURAL UV UNWRAPPING:
  • The new UV Unwrap and Pack UV Islands nodes open the possibility of creating and adjusting UV maps procedurally using Geometry Nodes.
  • PATH TO SUCCESS:
  • Three new Geometry Nodes have landed for path-finding across mesh edges.
  • Create impossible mazes, lightning, growing vegetation, and so much more.
  • PLUS THESE NEW NODES AND GOODIES:
  • Volume Cube Primitive:
  • Allows sampling a field in a dense bounding box to create an arbitrary volume grid.
  • Points Primitive:
  • Creates any number of point cloud points, with position and radius defined by fields.
  • Mesh to Volume:
  • Same functionality as the existing mesh modifier, now also available as node.
  • Instance Scale + Instance Rotation
  • These two new nodes provide access to instance transformations.
  • Interpolate Domain:
  • Allows evaluating a field on a different domain inside of another field, avoiding the need for a “Capture Attribute” node.
  • Intersecting Edges:
  • The Mesh Boolean node now has an output field that gives just the intersecting edges.
  • EVEN MORE GEOMETRY NODES:
  • UV Sphere 3.6x faster for high resolutions
  • Separate XYZ and Separate Color over 20% faster
  • Speed-up Capture Attribute if input is unused
  • 3-10x performance improvements in Curve nodes
  • LIGHT & SHADOW CONTOUR:
  • The Line Art modifier is now able to calculate accurate cast shadow and light/shadow separation line given a light source reference object.
  • INTERSECTION PRIORITY:
  • Specify different intersection priority levels for different objects, then intersection lines would be automatically selected with the object who has the higher intersection priority.
  • GREAT SILHOUETTE:
  • Draw silhouette around selected collection, or around individual objects in that collection. LineArt is also able to identify intersecting and overlapping silhouette geometries.
  • GREASE PENCIL EVERYWHERE:
  • The Dopesheet and Timeline editors now show Grease Pencil keyframes alongside other objects and properties.
  • Visibility of all object types can be adjusted with filters. The Grease Pencil sub-mode is still available for a more focused experience.
  • FAST LINE ART:
  • Loading time for Line Art objects has been greatly reduced, while calculation of the modifier is now multi-threaded leading to much improved performance.
  • AND MORE:
  • Ping Pong mode for Time Offset modifier
  • New Sculpt Auto masking options
  • Quickly name layers in Move to New Layer operator
  • Press U in Sculpt mode to select Materials
  • New Noise modifier option: Only Keyframes
  • Grease Pencil keyframes visible in Dopesheet & Timeline
  • INTEL INSIDE:
  • Support for rendering on the latest Intel GPUs has been added using oneAPI.
  • This requires an Intel® Arc™ GPU. The implementation is primarily focused on this architecture and future Intel GPUs.
  • AMD VEGA:
  • AMD GPU Rendering for Vega generation graphics cards has been enabled, on Windows and Linux. Both discrete GPUs and APUs are supported.
  • This includes GPUs such as Radeon VII, Radeon RX Vega Series and Radeon Pro WX 9100.
  • MORE ON RENDER:
  • Optimizations for Apple Silicon
  • Reduced memory usage in OpenVDB volumes
  • Use bones as camera Depth of Field target
  • Faster OptiX Denoiser with multiple GPUs
  • New Filmic sRGB Color Space
  • LIBRARY OVERRIDES:
  • Blender 3.3 LTS takes a major leap in usability around Library Overrides, the backbone of a Blender production.
  • IT’S IN THE DETAILS:
  • The Outliner’s Library Overrides mode now displays all overridden properties in hierarchy, using their labels and icons where applicable.
  • See and edit all overrides at a glance.
  • IMAGE PLANE MARKER:
  • Create or update an image from the pixels behind the plane marker.
  • This allows to create an unwarped texture from a billboard from footage, to allow external editing and re-projecting it back to the footage.
  • Animation & Rigging:
  • Custom Properties for Actions
  • Improvements to NLA frame start/end sliders
  • VFX & Video:
  • Default to descending average sorting in Movie Clip Editor
  • Improved playback of Variable Frame Rate files
  • Smooth drawing in Mask Editor
  • Mask spline visibility overlay
  • Add mask blending factor for combined overlay
  • Core:
  • Faster JPEG preview thumbnails
  • Font fallback support
  • Duplicating objects is much faster
  • Better EXR preview thumbnails
  • See all improvements
  • Video Sequencer:
  • New retiming system
  • Add filter method to strip transform
  • Delete Strip and Scene in one step
  • Add API function to select displayed meta strip
  • Add Scene and Strip at the same time in one action
  • Modeling:
  • New Shade Auto Smooth operator
  • Nearest Face Snap mode
  • Improvements to Surface Deform modifier
  • I/O:
  • USD: Export OpenVDB volumes
  • Alembic: support for export presets
  • glTF: Several improvements
  • OBJ: Support “xyzrgb” and “MRGB” vertex colors
  • STL: New experimental importer
  • Massive performance gains importing large amounts of objects in USD, Alembic, and OBJ
  • Sculpt, Paint:
  • Sculpt Elastic Transform
  • Improved sculpting performance in EEVEE
  • Duplicate active Color Attribute
  • Support packing UDIM texture sets
  • Voxel Remesh constant size
  • New icons for trimming tools
  • Python API:
  • Support search in StringProperty
  • Expose OpenXR user paths
  • Improvements to clear() for actions and curves
  • New properties in NLAStrip
  • New possibilities in background and baking jobs
  • See all changes
  • UV:
  • Unwrap only selected
  • UV Select Similar
  • New options in Average Island Scale
  • Minimize Stretch will now unflip faces
  • Improved constrain-to-image-bounds
  • See all improvements
  • User Interface:
  • Display Gizmos on transform
  • Pin Scene to Workspace
  • Keymap Editor: auto-complete paths
  • Always visible scrollbars
  • Windows: Dark mode support for title bar
  • Windows: Precision touchpad support
  • More:
  • Collection Instance Offset
  • Support instanced collections in Make Instant Face
  • Ctrl/Cmd+L in File Browser to edit path
  • Fixed regression in Rigid Bodies effector forces

New in Blender 3.2.2 (Aug 3, 2022)

  • Animation & Rigging Module:
  • General:
  • Setting key shortcuts from the "Insert Keyframe" menu is now supported (cda3334586).
  • F2 now also works for renaming markers (rBf1ae6952). The old Ctrl+M key has been changed to F2, to match renaming of objects and NLA strips (see below).
  • Markers are easier to select (rBf1ae6952), with new operators to select all of them, or left/right of the current frame (including the current frame, if it's on a marker).
  • Discontinuity (Euler) Filter is now available in the Dope Sheet as well (rB7fd11d9c). As in the graph editor, it still requires the animation channels (the FCurves) themselves to be selected.
  • Equalize Handles now can change the handle types, so that it always performs its job (rBeed8c2e6).
  • Proxy Removal:
  • The proxy system has been fully removed, see the Core release notes for details.
  • NLA Editor:
  • F2 now works for renaming NLA strips (rB150f42e6).
  • Strip extrapolation modes "Hold" and "Hold Forward" will remain as set (rB63d2980e). Blender used to change these settings, only allowing "Hold" for the very first NLA strip, changing it without notice to "Hold Forward" whenever an animator would change the strip order and put another one in front. This behaviour has been removed, and the settings will stay at the values set by the animator.
  • Bake Action is available from the Edit menu (rBc63d64a2).
  • Action influence is now copied to the Strip influence when pushing down to the NLA (rB2f49908a).
  • An alternative Tweak mode is now available, Start Tweaking Strip Actions (Full Stack) (rB3acbe2d1). The old behavior can be found using Start Tweaking Strip Actions (Lower Stack) and remains the default for the TAB hotkey. This new mode allows animators to enter tweak mode without disabling all the tracks above the tweaked strip, effectively animators will see the "Full Stack". Keyframing will work as expected, preserving the pose that you visually keyed. There are some limitations, so make sure to read the commit message.
  • Motion Paths:
  • When adding Motion Paths you can now select more sensible frame ranges (rB4e57b6ce), rather than simply defaulting 1-250:
  • Scene Frame Range
  • Selected Keyframes
  • All Keyframes
  • The scene range operator was removed, because the operators now automatically find the range when baking the motion paths.
  • Deprecation of Legacy Pose Library:
  • The legacy Pose Library (Blender 2.93 and older) has been marked as deprecated (rBa824c076 and rB81b55d79). The panel and its operators will be removed from Blender 3.3, along with the internal code supporting the functionality. The panel gained some explanation about this, a button that opens the manual at the relevant chapter, and a button to convert legacy pose libraries into modern pose assets.
  • Core Module:
  • Proxy Removal:
  • Proxies have been deprecated since Blender 3.0, but their internal evaluation/management code was still there, and it was still possible to keep using existing proxies defined in older versions of Blender.
  • They have now been fully removed. Existing proxies are converted to library overrides as best as possible.
  • For more details, please see the relevant task.
  • Library Overrides:
  • Usability:
  • Overridden properties are now editable in the 'Override' view, 'Properties' view mode of the Outliner.
  • The 'override hierarchy' concept (for example, an override of a full character is an override hierarchy, which include the root collection, all of its sub-collections, objects, etc.) has become much more important. It helps data-block relationships sane, especially when re-syncing after the reference library data has changed.
  • Most overrides created as part of a hierarchy are no more editable by default, but can be made editable from the Outliner contextual menu (more ways to do so are being worked on).
  • User Interface:
  • The UI for Library Overrides in the Outliner was reworked.
  • The Library Overrides display mode now allows selecting between two view modes:
  • Properties: Displays all properties changed through library overrides, together with buttons to edit the value(s) of each property (d8e3bcf770). This is an improved version of the previous display mode. (76879e3702, 1ff853a3f0, 8b5292a60e)
  • Hierarchies: Display the hierarchical al relationships between overridden data-blocks. For example to override a mesh of an object inside a collection, Blender automatically overrides the entire collection -> object -> mesh hierarchy. A column on the right allows enabling/disabling overrides (994da7077d). Disabling an override will revert all overridden properties.
  • Other display modes no longer list library overrides. Now that there is an improved display mode dedicated to library overrides, this isn't really needed anymore. (dcb520a7af)
  • Performance:
  • Performances of library override resync process were greatly improved (over ten times faster, depending on the file), rBa71a513d, rB1695d389.
  • Movie Cache:
  • Fixed dead-lock in movie cache (8c4ddd5dde)
  • Objects:
  • New Set Parent option, Object (Keep Transform Without Inverse), and Apply option, Parent Inverse rBdb628787. The operators preserve the child's world transform without using the parent inverse matrix. Effectively, we set the child's origin to the parent. When the child has an identity local transform, then the child is world-space aligned with its parent (scale excluded).
  • Eevee:
  • Bump node without Height plugged in is now optimized into a complete no-op like in Cycles to support the old workaround for defaulting a node group input to normal. (460d1a4cb3)
  • Shader compilation progress was moved to the viewport engine info display. It is now a shader count instead of a progress percentage. (e2cd5c6748)
  • Sub-Surface Scattering radius socket input is now treated as a mean radius instead of a scaling factor for the pre-computed SSS kernel (which still uses the socket default value). Manual patching of existing scene may be required. (80859a6cb2)
  • Materials using Shader-To-RGB nodes now never receive Screen Space Reflections or Sub-Surface Scattering effects even if the BSDFs are not connected to the Shader-To-RGB nodes. (80859a6cb2)
  • Displacement bump now also affects Image texture node's box projection mode. (80859a6cb2 & T97916)
  • Grease Pencil:
  • Operators:
  • Improved smooth algorithm. (d4e1458db3)
  • UI:
  • Scale Stroke Thickness is now visible in Pie menu.
  • Modifiers and VFX:
  • New modifier: Envelope (cee6af0056)
  • Dot Dash modifier:
  • Lowered the bounds limits for dash and gap (8d4244691a)
  • New option to use Cyclic per segment (97f2210157)
  • Smooth Modifier: New option to keep the overall shape closer to the original, avoiding the strokes to shrink (d4e1458db3)
  • Build modifier:
  • New Additive mode. (e74838d0d0)
  • Adds fade support (c4e4924096)
  • Adds origin object for the building process (c4e4924096)
  • Performance:
  • Added a cache to speed up Grease Pencil object evaluation. This is currently used only for drawing strokes and sculpting using some brushes like the push brush. (e2befa425a)
  • Improve multi-user Grease Pencil data performance with modifiers. (7ca13eef7c)
  • Bug Fix:
  • Grease Pencil edit mode overlays now support the clipping region. (69a43069e8)
  • Modeling:
  • Curve Pen Tool:
  • A new "Curve Pen" tool in curve edit mode can be used to rapidly edit and create curves (336082acba).
  • The tool supports quickly adding, deleting, and tweaking control points.
  • Much more functionality is available with various shortcuts, and editable in the keymap for further customization.
  • Multi-User Data Object:
  • When trying to apply a modifier to a multi-user data object users can choose to make it single user, instead of failing to apply (35f34a3cf8).
  • For applying object transform the new option allows to isolate the selected multi-user data objects from the others if needed (8621fdb10d).
  • General:
  • The "Select Similar" operator for Meshes now supports selecting by similar vertex crease values (rB8abd8865).
  • NURBS curves knots generation has been improved (0602852860).
  • "Cyclic" can be used with other knot options.
  • "Endpoint" and "Bezier" can be used at the same time.
  • Modifiers:
  • The Vertex Weight Mix modifier now supports Minimum and Maximum as operations that can be applied to combine input weights (fa715a158a).
  • Geometry Nodes:
  • Performance Improvements:
  • Many curve nodes have been ported to a new data-block, which significantly improves performance with many curves.
  • Updating the Endpoint Selection node resulted in an observed 13x performance improvement combined with the Set Position node (471f27d66b).
  • The Mesh to Curve node has improved performance, with 10x improvements possible when many curves are created (901a03725e).
  • The Curve to Mesh node can be 4-5x faster for inputs with millions of curves (7484f274dc).
  • The performance of the Resample Curves improved by roughly 6x when sampling many small poly curves (60a6fbf5b5).
  • Updating the Realize Instances improves its performance by 2-3x, especially with many small curves (6c6f591f90).
  • A complete list of the updated nodes can be found here.
  • Many function nodes with more inputs like Map Range, Combine XYZ, and Random Value are 2-4x faster in common cases (ae94e36cfb).
  • Selection inputs are now faster in general as the field system can prepare the data for nodes more efficiently (d3a1e9cbb9).
  • In a simple test with the set position node, the improvement to runtime was 1.4x with 10% of points selected, and 2.5x with 90% of points selected.
  • Simple functions with a single input and output in a field network like data-type conversion can be around twice as fast in some cases (67c42e7f03).
  • Writing to vertex groups inside nodes and directly with a modifier output attribute can be 3.6x faster (610ec34c1f).
  • Values of zero are not written to the group anymore.
  • The Mesh Line primitive was parallelized with an observed 4x performance improvement (8f344b530a).
  • A small optimization to the UV Sphere node made it 1% faster (156e07232e).
  • General:
  • The Duplicate Elements can duplicate points, edges, faces, instances, and curves (120f16fa1f).
  • Updating the node to use the new curves data-block improved performance by up to 150x (663bd38ed6).
  • Geometry nodes has better support for byte colors, to work better with the changes in sculpt mode (b9799dfb8a).
  • The Store Named Attribute node can write byte colors directly.
  • The "Convert Attribute" operator can convert to/from byte colors.
  • Various systems like implicit conversions and mixing byte colors work in all nodes.
  • Byte colors are displayed as integers (0-255) in the spreadsheet.
  • Adding a new Geometry Nodes modifier from the modifier panel doesn't automatically populate it with a new node tree anymore (08b4b657b6).
  • It's now possible to specify a default name for modifier attribute inputs and outputs, used whenever creating assigning a node group to an empty modifier (0ad73bb965).
  • Named Attributes:
  • Nodes to deal with attribute names directly are back! (d4e46c13cc, 3e7ee3f3bc)
  • The Store Named Attribute node can create attributes with any name (even names computed with string nodes).
  • The Remove Named Attribute node removes any attribute, which can be helpful as a performance improvement.
  • The Named Attribute input node retrieves an attribute with a name for use in a field.
  • The input node supports attribute search, which automatically sets its output type (3ecdfd0938).
  • Attribute names used in node groups are visualized externally.
  • A new "Internal Dependencies" modifier panel shows all attribute names used by the modifier (0178e694b7, 9a53599180).
  • A node editor overlay shows attribute names used by names and node groups (c71013082d).
  • Meshes:
  • The Face is Planar nodes can tell when the triangles of an N-Gon don't lie on the same plane (75bb99fa40).
  • The Merge by Distance node now has a "Connected" mode like the weld modifier, which can be much faster (81ec3dce65).
  • Curves:
  • The behavior when writing directly to the position, handle_right, and handle_left attributes has been simplified, removing the edit-mode-like logic affecting handles (4c66bd5da2, f8fe0e831e).
  • The Set Position and Set Handle Position nodes still have the more complex behavior.
  • Legacy Geometry Nodes:
  • Most nodes from 2.93, before the fields system was introduced, have been removed (943b919fe8, 213d00607e).
  • This means that as of 3.2, geometry nodes files are not backwards compatible with files using legacy nodes. Versions 3.1 and 3.0 can be used to port files to the new system.
  • This change can speed up development and remove the maintenance burden of supporting the set of legacy nodes.
  • Node Editor:
  • The readability of node link selections has been improved (75bb99fa40).
  • The entire link is highlighted when a connected node is selected.
  • Selected links are displayed on top, so they are always clearly visible.
  • Selected links are not faded when the sockets they are connected to are out out view.
  • Dragged links still get a partial highlight when they are only attached to one socket.
  • The look of the soft shadow behind nodes has been improved for extreme zoom levels and high resolution displays (ed4b032155).
  • The dot grid background has been improved to be more visually consistent with the zoom level (2670032038).
  • There have been small improvements to the look of the reroute node (ee1d5fb9e4).
  • Curved node links always attach horizontally to the reroute node to avoid breaking the visual flow.
  • The label of the reroute node is now center aligned.
  • When creating node groups, hidden links are removed, to avoid making unused input and output sockets (4edde244da).
  • Pipeline, Assets, IO:
  • Asset System & Asset Browser:
  • Collection assets are now supported (rB253e4e7e)
  • An automatic preview image is generated when using Mark as Asset (rB810e225c).
  • Collection instancing can be toggled in the Adjust Last Operation panel after dropping to the 3D View (rBeb1ede56).
  • Ability to drag materials (from Asset Browser for example) to Material slots in Properties editor. (fd2519e0b6)
  • Wavefront Obj I/O:
  • New experimental OBJ importer. (rBe6a9b223, rB213cd39b)
  • The new importer is written in C++ and is much faster than the Python importer, while using less memory as well. Import time comparisons on several large scenes:
  • rungholt.obj Minecraft level (269MB file, 1 object): 54.2s -> 5.9s, memory usage 7.0GB -> 1.9GB during import.
  • Blender 3.0 splash scene (2.4GB file, 24000 objects): 4 hours -> 53s.
  • Experimental OBJ exporter: Speed improvements. (rB1f7013fb, rBe2e4c1da).
  • Export time comparisons between Blender 3.1.1 and 3.2:
  • Suzanne, subdivided to 6th level (330MB obj file):
  • Windows (32 threads): 6.0s -> 1.0s
  • macOS (10 threads): 3.9s -> 1.2s
  • Linux (48 threads): 6.2s -> 1.4s
  • Blender 3.0 splash scene (2.4GB obj file):
  • Windows (32 threads): 45.5s -> 3.9s
  • macOS (10 threads): 27.2s -> 5.5s
  • Linux (48 threads): 33.4s -> 4.4s
  • Media Formats:
  • Blender now has support for the WebP image format which works similar to PNG but compresses faster and generates smaller file sizes. (rB4fd0a69d)
  • Windows:
  • Improved error message when monitors are connected to multiple adapters. (fd1078e105).
  • Faster blender launch when there are disconnected network shares. (84fde382e4).
  • Python API:
  • Text Editor:
  • Python exceptions from the text editor are now displayed in the info-space (as well as the console). (rB2d2baeaf).
  • Soft keywords are now syntax highlighted. (c6ed879f9a)
  • Additions:
  • Context.temp_override has been added to support temporarily setting the context which can be useful after loading a file (for example) where the context is cleared making many operators fail to run. (f438344cf2)
  • Context.path_resolve now supports resolving attributes such as "active_object", "scene" ... etc. Expressions such as context.path_resolve("active_object.modifiers[0].name") now work as expected. (7bb8eeb3a8)
  • Text.region_from_string & Text.region_as_string methods can be used to get and set the selection, optionally passing in the region to access. (rBf49a736f).
  • mathutils.Color gained methods to convert between the scene linear color space and sRGB, CIE XYZ, ACES and Linear Rec.709. Most values returned by Blender APIs are in scene linear color space, with the notable exception of user interface theming colors which are in sRGB. (469ee7f469)
  • Persistent handlers in bpy.app.handlers can now use methods from a class. (0f583d9d60)
  • Breaking Changes:
  • XrActionMapItem.user_paths collection property replaces XrActionMapItem.user_path0/user_path1. Similarly, XrActionMapBinding.component_paths collection property replaces XrActionMapBinding.component_path0/component_path1. This allows XR actions to have a variable amount of bindings instead of being limited to 2 per action. (rB6a8709ba)
  • gpu.shader.code_from_builtin it is no longer compatible with Blender's internal gpu module and had to be removed. (rB3e98331a)
  • The MeshVertex.normal property is now read-only, which prevents confusion due to the way vertex normals are calculated on-demand. (891268aa82)
  • Tweak events have been removed from KeyMapItem.type. (EVT_TWEAK_L, EVT_TWEAK_M, EVT_TWEAK_R)
  • Instead of special types, regular mouse button types should be used (LEFTMOUSE, MIDDLEMOUSE, RIGHTMOUSE) with the KeyMapItem.value set to CLICK_DRAG. Directional dragging can be specified by setting KeyMapItem.direction. (4986f71848, 7e4c031328)
  • The value of motion events (MOUSEMOVE, INBETWEEN_MOUSEMOVE) is now always NOTHING, instead of the previous PRESS / RELEASE event's value 52af3b20d4.
  • Sequence properties frame_still_start and frame_still_end have been removed. Same functionality can be now achieved by setting negative frame_offset_start or frame_offset_end (rB8ca9ce09)
  • Adding a new Geometry Nodes modifier doesn't automatically populate it with a new node tree anymore (08b4b657b6).
  • Deprecation:
  • The primitive drawing types 'LINE_LOOP' and 'TRI_FAN' used in GPUBatch have been deprecated as they will be removed in future releases. (rBe2d8b6dc)
  • Passing the context to operators as a dictionary) has been deprecated as part of the inclusion of Context.temp_override which should be used instead. (f438344cf2)
  • Deprecated API
  • bpy.ops.object.delete({"selected_objects": objects_to_delete})
  • New API
  • with context.temp_override(selected_objects=objects_to_delete):
  • bpy.ops.object.delete()
  • Mesh.vertex_colors is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. The new sculpt paint tools can now create color attributes, found in Mesh.attributes with type BYTE_COLOR and FLOAT_COLOR. Importers and exporters are recommended to support both types of color attributes, and attributes in general.
  • Different from the old vertex colors, color attribute values are in scene linear color space instead of sRGB color space. For file formats that require sRGB colors, mathutils.Color.from_scene_linear_to_srgb can perform the conversion.
  • Blender 3.2: Cycles:
  • AMD GPU Rendering:
  • AMD GPU Rendering for Linux has been enabled. Like Windows, this is supported for RDNA and RDNA2 generation discrete graphics cards, which includes Radeon RX 5000 and RX 6000 series, and Radeon Pro W6000 series GPUs.
  • This currently requires the 22.10 Linux driver from the AMD Radeon repository.
  • For RDNA1 cards, the drivers have a known bug rendering image textures with certain resolutions, where the width is not a multiple of 128. We recommend using typical texture resolutions like 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096 as a workaround, until the driver bug is fixed.
  • Color Management:
  • Support different color management settings for render output than viewport display. Animation rendering, compositing file output nodes and image saving now have options to override the scene color management settings. For linear file formats like OpenEXR, a different linear color space can be chosen, for example to export ACES OpenEXR files. For other file formats a different display, view transform and look can be provided, for example to create a compositing nodes to output images for multiple display targets. (7aab508e7a)
  • OpenColorIO color space aliases support, to create backwards compatible configurations. (5ac4e6c5ac)
  • Linear ACEScg color space added to the configuration, for more easily handling OpenEXR files with the ACEScg color space. (f991f5af99)
  • Light Groups:
  • Support for Light Groups, a type of pass that only contains lighting from a subset of light sources (ad35453ad3).
  • This can be used in order to e.g. modify the color and/or intensity of light sources in the compositor without re-rendering.
  • Shadow Caustics:
  • Support for selective rendering of caustics in shadows of refractive objects (1fb02471fb).
  • Example uses are rendering of underwater caustics and eye caustics.
  • This is based on "Manifold Next Event Estimation", a method developed for production rendering. The idea is to selectively enable shadow caustics on a few objects in the scene where they have a big visual impact, without impacting render performance for the rest of the scene.
  • Note this method has a number of limitations:
  • Only caustics in shadows of refractive objects work, which means no caustics from reflection or caustics that fall outside shadows. Only up to 4 refractive caustic bounces are supported.
  • Caustic caster objects should have smooth normals. Bump and normal maps are ignored.
  • Not currently supported for Metal GPU rendering.
  • In the future this method may be extended for more general caustics.
  • Volume Motion Blur:
  • Motion blur for gas simulations and imported VDB volumes is now supported (2890c11cd7). For this, the volumes must have a velocity field, defined either as a vector grid, or as a triplet of scalar grids for the X, Y, and Z components of the vector field. For volume objects, a parameter is available to set the velocity grid's name.
  • If there is no vector grid matching the velocity grid name, the name will be used to try and find grids with the name ending either with x|y|z, or .x|.y|.z, or _x|_y|_z. For example, if the base name is velocity, then any group of 3 scalar grids named either velocityx, velocityy, and velocityz, or velocity.x, velocity.y, and velocity.z, or velocity_x, velocity_y, and velocity_z will be merged into a vector grid at render time and used for motion blur.
  • For imported volumes, an option to set the unit of time in which the velocity vectors are expressed is available. Some software may export velocities scaled to seconds (SECOND) or scaled to the simulation frame time (FRAME). If it is not known what the unit of time is, and if motion blur appears too strong, then FRAME might need to be used, or if it does not seem to have any effect, then this might need to set to SECOND.
  • Changes:
  • Support using Adaptive Sampling together with Scrambling Distance. (630d2b6630)
  • Shader Nodes: add Alpha output to Object Info node (5b4ab895b4)
  • Automatically unpause viewport when switching to rendered mode (ae21729557)
  • The Alembic procedural is now enabled for final renders (e81d7bfcc9)
  • Baking to UDIM tiles is now supported (6787cc13d4)
  • Sculpt, Paint, Texture:
  • Color Attributes:
  • Vertex colors have been refactored into generic color attributes (rBeae36be3).
  • Color Attributes in UI
  • Color attributes support both 8-bit byte and 32-bit floating point colors and can be stored in Vertex or Face Corner domains. The default is using Vertex -> Color setting, to reduce file sizes, RAM usage and improve color quality.
  • Creating a new Color Attribute
  • "Vertex color" was renamed to "Color Attribute" in various places (rBeae36be3,rB07b10638).
  • Painting in Sculpt Mode:
  • Color attributes can be painted inside vertex paint mode or in sculpt mode using the new sculpt paint tools (rBeae36be3).
  • Painting tools in Sculpt mode have advantages like masking options, face sets/masks support and faster performance. They will serve as a base for future painting improvements and modes.
  • Vertex paint mode has been ported to support painting color attributes. (rB575ade22).
  • Using painting tools in solid view switches viewport shading color to “Attribute” (rB90042b7d).
  • This ensures that the color attributes are visible when painting, without making the visualisation mandatory in sculpt mode.
  • Paint Brush - default brush for painting color attributes.
  • Holding Shift key switches Paint brush to Blur.
  • Can modulate wet paint effect for color smudging.
  • Includes extra sliders to control the tip roundness and width
  • Flow and Density also control how much color is applied during the stroke
  • Showcase of different brush presets from the demo file
  • Smear Brush - brush for smearing color attributes
  • Has various deformation modes.
  • Smear brush deformation modes
  • Color Filter - tool for modifying existing colors. Filter operations include:
  • Fill
  • Hue
  • Saturation
  • Value
  • Brightness
  • Contrast
  • Smooth
  • Red
  • Green
  • Blue
  • Color filter modes
  • Mask By Color - tool for creating masks from the active color attribute
  • Making a mask from a color
  • Voxel Remesher:
  • Edit Voxel Size operator now displays units properly (b226236b01).
  • Voxel Remesh default settings have been changed (d1418dd151).
  • Voxel Remesher supports color attributes.
  • Color attributes, face sets and masks are now being preserved.
  • 'Fix poles' is for now disabled to drastically increase remeshing speed.
  • User Interface:
  • General:
  • The "Use Snap" option is no longer shared between different types of editors (3D View, UV, Sequencer and Node) (rBe3de755a)
  • Drag and Drop
  • Dragging preview thumbnails from the File Browser and Asset Browser doesn't require clicking exactly on the preview image anymore. (Almost) the entire tile can be used to start dragging now. (6e487228a5)
  • It is now possible to drag materials (from Asset Browser for example) to Material Properties slots. (fd2519e0b6)
  • File Browser search now works correctly with descriptive font names. (f381c73a21)
  • Editor Management
  • Duplicated windows using corner Actions Zones are now immediately activated (db4d5d1583).
  • The "Swap Areas" operator (when used from corner action zones) can work between separate Windows (29696fb725).
  • Windows OS
  • Proper handling of Full Width numbers while in Chinese IME character entry. (82c852f387)
  • OneDrive link added to File Browser "System" list. (ace1b6a73a).
  • Improved numerical entry when using Chinese language. (6b7756279f, 4311a32bc2).
  • Support for font file formats "Woff" and "Woff2". (55c90df316).
  • Adjustments to the Quick Setup screen to fit contents better, especially with High DPI monitors. (7aec5b0622).
  • 3D Viewport:
  • Clicking in object mode won't cycle selection on first click. (rBb1908f2e)
  • Support maintaining orthographic views when rolling 90/-90 degrees (13efaa8a09).
  • 3D Mouse / NDOF
  • 90/-90 degree rotation is used for roll buttons (13efaa8a09).
  • N2D style pan & zoom is not optionally supported in the camera view instead of leaving the camera view. (51975b89ed, 391c3848b1).
  • Correction to font size of Side Bar tab text (b959f603da).
  • Outliner:
  • Objects that use the "Curve" data type in the Outliner will be displayed using their respective sub-type icon (curve, surface or font icon). (1e1d1f15e8)
  • VFX & Video:
  • Sequencer:
  • Add filter method to strip transform (1c5f2e49b7)
  • Use float for transformation offset (b4700a13c6)
  • Now it is possible to create a new scene base on the active strip. The new scene is assigned to the active strip. (2d24ba0210)
  • Add channel headers - provides ability to assign label and per channel mute / lock buttons. (277fa2f441)
  • Enable edge panning for transform operator - when dragging strip out of view, it pans the view. (e49fef45ce)
  • Better handling of animation when transforming strips, transforming no longer extends selection. (32da64c17e)
  • Add frame selected operator for preview. (e16ff4132e)
  • Thumbnail for first image now represents handle position (29b9187b32)
  • Add option to limit timeline view height (17769489d9)
  • Compositor:
  • Add Combine and Separate XYZ Nodes (9cc4861e6f)
  • Clip Editor:
  • Fix tilt/scale slider of marker jumping on initial mouse grab (dd7250efb1)
  • Fix for tilt/scale slider to follow mouse exactly (00018bfaa2)
  • Motion Tracking:
  • Fixes very slow tracking with keyframe pattern matching when movie does not fit into cache (e08180fdab)
  • Virtual Reality:
  • Object Extras / Object Type Visibility:
  • Object extras such as image-empties can now be shown in the VR viewport/headset display. Being able to see reference images in VR can be useful for architectural walkthroughs and 3D modeling applications.
  • Since users may not want to see all object extras (lights, cameras, etc.), per-object-type visibility settings are also newly available as session options (5c92c04518).
  • Xr object type visibility.png
  • Other Changes & Additions:
  • New Camera Landmark from Session operator for VR landmarks that creates a new camera and Custom Object-type landmark from the current VR headset pose (rBA5aa25f6).
  • Support for HTC Vive Focus 3 controllers (964d3a38fa).
  • Add-ons:
  • Rigify:
  • Adjusted the switchable parent rig so that disabling Local Location on IK controls aligns location channels to world as intended. Added an IK Local Location option to limbs (on by default for backward compatibility) and disabled it in metarigs. (rBA7120e9c, rBAc268b58)
  • FBX I/O:
  • Support for camera DoF focus distance was added, including animation, for both import (rBA5eff3aa) and export (rBAfba4f07).
  • Imported animations of rigs now have their FCurves properly grouped by bones (rBAa2c3cfd).
  • An option to triangulate geometry has been added to the exporter (rBAd700a68).
  • An option to only export visible objects has been added to the exporter (rBA4075cdb).
  • BHV I/O:
  • Imported animations of rigs now have their FCurves properly grouped by bones (rBAa2c3cfd).
  • glTF 2.0 I/O:
  • Exporter:
  • Huge refactoring (better hierarchy / collection / instances management) (rBA782f858, rBA1d5c8b5, rBA64f4623, rBAdbb9b62)
  • Use rest pose for armature when 'use current frame' is off (rBAd825811)
  • Add glTF settings node in shader menu (rBA5838e26)
  • Export armature without skined mesh as skin in glTF files (rBA5a557e7)
  • Normalize skin weights also for all influence mode (rBA96eb146)
  • Manage active UVMap correclty, when there is no UVMap used in node tree (rBA3a29996)
  • Manage skinning when some vertices are not weights at all (rBA564fdcd)
  • Armature exports all actions (rBA9818afc, rBA787ea78, rBAa0ce684)
  • Add various hooks (rBA43477e0, rBA8653db3, rBAfef8f1f)
  • Remove back compatibility of export_selection -> use_selection (rBA4d8b2dc)
  • Weight min threshold for skinning (rBAc157125)
  • Option to optimize animation size off by default (rBA22c1eb5)
  • Manage use_nla option to avoid exporting merged animations (rBA6e430d2)
  • Performance : better way to detect weird images (rBAcbb4b8c)
  • Fix PBR values when emission node is used (rBAfbb5111)
  • Fix transmission export (rBA4c1df0f)
  • Fix bone export when Yup is off (rBAdfe74f0)
  • Fix active scene export + option to use only active scene (rBA1bffd88)
  • No texture export when original can't be retrieved (rBAadf10c6)
  • Use color attribute API instead of vertex color (rBA485b4ac)
  • Importer:
  • Fix when glTF file has no scene (rBAb294d4c)
  • More animation hooks for user extensions (rBA2183b1d)
  • Dynamic Brush Menus:
  • Fix and consistently support symmetry menus for all painting modes (rBAc9fba91).
  • Fix brushes menu not displaying fully in sculpt mode (rBA4d53ec7).
  • Collection Manager:
  • An option to enable/disable the QCD 3D Viewport header widget has been added to the preferences (rBAa65df67).
  • Node Wrangler:
  • Node Wrangler now handles attributes (rBAdde5915).

New in Blender 3.2.0 (Jun 8, 2022)

  • LET THERE BE LIGHT GROUPS:
  • A new type of Cycles render pass that contains only the lighting from a subset of light sources.
  • Light Groups can be used in order to e.g. modify the color and/or intensity of light sources in the compositor without re-rendering.
  • SHADOW CAUSTICS:
  • Cycles now supports selective rendering of caustics in shadows of refractive objects.
  • This is based on “Manifold Next Event Estimation”, a method developed for production rendering.
  • VOLUME MOTION BLUR:
  • Introducing support for motion blur for gas simulations and imported OpenVDB volumes.
  • MORE CYCLES:
  • Support Adaptive Sampling with Scrambling Distance
  • AMD GPU Rendering for Linux
  • OpenColorIO color space aliases support
  • New Linear ACEScg color space
  • Add Alpha Output to Object Info node
  • Support different Color Management for Render and Viewport
  • Automatically unpause viewport when switching to rendered mode
  • Enable Alembic procedural for final renders
  • Support for Baking to UDIM tiles
  • COLOR ME IMPRESSED:
  • Blender 3.2 revolutionizes polygon painting with new tools, usability improvements, and unprecedented performance.
  • PAINT IT BACK:
  • Paint Brush
  • Smear Brush
  • Mask by Color
  • Color Filter Tool
  • REMESH:
  • Now when using the voxel remesher all color attributes will be preserved.
  • This is perfect to color your sculpts as you still experiment and block out the general shapes.
  • MASK OUT:
  • Masking, auto-masking and face sets are fully supported with color attribute painting.
  • DUPLICATE ELEMENTS:
  • This new node creates a new geometry with the specified elements (point, edge, face, spline, or instance).
  • Combined with the Geometry to Instance Node, this can be used to create a basic efficient “Array” operation. This should be more efficient because the duplicates are instances.
  • ASSET COLLECTIONS:
  • Expand your asset library with Collections!
  • Add Collection assets as instances or real objects.
  • Thumbnails are automatically generated, or customize it with your own.
  • MODELING CURVE PEN TOOL:
  • Quickly add, delete, and tweak control points. Hold modifier keys to switch handle types.
  • ENVELOPE MODIFIER:
  • This new modifier connects all points that are N points apart, a shape known as envelope.
  • AND MORE:
  • Build modifier improvements
  • Improved smooth operator algorithm
  • Scale Stroke Thickness in Pie menu
  • New “Keep Shape” option in Smooth modifier
  • Dot Dash modifier improvements
  • Improve multi-user Grease Pencil performance
  • Added cache to speed up object evaluation
  • ENHANCED CHANNELS:
  • Organize your edits by giving channels a name!
  • You can also mute and lock entire channels.
  • PLUS:
  • Add frame selected operator for preview
  • Better handling of animation when transforming strips
  • Option to limit timeline view height
  • Use float for transformation offset
  • Enable edge panning for transform operator
  • Add filter method to strip transform
  • Create new scene from VSE
  • EEVEE:
  • Displacement bump improvements
  • Shader improvements
  • Show compilation progress in the 3D Viewport
  • Bump node optimization
  • Tangent Vector displacement now matches Cycles
  • Library Overrides:
  • ReSync up to 10x faster
  • General improvements
  • Proxy system deprecated
  • I/O:
  • Support for WebP image format
  • New Experimental OBJ importer
  • FBX I/O Improvements
  • BHV importing improvements
  • Viewport:
  • Support maintaining ortho views when rolling +/- 90°
  • Animation & Rigging:
  • Motion Paths improvements
  • New “Keep Transform Without Inverse” parent option
  • Improvements to NLA editor
  • Support custom shortcuts for “Insert Keyframe” menu
  • Discontinuity (Euler) Filter available in Dope Sheet
  • Rigify improvements
  • Legacy Pose Library deprecated
  • Core:
  • Improved error message when monitors are connected to multiple adapters
  • Faster Blender launch with disconnected shares
  • NDOF device improvements
  • Improved numerical entry when using Chinese language
  • Support for Woff and Woff2 font file formats
  • VR:
  • Camera Landmark from Session
  • Object Visibility options
  • Support for HTC Vive Focus 3 controllers
  • User Interface:
  • Swap Areas between separate windows
  • Snapping per editor
  • OneDrive shortcut in File Browser
  • Improved dragging of preview thumbnails
  • Voxel Size now displays units
  • Markers improvements
  • Better defaults in Voxel Remesh
  • Python:
  • Context Temp Override
  • Display exceptions in Info Editor
  • Python API changes
  • API breaking changes and deprecation
  • Text Editor: Soft keywords syntax highlight
  • More:
  • Compositor: Add Combine and Separate XYZ Nodes
  • Fixes in Motion Tracking
  • Libraries Updates

New in Blender 3.1.0 (Mar 14, 2022)

  • Animation & Rigging:
  • Armatures:
  • It is now possible to reduce the opacity of bones drawn as 'wireframe' in Pose, Edit and Weight Paint modes via an option in the overlay popover. This is anticipated to be most useful for reducing visual clutter during Weight Paint. (rB1785286e)
  • Action Frame Range:
  • It is now possible to manually specify the intended usable frame range of an action, and whether it is intended to be a cycle.
  • The settings are accessible via a panel within the Dope Sheet, Action Editor and NLA Editor. The range is also displayed as a diagonal hash highlight in the background. The frame range will be used when adding an action strip to NLA instead of the actual range of the keys in the action. It can also be used by exporters to define the export range, e.g. FBX. (rB5d59b386).
  • The cyclic setting does not actually make the animation cycle by itself, but the Cycle-Aware Keying option will use it to automatically make curves newly inserted into this action cyclic with the right period (rB72acce43).
  • Copy Global Transform:
  • New add-on for animators, which is documented in the add-ons section of the release notes.
  • Motion Path Interface:
  • It is possible to clean all paths from a bone or object that has no motion path: the "X" button was moved to a different line and is visible at all times.
  • Equalize Handles:
  • The graph editor now has an "Equalize Handles" operator (in the Keys → Snap menu, rB17b0c069). It equalizes the handle length of all selected keyframes, optionally making them horizontal as well. The length itself defaults to 5.0 and can be adjusted in the redo panel.
  • Graph Editor Slider Operators:
  • The graph editor now has a "Breakdown" f7ddb1ed8a and a "Blend To Neighbor" 9085b4a731 operator like the pose mode. It allows to modify selected keys based on their surrounding keys. The operators can be found under Key » Slider Operators.
  • Core:
  • Library Overrides:
  • Report in the Outliner when a library contains library overrides data-blocks that required some resyncing (D13766, rBa909ab98).
  • Batch Rename:
  • Support for renaming selected items in the outliner (75d84b1b64).
  • Support for renaming collections, volumes and lights 54fb1a75ee, c11c2a4b91, 7220897280).
  • EEVEE & Viewport:
  • Image editor:
  • Image editor is able to handle large images. (bdd74e1e93)
  • Tearing artifacts have been fixed on selected platforms. (bdd74e1e93)
  • Grease Pencil:
  • Line Art:
  • New option to toggle collection inverse selection. This allows conveniently exclude a collection and select "the rest of" the scene. (40c8e23d48)
  • Differences between collection line art usage flag:
  • Collection line art usage is global, used to specify e.g. if a collection should appear in calculation at all.
  • Invert collection selection is used to easily select a collection and "everything else other than that collection", making it convenient to set up such cases.
  • New option to preserve contour lines when using face mark filtering. (dde997086c)
  • Noise tolerant chaining. This feature takes advantage of original line art chain which is a continuous long chain, instead of splitting it at each occlusion change, this function tolerates short segments of "zig-zag" occlusion incoherence and don't split the chain at these points, thus creates a much smoother result. (5ae76fae90)
  • Back face culling option. (579e8ebe79)
  • Operators:
  • New Merge All Layers option in Merge operator. (556c71a84a)
  • New option in PDF export to export full scene frame range. (e1c4e5df22)
  • Tools:
  • Now Fill tool allows to use a Dilate negative value to contract the filled area and create a gap between fill and stroke. (3b14224881)
  • Modifiers and VFX:
  • New Shrinkwrap modifier. (459af75d1e)
  • New Randomize parameter in Length modifier. (a90c356467)
  • Modeling:
  • General:
  • Mesh vertex and face normals have been refactored, reducing unnecessary calculation, improving caching, and generally improving performance in more complex files (cfa53e0fbe).
  • These changes do not affect pure edit mode performance.
  • Mesh bounding box calculation has been multi-threaded, which can make exiting edit mode faster (6a71b2af66).
  • The accuracy of NURBS knots calculation has been improved, allowing the combination of Bézier and cyclic modes (45d038181a).
  • An new operator on meshes allows converting generic attributes to UV layers or vertex groups, or other generic data types (f6888b530a).
  • The operator also makes it possible to change the domain of an attribute on original geometry.
  • Subdivision Surface:
  • The Subdivision Surface modifier now benefits from GPU acceleration (eed45d2a23).
  • To enable or disable the GPU acceleration, a new user preference setting is available under Viewport > Subdivision.
  • Vertex creasing for subdivision surfaces is now supported (4425e0cd64).
  • This allows to mark vertices as arbitrarily sharp to create interesting shapes more efficiently.
  • Nodes & Physics:
  • Geometry Nodes:
  • Geometry nodes has been extended with large performance improvements, more possibilities with many new mesh nodes, and various other utilities and features.
  • In bold you can find the names of 19 newly added nodes.
  • Performance Improvements:
  • The Set Position node has been optimized for meshes, with up to a 4x improvement for a simple field (602ecbdf9a).
  • The evaluation system used for fields has been improved in many ways
  • In large fields with many nested values, memory usage can be reduced by up to 100x, which can also improve performance by 3-4x (1686979747).
  • Improvements to multi-threading with medium loads (around 10,000 elements) can improve field evaluation performance by up to 10x (658fd8df0b).
  • Memory use and performance have been improved, especially when few elements are processed by many nodes, up to a 20% improvement in some cases (92237f11eb).
  • Processing single values with field nodes is more efficient now, which can make a 2-3x difference in very extreme situations (47276b8470).
  • The Realize Instances node is now multi-threaded, which can give at least a 4x improvement in some common cases (f5ce243a56).
  • Mesh vertex and face normals have been refactored, improving access speed in geometry nodes by up to 40% (cfa53e0fbe).
  • Other areas like normal calculation, primitive nodes, and more complex files also have significant improvements.
  • Domain interpolation now only calculates necessary values, for some interpolations to faces and face corners (796e9d442c).
  • When selections are used, the improvements can be significant; a 6x improvement was measured using the position attribute to a single face.
  • Displaying large node trees with many nodes in the node editor can be almost twice as fast (0129178376).
  • The Set Spline Type node is now multi-threaded, making it faster when there are many splines (d2f4fb68f5).
  • The Cube mesh primitive node can be about 75% faster at high resolutions (aa6c922d99).
  • The Grid mesh primitive is now multi-threaded, with a 2.5x performance improvement observed on a 4096x4096 vertex grid (cb96435047).
  • The internals of the Bounding Box node have been multi-threaded for meshes and point clouds, with observed 4.4x and 5x performance improvements (6a71b2af66, 6d7dbdbb44).
  • The overhead for multi-threading a series of nodes has been lowered, for a few percent improvement in some cases (e206a0ae96).
  • General:
  • The result of a field at a certain index can be calculated with the Field at Index node (b88a37a490).
  • The new Accumulate Field node is useful as a building block for more complex setups, building sums of values inside multiple groups (a836ded990).
  • It's no longer necessary to add a #frame driver to get the scene's current animation time, the Scene Time node does that instead (bd3bd776c8).
  • The Compare Floats node has been upgraded to a generalized Compare node (1757840843).
  • The new node can compare most data types, not just floats, even strings.
  • Special modes are included for 3D Vectors, to compare directions dot products, lengths, and more.
  • Close points on meshes and point clouds can be merged with the Merge by Distance node (ec1b0c2014, 0ec94d5359).
  • The Map Range node now has a vector data type option (5b61737a8f).
  • The Boolean Math node has been expanded with more operations (14f6afb090).
  • Attributes:
  • The Domain Size node gives the size of any attribute domain, like the number of vertices in a mesh (35124acd19).
  • The Attribute Statistic node now has a selection input (1a833dbdb9).
  • To make naming more intuitive, the Transfer Attribute node geometry input has been renamed from "Target" to "Source" (6a16a9e661).
  • An new operator on meshes allows converting generic attributes to UV layers or vertex groups, or other generic data types (f6888b530a).
  • The operator also makes it possible to change the domain of an attribute on original geometry.
  • The operator only works on original geometry, so the geometry nodes modifier must be applied
  • Instances:
  • Instances now support dynamic attributes (97533eede4, 15ecd47b96, ba8dd0f24f).
  • Attributes are propagated in the Realize instances node, including special handling for the id attribute (f5ce243a56).
  • Instances attributes are propagated in the Instance on Points and Instances to Points nodes (221b7b27fc, 386b112f76).
  • Geometry Nodes instance attributes are not usable in shader nodes in 3.1.
  • Real geometry can be converted to an instance with the Geometry to Instance node (565b33c0ad).
  • Instances can be removed directly in the Delete Geometry node (a94d80716e).
  • Meshes:
  • The Dual Mesh node transforms a mesh's faces into vertices and vertices into faces (d54a08c8af).
  • The Extrude Mesh node makes it possible to extrude vertices, edges, and faces (95981c9876).
  • Various nodes have been added to give basic access to mesh topology information.
  • Vertex Neighbors gives access to the number of vertices and faces connected to each vertex (2814740f5b).
  • Face Neighbors gives access to each face's vertex count and the number of faces connected by an edge (2814740f5b).
  • Edge Vertices gives access to edge vertex indices and their positions (2814740f5b).
  • Edge Neighbors tells how many faces use each edge (c4cee2e221).
  • More new nodes give useful data derived from meshes.
  • The Face Area node provides access to the surface area of each of a mesh's faces (2814740f5b).
  • The Mesh Island node outputs a separate index for each piece of connected vertices in a mesh (069d63561a, 4251455dcd).
  • There is also an "Island Count" output for the total number of islands in the mesh (87c5423c5e).
  • The Edge Angle node gives the angle between the normals of two manifold faces (b7ad58b945).
  • The node can output the signed angle, to tell when an edge is convex or concave (4d5c08b938).
  • The Flip Faces node reverses the normals of selected faces by reversing the winding order of their vertices and edges (c39d514a4e).
  • The Scale Elements node changes the size of selected groups of faces or edges (d034b85f33).
  • The Triangulate node now has a selection input to limit the operation to only some faces (abf30007ab).
  • Curves:
  • The String to Curves node has two new outputs (0e86c60c28):
  • "Line" contains the index of the line in the text layout for every character instance.
  • "Pivot Point" gives a position relative to the bounding box of each character.
  • The Resample Curve node now has a selection input for only affecting certain splines (a7672caeb2).
  • The Curve Parameter node is renamed to Spline Parameter and now has a length output in addition to "Factor" (0c6b815855).
  • The Set Handle Position node has a new "Offset" input like the Set Position node (3fe735d371).
  • The number of control points in a spline is now included in the Spline Length node (88e9e97ee9).
  • The Set Spline Type node has a better conversion from NURBS to Bézier splines (a84621347d).
  • The Curve Handle Positions node now has a toggle to output the position relative to the corresponding control point (38c7378949).
  • Primitives:
  • A new Arc curve primitive is similar to the Curve Circle primitive, but can create an incomplete circle (cc1a48e395).
  • The Cone and Cylinder mesh primitives now have selection outputs for the top, side, and bottom sections (431524aebc).
  • The Star curve primitive node has a selection output for the outer points (3fe735d371).
  • Spreadsheet Editor:
  • Volume grids are now listed in the spreadsheet, including the grid name, data type, and class (ccead2ed9c).
  • Node Editor:
  • The nodes editor has a new context-aware search menu when dragging links, and significant performance improvements for large node trees, with fewer unnecessary updates than before.
  • When dragging a node link over empty space, a new search menu allows quickly connecting a node with a compatible socket (11be151d58).
  • The execution time for nodes can be displayed above nodes (Geometry nodes only) (e4986f92f3).
  • Performance for large node trees has been improved, and unnecessary updates have been removed.
  • Editing a node tree causes fewer unnecessary updates than before (7e712b2d6a).
  • Inserting reroutes and changing nodes that aren't connected to the output don't trigger updates.
  • Some unnecessary updates still happen when a driver is used.
  • Displaying large node trees with many nodes in the node editor can be almost twice as fast (0129178376).
  • Editing and undo with large node trees should be generally faster (dbbf0e7f66, bdbd0cffda).
  • Node selection inside Frame nodes has been fixed/improved (1995aae6e3).
  • Pipeline, Assets & I/O:
  • Alembic:
  • Animated vertex colors can now be exported to Alembic (rB4e247894).
  • Reading override layers is now supported (rB0a08ac25). Override layers allow to override data (attributes, animations, topology, etc.) from Alembic caches as long the hierarchies inside of the original file and the layer(s) match.
  • Asset Browser:
  • Asset libraries are indexed for faster browsing (rBdbeab82a, rB36068487).
  • Node groups can be added to asset libraries, and support drag & drop into the node editor (37848d1c8e).
  • Image I/O:
  • Enabled support for OpenEXR DWAB compression (rBb1bd0f8f)
  • Obj I/O:
  • A new C++ version of the .obj exporter is provided as a replacement for the Python addon (rB4e44cfa3)
  • For updates regarding the python add-on, please check the Add-ons page.
  • USD:
  • Exporter:
  • Export USD Preview Surface shaders from simple Principled BSDF node networks and allow exporting textures referenced by materials to a textures directory next to the USD file (rBc85c52f2)
  • glTF 2.0:
  • Importer:
  • Implement a user extension system (rBAa5205b0)
  • Performance enhancement when images are packed (rBAc2eeb9b)
  • Use relative path when possible (rBA4d2d118)
  • Set empty display size, based on distance parent/children (rBAec45566)
  • Fix invalid index mesh name (rBAc8445b6)
  • Exporter:
  • Manage tweak mode in NLA when needed (rBAf35aff3)
  • Better texture image management (rBA97d4577, rBA38be61e, rBA38be61e)
  • Fix regression when exporting armature object animation with only 1 key (rBAf1c4959)
  • Fix back compatibility for use_selection (rBA503570a)
  • Avoid issue with setting frame with python v >= 3.10 (rBAa0d1647)
  • Use custom range on action (rBA19385db)
  • Remove proxy management (rBA6da09c3)
  • Manage factors for Clearcoat extension (rBAdc2d9b0)
  • Workaround for image size copy not stored (rBA3b088fc)
  • Option to not export texture images (rBA4003baf)
  • New animation hooks (rBAbfcf35f)
  • Optimized anims can now be disabled (rBAb2adbc6)
  • Python API & Text Editor:
  • Bundled Python:
  • Python 3.10:
  • Python has been upgraded from version 3.9 to 3.10, there are some changes that may impact script authors.
  • Python 3.10 no longer implicitly converts floats to int's (issue linked). This means functions that previously accepted float typed values will raise a type error.
  • Floating point arguments must now be explicitly converted to integers (see example commits (rBAbb62f10, rBA7476c1a).
  • Text Editor:
  • User preference to auto-close brackets and quotes (c4ea5cb1a3).
  • Crazy space:
  • Crazy space is an implementation of what often is called deformation space: a mapping of per-vertex orientation between un-deformed object and object after shape keys and deformation modifiers are applied. The crazy space was used internally to support features like sculpting on a deformed mesh: to "cancel out" mesh deformation on a brush stroke and apply it on a base mesh.
  • Other Additions:
  • Mesh has new vertex_normals and polygon_normals properties with that provide access to a contiguous array of values (b7fe27314b, cfa53e0fbe).
  • Internally, normals are no longer stored in MeshVertex directly, though the MeshVertex.normal property is still available.
  • New convenience properties Object.children_recursive and Collection.children_recursive (7c568e7d36).
  • Breaking Changes:
  • Action.frame_range will now return the manually set frame range if available. Add-ons are advised to evaluate whether this is appropriate for their use case, or whether they need to switch to Action.curve_frame_range which always returns the range computed from the keys (rB5d59b386).
  • Render & Cycles:
  • Apple Metal:
  • Cycles now has a Metal GPU backend, contributed by Apple. Metal GPU rendering is currently supported on:
  • Apple M1 computers running macOS 12.2 or newer
  • Apple computers with AMD graphics card running macOS 12.3 or newer
  • The implementation is in an early state. Performance optimizations and support for Intel GPUs are under development.
  • Ray Tracing Precision:
  • Many artifacts from rendering small, large and far away objects have been eliminated. There will always be object scales where numerical precision becomes a problem, but it's further out now.
  • There can still be artifacts with rendering overlapping geometry, in some cases more severe than before. Such overlapping geometry should be removed, or have a small distance added in between.
  • Point Clouds:
  • Direct rendering of point cloud objects as spheres is now supported. This is much more efficient in memory usage and render time, compared to instancing an object on every point. (35b1e9f35b)
  • Point clouds can be generated with geometry nodes or imported from other software. Some example uses are sand, water splashes, particles or motion graphics.
  • The new Point Info shader node can be used to get the point center position and radius, as well as a random value for point.
  • Features:
  • Camera: new Fisheye Lens Polynomial model. This allows real world cameras to be modeled by specifying the coordinates of a 4th degree polynomial that relates a pixels distance (in mm) from the optical center on the sensor to the angle (in radians) of the world ray that is projected onto that pixel. This is available as part of the panoramic lens type, however it can also be used to model lens distortions in projective cameras for example. (24e016524e)
  • Baking: new "Adjacent Faces" method to generate margin, based on adjacent faces across UV seams. This significantly reduces discontinuities on UV seams. The old method is called "Extend", and extends border pixels outwards. (449db0a449)
  • The map range node can now work directly on vectors. (5b61737a8f)
  • Make Embree compact BVH optional. Disabling this can improve CPU render time, at the cost of higher memory usage. (e2a36a6e45)
  • Denoise operator in the Python API now supports OptiX temporal denoising. This requires enabling the Denoising Data and Vector passes. There is currently no user interface for this feature, only a Python API. (8393ccd076)
  • Merge operator in the Python API now supports merging OpenEXR renders that used adaptive sampling. (dbd64a5dbd)
  • Sculpt, Paint, Texture:
  • UDIM:
  • Tiled images now support file names containing UDIM substitution tokens (T92696, D13057, rB180b66ae)
  • The following 2 tokens are supported and can be used while loading and saving images:
  • <UDIM> : A 4-digit notation calculated as 1001 + u-tile + v-tile * 10
  • <UVTILE> : A notation defined as u(u-tile + 1)_v(v-tile + 1)
  • Example: monster-basecolor.<UDIM>.png will load/save files like monster-basecolor.1021.png etc.
  • Example: monster-basecolor.<UVTILE>.png will load/save files like monster-basecolor.u1_v3.png etc. (Tiles from u1_v1 through u10_v100 inclusive are supported.)
  • User Interface:
  • General:
  • Preferences / File Paths / Fonts now starts with an initial default path for Mac & Linux, as already done for Windows. (02a9377da0).
  • Open File Browser in thumbnail view when browsing for fonts. (9cfffe8468).
  • View pie menu for Node Editor, Video Sequencer, Dopesheet, Graph, NLA, Image, Clip and Outliner. (e1bd4bbb66).
  • Font point sizes can now be set using floating-point values. (73047c69ea).
  • The curve mapping widget layout has been slightly tweaked for consistency (8c55481e33).
  • Improved feedback while doing interactive (live) area splitting (fa8c2c7885).
  • VFX & Video:
  • Sequencer:
  • Add meta.separate() Python API function (9cf3d841a8)
  • Support drag and drop for datablocks (b42494cf6b)
  • Add drag and drop handler for preview area (34370d9fdf)
  • Support copy pasting strips with animation across different scenes. Only fcurves are supported. (eddad4e9a1)
  • Use timecodes by default, Proxy size 25% is no longer set by default. (eab066cbf2)
  • Automatic proxy building: Build proxies only for slow movies (b45e71e22c)
  • Compositor:
  • Color space conversion node (6beaa29791)
  • Scene time node (b2ccd8546c)
  • Add-on:
  • Copy Global Transform:
  • The Copy Global Transform add-on makes it possible to copy the world-space transform of the active object/bone, and paste it onto any object/bone. This could be the same one at a different point in time, or you can copy the FK control bone's global transform to the IK control bone. Or to some object. If you want to have it locked to that particular world transform for a number of frames, you can paste to selected keyframes ("smart bake") or even let it create new frames (on 1s, 2s, etc.). The add-on will do all the counter-animation required to keep the paste-target at the same global transform.
  • Rigify:
  • The super_finger rig can now place the optional IK control on a different layer (rBA9030e2c).
  • The advanced generate settings panel has been overhauled, removing the overwrite/new toggle and name field, but adding a reference to the widget collection (rBAece39d8).
  • Limbs can now be uniformly scaled using the gear shaped bone at their base (rBA2f1c38f).
  • Limb FK controls now use the Aligned inherit scale mode (rBA3fc4640).
  • The leg rig can now generate two separate toe controls for IK and FK, which is necessary for 100% accurate snapping. This is enabled by default in metarigs. (rBA0391f86)
  • FBX I/O:
  • Improved export speed of 'rested' armatures (rBA1b0254b).
  • OBJ I/O:
  • Fix for T94516 brought back roughness handling into expected MTL behavior, but therefore introduces a value shifting of this roughness parameter when re-importing older OBJ files exported by Blender (rBAf26299b).
  • OBJ exporter is now implemented in C++, see the Pipeline, Assets & I/O page for details.
  • Atomic Blender (PDB/XYZ):
  • PDB/XYZ importer:
  • Fix for T94008 and T94292 automatically changes to the OBJECT mode (rBA8372ef9, rBA2829c04). No error message should appear when the EDIT mode is initially active just before the import.
  • Fix in rBAb825c2d leads now to smooth sticks in an instancing vertice structure if option Smooth is set in the PDB importer.
  • Fix in rBA98003ac - sticks in instancing vertice structure: when decreasing the diameter of the sticks, e.g., with help of the Utility Panel (utility Change stick size), the equidistant planes of the mesh structure are not visible anymore. They now have a 100x smaller size. Note that these planes are needed for the instancing vertice structure.
  • Improvement of the color handling for atoms (rBA1b95d39, rBAf1d2eca, rBAc00916b, rBAefcceb6, rBA7d11bb3, rBAee7f952, rBA6e910cf, rBA7f5d0ab). As a standard shader, the Principled BSDF shader is used for Cycles and Eevee. Also a few properties for Eevee are automatically set.
  • Complete revision of the Utility Panel:
  • Fix in rBAe54b9d2 does not lead anymore to a crash of Blender when separating atoms from an instancing vertice structure.
  • Fix in rBA4009ff1 does not lead anymore to an error message when using option Default values in the Utility Panel.
  • Fix in rBA84f5f46 and rBAfd5697e: changing the material properties of atoms (utility Change atom shape) does also change the material properties of the related sticks if present.
  • All the object 'operators' in section Change atom shape got updated for color handling with respect to Eevee, Cycles and the Principled BSDF shader (rBA3012911, rBA9be1af0).
  • Extension of the option Custom data file (rBAeb9a4e7): all properties of the Principled BSDF shader can now be set in the ASCII data file for each element. Some important properties for Eevee can be set as well. With this, the sizes and material properties of selected atoms in an atomic structure can be changed at once. The user can therefore store her/his own material properties inside this file and use it at any time for any atomic structures. For more information, see the documentation.
  • Compatibility Issues:
  • OBJ/MTL roughness conversion with Blender's own BSDF roughness parameter has changed, see rBAf26299b.

New in Blender 3.0.0 (Dec 14, 2021)

  • Blender 3.0: Animation & Rigging:
  • New keying set: Location, Rotation, Scale, and Custom Properties (rB7192ab61). Effectively, it combines the behaviour of Whole Character (selected bones only) (which keys loc/rot/scale/customprops, but only works in pose mode) with Location, Rotation, and Scale (which works in both object and pose mode, but doesn't key custom properties). This makes it possible to use one keying set for animating both characters and props.
  • Ctrl+F in animation editors no longer blocks the UI with a popup, but simply shows & activates the channel search textbox (rB41a4c62c).
  • FCurve and NLA modifier properties can now be overridden (rBd2311de2). Previously an armature/object with overrides could get new FCurve/NLA modifiers, but the properties would be read-only. Now they can be edited.
  • Keyframe removal (Default: Alt+I, Industry Compatible: Alt+S) now respects the active keying set (rB7fc22051, rB1364f1e3).
  • Custom bone shapes now have full translation/rotation/scale options (rBfc5bf09f).
  • The Asset Browser now supports rendering previews for Action datablocks (rB17534e28). This is documented further in the 3.0 Asset Browser release notes.
  • FCurves and all their keys can be selected by box- or circle-selecting the curve itself. (rB2246d456)
  • Box selecting a curve selects all the keyframes of the curve.
  • Ctrl + box selecting of the curve deselects all the keyframes of the curve.
  • Shift + box selecting of the curve extends the keyframe selection, adding all the keyframes of the curves that were just selected to the selection.
  • In all cases, if the selection area contains a key, nothing is performed on the curves themselves (the action only impacts the selected keys).
  • Make Single User: in addition to object animation, now object data (mesh, curve, ...) animation can be made single user as well. (rBd0c5c67e)
  • FCurve modifiers are now correctly evaluated in Restrict Range Borders (rB9dee0a10).
  • When using FModifier Restrict Frame Range, the resulting influence was zero being exactly on Start / End range borders (so borders were exclusive). This made it impossible to chain FModifers together (forcing the user to specify values slightly below the desired border in following FModifiers). This is now corrected to be inclusive on Start / End range borders.
  • Motion Paths:
  • New operator: Update All Visible Motion Paths (4de0e2e771). Besides having this handy new button, there is also a smaller, related improvement that updating the motion paths for an armature now updates all the bones motion paths simultaneously.
  • Weight Paint:
  • The vertex group names are now stored in the mesh instead of the object, so it is impossible to have different names in different objects using the same mesh. When opening an older file only one of the available name lists would be chosen for each mesh (preferring the longest), and others are discarded. (rB3b6ee8ce, rBfc32567c)
  • Pose Library:
  • A new Pose Library has been added to Blender (9473c61b36, 28dc07a153, f3610a23d1, e01b52100f). It is based on the Asset Browser. For demo videos & a thorough explanation, see the Pose Library v2.0 blog post. The pose library is partially implemented as add-on (enabled by default; 34771cc9f5) such that studios can create their own alternative implementations.
  • Converting poses from the old to the new pose library:
  • To convert an old-style pose library to a new one, follow these steps:
  • Make sure the active object is the character rig.
  • In the Action Editor, select the pose library Action.
  • In the sidebar (press N if not visible), choose "Convert Old-Style Pose Library".
  • This will create an Action asset for each pose in the library.
  • Bendy Bones:
  • Renamed confusingly named Curve Y and Scale Y channels to Z. Animation curves and drivers are automatically updated, but Python scripts have to be changed manually. (rB682a74e0)
  • Added actual Scale Y channels that produce non-uniform segment lengths. (rB638c16f4).
  • Added simple toggles that replace up to 6-8 trivial drivers copying handle bone local scale to the corresponding properties. (rBb6030711)
  • Constraints:
  • New "Local Space (Owner Orientation)" choice for Target Space of bone targets, which allows copying local transformation while adjusting for the difference in rest pose orientations aiming to produce the same global motion. (rB5a693ce9)
  • Constraints now have Apply Constraint, Duplicate Constraint, and Copy To Selected operators in an "extras" menu, similar to modifiers (rBd6891d9b).
  • Limit Rotation:
  • The constraint now correctly removes shear before processing, and without any limits can be used for that explicit purpose. (rBedaaa2af)
  • Added an Euler Order option similar to Copy Rotation. (rBd2dc4523)
  • Copy Transforms:
  • New Remove Target Shear option for removing shear from the result of the Target Space transformation. (rBbc8ae587)
  • More Mix mode options representing different ways to handle scale and location, resulting in a complete set of six "Before/After Original (Full/Aligned/Split Channels)" choices in addition to Replace. (rBbc8ae587)
  • Action:
  • More Mix mode options to complete the same set of six "Before/After Original (Full/Aligned/Split Channels)" choices as in Copy Transforms. (rBcf10eb54)
  • For constraints on bones, the default Mix mode is now "Before Original (Split Channels)". (rBcf10eb54)
  • Stretch To:
  • The default Rotation Type for newly created constraints has been changed to Swing, which was introduced in 2.82 to replicate the behavior of the common Damped Track + Stretch To combination using just the Stretch To constraint. (rB8da23fd5)
  • Pose Sliding / In-Betweens Tools:
  • These "In Betweens" tools have been improved (rB9797b95f):
  • Push Pose from Rest Pose
  • Relax Pose to Rest Pose
  • Push Pose from Breakdown
  • Relax Pose to Breakdown
  • Pose Breakdowner
  • These all now use the same new sliding tool:
  • Actual visual indication of the blending/pushing percentage applied.
  • Mouse wrapping to allow for extrapolation without having to worry about the initial placement of the mouse. This also means these tools are actually usable when chosen from the menu.
  • Precision mode by holding Shift.
  • Snapping to 10% increments by holding Ctrl.
  • Overshoot protection; by default the tool doesn't allow overshoot (lower than 0% or higher than 100%), and it can be enabled by pressing the E key.
  • Bones are hidden while sliding, so the pose itself can be seen more clearly. This can be toggled by pressing the H key while using the tool.
  • New Pose Sliding Operator - Blend To Neighbour (f7a492d460):
  • Nudge the current pose to either the left or the right pose.
  • Useful for dragging parts in an inbetween without losing your current pose.
  • Found in Pose Mode under Pose » In-Betweens » Blend To Neighbour.
  • Also available with the Alt⇧ ShiftE shortcut.
  • Blender 3.0: Asset Browser:
  • Blender 3.0 includes a new editor: The Asset Browser. It makes working with reusable assets much easier and more visual.
  • Blender 3.0: Core:.
  • Blend file read & Write:
  • The speed when opening a blend file linking many (thousands or more) data-blocks from a same library has been greatly improved (T89194, D11757, rBdb4fe8e3).
  • Loading .blend files compressed using the Zstandard algorithm is now supported and saving files with compression enabled uses Zstandard instead of gzip (D5799, rB2ea66af7). This improves loading and saving speed while producing files of similar size
  • Collections & ViewLayers:
  • The process re-syncing Layer collections in View layers to match with current Collections hierarchy in the scene has been enhanced to enable re-using as much as possible exiting layers. This avoid losing too often layers-specific settings (like the Exclude flag) when re-organizing the collections, and allows for future improvements like adding custom properties to layers (D12016, rBb18d0244, rB3db37075).
  • Library Overrides:
  • Some long-standing technical dept was addressed in how insertion of local modifiers or collections is handled in local overrides of objects. See T82160 for details (D13222, rBfa6a913e, rBd6ea881a, rB33c5e7bc, rBec71054a).
  • Forward Incompatibility Breakage
  • This means that loading blend files saved in Blender 3.0 in an older version of Blender will loose data (namely, inserted local modifiers, constraints etc. may be lost or misplaced).
  • Basic RNA API has been extended and should now allow all necessary operations (see T86656 for details).
  • Lots of polishing and fixes was done, in particular in the (auto-)resync process, and to enhance the support of complicated features like point caches.
  • Proxy Removal:
  • Proxies are being removed from Blender in the 3.x series. For 3.0 this process includes:
  • Removal of operators to create proxies from linked data-blocks.
  • Automatic conversion of proxies to library overrides on file load.
  • Proxy evaluation code remains for the time being, and it is still possible to skip automatic conversion of proxies in existing .blend files by disabling the Proxy to Override Auto Conversion user preferences Experimental setting.
  • Blender 3.0: EEVEE:
  • Attribute Node:
  • Custom mesh attributes (generated for example by Geometry Nodes) are now accessible via the Attribute node. (03013d19d1)
  • Wavelength Node:
  • Support for wavelength node has been added to EEVEE, earlier it was Cycles only. It is now similar to Blackbody node, which uses a sampled color map internally. a43c7538b8
  • Performance:
  • Performance when editing huge mesh is improved. Changes in many areas are made resulting in an improvement of 2-3 times depending on the executed operation.
  • Blender 3.0: Grease Pencil:
  • Line Art:
  • Speed up tile access. (6ad4b8b76a)
  • Better tolerance to faces perpendicular to view. (5b176b665b)
  • Threaded object loading. (1b07b7a01b)
  • Cached calculation for modifiers that are in the same stack. (247abdbf24)
  • Loose edge type and related chaining improvements. (841df83184)
  • Option to filter feature line using freestyle face mark. (3558bb8e35)
  • Occlussion effectiveness support for mesh material. (cf21ba37cf)
  • Option to filter feature line with collection intersection masks. (d1e0059ed1)
  • Camera overscan allows line art effective range to go beyond image frame, preventing strokes from ending right at the border. (8e9d06f58e)
  • Automatic crease with flat/smooth surfaces, which allows crease detection to follow smooth/flat shading and auto-smooth configuration. (c1cf66bff3)
  • Stroke offset function, allow strokes to be interacting with scene depth without showing in-front of everything.(c3ef1c15c3)
  • Custom camera allows line art to compute strokes from other cameras instead of the active one.(efbd3642ef)
  • Trimming edges right at the image bord
  • Operators:
  • New operator to bake GPencil transformed strokes into a new GPencil object. (06f86dd4d9)
  • Multiframe support added to Reproject operator. (e1acefd45e)
  • Multiframe support added to Move to Layer operator. (e4cebec647)
  • Mask layer list now can be reordered. (8032bd98d8)
  • Now Blank objects include Layer and Material by default. (5cb1e18f72)
  • Added support to convert Text to Grease Pencil object. (41820e8a8e)
  • New Bracket keymaps ([, ]) to increase and decrease brush size. (c58bf31aed)
  • New operator to Copy materials to other grease pencil object. Can copy Active or All materials. (960535ddf3), (f6cb9433d4)
  • Layer Copy to Object has been renamed to Copy Layer to Object and allows to copy all layers at once. (960535ddf3), (f6cb9433d4)
  • New operator to normalize the Thickness or the Opacity of Strokes. (f944121700)
  • New Select Random operator. (a7aeec2655)
  • New Convert Mesh to Grease Pencil copy the Vertex Groups with weights. (88dc274d05)
  • Automerge when drawing strokes has been improved for better join when thickness is very different. (ae334532cf)
  • Tools:
  • New Dilate parameter for Fill brush to expand filled area to fill small gaps. (f8f6e0b256)
  • Annotations: Restore the Placement parameter in 2D Editors. (6ee14c966d)
  • UI:
  • The Topbar Leak Size parameter has been replaced by new Dilate parameter. Leak Size has been moved to Advanced panel. (f8f6e0b256)
  • Removed duplicated B keymap to insert Blank keyframe in Drawing Mode. This was old keymap and it has been replaced with I menu. (0467979425)
  • Annotations now display Stabilizer parameters in topbar and also in VSE. (0a83f32d79)
  • New Use Lights option now available for when creating line art GPencil objects to allow convenient access to desired effect. (45b28c0f88)
  • New option in Topbar to define the type of caps (Rounded/Flat) used in new strokes. (c1730ed165)
  • New keymap Shift+Ctrl+Mto merge layer. (27b9cb7a1e)
  • Added buttons to move Up and Down Vertex Groups in the list. (2b64b4d90d)
  • Use Scale Thickness option is now enabled by default in 2D template. (6fc92b296f)
  • List of modifiers reorganized moving some of them to new Modify column. (9cf593f305)
  • Modifiers and VFX:
  • New Vertex Weight modifiers to generate weights base on Proximity or Angle on the fly to be used in any modifier. (29b65f5345, 368b56c9a1)
  • New Randomize options for Offset modifier. (6a2bc40e01)
  • Now Offset modifier uses the weights in the randomize parameters. (b73dc36859)
  • New Length modifier that allows modification to stroke length in percentage to its own length or in geometry space (cd16123761), also supports extending strokes based on curvature (25e548c96b).
  • New Dot-dash modifier that allows generating dot-dash lines and assign different materials to each segments. (a2c5c2b406)
  • Compositing:
  • Added a new option to use masks during view layer render (e459a25e6c). This toggle can be found in the "Layers" -> "Relations" panel called "Use Masks in Render". The option is disabled if there is no view layer selected.
  • Blender 3.0: Modeling:
  • Modifiers:
  • Weld: new "Loose Edges" option that allows us to collapse only the edges without connected faces. (rB2beff619)
  • Surface Deform: new Sparse Bind option that omits recording bind data for vertices excluded by the vertex group at the time of bind, in order to save memory and slightly speed up modifier evaluation. (rB1ab6d5c1)
  • Mesh Cache: support for blending influence using vertex groups (c8f80453d5).
  • General Changes:
  • Laplacian smooth now supports N-gons (c15635bd8d).
  • Support flipping sides in mesh bisect (1bcdd1c54e).
  • Boolean rename "Self" option to "Self Intersection" (82f0e4948c).
  • Knife Tool:
  • The 2021 GSoC Knife Tool project made a number of improvements to the knife tool, which are now incorporated in this release (6e77afe6ec)
  • New Features:
  • Constrained Angle Mode Improvements
  • Added Knife Tool setting to control snapping angle increment
  • Added support for entering snapping angle increment via number keys
  • Added a relative constrained angle mode (A key, with R to cycle through possible reference edges)
  • Added Knife Tool setting for constrained angle default mode
  • Snapping to Global and Local Orientation
  • Press X, Y or Z to snap cut line to respective global axis
  • Pressing the same key again will snap to local axis
  • Respects scene orientation setting if set, allowing for custom orientation
  • Visible Distance and Angle Measurements
  • Pressing S will enable measurements
  • Pressing S repeatedly will cycle between three modes - Only Distance, Only Angles, Both
  • Shows length of current cut segment
  • Shows angle between current cut segment and previous cut segment or mesh edge
  • Shows angle between current cut segment and any snapped to cut segment or mesh edge
  • Undo Capability
  • Press Ctrl-Z to undo previous cut segment
  • Starting point for current cut segment is adjusted accordingly
  • If cut is a drag cut the entire drag cut is undone
  • X-Ray Mode
  • Press V to toggle depth checking for cut segment drawing code
  • Multi-Object Edit Mode
  • Added support for multi-object edit mode to Knife Tool
  • Cuts can be made across objects and from the geometry of one object to another
  • Key Remappings
  • Blender 3.0: Nodes & Physics:
  • Geometry Nodes:
  • In Blender 3.0, geometry nodes has been extended with a re-imagined method for designing node groups, a new attribute system, many new nodes for interaction with curves, text data, instances, and much more. In bold you can find the names of about 100 newly added nodes.
  • Fields:
  • Geometry nodes makes use of a new concept for passing around data and functions. Operations can be built from basic nodes and simply connected together, removing the need for named attributes as a way to store intermediate data, and removing the need for special "Attribute" nodes for simple operations. With fields it's much easier to build node groups for higher level concepts that work together better than before.
  • See the page in the manual for more detail: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/3.0/modeling/geometry_nodes/fields.html
  • Dashed lines are used to represent the flow of functions while data-flow node links look the same as before (ff7e67afd5).
  • Socket shapes are used to visualize whether inputs and outputs can be fields (61f3d4eb7c).
  • Circle sockets only support single values
  • Diamond sockets support fields. If they have a dot in the middle, then they are only a single value currently though.
  • The Set Position node simply sets a geometry's position attribute to its input ((bf47fb40fd).
  • The Position node outputs the position of the geometry it is evaluated for ((bf47fb40fd).
  • Other built-in attributes can be accessed and set by specific nodes (c1b4abf527).
  • Most nodes have been updated to make use of new concepts like selections and field inputs:
  • The Geometry Proximity node replaces the attribute proximity node (9f0a3a99ab).
  • The Align Euler to Vector and Rotate Euler node are now function nodes that can affect any rotation (79425ed326, c5c94e3eae).
  • The Edge Split node now has a selection input, allowing any edges to be selected procedurally (366cea95c5).
  • The ability to work on data without attributes means texture nodes can be ported from the shader editor:
  • Noise Texture (fc4f82d200)
  • Gradient Texture (d4f1bc5f39)
  • White Noise Texture (2341ca990c)
  • Voronoi Texture (104887800c, 4468c34378)
  • Checker Texture (2537b32392)
  • Magic Texture (56bf34aa17)
  • Wave Texture (67dbb42236)
  • Musgrave Texture (729b2d026d)
  • Improved Attribute Workflow
  • The attribute workflow in geometry nodes has been completely redesigned. While the old system relied on addressing attributes by name, attribute data can now be passed around with node links just like data in the node tree. (bf47fb40fd).
  • As an example, the Random Value node replaces the existing Attribute Randomize node, and can simply be connected to any input to randomize it.
  • The Capture Attribute node stores data from its input on a geometry so it is carried forward to other nodes, allowing the use of the same data in a different context (bf47fb40fd).
  • For example, this node makes it possible to use data only available on curves, like the output of the Curve Parameter node, after converting a curve to a mesh.
  • The modifier interface can now interact directly with named attributes
  • A new attribute/value toggle on exposed inputs allows quick switching between attribute and single value inputs (8e21d528ca, 797064544e).
  • Named attributes can be created by connecting them to the group output node and choosing a name in the modifier (3d2ce25afd).
  • Attribute search is supported in the modifier (1d96a48267).
  • A new Transfer Attribute node can copy attribute values between geometries with various methods (a022cffb72, 76f386a37a).
  • The node includes an "Index" method to retrieve a value from the target geometry at a certain index (76f386a37a).
  • The Attributes Panel in the property editor shows all generic attributes available on a mesh (6ce4d39e6b).
  • Vertex group names are now stored on meshes rather than objects, which makes working with them in geometry nodes more predictable (3b6ee8cee7).
  • The Attribute Statistic node outputs values like average, min, and max for an attribute (05f3f11d55).
  • There is now a special domain interpolation method for selections (boolean attributes) to make the conversions work like they do in edit mode (5841f8656d).
  • The id attribute is now built-in, but optional, instead of just a reserved name (40c3b8836b).
  • The ID input node outputs the id attribute if it exists, otherwise the index (7d3d09b69c, 9beb5e38a9).
  • Instances:
  • The way geometry nodes works with instances has been improved, to make it more intuitive and faster. (Blender Manual)
  • Geometry can now be instanced directly, without a separate object (5a9a16334c).
  • When the same geometry is instanced many times, nodes can often only do the calculation once on the original geometry, rather than realizing instances and doing it many times (44e4f077a9).
  • This can result in a large performance improvement in many cases. For example, each "A" character created by the String to Curves node in a long paragraph of text only has to be filled a single time by the Curve Fill node.
  • Mesh modifiers after geometry nodes no longer implicitly realize instances or convert point clouds to meshes (219058c213).
  • Instances are now exposed properly to nodes, and aren't converted to real geometry implicitly.
  • The Realize Instances node can explicitly convert instances into real geometry (7da9da2b27).
  • Because instances each have their own transformation, there are special nodes for transforming instances.
  • The Rotate Instances node rotates instances in their local space or global space (78445ebd5f).
  • The Scale Instances node scales an instance from a center point, in local or global space (6c11b320c4).
  • The Translate Instances node moves instances along the three axes, also relative to their current transform, or globally. (9d49fc2ba0).
  • The Instances to Points node converts the origins of a geometry's instances into a point cloud (3af597d16b).
  • A selection boolean input is added to to Instance on Points (d0a4a41b5d).
  • The Object Info node can now optionally output an instance instead of real geometry (19bab2a536).
  • The instances in the output of the Collection Info node are sorted alphabetically (5f59bf0044).
  • Known Issue: Currently updating an object name does not cause a reevaluation of the node tree.
  • Curve Nodes:
  • Curve data is now supported in the node tree (8216b759e9, 7c1bb239be).
  • The Curve to Mesh node extrudes a profile curve along another curve (8216b759e9).
  • A "Fill Caps" option allows generating an N-gon at the ends of the profile, producing a manifold mesh (bc2f4dd8b4).
  • Custom attributes are automatically transferred from the curve to the mesh output (f81bacd6f0).
  • The Resample Curve node distributes evenly spaced segments along a curve (3185084efb, d475f99460).
  • The Fill Curve node creates a filled 2D mesh from an input curve (a71d2b2601, 6d162d35e2)
  • The Subdivide Curve node adds new control points between existing control points (ed4222258e).
  • The Sample Curve node outputs values from the curve at a given factor or length along it (17021adcea).
  • The Trim Curve node makes a curve shorter by discarding sections at the start and end (e7a800c52f).
  • The Fillet Curve node rounds corners of a curve with Bezier or Poly control points (0d350e0193).
  • The Mesh to Curve node creates curve poly splines from mesh edges (11e32332dd, 17b8da7196).
  • The Endpoint Selection node outputs a selection for a number of points at the start and end of each spline (1f51037676).
  • The Curve to Points node creates a point cloud with data necessary for instancing along the curve (fcbb20286a, 334a8d9b3e).
  • There are field inputs specifically for curve data:
  • The Curve Parameter node outputs how far along the spline each point is as a 0-1 factor (4d881d9dad).
  • The Curve Tangent node outputs the direction of the curve at each control point (4d51af68ad).
  • The Normal node outputs curve normals at each control point (05ce5276db).
  • The Handle Type Selection outputs which handles have a certain type (1f8485ae82).
  • The Set Handle Type node changes the left or right handles of Bezier control points (0e8d1c6bcf).
  • The Curve Length node outputs the total length of all splines in the curve (ddd4b2b785).
  • The Reverse Curve node reverses the order of all of a curve's control points (4a540b9b48).
  • The type (Bezier, Poly, or NURBS) of each spline can be changed with the Set Spline Type node (0f45576590).
  • Curves fully support the existing attribute system.
  • Splines have resolution and cyclic builtin attributes.
  • Control points have position, radius, tilt, handle_left and handle_right built-in attributes (1892b131ed, 81f552e9ad).
  • Attributes with any name or data type can be created or removed on splines or control points (627f357127).
  • Attributes can be interpolated between the two curve domains (c97b6215a3).
  • Curve primitive nodes have been added for parametric addition of curve data directly.
  • Bezier Segment (8884d2d61b).
  • Quadratic Bezier Segment (d3788207aa).
  • Quadrilateral (2a41ab5e6c).
  • Circle (c1fc180861).
  • Spiral (21ebee2580).
  • Star (86c6769e20).
  • Line (29d6750134).
  • The geometry nodes modifier is now supported on curve (and text) object types (b9febb54a4).
  • Curve data from curve objects without a geometry nodes modifier will also display in the spreadsheet.
  • General:
  • Raycast node projects lines to a mesh, returning information about the hit location to attributes (4b673ebb99, 0a6cf3ed0c).
  • Delete Geometry node removes parts of geometry, depending on the domain of the selection attribute (464797078d, e5a1cadb2f)
  • Switch node can efficiently select between two inputs of any type (799f532f46, 653bbaa246).
  • Convex Hull node outputs a convex mesh containing all of the input points (df2a19eac7).
  • Separate Components node splits a geometry set into an output for each data type (ed4b2ba75a).
  • RGB Curves and Vector Curves nodes from shader nodes are supported in geometry node trees (8cd506639a).
  • Float to integer conversion can be done more explicitly with the Float to Integer node (fd0370acc2).
  • Intermediate geometry data can be viewed in the spreadsheet with the Viewer node (9009ac2c3d).
  • This also replaces the screen icon in the header of every node.
  • Some mesh primitive nodes have been improved:
  • The Cube node has been updated to allow a separate size and vertex count in each dimension (b44406f963).
  • The Cone and Cylinder nodes have been updated with options for the amount of side and fill segments (54927caf4f).
  • The Index node outputs the index of each element when evaluating a field (bf47fb40fd).
  • The Normal node outputs mesh normals, normalized on every domain, including faces and vertices (bf47fb40fd).
  • Mesh to Points and Points to Vertices nodes allow converting directly between point clouds and mesh elements (262b211856).
  • The old Point Separate node was updated to become more general as the Separate Geometry node (9c00486451).
  • There are more basic input nodes
  • A new Color input node is an easier way to directly input a color (f7ef68514b).
  • There are now Boolean and Integer input nodes (781289e31f).
  • Text Nodes:
  • The String to Curves node generates curve instances for a text paragraph, like the text object type but procedural (be16794ba1).
  • Because the node creates curve instances, performance can be much better than the existing text object.
  • String manipulation nodes allow creating text for the string to curve node procedurally (29e3545194).
  • String Length Outputs length of a string
  • Slice String Outputs part of a string
  • Value to String Converts a value to a string
  • Join Strings Concatenates multiple strings with a delimiter
  • Replace String A node-based find and replace operation (a83b405a45)
  • The Special Characters node can be used to build a paragraph with multiple lines (5c0017e85a).
  • Performance:
  • Geometry nodes has a new, faster evaluation system (b084b57fbf).
  • Multiple branches of the node tree are now executed in parallel where possible.
  • Lazy evaluation is supported, so where possible, only the inputs and outputs that are required are computed.
  • For example, the Separate Geometry node can be twice as fast if only one output is used and the Switch node only computes the input that is actually used.
  • All field evaluation is parallelized, so computations for many geometry elements will always be multi-threaded (e6ca054590).
  • The Instance on Points node now executes faster, especially when multiple CPU threads are available (518c5ce4cd, 617954c143).
  • Transforming meshes with the Transform node is now much faster in some situations (17b09b509c).
  • Materials:
  • An object's material slots can change during evaluation of geometry nodes (1a81d268a1).
  • Joining geometries from other objects will now properly add their materials to the modifier object (5e6f3b8564).
  • The Set Material node sets the material for a selection of faces (f41a753e75, 09f14b38f2).
  • Though volumes only support a single material, it can also be changed (348d7c35a9).
  • The Replace Material node replaces an existing material on a geometry with another (c154b078b5).
  • The Material Selection node creates a boolean mask of the parts of a geometry with a certain material (08b0de45f3, 09f14b38f2).
  • The Material Input node allows using the same material in multiple places (3e3ecc329c).
  • The built-in material_index attribute on meshes can be accessed with the Material Index input node (24cc552cf4).
  • Volumes:
  • The geometry nodes modifier is now supported on volume objects (8c0f7d1772).
  • Known Issue: Currently EEVEE cannot display procedurally generated volumes, converting the volume to a mesh and using a volume shader does work though
  • User Interface:
  • Node Editor:
  • The node editor now has an "Overlays" popover, with options for displaying wire colors and annotations (9b1b4b9e32).
  • The editor's view now pans automatically when links or nodes are dragged to the edges (a1cc7042a7, 19da434e9c).
  • Node editor UI style changes
  • There were many changes to the style of nodes themselves, to increase clarity and make them look nicer (4db4a97355).
  • The background grid is now displayed with dots instead of lines (e463d2c16f).
  • The breadcrumbs to show the path of the node tree are now drawn differently, on the top left (3371a4c472).
  • On node frames, the label text is only displayed when there is a label set (8f04ddbbc6).
  • Node links between different types with no possible implicit conversion now turn red to indicate the error (Geometry Nodes) (65244ac1c3).
  • Socket labels on nodes like "Object Info" are hidden to give more space to data-block names (ec98bb318b).
  • Node links with sockets outside the view are dimmed, to remove visual noise from long links (c27ef1e9e8).
  • Parent node trees are no longer displayed behind a green background when editing a nested node group (919e513fa8).
  • Wire colors overlay to match the socket's color they are connected to. (9b1b4b9e32).
  • Spreadsheet Editor:
  • The spreadsheet now has a region on the left to quickly switch between geometry components or domains (ae085e301c).
  • Row filters were added to a right property region, to allow removing rows from the view (f9aea19d98).
  • Modifier:
  • Node warnings are also displayed in the modifier, so they don't get lost in the node tree (49e68f15f2).
  • Blender 3.0: Pipeline, Assets & IO:
  • Packing:
  • Packing linked libraries is now accessible via the File menu (rBee51e733).
  • Cleanup of the other External Data options (rBee51e733).
  • Alembic:
  • Animated UV maps are now exported to Alembic (rB3e77f747).
  • Generated mesh vertex coordinates (also known as ORCOs) are now exported to and imported from Alembic (rBf9567f6c). They're stored in .arbGeomParams/Pref in the Alembic file.
  • Per vertex UV maps are now imported from Alembic (3385c04598). Such UV maps can be defined by other software to reduce file size when the mesh is split according to UV islands. Blender, however, still stores the UV data per face corner.
  • Non functional "Renderable Objects only" option has been removed (834e87af7b), has been superseeded by the following:
  • New option to set evaluation mode to Render or Viewport (for visibility, modifiers) in 8f5a4a2453
  • New option to always add a cache reader when importing files (5b97c00e9f). This simplifies workflows for updating objects after imports if they change in the cache.
  • USD Importer:
  • USD files can now be imported into Blender (rBea54cbe1). The USD importer works in a similar fashion as the Alembic importer.
  • glTF 2.0:
  • Importer:
  • Import custom properties from default scene (rBA260ca33)
  • Fix issue involving flipped bone Z dir (rBAb986a52)
  • Avoid traceback when trying to import some invalid glTF 2.0 files (rBA4d56268)
  • Exporter:
  • Add option to keep original texture files (rBA0cdaac6)
  • Do not export glTF internal settings as extras (rBA57ef445)
  • Remove some channel animation if bone is not animated (rBA1757ec9, rBAa8c700d, rBA45132ba)
  • Draco: more explicit error message (rBAeedbe30)
  • Fix bug when invalid shapekey driver (rBAac6fe2f, rBAcd70923)
  • Fix driver export when shapekey as a dot in name (rBA54d8bdf)
  • Fix default date type at numpy array creation (rBA97cf910)
  • Make sure that addon that changes root gltf are taken into account (rBA0aa618c)
  • Don't erase empty dict extras (rBA6c1a227)
  • Add merge_animation_extensions_hook (rBA669b89d)
  • Do not export empty node when camera or light export is disable (rBA060d0e7)
  • Fix crash when trying to export some muted driver(s) (rBA902b8ba)
  • Change order of format option (rBA760b5d3)
  • Cleanup: use inverted_safe on matrices (rBA29c9aa3)
  • Validate meshes before export (rBA5bffedc)
  • Better 'selection only' management (rBAe7f2213)
  • Fix animation export for objects parented to bones (rBA8975ba0)
  • Cleanup object animation curves when animation is constant (rBAba969e8)
  • Change after change on vertex groups data now on mesh (rBA64fcec2)
  • Avoid issue with setting frame with python v >= 3.10 (rBAa0d1647)
  • and other changes related to:
  • Python API & Text Editor
  • Render & Cycles
  • Sculpt, Paint, Texture
  • User Interface
  • VFX & Video
  • Virtual Reality
  • Add-ons
  • Compatibility

New in Blender 2.93.0 (Jun 3, 2021)

  • Geometry Nodes:
  • The geometry nodes project was expanded to build on the attribute system, allow sampling textures, support volume data, improve usablity, and much more.
  • New Nodes:
  • Attribute Proximity (4d39a0f8eb, f7933d0744)
  • Attribute Sample Texture (425e706921)
  • Attribute Remove (60f7275f7f)
  • Attribute Convert (670453d1ec)
  • Attribute Clamp 43455f3857
  • Attribute Map Range (dda02a448a)
  • Bounding Box e0a1a2f49d
  • Collection Info (894cc9c915)
  • Is Viewport (e7af04db07)
  • Points to Volume (ff7a557c67)
  • Volume to Mesh (16abe9343a)
  • Attribute Separate XYZ, Combine XYZ (a2ba37e5b6)
  • Subdivide (simple) (4891d4b3d1)
  • String Input (a961a2189c)
  • Mesh Primitive Nodes (9a56a3865c)
  • Cone
  • Cylinder
  • Circle
  • Cube
  • UV Sphere
  • Ico Sphere
  • Line
  • Grid
  • New Attributes Available from Mesh Data:
  • UV layers (33a558bf21)
  • Vertex Colors (e3f0b6d5cb)
  • Material Index (53bf04f284)
  • Face Normals (ba3a0dc9ba)
  • Shade Smooth (0700441578)
  • Edge Crease (3618948df8
  • Spreadsheet Editor:
  • A spreadsheet editor was added to display the values of attributes for mesh, point cloud, and instance data (3dab6f8b7b, 17a5db7303).
  • The value from a geometry at a certain point in the node tree can be displayed by clicking on the icon in the node header (c6ff722a1f).
  • Data from a specific node can be pinned to a spreadsheet editor, to allow displaying data from more than one node at a time (3810bcc160).
  • Usability Improvements:
  • There is now a default workspace for geometry nodes (ac90c8a774).
  • Error messages are now displayed for some problems, like when an input attribute doesn't yet exist (461d4fc1aa).
  • Clicking on an attribute field now exposes a list of available attributes for that node, cached from the latest evaluation (461d4fc1aa).
  • The domain and data type of each attribute are also displayed in the search list (71eaf872c2).
  • Rendering Attributes:
  • Rendering attributes created in geometry nodes is possible with Cycles (3a6d6299d7)
  • User Interface:
  • Outliner:
  • The render visibility toggles are now shown by default. (510db9512f)
  • When showing folded item, more sub-items types are gathered as a single icon + counter (all bones, bone groups, and vertex groups, rB92dfc8f2).
  • File Browser:
  • "Frame Selected" operator to scroll to the selected files (5a67407d5a). This has shortcut Numpad . in Blender's default keymap, and F in the Industry Compatible keymap.
  • Window Management:
  • All Platforms:
  • Temporary windows play nicer with others. Opening a new window can no longer take over the space of a different window. (492e64c7bc).
  • Window / "New Window" now opens with a simpler layout, with just a single editor (the largest of the parent). (be9842f65b).
  • Windows Platform:
  • Child windows are shown on top of parent windows. You can now work with overlapping and floating windows. (261fa052ac).
  • Improved positioning of windows on multiple monitors. (d447bd3e4a) (97fabc3c1c).
  • Improvements to Full-screen support (12193035ed) (9b87d3f029)
  • General Changes:
  • Transform arrow cursor improvements in shape and in response to line width changes. (b4b02eb4ff).
  • Navigation Gizmo changes. Better indication of negative axes, consistent use of color and size to indicate orientation, ability to be resized. (ded9484925).
  • Position Gizmo tooltips below their bounds so as to not obscure themselves. (cf6d17a6aa).
  • Use ellipsis character when truncating strings no matter how narrow. (de3f369b30).
  • Windows OS - Allow any input language, regardless of translated display language. (f2781e1c7c).
  • Improved contrast for Status Bar report messages. (694bc4d040).
  • WM: Add 'Confirm On Release' option for WM_OT_radial_control (631cc5d56e).
  • Update layouts for graph editor and NLA editor FModifiers (1f5647c07d).
  • Blender thumbnails now saved without "Camera View"-style Passepartout. (9c395d6275).
  • Virtual node sockets (unconnected node group sockets) are now more visible (b54b56fcbe).
  • Add Add Copy Full Data Path to RMB menu (85623f6a55).
  • Dynamically increase width of data-block and search-menu name buttons for long names where there is enough space (2dd040a349).
  • Allow translation of strings even when in 'en_US' locale, useful for non-English add-ons (7a05ebf84b).
  • Modeling:
  • Curves:
  • New option Taper Mode to control how taper objects affect the effective radius of the spline. The different taper modes are shown below on a spline with a radius of zero at one end and a radius of one at the other end. (ec97450aec)
  • Transform:
  • Proportional edit connected mode now has more accurate falloff using geodesic distances. Previously this gave mesh topology dependent results that were not smooth. (21b923121b)
  • Subdivision Surface:
  • The list of available options for UV smoothing has been extended (66151b5de3). The available options now are:
  • None - UVs are not smoothed, boundaries are kept sharp.
  • Keep Corners - UVs are smoothed, corners on discontinuous boundary are kept sharp.
  • Keep Corners, Junctions - UVs are smoothed, corners on discontinuous boundary and junctions of 3 or more regions are kept sharp.
  • Keep Corners, Junctions, Concave - UVs are smoothed, corners on discontinuous boundary, junctions of 3 or more regions and darts and concave corners are kept sharp.
  • Keep Boundaries - UVs are smoothed, boundaries are kept sharp.
  • All - UVs and boundaries are smoothed.
  • Additionally, the default has been changed to "Keep Boundaries" (3d3b6d94e6), helping to avoid UVs distortion.
  • Mirror Modifier:
  • A new option has been added to the mirror modifier: Bisect Distance (00ec99050e). This parameter controls the distance from the mirror plane within which vertices are deleted during the bisecting process. Note that this is most useful when working at a small scale or with vertices close to the mirror plane. The default value (0.001) will work fine for most cases.
  • General Changes:
  • The order was changed for items in the edit mode merge operator to keep shortcuts consistent (bc0e121bce).
  • Edge loop select now supports loops where each edge has 3 or more connected faces (493628e541).
  • Sculpt, Paint, Texture:
  • Image: Flip image operator 7d874b0343.
  • Sculpt: Expand Operator 82e7032477.
  • Sculpt: Mask Init operator 74052a9f02.
  • Sculpt: Init Face Sets by Face Sets boundaries e5c1e13ef0.
  • The Transfer Mode operator allows to switch objects while in Sculpt Mode by pressing the D key 86915d04ee
  • Animation & Rigging:
  • Update layouts for graph editor and NLA editor FModifiers (1f5647c07d).
  • The Asset Browser now supports rendering previews for Action datablocks (rB17534e28). This is documented further in the 2.93 Asset Browser release notes.
  • Armature bone axes can now be shown anywhere on the bone (previously only on the tip), (rB74d5a93b). Existing files still have the old behaviour, while new armatures will default to showing the axes at the root (head) of the bone.
  • Weight paint symmetry options has now been tweaked so you can't have vertex group mirroring and brush mirroring on at the same time
  • The Cycle-Aware Keying option was moved back to the Keying popover since it's not limited to auto-keying. (rBcaf92a64)
  • Grease Pencil:
  • LineArt Modifier:
  • New Line Art modifier is now included to provide functionality of generating stylized lines from geometries in the scene. (3e87d8a431)
  • Line art demonstration render of a 727 cut-away drawing.
  • Produce accurate occlusion result from any geometry.
  • Intersection lines can be generated and selected separately for styling.
  • Chaining allows strokes to be connected thus allow smooth display of grease pencil styles and textures.
  • Vertex weight in the mesh can be transferred into grease pencil to allow further style control of generated strokes.
  • Strokes can be baked to allow further edits in the viewport
  • Import/Export:
  • New operators to Import SVG to grease pencil objects and export grease pencil objects in SVG and PDF format. (a8a92cd15a)
  • SVG Importer use vertex color for colors.
  • User Interface:
  • IMPORTANT CHANGE: Now Autokey button must be enabled to generate new keyframes in Draw, Edit or Sculpt mode. If the Autokey button is disabled, the last available frame is used. This is more aligned with how Blender works and with other 2D softwares. Also, 2D template has now Autokey button enabled by default. (6a662ffda8)
  • Note: Old files are not changed. Enable Autokey button manually to get the old behaviour.
  • Now the multiframe is disabled when play animation. Before, it was impossible to see the animation because all frames were visible. (e7c36ce43c)
  • Swap positions of Pie menu options for Vertex Paint and Weight Paint. (20d0bb43af)
  • New multiframe display mode. Keyframes before or after of the active frame are displayed using onion colors. This can be disable using Onion overlay options.
  • Dopesheet now display a bar between keyframes to indicate that keyframe is still used. (e44b2ada3e) (296984b40e)
  • Dopesheet context menu has been reorganized and some options added. (15a4ed3aff)
  • Materials Options panel renamed to Settings to keep consinstency. (51c7ff9222)
  • Annotations now has a Opacity parameter (this was removed during the refactor and never was added again). (c62e60f01f)
  • Operators:
  • Resolution parameter for Fill Tool has been renamed to Precision and allows values below 1. This is very handy for storyboarding. (6704372f04)
  • New operator to Duplicate Layers but with empty Keyframes. This operator is very useful to duplicate the keyframes but don't copy the strokes to be used in cleanup or painting works. (cfd54ad7d7)
  • New option to Trace images starting in the current frame and not always 1. (e747c07156)
  • Tools:
  • New Layer transform parameters. (e02d84eb3b)
  • New Multiframe support in Draw mode (included in fill tool refactor commit).
  • Fill Tool:
  • A refactor of the fill tool has been done inorder to solve several problems we had since the first version of the tool. (1352d81b17)
  • Changes:
  • The filling speed has been improved for each step of the process with the optimization of each algorithm/function.
  • New AutoFit option to fill areas outside of the viewport. When enable, the total size of the frame is calculated to fit the filling area.
  • New support multiframe filling. Now it is possible to fill multiple similar frames in one go.
  • New Stroke Extension option to create temporary closing strokes. These strokes can be displayed and adjusted dynamically using wheel mouse or PageUp/Down keys. Use Wheel + Shift key for precise adjustments.
  • Parameter Resolution now is named Precision and has been moved to topbar.
  • Resolution now has decimals and can be lower than 1 to allow quick filling in storyboarding workflows. Maximum value has been set as 5.
  • Parameter Simplify has been moved to Advanced panel.
  • Improved fill outline detection. In some cases, the outline penetrated the area to be filled with unexpected results.
  • Fill is canceled if the filled area is not closed. This avoids ugly full screen fill. (c489bb7c01)
  • Fixes some corner case bugs with infinite loops.
  • Interpolate Tools:
  • Following with the changes included to interpolate strokes of different number of points, a full review has been done in the interpolation tools. (6bba830589)
  • Interpolate now is a tool and not an operator. It was not logic to have this tool as a button.
  • Interpolate tool parameters have been moved to topbar.
  • Interpolate popover has been removed from topbar and interpolate Sequence operator has been moved to grease pencil menu.
  • Interpolate Sequence now include a Redo panel.
  • Interpolate tool now allows to select the strokes by pairs. This allows to interpolate any stroke with any stroke and not as before that it was only possible by drawing order. If no stroke is selected, the interpolation is done as before.
  • Now is possible interpolate again if a previous keyframe exist. Before, it was impossible to interpolate two times in same frame and this made impossible to do the interpolation by groups of frames.
  • New automatic option to Flip strokes if the initial stroke and end stroke are not in the right position because direction is different. Also the flip can be set manually for corner cases.
  • Cleanup of menus related to interpolate.
  • Fixed some bugs and removed parameters from scene because now all are tool or operator contained.
  • Some code cleanup and function renames.
  • This commit also includes the some codebase to future implementation of the concept Vertex Active that now does not exist in grease pencil.
  • Modifiers and VFX
  • Seed parameter moved outside Randomize panel in Noise Modifier. (3191b76eb5)
  • New Noise Offset parameter in Noise Modifier. (7a4bdc3a4f)
  • Remove limitation to use only one Lattice modifier. (670c1fdf64)
  • Python:
  • New API to force the stroke recalculation. In some scripts, the coordinates of the points are manipulated and there was no way to update the stroke. (faf45091b4)
  • New API to manipulate weight points. The old RNA prop was wrong and never was usable. (71e63153eb)
  • EEVEE:
  • Depth of field:
  • EEVEE's implementation of depth of field has been rewritten from scratch to improve performance and quality. It also features a new high quality mode that matches the raytraced ground truth if using a high enough sample count. (000a340afa)
  • Volumetrics:
  • A few improvements have been made to the volumetric lighting. It is now easier to work with and has less limitations.
  • Added a new Volume and Diffuse slider light contribution. This addition was motivated by the current lack of support of light node-tree and visibility flag. (884f934a85)
  • Area lights are now correctly supported inside volumetric lighting. The solution is not physically based and does not match cycles perfectly. (355f884b2f)
  • Volumetric Lights Shadowing had bugs fixed that may change the look of certain scenes. (3a29c19b2b 54f52cac7c)
  • Volume lighting now uses a softer attenuation function, reducing flickering of lights center. (884f934a85)
  • Volume light clamp was changed to fit the new volumetric lighting. (b96acd0663)
  • Volume shadowing will now be soft if using the soft shadow option in the render property panel. Light needs to have shadows enabled for this to work. (89ef0da551)
  • Ambient Occlusion:
  • A complete rewrite was done to fix over-darkening artifacts and precision issues. A better specular occlusion has been implemented to reduce light leaking from light-probes. (64d96f68d6)
  • Thanks to this, the ambient occlusion node now supports variable distance and an approximation of the inverted option. (dee94afd03)
  • Improvements:
  • Glass BSDF have been updated and have less visible interpolation artifacts when IOR is less than 1. (83ac8628c4)
  • Fresnel effect of glossy surfaces now follows Cycles more closely. (06492fd619)
  • Reflection Cubemaps probes have been improved for low roughness. Old scene now require a rebake. (aaf1650b09)
  • Normal Maps and smoothed normals do not produce strange reflections when reflection is below the surface. (1c22b551d0)
  • Sub-Surface Scattering do not leak light onto nearby surfaces. (cd9a6a0f93)
  • Screen-Space Raytracing (Reflections, Refraction, Shadows) have been improved to reduce the amount of noise and convergence time. (267a9e14f5 bbc5e26051 b79f209041)
  • Contact shadow distance fading was removed for performance and reliability reasons. (6842c549bb)
  • Faster animation rendering by reusing scene data between frames. (50782df425)
  • Cycles:
  • OpenColorIO 2.0:
  • OpenColorIO has been upgraded to version 2.0. This brings support for reading new OpenColorIO v2 configurations, and improved color management accuracy in the 3D viewport. (1b4961b1b4
  • OpenImageDenoise 1.3:
  • OpenImageDenoise 1.3 improves the sharpness of fine details and gives less blurry results
  • Subsurface Scattering:
  • Random Walk subsurface scattering now uses Dwivedi guiding to reduce noise. (2f6d62b2f6)
  • Light Spread Angle:
  • Area lights now have a Spread angle, to simulate the effect of a honeycomb or grid placed in front of a softbox. At 180° the area light is a diffuse emitter as before, at lower angles the light is more focused. (a4260ac219)
  • Other:
  • Access geometry node attributes on meshes, using the Attribute shader node. (3a6d6299d3).
  • New Persistent Data option, to speed up animation renders and re-renders, at the cost of increased memory usage. If this option is enabled, the Cycles render data is cached between animation frames and re-renders. This replaces the Persistent Images option, which was removed. In scene with expensive modifiers, heavy geometry, many images, this can significantly speed up overall rendering time, but one must be careful in heavy scenes to avoid running out of memory. (50782df425)
  • New Light Paths > Fast GI Approximation panel and setting, with convenient access to the AO bounces feature. This was previously part of the Simplify panel and somewhat difficult to find. This feature approximates indirect light with ambient occlusion after a specified number of bounces, which is particularly useful for viewport render previews or final renders where some reduced quality is acceptable. (edd2f51b4e)
  • Library Overrides:
  • Resync Process Improvements:
  • Resyncing a library override is needed when the source linked data gets changes in the relationships between its data-blocks.
  • This process has been made way easier, and most of the time fully automatic:
  • With newly created files/overrides, needed resync are detected and performed automatically when loading the .blend file.
  • However, in some cases, especially with older files that were saved with 'broken' (non-hierarchy-matching) overrides, resync itself cannot rebuild properly the override as expected (some objects might go missing e.g.). For that case, a new operation in the Outliner right-click menu was added, Resync Library Override Hierarchy Enforce, that essentially performs a more aggressive resync, at the cost of a potential loss of some overrides on ID pointers properties.
  • An option (under Experimental area of user Preferences) was also added to allow disabling this auto-resync feature on load, since some complex production files may need proper manual processing first.
  • Note
  • While this new Resync Library Override Hierarchy Enforce operator may cause some loos of override information, it will be much less sever than the Reset + Resync alternative process.
  • Auto-resync detects and keeps around data-blocks no more needed by the override, but that were previously edited by the user, and for objects or collections, it put them in a dedicated collection, OVERRIDE_RESYNC_LEFTOVERS.
  • New Override View in the Outliner:
  • A basic informative view of current library overrides has been added to the outliner (rBe1ae5bd4).
  • System-generated overrides (like the overrides of pointers to other override data-blocks which ensures the override hierarchy) are hidden by default, and can be shown through a filter option.
  • Potential info or warning messages from (auto-)resync process are also shown, as an icon + tooltip next to the affected items.
  • Blenloader:
  • Added support for using memory-mapped IO in order to speed up uncompressed .blend file loading (rB0f2ae614).
  • Data Management:
  • The Purge operator to delete unused data-blocks has been improved, it can now operate on only linked or local data, and can recursively delete all 'indirectly' unused data-blocks at once (rB2718ea80 and related). new behavior only exposed from File -> Clean Up menu currently.
  • Linked Data:
  • Missing libraries and linked data-blocks now are reported as a single warning in the UI when loading a .blend file with broken libraries. Full info remains available in the console or Info editor (rB53d13b6f).
  • Blender 2.93: Pipeline, Assets & I/O:
  • glTF 2.0:
  • Importer:
  • Fix morph target import when named 'basis' (rBA7521a4e)
  • Fix shapekey import with negative weight (rBA0dc2141)
  • Better extra error management (rBA30012da)
  • Exporter:
  • New feature: export 'Loose Points' and 'Loose Edges' (rBA8d24537)
  • New option to export only visible/renderable/active collection (rBA91f57b4)
  • Draco : Increase maximal compression limit (rBA55ec469)
  • Inverse matrix only when there is a parent (rBA8adb0dc)
  • Hook entire glTF data for extensions (rBA4e1ab4a)
  • Fix shapekey export in some cases (rBA5ef60cb)
  • Fix exporting with draco when duplicate geometry (rBA3d7d5ce)
  • Fix crash when mesh is not created, without crash (rBAf172f77)
  • Python API:
  • Python 3.9:
  • Python was upgraded to version 3.9.1.
  • GPU:
  • The gpu module has been enhanced to cover more functionality that previously was only available through bgl. (4430e8a008, 6c6b1c015b)
  • The bgl module will be deprecated in Blender 3.0, in preparation of future Vulkan support. Add-ons should switch to using the gpu module, so that they will work with both OpenGL and Vulkan.
  • New state sub-module for changing drawing state.
  • New texture sub-module, including a function create textures from image datablocks.
  • New GPUFrameBuffer
  • New GPUUniformBuf
  • Other Additions:
  • New RenderEngine.bl_use_custom_freestyle option. By default this is disabled, and Freestyle rendering will be done by Eevee. If enabled, the render engine will be called to render the Freestyle geometry. (1428544528)
  • New to_curve method in Object ID. The method is analogous to to_mesh and can be used to get the splines representing a text object or to get the splines after spline modifiers are applied. (f2c0bbed1c)
  • New CurveMapping.reset_view method (3eb8307160).
  • New CurveProfile.reset_view method (7e3efac9a8).
  • New BlendFile.temp_data method, providing a context manager to temporarily load blend file data without linking/appending it into the current file (9e09214979).
  • UI: Add support for bl_description and python doc-strings for panel classes. (8971018eb6)
  • Other Changes:
  • UTF8 is now the default encoding on all platforms, matching the behavior of running python -X utf8. See PEP-540 (df135b74fc).
  • Remove support for non-annotation properties in classes as this was only enabled while porting scripts to 2.8x API (afa5da9ce0)
  • The deform parameter of the Bmesh from_object method is now deprecated, always assumed to be True, and will be removed in version 3.0. (4b0871af87)
  • The intermediate representation of bpy.props, typically defined in a classes annotations before registration is now using a new type bpy.props._PropertyDeferred. While this is not considered part of the stable API, some scripts depended on this (c44c611c6d)
  • bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_grid_add the resulting subdivision levels has been changed by n+1 (rB4d3cdb32).
  • VFX & Video:
  • FFmpeg:
  • Improve scrubbing performance (88604b79b7)
  • Improve proxy building performance (e4f3477833)
  • Improve threading settings (1614795ae2)
  • Adjust default proxy settings (b9207fb43d)
  • Motion tracking:
  • Add track averaging operator (f17b26bbed)
  • Resolved old-standing issue with Lock-to-View causing jumps when changing selection (66f8835f9c). The fix also avoids jump when toggling lock-to-selection option.
  • Sequencer:
  • Inherit blend mode with single input effects (d6bbcc4f66)
  • Automatic proxy building (rB04e1feb8)
  • Simplify proxy settings (rB91561629)
  • Preview images when moving strip handles (rB3d9ee83d)
  • Text strip improvements (rB1c095203)
  • Add bold and italic option for text strip (rB913b71bb)
  • Add new_meta RNA API function (rBbfad8deb)
  • Add move_to_meta RNA API function (rB4158405c)
  • Disk cache path was changed to include _seq_cache suffix (5368859a66)
  • Compositor:
  • Redesigned Cryptomatte Workflow d49e7b82da:
  • In the redesigned workflow a RenderLayer or Image can be selected directly from the cryptomatte node. The cryptomatte layers are extracted from the meta data. No need anymore to connect the sockets from the render layer node anymore.
  • When picking a cryptomatte id the mouse shows a hint what is underneath the mouse cursor. There is no need anymore to switch to the pick socket. You can even pick from the image editor or movie clip editor.
  • The matte id's are stored as readable text in the node. It is even possible to alter the text.
  • Anti Aliasing Node 805d947810:
  • The Anti-Aliasing node removes distortion artifacts around edges known as aliasing. The implementation is based on Enhanced Subpixel Morphological Antialiasing.
  • Nodes & Physics:
  • Add muting support for node wires (266cd7bb82)
  • To mute a wire, drag over it while holding Ctrl + Alt
  • Add-ons:
  • BlenderKit:
  • Right-click menu was replaced with the new asset card. The asset card shows all information about the asset and allows to do all operations previously available in the menu.
  • Tooltip preview was simplified, the thumbnail can be seen unobstructed during drag-drop interaction.
  • Ratings are shown more prominently and the results are shown always when at least one rating is available.
  • Choose resolution before downloading an HDR.
  • Upload UI was improved to be simpler.
  • Rerender thumbnail for models - this command downloads the asset, renders thumbnail in the background, and reuploads it - great for beautifying your older thumbnails.
  • Collection Manager:
  • New Features:
  • Undo/Redo support was added to the Collection Manager Popup via undo and redo buttons near the top. (rBA88db9c6)
  • Objects can now be selected, based on collection, in the Collection Manager Popup, and the selection/object state indication per collection has been improved. (rBA6dfba91) (rBAebe76f3)
  • Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed a bug where QCD renumbering would add a 21st slot. (rBA8ea89b8)
  • Fixed a bug where Phantom Mode was not disabling all of the UI elements it should have in the Collection Manager Popup. (rBA8619440)
  • Fixed tooltip issues. (rBAdf01c14)
  • More Features:
  • open-last CLI argument:
  • The new commandline argument --open-last opens the most recent file (rB3649b5b6). These two commands behave exactly the same:
  • blender --open-last
  • blender (first line of $BLENDCONFIG/2.93/config/recent-files.txt)
  • log CLI argument:
  • The wild card * can now be used to match a random substring.
  • E.g. blender --log "*undo*" will match log messages from any undo sources (edit, bke, etc.).

New in Blender 2.93.0 Alpha (Feb 25, 2021)

  • New features and changes

New in Blender 2.92.0 (Feb 25, 2021)

  • A completely new workflow for editing meshes, new physics simulation methods, faster Cycles rendering, better compositing with Eevee, and so much more. Blender 2.92 marks the beginning of something incredible.
  • GEOMETRY MEETS NODES:
  • The new Geometry Nodes editor opens the door for creating and manipulating meshes using a node-based system.
  • A NEW MODIFIER:
  • Create your own custom modifier! Expose properties from the nodes in the modifier stack for an easy-to-use interface.
  • POINT SCATTER:
  • This first iteration focuses object scattering and instancing, laying the groundwork for more advanced workflows in the upcoming releases.
  • SILHOUETTE ANYTIME:
  • Shape silhouettes as you please with this new option in the Grab tool.
  • When used on thin meshes, grabbing from one side of the object won’t affecting the shape on the other side.
  • ELASTIC SNAKE:
  • This mode deforms the mesh using a kelvinlet instead of applying
  • The displacement directly inside the brush radius, which is great for
  • Stylized shapes sketching.

New in Blender 2.90.0 (Sep 1, 2020)

  • User Interface:
  • Search:
  • Operator search will now search through menu entries, to better show relevant operators and where to find them in menus. Adding operators to quick favorites or assigning shortcuts is now easy by right clicking on search results.
  • For developers that need more low-level search, Developer Extras can be enabled after which raw operators will appear in search results as well. Add-ons that expose operators only through search need to be updated to expose them through a menu.
  • Layout:
  • Checkbox placements was reworked to place text on the right hand side, group together related settings and make layouts more compact. (219049bb3b, 7fc60bff14)
  • Shader nodes in the material properties editor now show socket colors matching the shader editor, and are positioned on the left side. (7ef2dd8424, 675d42dfc3)
  • Statistics:
  • Scene statistics available in 3D viewport with an (optional) "Statistics" Viewport Overlay. (fd10ac9aca).
  • Status Bar now showing only version by default, but context menu can enable statistics, memory usage, etc. (c08d847488).
  • Modifiers:
  • Modifiers and other stacks now support drag and drop for reordering.
  • Their layouts were completely rewritten to make use of subpanels and the current user interface guidelines.
  • Where they apply, the operation buttons ("Apply", "Copy" (now "Duplicate"), and "Apply as Shape Key") are now in a menu on the right side of the panel headers, along with new "Move to First" and "Move to Last" buttons.
  • There are now shortcuts for common modifier operations. (1fa40c9f8a) Enabled by default are:
  • Remove: X, Delete
  • Apply: Ctrl A
  • Duplicate: Shift D
  • About:
  • About Blender dialog added to the App menu to contain information like build, branch, and hash values. This declutters the Splash Screen and highlights only the release version. (5b86fe6f33).
  • Miscellaneous:
  • Area borders given much larger hit area to make them easier to resize. (4e8693ffcd)
  • Increased Border Hit Area:
  • Support for Windows Shell Links (shortcuts) in File Browser. Extended Mac Alias usage. Better display of linked items. (1f223b9a1f)
  • Pie menus support for A-Z accelerator keys, for quickly selecting items with the keyboard.
  • New "Instance Empty Size" setting in user preferences (e0b5a20231).
  • Text field buttons now support local undo and redo while being edited. (1e12468b84).
  • Outliner Delete operator added to delete all selected objects and collections using either the keymap or context menu. (ae98a033c8). Replaces the Delete Object and Delete Collection operators.
  • Outliner Delete Hierarchy now operates on all selected objects and collections. Additionally, the menu option is shown for objects in the View Layer display mode. (26c0ca3aa7).
  • Dragging outliner elements to an edge will scroll the view. (7dbfc864e6)
  • Dragging panels to the edge of a region will scroll it up or down. (859505a3da)
  • Move a few FFmpeg render properties from the scene properties to the audio output settings. (a55eac5107)
  • Update the terminology used in some properties. (1278657cc2), (3ea302cf8e), (ef0ec01461)
  • 3D Viewport: Add Edge Loopcut Slide to edge menu. (0fdb79fe58)
  • The interface for many operators was updated to be clearer and more consistent with the rest of Blender. (17ebbdf1c1)
  • Option to print text in bold or italics style, synthesized from a single base UI font. (b74cc23dc4)
  • Modeling:
  • Tools:
  • Extrude Manifold: new tool to automatically split and remove adjacent faces when extruding inwards. (b79a5bdd5a).
  • Ruler: snapping support for ruler tool. (1f7a7911f7)
  • Topology cleanup oriented tools Merge (including By Distance aka Remove Doubles), Rip, Delete, Dissolve, Connect Path, Knife and Tris To Quads now correctly preserve custom normal vectors. (93c8955a79)
  • The custom profile for the bevel modifier and tool now supports bezier curve handle types. (baff05ad1c)
  • The bevel tool and modifier have a new 'Absolute' mode for interpreting the 'amount' value. This mode is like Percent, but measures absolute distance along adjacent edges instead of a percentage. 466e716495)
  • The bevel tool and modifier use a new method to decide which material and UV values to use for the center polygons in odd-segment bevels. It should give more consistency in different parts of the model compared to the seemingly random choice made up til now. e3a420c477
  • UV Editor:
  • The new mesh editing options Correct Face Attributes and Keep Connected adjust UV's and vertex colors when moving mesh components. The option is activated in the top right corner of the 3d viewport in the mesh editing menu (rB4387affr)
  • Edge Ring Select: matching edit-mesh functionality of the same name using Ctrl-Alt-LeftMouse (1dd381828f).
  • Pick Shortest Path: hold down CTRL and select UV components with left mouse to select the shortest path between the UV components. (ea5fe7abc1)
  • Pick Shortest Path: grid type selection if you activate fill region or use Ctrl-Shift-LeftMouse when selecting UV components
  • UV Rip: separates UV components (vertices, edges, faces) from connected components. The operator is run by pressing the V hotkey. The components are ripped in the direction of the mouse pointer position. (rB89cb41fa)
  • Option to change the opacity of the UV overlay. (90d3fe1e4d).
  • Remove selection threshold for nearby coordinates, only select when UV coordinates are identical. (b88dd3b8e7)
  • Curves:
  • Curve Normals are disabled by default. (0bd7e202fb)
  • Curve Handles now can be Hidden/Selected or All. (49f59092e7)
  • The new default for Handles is Selected. For Nurb Curves, the handlers are displayed always as it was in previous version.
  • Transform:
  • Edge and Vert Slide now supports the other snapping types. (e2fc9a88bc, 9335daac2a)
  • The snap can now be made to the intersection between constraint and geometry. (d8206602fe)
  • Modifiers:
  • The ocean modifier can now generate maps for spray direction. (17b89f6dac)
  • Applying a modifier as a shapekey is now allowed even when the object has linked duplicates. (01c8aa12a1)
  • New menu option to Save As Shapekey, which applies the modifier as a shape key without removing it. (01c8aa12a1)
  • Sculpt:
  • Multires Modifier:
  • Multiresolution sculpting is now fully supported. It is now possible to select the subdivision level to sculpt on and switch between levels, with displacement information smoothly propagated between them. (d4c547b7bd)
  • Unsubdivide and Rebuild subdivisions:
  • The Multires Modifier can now rebuild lower subdivisions levels and extract its displacement. This can be used to import models from any subdivision based sculting software and rebuild all subdivisions levels to be editable inside the modifier. (f28875a998)
  • Subdivision Modes:
  • Multires can now create smooth, linear and simple subdivisions. This means that any subdivision type can be created at any time without changing the subdivision type of the modifier. Changing the subdivision type of the modifier is now and advance option only used to support legacy files. (134619fabb)
  • Tools:
  • The Cloth filter runs a cloth simulation in the entire mesh. It has 3 force modes and the area were the force is applied can be defined by a Face Set. (1d4bae8566)
  • The Face Set edit operator allows to modify a Face Set. The supported operations are Grow (Ctrl + W) and Shrink (Ctrl + Alt + W). (cb9de95d61)
  • Brushes:
  • The Pose Brush includes two more deformation modes: Scale/translate and Squash/stretch. They can be selected using the deformation property. Pressing Ctrl before starting the stroke selects the secondary deformation mode. (77789a1904)
  • The Pose Brush has a Face Set FK mode, which deforms the mesh using the Face Sets to simulate and FK rig. (3778f168f6)
  • The Pose Brush has a Connected only property. By disabling it, the brush can affect multiple disconnected parts of the same mesh. The distance to consider a part as connected can be tweaked with the Max Element Distance property. 438bd82371
  • Clay strips now has more predictable pressure/size and pressure/strength curves. Its deformation algorithm was modified to prevent geometry artifacts in large deformations. (560a73610b) (0a1fbfee2b)
  • The Topology Slide/Relax mode now has two more deformation modes for Slide: Pinch and Expand. They can be selected using the Deformation property. (878d191bae)
  • Miscellaneous:
  • The Automasking system was redesigned, so brush will not have and start delay when automasking options are enabled in a high poly mesh. (e06a346458)
  • Boundary mesh detection was redesigned. Now mesh boundaries are properly detected by the automasking system in both meshes and Multires levels. This means that the smooth brush does not longer automasks boundary vertices by default and its meshes and multires behavior now matches. (e06a346458)
  • Pen pressure modulation is now supported for the hardness property. The modulation can be inverted for achieving higher hardness with lower pressure. (69afdf6970)
  • Grease Pencil:
  • User Interface:
  • Onion skinning support for annotations in the video sequencer. (fda754145a)
  • Layer Mask and Use Lights properties are animatable. (221a7002a9)
  • New Material selector in Context menu and new Material menu using U key. (6a7e9f2b76)
  • New option to put Canvas Grid in front of any object. (b369d46eb7)
  • First keyframe is displayed only if the current frame is equals or greater (11ba9eec70)
  • This change can produce changes in old animations. Review your drawings and set the keyframe number to be displayed at the right time. Usually, The fix is as simple as move or duplicate the first keyframe to frame 1.
  • Keyframe type now is accessible using python. (326db1b7cd)
  • Default Vertex Color mode changed to Stroke and Fill. (e079bf6996)
  • Added missing UV Fill property to RNA. (f382109f38)
  • Operators:
  • Reproject stroke now allows to keep original stroke. (37d68871b7)
  • New Bevel Depth and Resolution parameters converting strokes to curves. (146473f083)
  • New Convert mesh and Bake animation to grease pencil. (bc7a4b126a)
  • Tools:
  • Annotate Line tool now supports different types of arrows. (668dd146f6)
  • Annotate tool now supports mouse stabilizer. (9a7c4e2d44)
  • New Brush options and curves to randomize effects. (b571516237)
  • When Using the Eraser tool a new frame is created if Additive Drawing is enabled. (29afadcb15)
  • Improved selection of strokes in the fill area (244ed645e0)
  • Improved fill paint in vertex color mode and Tint tool. (abeda01ac6)
  • Modifiers and VFX:
  • New Texture Mapping modifier to manipulate UV data. (a39a6517af)
  • New Restrict Visible Points Build parameter to define the visibility of stroke. (a1593fa05b)
  • New Antialiasing parameter for Pixel effect. (11a390e85e)
  • Cycles:
  • CPU Rendering:
  • Intel Embree is now used for ray tracing on the CPU. This significantly improves performance in scenes with motion blur. Other scenes with high geometric complexity also benefit on average, depending on the scene contents.
  • GPU Rendering:
  • OptiX is now available on all NVIDIA GPUs that support it, which is Maxwell or higher (GeForce 700, 800, 900, 1000 series).
  • NVLink support for CUDA and OptiX. When enabled in the Cycles device preferences, GPUs connected with an NVLink bridge will share memory to support rendering bigger scenes.
  • NVIDIA GPU rendering on macOS is no longer supported. Apple dropped support for CUDA drivers in macOS 10.14, and no recent Apple hardware uses NVIDIA graphics cards.
  • Hair:
  • Hair curves are rendered differently due to the switch to Embree. GPU rendering was made to match Embree. There are now two shapes to choose from:
  • Rounded Ribbon: render hair as flat ribbon with (fake) rounded normals, for fast rendering. Hair curves are subdivided with a fixed number of user specified subdivisions. This gives relatively accurate results, especially when used with the Principled Hair BSDF and hair viewed from a typical distance. There may be artifacts when viewed closed up.
  • 3D Curve: render hair as 3D curve, for accurate results when viewing hair close up. This automatically subdivides the curve until it is smooth. This gives higher quality than any of the previous primitives, but does come at a performance cost. Especially on the GPU this is slower than previous primitives.
  • Sky Texture:
  • The new Sky texture is an improved version of the Nishita single scattering sky model, and it accounts for altitude change as well as ozone absorption.
  • It includes a sun component with limb darkening effect.
  • Lighting from the Sky texture may be quite bright or dark depending on the time of day. Adjust the Exposure in the Film panel to compensate for this.
  • Denoising:
  • Intel OpenImageDenoise is now supported for interactive denoising in the 3D viewport and for final renders. This works on any recent Intel/AMD CPU (with SSE 4.1).
  • Previously viewport denoising was only supported for NVIDIA GPUs using OptiX, and final render denoising with OpenImageDenoise was only possible in the compositor.
  • Performance of tiled denoising in final renders is still poor, we will investigate optimizing this.
  • Shadow Terminator:
  • Per-object shadow terminator offset setting, to avoid artifacts with smooth normals on low-poly meshes. (c7280ce65b85)
  • Changes:
  • Depth render pass for perspective cameras was changed to be more standard, matching OpenGL, Eevee and other renderers.
  • Error messages are now propagated to the viewport status overlay (instead of it only showing "Cancel").
  • Denoising is now enabled in the Render Properties for all view layers, in the Sampling > Denoising panel. Settings can still be fine-tuned per view layer, including disabling denoising for specific layers.
  • EEVEE:
  • Motion Blur Improvement:
  • The motion blur has been done from scratch and now support mesh deformation, hair, and sub-frame accumulation for even better precision. For more details check out the manual. (f84414d6e1 439b40e601)
  • Improvements:
  • Fix texture node repeat & filter mode to match Cycles better. (b2dcff4c21)
  • Sky Texture:
  • Port of Preetham and Hosek/Wilkie sky models. (9de09220fc)
  • Import & Export:
  • Alembic
  • Matrices with negative scale can now be properly interpolated. This means that it is now possible to take an Alembic file that was saved at 30 FPS and load it into a 24 FPS Blender file, even when there are mirrored objects. (a5e176a8ed and demo videos in D8048).
  • Object data is now exported with the object data name (0d744cf673). Previously the Alembic exporter exported a mesh object to {object.name}/{object.name}Shape. Now it exports to {object.name}/{mesh.name} instead. The same change also applies to other object data types.
  • Spaces, periods, and colons in the names of particle systems are now replaced with underscores (f106369ce8). Other types already had spaces, periods, and colons replaced by underscores, and now particle systems are exported with the same naming convention.
  • Blender now always exports transforms as as "inheriting", as Blender has no concept of parenting without inheriting the transform (2dff08c8ce). Previously only objects with an actual parent were marked as "inheriting", and parentless objects as "non-inheriting". However, certain packages (for example USD's Alembic plugin) are incompatible with non-inheriting transforms and will completely ignore such transforms, placing all such objects at the world origin.
  • Alembic's obsolete HDF5 compression format has never been officially supported by Blender, but only existed as an optional build-time option that was disabled for all Blender releases. The support for HDF5 has now been completely removed (0c38436227, 0102b9d47e).
  • Blender now exports Alembic using the same approach as USD. This means that Alembic and USD files are more consistent, and that it's easier to solve (or even prevent) certain bugs (2917df21ad). Changes are:
  • Duplicated objects now have a unique numerical suffix (also see above).
  • Matrices are computed differently. This fixes T71395, but otherwise should produce the same result as before (but with simpler, more predictable code).
  • USD:
  • Hair particle systems are now exported using the Particle System name. Previously this was done with the Particle Settings name. This gives more control over the final name used in USD and is consistent with the Alembic exporter. (fc0842593f).
  • Instances:
  • USD and Alembic export can now correctly export nested instances. Further, numbers used to identify duplicated (i.e. instanced) objects have been reversed (98bee41c8a).
  • glTF 2.0:
  • Importer:
  • Enhancements:
  • Implement KHR_materials_clearcoat (rBA64d3439)
  • Implement KHR_mesh_quantization (rBA4b656b6)
  • Improve the layout of nodes in the material graph (rBA5b4ed4e)
  • Add option to glue pieces of a mesh together (rBAc7eda7c)
  • Code cleanup & refactoring & performance (rBAbb4dc6f, rBA9fd05ef)
  • Fixes:
  • Fix occlusion textures (rBAa29e15e)
  • Fix Crash on undo after glTF import (rBAd777821)
  • Exporter:
  • Enhancements:
  • Add joint / pre /post in hook for extensions (rBAe3bb132, rBA40db41a)
  • Allow combining different-sized textures (eg for ORM) (rBA09508f2)
  • Add check rotation + delta rotation both animated (rBAee2a083)
  • Code clean up & refactoring & performance (rBA2d8c1b2, rBA01186b0, rBA3ea1673, rBA9313b3a, rBA03e3ef7)
  • Refactoring Normals export (rBAbd8e1f3, rBA422c47c, rBA52f8896)
  • Add support for use_inherit_rotation and inherit_scale (rBA63dd849)
  • Export curve/surface/text objects as meshes (rBA47ea656)
  • Fixes
  • Prevent infinite recursion when mesh is skinned and parenting to same bone (rBA72227fc)
  • Make sure rotation are normalized (rBAfac4c64)
  • Add check when armature animation is binded to mesh object (rBA61f7f5f)
  • Fix extension panel appearance (rBAaea0541)
  • Fix draco UV export (rBAe47d2bc)
  • Fix lamp parented to bone (rBA1d29fc5)
  • Fix saving use_selection option in .blend file (rBA7cbb383)
  • Fix exporting with option "group by NLA" (rBA7a0a918)
  • Fix exporting EXTEND textures (rBAcbad930)
  • Fix export alpha scalar value (not coming from texture) (rBA48c8d6c)
  • Fix exporting aspectRatio for Perspective Cameras (rBA2b4bf94)
  • Fix to generate valid file when zero-weight verts (rBA386bb5e)
  • Python API:
  • Compatibility:
  • Operator Search:
  • With the new operator search that only searches through menus, add-ons that expose operators only through search need to be updated. In general it is good practice to always expose operators through menus so users can find them.
  • For more obscure operators that are for example intended mainly for developers, we recommend adding them in the TOPBAR_MT_app_system menu. This is accessible through the System menu under the Blender icon in the top bar.
  • Other Changes:
  • Libraries: bpy.data.libraries.write relative_remap boolean argument has been replaced by path_remap enumeration which can select different kinds of path remapping on write.
  • BevelModifier.use_custom_profile property is now part of a new a profile_type enum. (6703c7f7f1) This applies to the bevel tool as well.
  • The bevel operator's vertex_only property was changed to a new affect enum, with VERTICES and EDGES options. (4aa2a5481c)
  • The modifier apply operator's apply_as argument was moved to a new operator modifier_apply_as_shapekey. The new operator can also save to a shapekey without removing the modifier (01c8aa12a1)
  • User Interface:
  • Columns and rows can now group together related settings with a heading.
  • The layout system will try to insert the heading to the left column of a property split layout, but may insert the heading as usual column or row item as fallback.
  • UILayout.prop_decorator(data, property, index=-1) got added to allow manual insertion of decorators (to set keyframes or indicate other animation states for the property). There must be an item with the same parameters within the root layout for this to work.
  • Checkboxes respect UILayout.use_property_split now. With that some layout conventions changed:
  • Related checkboxes should be grouped together in a column with a heading (see above).
  • In cases where a checkbox controls the availability of a single property, the checkbox should be in a row together with the property.
  • Decorator items have to be manually inserted with some boilerplate code.
  • It is important that the decorator is inserted to a row-layout that is the parent of the row-layout for the checkbox and the actual property.
  • Checkboxes with property splitting often look bad if placed alone in a layout, or within flow layouts. In these cases UILayout.use_property_split should be disabled or a fixed, non-flow layout be used.
  • UILayout.menu(), UILayout.operator_menu_enum() and UILayout.prop_menu_enum() respect UILayout.use_property_split now.
  • Additions:
  • In the event a Python script causes Blender to crash, Blender's crash log will include a Python stack-trace so Python developers can find what caused the error (e9c4325515).
  • Mathutils: element-wise multiplication for vectors matrices and quaternions (fa7ace2215).
  • constraints.copy() methods for objects and bones to duplicate a constraint with all its settings, including from other objects. (64a584b38a)
  • Screen.is_scrubbing, indicating when the user is scrubbing through time in the timeline, dopesheet, graph editor, etc. (2be7a11e43)
  • Sequences.new_movie() support for creating movie strips with missing files, consistent with image and sound strips. MovieSequence.reload_if_needed() to try and reload movie strips, in case the missing file has appeared. This makes it possible to create a movie strip for video files that are synced between computers via some network connection. (b9f565881e)
  • Drivers get a depsgraph variable in their local scope. See the Animation-Rigging release notes for more details.
  • New bl_math module with lerp, clamp and smoothstep functions (inspired by GLSL mix, clamp and smoothstep), which are also made available to drivers. (f8cc01595d)
  • Option to use OpenGL context in RenderEngine.render. (52543be9a6)
  • Physics:
  • Fluid:
  • New Features:
  • OpenVDB fluid caching: Smoke (grids) and liquid (grids and particles) data will now be cached into a single .vdb cache file per frame. (9fe64948ab, 9951858942)
  • Usability:
  • Updated gravity: Matches world gravity now (fluid buoyancy behaves differently compared to 2.8x releases). (21485e94aa)
  • Simplified cache format options:
  • There are now only two cache formats fields (Volume data - grids & particles, Surface data - meshes). Cache format options for 'Noise' and 'Particles' have been deprecated.
  • Only two cache file formats are available ('.uni', '.vdb'). The '.raw' file format has been deprecated.
  • New UI Options:
  • Frame Offset: Read cache files with a frame offset. (Manual, fb0f0f4d79)
  • System Maximum: Define the maximum number of particles that are allowed in a simulation. (Manual, e76f64a532)
  • Important Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed issue with gas shading (shading in 'Replay' mode differed from shading in other cache modes). (f2b04302cd, 51f4bee5a5, 7e64f6cee4, 106e7654e8)
  • Cloth:
  • New option to apply a pressure gradient emulating the weight of contained or surrounding fluid. (b1f9799508)
  • Force effectors have a new Wind Factor setting to specify how much the force is reduced when acting parallel to the cloth surface (previously hard-coded as 100% reduction). (9e70129959)
  • Animation & Rigging:
  • Library Overrides:
  • Many more properties and data are now overridable (all constraints and modifiers, camera objectdata, etc.).
  • Overrides are now duplicated as well when copying an override data-block (e.g. if you select a whole object hierarchy and duplicate it in the 3DView, you will get a new override of the same linked data).
  • Python-defined properties and custom properties can also be overridden (as long as they are defined as overridable, and belong to some data that is also overridable).
  • Making override of an object or collection from the 3DView now does a complete check of dependencies and overrides everything needed (Note that this will override a lot of data-blocks in typical complex production characters e.g.).
  • From the outliner, you can override the hierarchy of linked data-blocks leading to the one you selected. It will also behave similar to the 3DView operation when applied on an object or collection.
  • 3DView 'make override' operator has been upgraded.
  • No more need to select a 'main' object when overriding an instanced collection (this was not used anymore anyway).
  • One can now override a linked, but not object-instanced, collection fro; the 3DView, by selecting one of its objects and calling the operator.
  • Overrides can now be reset from the outliner (i.e. all defined override properties are removed, except for those ensuring relationships between IDs, and override data-blocks get reloaded), either individually or as a whole hierarchy.
  • Overrides will now be reloaded when their linked library reference are reloaded.
  • Constraints:
  • Matrices with negative scale can now be properly interpolated. This means that it is now possible to use, for example, a Copy Transform constraint and target an object with Scale X=-1, without glitches when you dial down the influence slider. (a5e176a8ed and demo videos in D8048).
  • Graph Editor:
  • Using the scrubbing region to change the current frame only changes the frame, not the cursor (fc59febb1b).
  • Drivers:
  • New lerp, clamp and smoothstep functions, inspired by GLSL mix, clamp and smoothstep. (f8cc01595d)
  • The simple expressions subset now includes lerp, clamp, smoothstep, round and log(val,base). (f8cc01595d)
  • Dependency Graph passed to Drivers:
  • Drivers can now get to the current dependency graph (for example to get to the current view layer), via the new depsgraph variable that is available to them. This can then be used in the driver expression, and passed to custom driver functions (as registered in bpy.app.driver_namespace) if necessary.
  • Virtual Reality:
  • Landmarks:
  • In the 2.83 release, landmarks were already available, but had limited usefulness. With 2.90, landmarks should be much more practicable.
  • Tweaks to how landmarks are used to establish the viewer pose:
  • Changing to a landmark moves the view exactly to it, rather than keeping the current position offset.
  • Disabling positional tracking moves the viewer back to the exact landmark position.
  • New landmark type: Custom Pose. These allow specifying a position and rotation to use as base pose, without a camera.
  • New landmark operators:
  • Add VR Landmark from Session
  • Add a new custom pose landmark, based on the current position and rotation of the viewer.
  • Add VR Landmark from Camera
  • If a camera object is active, this adds a landmark with a position and rotation based on the camera.
  • Update Custom VR Landmark
  • Updates the selected landmark's position and rotation based on the current viewer pose.
  • Cursor to VR Landmark
  • Scene Camera to VR Landmark
  • Copy the position and rotation of the selected landmark to the scene camera.
  • New Camera from VR Landmark
  • Add a camera with the position and rotation of the selected landmark.
  • Show Landmarks 3D View option, available in the Viewport Feedback panel. Enables visual indicators for positions and rotation of landmarks.
  • Miscellaneous:
  • A warning is displayed in the Viewport Feedback, indicating that the feedback options may have a significant performance impact.
  • More Features:
  • Data Duplication:
  • Data-blocks duplication (or deep copy, full copy) has been improved.
  • Doing a full copy of a scene will now use the same preference settings as when duplicating a collection or object, to determine which sub-data-blocks should also be copied (T77255, rBeee35ebd).
  • Doing a full copy of a scene or collection now duplicates actions only if relevant option is set in the user preferences.
  • All usages of duplicated sub-data-blocks should now be properly remapped to their copies.
  • Doing a full copy of a local data-block will now never duplicate the linked sub-data it may use (this was already the case for scenes, but not for objects or collections before).
  • However, doing a full copy of a linked data-block will also duplicate all of its linked sub-data, if allowed (since user then wants to get a locale duplicate of its linked data).
  • Baking:
  • New Ray Length setting, which limits how far rays can travel before they are excluded from the baking result. Useful for baking meshes with holes in them. (27cac4a102)
  • Motion Tracking:
  • Added new lens distortion model which allows to solve motion in Blender and do compositing in Natron/Nuke. It is available in the Lens settings of movie clip and is called "Nuke" (which is the default model in Natron as well).
  • Sequencer:
  • Add frame interpolation option to speed effect. (99cb6dbe65)
  • Experimental Features:
  • The User Preferences → Developers Extra → Experimental options are now organized in different categories (rBdd9c0dbf).
  • They are also only available on daily builds of master. Beta and Final releases don't have their panels.
  • Linux:
  • Linux now has initial Wayland support, when building the WITH_GHOST_WAYLAND option. Some features are still missing in this implementation and X11 remains used by default for now.
  • Add-ons:
  • BlenderKit:
  • Perpendicular snap (in import settings) improves snapping to sloped surfaces or ceilings. Useful for trees on slopes/chandeliers under curved ceilings and similar.
  • A new fast rating operator was added. Accessible under F shortcut in asset bar.
  • Ui was reorganized to subpanels, with many small useful tweaks.
  • Asset menu is available also in the Selected Model panel. Enables 'search similar' and other commands for objects that are already in the scene.
  • Collection Manager:
  • New Features:
  • Added an option to align RTOs to the right. (rBA2aa4745)
  • Renamed the Filter Restriction Toggles popover to Display Options. (rBA2aa4745)
  • Added line separators to the tree view to better differentiate rows, especially when RTOs are aligned to the right. (rBA2aa4745)
  • Added a new Specials menu with items to Remove Empty Collections and Purge All Collections Without Objects. (rBA711efc3)
  • Added a new Apply Phantom Mode button, this will apply the changes made to RTOs and quit Phantom Mode. (rBAcee1751)
  • Added a linear renumbering option and a constrain to branch option to the Renumber QCD Slots Operator; all options can now be combined with each other. (rBA09133c5)
  • Added menu items for the Collection Manager popup and the QCD Move widget to the Object->Collection menu. (rBA52edc5f)
  • Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed removing collections not preserving the RTOs of their children. (rBA969e77e)
  • Fixed an error when removing a collection with a child that is already linked to the parent collection. (rBA0657e99)
  • Fixed the QCD Move Widget not accounting for the 3D View bounds when first called. (rBA2c9bc1e)
  • Vastly increased the performance when there are a large number of selected objects. (rBAadac42a)

New in Blender 2.83 (Jun 3, 2020)

  • Grease Pencil:
  • Completely rewritten from scratch, the new Grease Pencil is much faster and better integrated with Blender
  • Volumes:
  • OpenVDB files can now be imported and rendered with the new volume object.
  • Virtual Reality:
  • Initial native virtual reality, focused on scene inspection.
  • Cycles:
  • Adaptive sampling, OptiX viewport denoising, improved shader nodes, and more.
  • EEVEE:
  • New render passes, improved light cache and high-quality hair transparency.
  • Sculpt:
  • Face sets to control visibility, cloth brush, and many more improvements

New in Blender 2.82 (Feb 13, 2020)

  • Physics:
  • Mantaflow fluid simulation, cloth internal air pressure, cloth internal springs.
  • Cycles:
  • OptiX denoiser, improvements to shader nodes, custom render passes, and more.
  • EEVEE:
  • Viewport render passes, and a lot of important fixes.
  • Textures:
  • UDIM textures for texture painting and rendering in Eevee and Cycles.
  • Sculpt & Paint;
  • Slide/relax tool, multiplane scrape tool, operator improvements, pose brush and brush updates, paint improvements.
  • Grease Pencil:
  • Multiple Stroke Modifier.png
  • User interface, improved tools, multiple strokes modifier.
  • Modeling:
  • Custom Bevel Profile Release Notes.png
  • Custom profiles for bevel, cutoff vertex mesh, weld modifier and solidify modifier.
  • User Interface:
  • Bevel gizmo.png
  • Many tools have now a gizmo, like bevel and the UV editor.
  • Animation & Rigging:
  • Improvements to bones, constraints and F-curves.
  • Import & Export:
  • Blender-2.82-USD-usdview-spring.png
  • New USD exporter, many glTF improvements, Alembic mesh normals export, VFX platform 2020 compatibility.
  • Python API
  • Python API changes, Custom curve profile and widget, changes to handling of Python environment.
  • Add-ons:
  • Updates to Rigify, Add Mesh Extra objects, BlenderKit, and new add-ons Import Palettes, PDT, Add Node Presets, Collection manager, Sun position and Amaranth toolkit.

New in Blender 2.81 (Nov 21, 2019)

  • Sculpt & Retopology:
  • New sculpt tools, poly build tool, voxel remesh and quad remesh.
  • Transform & Snapping:
  • Transform origins, new snapping, mirroring and auto merge options.
  • Cycles:
  • New shaders for texturing, denoising with OpenImageDenoise, and NVIDIA
  • RTX support.
  • Eevee:
  • Shadows, transparency and bump mapping redesigned for easier setup and better quality.
  • Viewport:
  • New options for look development with Cycles and Eevee.
  • Library Overrides:
  • A new system to replace proxies, to make local overrides to linked characters and other data types.
  • Animation & Rigging:
  • Finer control over rotations and scale in bones, constraints and drivers.
  • User Interface:
  • Outliner improvements, new file browser and batch rename.
  • Grease Pencil:
  • User interface, tools, operators, modifiers, new brushes and presets and material self overlap.
  • More Features:
  • Alembic, audio & video output, library management and video sequencer editor.
  • Python API:
  • Python version upgrade, dynamic tooltip for operators, new handlers and other API changes.
  • Add-ons:
  • Enabled add-ons only, glTF, FBX, import images as planes, blenderkit, rigify among others.

New in Blender 2.80 RC 1 (Jul 12, 2019)

  • User Interface:
  • Blender 2.80 has a revamped user interface, to make it easier to discover and use its many features.
  • The interface has a redesigned look with a new dark theme and modern icon set, to put the focus on the artwork that you create. Keyboard, mouse and tablet interaction got a refresh with left click select as the new default. Quick Favorites menus provide quick access to often used tools. The layout of the properties editor and preferences has been updated.
  • Templates and workspaces let you quickly get started with tasks like sculpting, texture painting or motion tracking. They can be customized to create your own efficient working environment.
  • Tools & Gizmos:
  • The 3D viewport and UV editor have new interactive tools and gizmos, along with a new toolbar. These make it easier to for new users to start using Blender, and for existing users to discover and use tools that previously required obscure key combinations.
  • Besides gizmos for tools, various elements like lights, camera, and the compositing backdrop image now have handles to adjust their shape or other attributes.
  • Eevee:
  • Eevee is a new physically based real-time renderer. It works both as a renderer for final frames, and as the engine driving Blender’s realtime viewport for creating assets.
  • It has advanced features such as volumetrics, screen-space reflections and refractions, subsurface scattering, soft and contact shadows, depth of field, camera motion blur and bloom.
  • Eevee materials are created using the same shader nodes as Cycles, making it easy to render existing scenes. For Cycles users, this makes Eevee work great as a realtime preview. For game artists, the Principled BSDF is compatible with shading models used in many game engines.
  • Viewport:
  • There is a new, modern 3D viewport to visualize your scene in flexible ways.
  • A new Workbench render engine was designed for getting work done in the viewport, for tasks like scene layout, modeling and sculpting. Eevee powers the viewport for interactive modeling and painting with PBR materials.
  • Overlays provide fine control over which utilities are visible on top of the render. These also work on top of Eevee and Cycles render previews, so you can edit and paint the scene with full shading.
  • Grease Pencil:
  • Grease pencil is now a full 2D drawing and animation system.
  • Grease pencil objects are a native part of Blender, integrating with existing object selection, editing, management, and linking tools. Strokes can be organized into layers, and shaded with materials and textures. Besides a draw mode for strokes, these objects can also be edited, sculpted and weight painted similar to meshes.
  • Modifiers can be used to deform, generate and color strokes. Often used mesh modifiers like array, subdivide and armature deform have equivalents for strokes. Rendering effects like blur, shadows or rim lighting are also available.
  • Cycles:
  • Rendering physically based hair and fur is now easy with the Principled Hair BSDF. The Principled Volume shader makes it easier to set up volume materials like smoke and fire. Random Walk subsurface scattering provides more accurate results for thin and curved objects.
  • A bevel shader was added for rendering rounded corners. The Ambient Occlusion shader can now be used for procedural texturing.
  • Cryptomatte is a standard to efficiently create mattes for compositing. Cycles outputs the required render passes, which can then be used in the Blender compositor or another compositor with Cryptomatte support to create masks for specified objects.
  • Vector Displacement is now supported, along with a new Displacement node for easier control. New offscreen dicing scale helps to significantly reduce memory usage for adaptive subdivision.
  • Many rendering optimizations were done including combined CPU and GPU rendering, much improved OpenCL start and render time, and CUDA support for scenes that don't fit in GPU memory.
  • Collections:
  • Layers and groups have been replaced by collections. These are used for organizing objects in a scene, instancing groups of objects, and linking groups of objects across .blend files.
  • The outliner provides an overview of the collections and objects in a scene, with easy organization using drag & drop. The 3D viewport also has fast operations for moving objects between collections.
  • More fine-grained control over 3D viewport visibility was added, with a distinction between temporary and permanent hiding, as well as hiding by object type.
  • Modeling:
  • Multiple meshes can now be edited together in edit mode, including UV mapping. Armature editing and posing also supports multiple objects, to easily animate multiple characters.
  • Custom normal editing was revamped, with more powerful tools and modifiers. Bevel now supports normal hardening and miter patterns.
  • Subdivision surfaces now use OpenSubdiv, for more powerful creasing and compatibility with other software.
  • Animation & Rigging:
  • Many new constraint, modifier and bendy bone features were added for rigging.
  • New keyframe visualization and editing tools were added. The NLA editor has new blending modes and better keyframing to support more complex rigs.
  • Driver editing can now be done in place with a convenient driver editing popover.
  • Import / Export:
  • The Khronos glTF 2.0 importer and exporter is now bundled with Blender. This file format is designed for efficient loading of 3D scenes, often used for game engines and 3D content on the web.
  • COLLADA and Alembic support were improved.
  • Video import and export now supports metadata and the WebM file format.
  • Dependency Graph:
  • The core modifier and animation evaluation system was rewritten, to improve performance and pave the way for new features.
  • On modern multicore CPUs, scenes with many objects or complex rigs can run up to an order of magnitude faster.
  • More Features:
  • The unit system was improved with more control over the display and editing unit, and different quantities.
  • Cloth physics now has more reliable and stable collision, a more realistic cloth spring model, and finer control over forces.
  • Background images are replaced by image objects that can be organized and transformed as part of the scene.
  • The video sequencer cache system was rewritten for better performance and control.
  • Removed Features:
  • Blender Internal was removed, replaced by Eevee and Cycles renderers.
  • The Blender Game Engine was removed as well, we recommend more powerful alternatives like Godot Engine.
  • Python API:
  • Blender 2.80 is an API breaking release. Addons and scripts will need to be updated, both to handle the new features and adapt to changes to make the API more consistent and reliable.
  • Add-ons:
  • Most add-ons for 2.79 are available for 2.80 as well. A few new ones were added, and a few were removed.

New in Blender 2.79b (Mar 23, 2018)

  • This corrective release only fixes a few serious bugs/regressions introduced in 2.79a fixes.

New in Blender 2.79a RC (Feb 27, 2018)

  • Given the amount of backported commits, we decided to make a testbuild/'RC' version of 2.79a first. This corrective release does not add any new feature. It brings a huge amount of fixes (over 200, from real bugs to potential security issues). And some performance enhancements, mostly in threaded code (e.g. in mesh normal and tangent space computation, in SubSurf modifier, …).
  • It aims at making Blender 2.79 even more robust and reliable while most of the development effort is focused on the next version, Blender 2.8.

New in Blender 2.79 (Sep 13, 2017)

  • In this release:
  • Cycles: Built-in Denoising, Shadow catcher, Principled shader, AMD OpenCL optimizations.
  • Grease Pencil: New frame interpolation tools, per-layer onion skinning.
  • Alembic: Improvements to compatibility, stability and support.
  • User Interface: Initial support for reusable custom configurations, automatic DPI scaling.
  • Twenty Three new and several updated add-ons.
  • And: 100s of bug fixes and other improvements!
  • Compatibility Warning:
  • When using add-ons in Blender 2.79 that take advantage of the new data-block pointer properties, the resulting .blend files can't be opened in earlier versions of Blender. Attempting to open such .blend files in Blender 2.78c and earlier may crash.
  • Some Interface Themes may need to be reloaded to work properly.
  • The text color contained in a layout.box() is now defined in User Preferences » Themes » User Interface » Box section
  • When using the add-on Rigify, please note:
  • Compatibility is broken for this release. There's no guarantee rigs created in previous Blender versions will work correctly.
  • Rigs created in Blender 2.78 may not be compatible with 2.79.
  • Rigs created in Blender 2.77 may still work.
  • Save your work before attempting upgrading your rigs.
  • Cycles Rendering:
  • Denoising built into the renderer.
  • Principled BSDF shader to render a wide variety of materials.
  • Shadow catcher to composite CGI elements in real-life footage.
  • Faster AMD OpenCL rendering and feature parity with NVidia CUDA.
  • Filmic color management for better handling of high dynamic range.
  • User Interface:
  • Application templates to define a reusable configuration.
  • Automatic scaling for high DPI displays on Windows on Linux.
  • Reorganized sequencer and UV editor panels.
  • Custom shortcuts for keyframing and drivers.
  • Grease Pencil:
  • New tools for interpolating between grease pencil frames.
  • Per-layer onion skinning, add blank frame tool, and UI improvements.
  • Alembic:
  • Alembic import and export has been greatly improved, both in compatibility and stability.
  • New supported features include export of linked dupli-groups, sub-frame sampling, face-varying vertex colors, child hairs and empties.
  • Mesh Modeling:
  • New surface deform modifier, to transfer motion from another mesh.
  • Improved displace and mirror modifiers.
  • Various small new tools and options.
  • Animation:
  • Pose library reordering and keying for selected bones only.
  • Better undo for frame changes.
  • Various small new tools and options.
  • More Features:
  • Video encoding settings have been simplified, along with the addition of a Constant Rate Factor (CRF) mode.
  • Blender render and GLSL viewport support for object info, layer weight and Fresnel shading nodes.
  • Python API:
  • Custom properties pointing to data-blocks like objects or materials.
  • Render engine add-ons can now add custom render passes.
  • Inserting custom items in right click menus.
  • Add-ons:
  • New: Dynamic Sky, Archipack, Magic UV, Mesh Edit Tools, Skinify, Display Tools, Brush Menus, Btrace, Is Key Free, Turnaround Camera, Auto Mirror, Camera Rigs, Snap Utils Line, Add Advanced Objects, Export Paper Model, Kinoraw Tools, Stored Views, Render Clay, Auto Tracker, Refine Tracking Solution, Materials Library VX, Mesh Tissue, Cell Fracture Crack It.
  • Updated: Collada, POV-Ray, OBJ, Rigify, Ant Landscape, Add Curve Extra Objects, Viewport Pie Menus, Blender ID, Node Wrangler.
  • Various fixes and improvements across the board.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • As for every Blender release, hundreds of bugs were fixed, thanks to the hardworking Blender developers.

New in Blender 2.79 RC 2 (Aug 21, 2017)

  • For RC2, 25 bugs were fixed:
  • Fix T52250: Glitch in UI in the addon panel regression (rBade9fc9245).
  • Fix unreported: Fix broken API doc generation: Partially revertrBa372638a76e0 (rB8ae6e35923).
  • Fix T52263: Crash When Splitting and Merging Areas with Header Text Set (rBfb73cee1ec).
  • Fix unreported: Fix width estimation for empty layouts in pie menus (rB205202361c).
  • Fix T52260: Blender 2.79 Objects made duplicates real still refer armature proxy (rBfa34f864a2).
  • Fix unreported: Fix fixed width box layouts (rB909320e3ff).
  • Fix T52280: The Image node in Compositing can't read Z buffer of openEXR in 2.79 (rBe54df78c82).
  • Fix T52315: Crash on duplicating Scene without world (rB0146ab2fd5).
  • Fix T52324: Metaball disappears when deleting first metaball object (rBff47118c73).
  • Fix T52334: images with non-color data should not change color space on save (rB35f5d80f3a).
  • Fix T52344: Softbody on Text (rBefa840f99f).
  • Fix T52344: Softbody on Text (rB9a239eea68).
  • Fix T52327: Entering/Exiting NLA Tweakmode disables Scene -> Only Keyframes from Selected Channels (rB3689be736b).
  • Fix unreported: Fix width estimation for buttons with short labels in pie menus (rB686b8e8fed).
  • Fix unreported: Cycles: Fixed broken camera motion blur when motion was not set to center on frame (rB10764d31d4).
  • Fix T52329: Boolean with aligned shapes failed (rB0cb38b2875).
  • Fix T52278: 'Default' application template fails (rBa52ec5308f).
  • Fix T51701: Alembic cache screws up mesh (rB8138082ab8).
  • Fix unreported: Alembic import: fix crash when face color index is out of bounds (rB2307ea88b5).
  • Fix T52255: New Depsgraph - Constraint and Drivers not working together when the driver references itself (rBb1d998ec5d).
  • Fix unreported: Fix OSX duplicate path in Python's sys.path (rB6e7d962118).
  • Fix T52240: Alembic Not Transferring Materials Per Frame (rBf21020f45f).
  • Fix T46329: scene_update_{pre,post} doc needs clarification (rB6bc962d7bc).
  • Fix unreported: PyAPI: Fix memory leak w/ empty, allocated enums (rB9bc5549222).
  • Fix T52401: "Export Keying Set" operator generated incorrect ID's for shapekeys (rB7b397cdfc8).

New in Blender 2.79 RC 1 (Aug 3, 2017)

  • Cycles Rendering:
  • Denoising built into the renderer.
  • Principled BSDF shader to render a wide variety of materials.
  • Shadow catcher to composite CGI elements in real-life footage.
  • Faster AMD OpenCL rendering and feature parity with NVidia CUDA.
  • Filmic color management for better handling of high dynamic range.
  • User Interface:
  • Application templates to define a reusable configuration.
  • Automatic scaling for high DPI displays on Windows on Linux.
  • Reorganized sequencer and UV editor panels.
  • Custom shortcuts for keyframing and drivers.
  • Grease Pencil:
  • New tools for interpolating between grease pencil frames.
  • Per-layer onion skinning, add blank frame tool, and UI improvements.
  • Alembic:
  • Alembic import and export has been greatly improved, both in compatibility and stability.
  • New supported features include export of linked dupli-groups, sub-frame sampling, face-varying vertex colors, child hairs and empties.
  • Mesh Modeling:
  • New surface deform modifier, to transfer motion from another mesh.
  • Improved displace and mirror modifiers.
  • Various small new tools and options.
  • Animation:
  • Pose library reordering and keying for selected bones only.
  • Better undo for frame changes.
  • Various small new tools and options.
  • More Features:
  • Video encoding settings have been simplified, along with the addition of a Constant Rate Factor (CRF) mode.
  • Blender render and GLSL viewport support for object info, layer weight and Fresnel shading nodes.
  • Python API:
  • Custom properties pointing to data-blocks like objects or materials.
  • Render engine add-ons can now add custom render passes.
  • Inserting custom items in right click menus.
  • Add-ons:
  • New: Dynamic Sky, Archipack, Magic UV, Mesh Edit Tools, Skinify, Display Tools, Brush Menus, Btrace, Is Key Free, Turnaround Camera, Auto Mirror, Camera Rigs, Snap Utils Line, Add Advanced Objects, Export Paper Model, Kinoraw Tools, Stored Views, Render Clay, Auto Tracker, Refine Tracking Solution, Materials Library VX, Mesh Tissue, Cell Fracture Crack It.
  • Updated: Collada, POV-Ray, OBJ, Rigify, Ant Landscape, Add Curve Extra Objects, Viewport Pie Menus, Blender ID, Node Wrangler.
  • Various fixes and improvements across the board.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • As for every Blender release, hundreds of bugs were fixed, thanks to the hardworking Blender developers.

New in Blender 2.78c (Feb 27, 2017)

  • Port all changes for automated Cycles testing c6e4a81d
  • Fix for wrong render result of hair with BVH motion steps b3b4084
  • Fix compilation error of GLSL viewport when using Light Path node 9215848
  • Fix wrong Brick texture in material viewport 8ba1dab
  • Fix crash with material preview and image sequences dd2e33b
  • Fix T50512: Linked Backround scene with animation not updating with new depsgraph e89145e
  • Fix T50687: Cycles baking time estimate and progress bar doesn't work / progress when baking with high samples 67169e7
  • Fix T50748: Render Time incorrect when refreshing rendered preview in GPU mode b95645c
  • Fix wrong render results with texture limit and half-float textures 909c8ec
  • Fix Cycles still saving render output when error happened d9e6268, 90d96de

New in Blender 2.78b (Feb 8, 2017)

  • Grease Pencil:
  • New design and complete overhaul, including:
  • Easy layer management.
  • Ability to have multiple colors and thickness values per layer.
  • Stroke quality improvements.
  • Different color saturation in the same stroke.
  • Improved Fills - Support for Concave Shapes.
  • Parenting a layer to any object, armature or bone.
  • And more!
  • For Addon developers: See related Grease Pencil API Changes
  • Alembic:
  • Initial implementation in Blender.
  • Basic Alembic support through import and export operators.
  • Data streaming through cache constraints and modifiers.
  • Cycles Renderer
  • Rendering spherical stereo images for VR is now supported.
  • Multiscatter GGX mode for the glossy and glass BSDF nodes.
  • Experimental feature: Improved Subdivision and Displacement system.
  • Vertex color, weight and normal support for point density textures.
  • Hair rendering speed up / memory use improvements.
  • OpenCL devices now support float4 textures (e.g. HDR textures).
  • Added support for NVidia GTX 1060, 1070, 1080 GPUs.
  • User Interface:
  • Improvements to the Eyedropper and Operator Search.
  • Additional drawing mode for the Waveform Scope in the Image Editor.
  • Defining ranges and individual render frames in the Command Line.
  • Modeling:
  • New Freehand Curve drawing tool.
  • New Dissolve tool.
  • New Fill Region tool for Selection.
  • Improvements to Decimation, Bevel.
  • Edit-mode undo memory usage has been optimized.
  • Viewport & Render:
  • More supported shading nodes and options for the Cycles viewport render.
  • Additional shading features for the Blender GLSL viewport.
  • Blender Render shading can now also be computed in world space.
  • Animation:
  • Improvements to Bendy Bones for Easier and Simpler Rigging.
  • Numerous changes to streamline the process of setting up and editing drivers.
  • The type of keyframe can be chosen on insertion.
  • Support non-uniform scaled bones failing with IK solver.
  • And more!
  • Datablocks & Libraries Management:
  • A new core low-level feature for datablocks management, called 'ID remapping'.
  • Currently it allows from the Outliner:
  • In the Blender File view to Reload and Relocate libraries.
  • In All Scenes, Current Scene and similar views to Fully Delete or Remap a datablock.
  • Physics:
  • The rest shape of cloth can now be animated.
  • Cloth Simulation Speed is now adjustable.
  • Collision Groups for Particles and Soft Body.
  • Python API and Add-ons:
  • 11 new add-ons are included in this release.
  • Numerous improvements and fixes to existing add-ons.
  • Removed Import: MakeHuman (.mhx) (format not supported anymore in MakeHuman).
  • New Preferences Individual Activation.
  • Changes to the Python API functions.
  • And more!
  • Bug Fixes:
  • As for every Blender release, hundreds of bugs were fixed, thanks to the hardworking Blender developers.

New in Blender 2.78 (Sep 29, 2016)

  • HIGHLIGHTS:
  • Cycles: Cycles now supports rendering spherical stereo images for VR.
  • Grease Pencil: Reworked to be similar to other 2D drawing softwares.
  • Alembic: Initial basic support in Blender.
  • Improvements to Bendy Bones for Easier and Simpler Rigging.
  • Eleven new add-ons.
  • And: 100s of bug fixes and other improvements!
  • Grease Pencil:
  • New design and complete overhaul, including:
  • Easy layer management.
  • Ability to have multiple colors and thickness values per layer.
  • Stroke quality improvements.
  • Different color saturation in the same stroke.
  • Improved Fills - Support for Concave Shapes.
  • Parenting a layer to any object, armature or bone.
  • Alembic:
  • Initial implementation in Blender.
  • Basic Alembic support through import and export operators.
  • Data streaming through cache constraints and modifiers.
  • Cycles Renderer:
  • Rendering spherical stereo images for VR is now supported.
  • Multiscatter GGX mode for the glossy and glass BSDF nodes.
  • Experimental feature: Improved Subdivision and Displacement system.
  • Vertex color, weight and normal support for point density textures.
  • Hair rendering speed up / memory use improvements.
  • OpenCL devices now support float4 textures (e.g. HDR textures).
  • Added support for NVidia GTX 1060, 1070, 1080 GPUs.
  • User Interface:
  • Improvements to the Eyedropper and Operator Search.
  • Additional drawing mode for the Waveform Scope in the Image Editor.
  • Defining ranges and individual render frames in the Command Line.
  • Modeling:
  • New Freehand Curve drawing tool.
  • New Dissolve tool.
  • New Fill Region tool for Selection.
  • Improvements to Decimation, Bevel.
  • Edit-mode undo memory usage has been optimized.
  • Viewport & Render:
  • More supported shading nodes and options for the Cycles viewport render.
  • Additional shading features for the Blender GLSL viewport.
  • Blender Render shading can now also be computed in world space.
  • Animation:
  • Improvements to Bendy Bones for Easier and Simpler Rigging.
  • Numerous changes to streamline the process of setting up and editing drivers.
  • The type of keyframe can be chosen on insertion.
  • Support non-uniform scaled bones failing with IK solver.
  • Datablocks & Libraries Management:
  • A new core low-level feature for datablocks management, called 'ID remapping'.
  • Currently it allows from the Outliner:
  • In the Blender File view to Reload and Relocate libraries.
  • In All Scenes, Current Scene and similar views to Fully Delete or Remap a datablock.
  • Physics:
  • The rest shape of cloth can now be animated.
  • Cloth Simulation Speed is now adjustable.
  • Collision Groups for Particles and Soft Body.
  • Add-ons:
  • 11 new add-ons are included in this release.
  • Numerous improvements and fixes to existing add-ons.
  • Removed Import: MakeHuman (.mhx) (format not supported anymore in MakeHuman).
  • New Preferences Individual Activation.
  • Changes to the Python API functions.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • As for every Blender release, hundreds of bugs were fixed, thanks to the hardworking Blender developers.

New in Blender 2.77 (Mar 21, 2016)

  • User Interface:
  • Progress bars got a complete design overhaul.
  • Support for multi-line text in tooltips, render stamps, frame nodes and meta data display.
  • Better anti-aliasing for OpenGL renders.
  • And more!
  • Modeling:
  • Decimate modifier is now symmetry aware.
  • New Edit-mode boolean tool, useful to quickly perform edits.
  • Selection tools got several improvements: face stepping option, checker select, next/previous, multiple axis mirror.
  • Option to get a default UV-unwrapping of new geometry.
  • And more!
  • Sequencer - Sculpting/Painting:
  • Improvements sculpt to snake-hook (rake and pinch/inflate options).
  • Better behavior for weight paint auto-normalize option.
  • Better behavior for weight paint multi-paint option.
  • More features:
  • OpenVDB support for more efficient volumetric caching.
  • Better threading handling.
  • Cubemap world textures in the 3D view-port.
  • Rectangle and ellipse shapes for spotlights.
  • OpenSubdiv works on more systems, including AMD APUs and Intel HD 4000+.
  • Platform/System Changes:
  • Blender now uses Python 3.5.1.
  • Blender now requires OpenGL 2.1 minimum. We removed dozens of checks and workarounds for older versions of GL.
  • VBO drawing is always enabled.
  • Blender now bundles the Requests Certificate Authority certificates to enable verification of HTTPS connections in Python 9f8311ee8871b97.
  • Bug fixes:
  • As for every Blender release, hundreds of bugs were fixed, thanks to the hardworking Blender developers.

New in Blender 2.77 RC 1 (Feb 26, 2016)

  • Cycles Rendering:
  • Improved Subsurface Scattering, and faster SSS on GPUs.
  • Smoke/Fire and Point Density support on GPU.
  • Customizable motion blur position, support for rolling shutter.
  • Custom baking passes.
  • Performance optimizations for large node shaders.
  • Improved default settings.
  • User Interface:
  • Modeling:
  • Symmetry aware decimate.
  • Edit-mode booleans.
  • Select next/previous tool.
  • Optionally add UV's with primitives.
  • Sculpting/Painting:
  • Improvements sculpt to snake-hook (rake and pinch/inflate options).
  • Better behavior for weight paint auto-normalize option.
  • Better behavior for weight paint multi-paint option.
  • More Features:
  • OpenVDB support for more efficient volumetric caching.
  • Better threading handling.
  • Cubemap world textures in the 3D view-port.
  • Rectangle and ellipse shapes for spotlights.
  • Platform/System Changes:
  • Removed support for Windows XP.
  • Removed redcode library in favor of using ffmpeg which now supports redcode 9ab74826.
  • Removed the SCons build system. 5d99cde8
  • Bug Fixes:
  • As for every Blender release, hundreds of bugs were fixed, thanks to the hardworking Blender developers.

New in Blender 2.77 Test 1 (Feb 15, 2016)

  • OBJECTS / ANIMATION / GP:
  • Animation:
  • Fix T46391: Sync Length in NLA is not working on all instances of clip (rBbf969e9dde).
  • Fix T46236: NLA transition strips do not get resized when neighbouring strips change (rB0a7aaa99d8).
  • Fix T46467: Clean Keyframes removes the channels (rBaf9002dc3f).
  • Fix T46632: Graph editor frame navigation shortcuts not working (rBcd1d6d7770).
  • Fix T46687: Animating tracks properties from objects didn't use proper path (rB321a609caa).
  • Fix T46701: Sampled FCurve looks jagged when FModifiers (doing nothing) are present (rB9ac08840ae).
  • Fix T46841: Thick lines w/ graph visible (rB47dd7d7133).
  • Fix unreported: Fix: X-axis values in Graph Editor should not be displayed as timecodes in "Drivers" mode (rBa93605b95b).
  • Fix unreported: Fix: Missing update after scrubbing time in Graph Editor (rB2092056745).
  • Fix unreported: Fix: Prevent warnings from popping up when trying to edit driver expressions from buttons (rB04ff2784da).
  • Fix unreported: Fix/Request T46798: Alt+I removes keyframes from all bones, not only selected in Pose Mode (rB48f298f09d).
  • Constraints:
  • Fix T46418: Constraints - influence other than 0 or 1 - bad results with non-homogeneous scaled matrices (rB01f235e138).
  • Fix T46599: Copy Rotation behaves erratically when Use Y is disabled (rB0860fdc53c).
  • Fix T46743: Crash w/ limit rotation constraint (rB78836c0211).
  • Objects:
  • Fix T46386: Duplicate fails updating driver links (rB97b6948181).
  • Dependency Graph:
  • Fix T46587: Drivers do not work in node groups (rB97c8619b42).
  • Fix T46320: New Depsgraph: Auto-IK doesn't work (rB03e8202b7b).
  • Fix T46839: New dependency graph missed time update on motrack constraints (rB9ea4202816).
  • DATA / GEOMETRY:
  • Curve/Text Editing:
  • Fix T39935: Duplicate looses active curve spline (rB2f80d304b0).
  • Mesh Editing:
  • Fix T46220: Add torus has no 'layers' option (rBc34993160d).
  • Fix T46385: Duplicate w/ vertex parent fails (rB541d28f1a3).
  • Fix T46451: edge slide even and flipped not available in redo popup (rBee688e24a7).
  • Fix T46451: vertex/edge slide clamp not available in redo popup (rB4965c43df7).
  • Fix T46483: vertex/edge slide with correct UVs sometimes pinning UVs (rBf823b9ece8).
  • Fix T46529: Unwrap UV w/ use-subsurf fails (rB2b12cf40a1).
  • Fix T46648: Recalculate normals fails (rB92ab3ba385).
  • Fix T46651: Select linked crash w/ wire seam edges (rBdf61c50ffa).
  • Fix T46611: Vertex group locking fails (rB1fb512f4a9).
  • Fix T46738: Crash adding hook to linked mesh dupli (rB738bc300c7).
  • Fix T46694: UVLoop incorrectly copied flag (rB69674f3875).
  • Fix T46784: Connect vertices uses odd orientation (rBe38a80d5f6).
  • Fix T46784: Connect vertices (follow up) (rBa3530b35bd).
  • Fix T46804: Crash using triangulate modifier on a specific mesh (rB29d9140fce).
  • Fix T46816: Vert/Edge snap fails at edge of bounds (rBc3e7dfa82d).
  • Fix T46900: Inset Faces Thickness & Depth Do Not Use Scene Units (i.e. Imperial) (rBb29ee36f6a).
  • Fix unreported: Fix mesh validate: 'r_changed' ignored loop edits (rB68797eda1f).
  • Fix unreported: Mesh remapping: fix loop 'best matching normals' not using transform space (rBa88ae6fa70).
  • Fix unreported: Fix broken CD_NORMAL interpolation callback (would generate non-unit vectors) (rBbfdb42047a).
  • Fix unreported: Fix BMesh selection flushing w/ mixed modes (rB56bcda8bc6).
  • Fix unreported: Fix flip normals w/ multires (rB073ae9c572).
  • Fix unreported: Fix: edge/vert slide ignored multires data (rB0d0fa446b7).
  • Fix unreported: Fix BMesh memory leak w/ multires data (rB534c0af4d3).
  • Fix unreported: Fix face creation using incorrect loop-custom-data (rB3863660c37).
  • Fix unreported: Fix/enhance BKE_mesh_validate_arrays (rB41bdd3fc39).
  • Fix unreported: Fix mixup w/ wmOperator/BMOperator flag (rBeab0063481).
  • Fix unreported: Fix related to T46804 - BMesh validate code would use invalid pointers after checking them! (rB8bdb884289).
  • Fix unreported: Fix error with intersect handling split-wire edges (rB6483575b35).
  • Fix unreported: Fix auto-merge loosing edge/faces selection (rBb2e36dcd7d).
  • Fix unreported: Fix (unreported) Newly added grid's vertices not being selected (rB258564a7b4).
  • Meta Editing:
  • Fix T46508: data_transfer of normals fails in case objects are transformed (rB8172712841).
  • Fix unreported: Fix crash w/ metaball undo & track last-selected (rB5c63415afe).
  • Modifiers:
  • Fix T46085: UV project modifier artifacts with vertices behind the camera (rBd7ceca8c93).
  • Fix T46487: OpenSubdiv objects are invisible in Blender Internal "Rendered" viewport mode (rB59ba52628f).
  • Fix T46677: OpenSubdiv crashes when witching from simple and CC subdivisions (rB6063790732).
  • Fix T46672: Concurrent access to source DM in datatransfer modifier (rBe43b6e2f97).
  • Fix T46692: Triangulate creates duplicate faces (rB0f769afe07).
  • Fix T46522: DataTransfer modifier: Impossible to set multiple transfer modes by script (if they're on different properties) (rB02f3cebf6e).
  • Fix T46720: Crash applying subsurf modifier (rB3b38fd6bf9).
  • Fix T46469: Data Transfer Modifier don't work (rB1e361880a9).
  • Fix T46762: UV transfer Object transform crash (rB92819425d8).
  • Fix T46945: Mesh Deform binding to a cage object with modifiers is unreliable (rBe089b1f08b).
  • Fix unreported: OpenSubdiv: Fix wrong handling of vertex parent (rB7e7527d3ce).
  • Fix unreported: Fix related to T46567: Skin modifier: add a warning message when no valid root vertex is found (rB883a894d77).
  • Fix unreported: Fix (unreported) Ocean modifier assuming all its faces are quads (rB8d09eecc50).
  • Material / Texture:
  • Fix T46696: Voxel crash indexing over INT_MAX (rB1ffdb1b472).
  • PHYSICS / SIMULATIONS / SCULPT / PAINT:
  • Particles:
  • Fix unreported: Fix/workaround T46622: crash w/ metas & particles (rBba5d6f5b6b).
  • Fix unreported: Fix (unreported) potential crash: ParticleSystem->part shall never be NULL (rBa9df76b167).
  • Fix unreported: Fix (unreported) foreach ID looper going over some psys' IDs twice (rB256f091cbd).
  • Fix unreported: And another fix to psys ID handling - ParticleSystem->part **is** user counted! (rB9d18e46ddf).
  • Sculpting / Painting:
  • Fix T46441: texture paint soften brush at 0 strength works at full strength (rBbb580664e6).
  • Fix T46284: Texture paint, wrong shading mode (rB904db487a7).
  • Fix T46471: Sculpt strokes doesn't mark file as modified (rBfd1487977b).
  • Fix T46726: shading issues in sculpt mode (rB4d33c37c9e).
  • IMAGE / VIDEO / RENDER:
  • Image / UV Editing:
  • Fix T46450: Seams from islands, wont show 'Sharp' (rB5e75acf81d).
  • Fix T46223: multiview image sequences crashing (rB8191066c0b).
  • Fix T46569: Crash w/ mask & locked-track enabled (rB9a6a3f5346).
  • Fix T46537: UV Image Editor. UV Sculpt toggle button doesn't show hotkey label when active (rB5b3af3dd46).
  • Fix T46763: OpenGL render doesn't show 'Slots' (rB4848d7329e).
  • Fix T38245: render slot getting lost when switching slots while compositing (rB5b90a6e188).
  • Fix unreported: Fix related to T46223: memory leak when loading multilayer multiview images (rB12c705ec86).
  • Fix unreported: Fix for error w/ RenderView in ImageView list (rB48f4e1a63f).
  • Fix unreported: Fix related to T46538: do not popup choice menu of mark/clear seam UV editor op invoke when prop is already set! (rBc4e1837e6a).
  • Nodes / Compositor:
  • Fix T46408: Transform (bicubic) ID channel fails (rB8918e089a5).
  • Fix T46446: texture nodes image node not working with image sequences (rB758febba45).
  • Fix T46605: Compositing causes access violation when rendering from command line (rB242246e9fc).
  • Fix T46617: File Output Node seems to save only black images into OpenEXR image data (rB20a94e956a).
  • Fix T46641: Bicubic transform on ID channel is not bicubic (rB63f2f82f92).
  • Fix unreported: Fix error cutting node links (rB46f452e96b).
  • Render:
  • Fix T46496: GL Render fails w/ Anti-Aliasing (rBaf23b09e72).
  • Fix T46507: Cycles baking re-orders face (rBa3c9374440).
  • Fix T46729: Render result different between animated and still renders (rB8ef68bf989).
  • Fix unreported: Fix potential memory leak baking (rBe5117108aa).
  • Render: Cycles:
  • Fix T45058: Cycles hair shader reflects incorrectly for meshes (rB3f4c0612fe).
  • Fix T46493: Wrong camera zoom blur with non-unit pixel aspect (rB2746bbe30e).
  • Fix T46671: Cycles assert with CMJ sample function (rB537bd0eb51).
  • Fix T46818: crash with Glossy node on Windows (rBeeed28fefc).
  • Fix T46842: Removing World is missing AO update in viewport render (rBf021d97e8f).
  • Fix T46782: Updating Shaders very slow with complex nodegraph (rB8294452b14).
  • Fix T46646: Point Cloud Density crashes on real time rendering (rB415b5a4369).
  • Fix T46760: Branched Path Tracing converges to different result than plain Path Tracing (rBc8a041f489).
  • Fix T46799: Blender crashes when enumerating POCL devices (rBbfaebeaee6).
  • Fix T46906: Cycles syntax error while compiling OpenCL kernels (rB8512e284a0).
  • Fix unreported: Cycles: Fix intersection issues caused by degenerate instance matrix (rB8fa4fccec4).
  • Fix unreported: Cycles: Fix issues with quick inverse of degenerate matrix (rB4974ed93ef).
  • Fix unreported: Cycles: Fix wrong intersection with motion blur and degenerate object transform (rB29247a7a05).
  • Fix unreported: Cycles: Fix for watertight intersection (rBf84cbae43e).
  • Fix unreported: Cycles: Watertight fix for SSS intersection (rB47b1279762).
  • Fix unreported: Cycles: Fix typo in split kernel (rB537f41250f).
  • Fix unreported: Cycles: Fixes for few typos in OpenCL kernel (rBcb1cb63d40).
  • Fix unreported: Cycles: Add Blackman-Harris filter, fix Gaussian filter (rB8dea06565f).
  • Fix unreported: Cycles: Fix wrong volume stack update with SSS object intersecting the volume (rBde35827612).
  • Fix unreported: Cycles: Fix missing indirect subsurface initialization in the bake code (rB299fae1838).
  • Fix unreported: Cycles: Set of fixes for delayed SSS ray tracing (rB1e43f0d742).
  • Fix unreported: Cycles: Fix wrong original ray used for SSS baking (rBf5d1551b6e).
  • Fix unreported: Cycles: Fix SSS object not properly reflected in glossy object with indirect clamping (rBd0a9ec5efc).
  • Render: Freestyle:
  • Fix T44048: freestyle lines in Cycles are in the wrong color space (rBfc7c856da2).
  • Fix T45152: multiview/stereo render not working with Freestyle + Cycles (rBdf1a3b0fda).
  • Fix T46604: Crash in ChainPredicateIterator instantiated without predicates (rB52d074ba39).
  • Fix T44231: Freestyle causes crash on render (rBefd774ce5a).
  • Fix T46712: Crash while rendering Freestyle scene (rB15a1faefe9).
  • Fix unreported: Freestyle: Fix for 'Distance from Object' modifiers without a target object (rB734af18651).
  • Sequencer:
  • Fix T46155: Sequencer Text Effect: wrong vertical 'TOP' alignment (rB6e19aa42bf).
  • Fix T46189: draw style for waveforms occludes sequence strip text (rB6562e4ebe9).
  • Fix T46510: VSE View-all crops out image (rBa1b34c0d28).
  • Fix T46429: Movie clip is deformed by resolution multiplier when offset is added in sequence editor (rB0a2b48e3c6).
  • Fix T46678: Extending left handle of a VSE multicam effect strip with snap creates frame stills (rB307f1e7d23).
  • Fix T46628: Strips overlapping in VSE (rBecbbb02c88).
  • Fix T46909: Text strip not themeable (rB5cbf58ce8b).
  • UI / SPACES / TRANSFORM:
  • 3D View:
  • Fix T46260: Shadeless option ignores Object-Color (rB02b7896423).
  • Fix T46494: Can't de-select a face w/ mixed modes (rBf53a21747c).
  • Fix T46590: Strange camera behavior (partial revert of fbca69c6) (rB3bc5399f72).
  • Follow up to prevFix T46284: ious commit, proper incorrect Texture shading in Texture paint mode and cycles (rBfd8c3fe070).
  • Fix T46711: view3d UI limits not scaled w/ scene (rB0024306362).
  • Fix T46749: Texture paint & shadeless mode fails (rB930771d0cf).
  • Fix unreported: Fix (coverity-reported) broken 'transform helpers' drawing (rB52f74923e6).
  • Fix unreported: Fix error w/ printing knife header angle-snapping (rBdf1e9fac06).
  • Outliner:
  • Fix T46561: Crash in outliner delete hierarchy (rBe7cd64dc97).
  • Fix T46896: Outliner group 'hide' doesn't update viewport render (rBf448659a56).
  • Text Editor:
  • Fix T46293: Text Editor: Convert to spaces/to tabs was totally broken with non-ASCII strings (rBfc97204742).
  • Fix T46340: Auto scrolling in text editor with upward selection not work (rB066df84f73).
  • Fix unreported: Fix minor order of init error w/ text draw (rBe751ee5526).
  • Transform:
  • Fix T46379: Bad behavior of bUnit_ToUnitAltName() with default units (rB86aeb7df96).
  • Fix T46434: Shear w/ local-center & editmode fails (rBc2ce38b102).
  • Fix T46503: Snap scale fails using corner pivot (rB2f35217849).
  • Fix T46606: Trackball Rotate jumps releasing shift (rB19137e86bb).
  • Fix T46741: Transform ignores constraint space (rB137ca0b241).
  • User Interface:
  • Fix T46180: Theme > UV Image editor > Scope Background does not have any effect (rBcbeb76da95).
  • Fix T46268: All Hotkey "C" are unexpectedly translated in menus (rB14bac995f3).
  • Fix T46306: Cursor sometimes jumps with num-slider buttons & Continuous Grab (rB491b1899de).
  • Fix T46346: Hide/Mask menu, Hotkey for lasso mask in sculpt mode unchangeable (rBe49b934955).
  • Fix T46345: Registrable props could be modified (rB867c49b962).
  • Fix T46402: UILists fail to scroll using click+drag (rB7a06613b82).
  • Fix T46426: 2D-version of zoom border operator is available in 3DView context (rBdb3dfb76a8).
  • Fix T46538: Mark and Clear Seam in UV Editor, assigning Hotkeys (rBa6c9a09061).
  • Fix T46660: No need to set explicitely UI range of auto smooth angle anymore (rB8e7eb0b733).
  • Fix T46691: Graph Editor, Channel, Toggle Channel Editability. Cannot reassign hotkey after removing it (rBcb39a4171b).
  • Fix T46764: Crash toggling region + fullscreen (rB98931d9e39).
  • Fix T46855: Limit Location Max value limited to 1000 units (rBfe3aaac118).
  • Fix T46905: UV/Image Editor - Can't add shortcut to Mirror / X Axis menu item (rB227fb30a18).
  • Fix T46958: NLA Editor's 'Add Modifier' button is the wrong size on Retina Display (rBc1cfdc59a3).
  • Fix unreported: Fix report banner text width (rBe51272f663).
  • Fix unreported: Fix popup menu glitch, scrolling at high dpi (rB34e749beef).
  • Fix unreported: Fix error in bone UI (rB11c00caddc).
  • Fix unreported: Fix broken comment about our WM progress report for python (its not a progress bar at all) (rB3751eb18c3).
  • Fix unreported: Fix: Open tmp windows with size multiplied by virtual pixelsize (rB505a31bd22).
  • Fix unreported: Fix crash changing screen + region overlap fade (rB2ced9326bb).
  • Fix unreported: Fix broken windows 'MessageBox' calls (UI messages) (rB0b422900c8).
  • Fix unreported: Fix FileBrowser 'context-editing' properties shortcuts not being displayed in tooltip (rB80fa528529).
  • Game Engine:
  • Fix T41536: 2.71 getActionFrame no longer returns frames accurately (rB0d36233dd8).
  • Fix T41943: BGE Zeroing out angular velocity not possible (rB46ad220305).
  • Fix T46458: BGE Crash on load (rBe32430df34).
  • Fix T46381: BGE: last action frame not updated (rB728d1ec504).
  • Fix T46556: BGE: check on null sound datablock pointer (rB586ec50022).
  • Fix T30179: BGE: action actuator not stoped when state changed (rB0d638172ec).
  • Fix T31357: BGE: wrong zoom when sets camera (rB13a4bcd148).
  • Fix T43218: BGE: Text of framerate and profile glitch in Multitexture shading (rBb2f57190d9).
  • Fix T44448: BGE: LOD will display wrong LOD level object if zoomed out then in (rB9eb7eb5379).
  • Fix T46557: BGE: Empty collision bounds option with character physics (rB40b2e75b20).
  • Fix T45945: BGE: Action bouncing (rBf10db730bc).
  • Fix T35188: BGE: Duplicate an instance of group (rBa15a3952f4).
  • Fix T46338: BGE: replace mesh from an other scene (rB8d3d931f6a).
  • Fix T38986: BGE: Start object position not initialized in IPO (rB286f5ffa59).
  • Fix T46870: bge globalDict kept between sessions (rB88556d801f).
  • Fix unreported: BGE: Fix animations update when scene is suspended (rB75e4e4b67f).
  • Fix unreported: BGE: Fix physics meshes conversion with modifiers (rB729e9651ac).
  • Fix unreported: BGE: Fix issues with async libload (rB06d2ad0185).
  • Fix unreported: BGE: Fix SetMass function affecting own object gravity (rBd2af140151).
  • Fix unreported: BGE: Fix ray cast with unfound property (rBb3808a4e06).
  • Fix unreported: Fix a regression introduced by https://developer.blender.org/D1396 on video playing (rB34f51cd498).
  • SYSTEM / MISC:
  • Audio:
  • Fix T46683: High pitch sound artifact on import of 48k audio (rB8c25c1c484).
  • Fix T46815: Changing playback setting makes blender crash (rB3cd36f85b0).
  • Fix unreported: Fix leak creating 'empty' looptri bvh tree (rBe9b9b883fb).
  • Collada:
  • Fix T46868: added workaround for a collada issue with UTF8 filenames (rB85362dfe80).
  • File I/O:
  • Fix T46444: Crash importing DAE w/ empty armature (rB1b8a4fd9bd).
  • Fix T46453: JPEG quality not stored in file (rB51fc7aee34).
  • Fix T45900: Allow again white spaces in file names (rB767d3f23b7).
  • Fix T46502: Linked dupli-group lost on reload (rBb5a4a00998).
  • Fix T46524: Use Alpha (Straight/Premultiply) option missing in 2.76 for DDS files (rB94791bd5da).
  • Fix T46531: Cannot use % in filenames (rBa25892543a).
  • Fix T46534: Crash loading corrupt HDR's (rB43c0f60523).
  • Fix T46524: Use Alpha (Straight/Premultiply) option missing in 2.76, part II (rBc272017868).
  • Fix T46565: Movie render crash w/o permissions (rBc6d98fa841).
  • Fix T46655: crash reading unknown ID types (rB99df433ea7).
  • Fix T46748: OpenEXR output different when frame saved with F3 vs. in an animation (rB19cdceaee4).
  • Fix T46826: EXR Compression method set in UI does not always get passed correctly to the actual OpenEXR writing code (rB9a2290a30b).
  • Fix unreported: Fix for error reporting w/ a new-file (rB70f0499139).
  • Fix unreported: Fix crash loading modifiers with missing IDs (rBfd2bdc07ca).
  • Fix unreported: Fix crash pressing +/- in file-selector (rB2f0db80155).
  • Fix unreported: Fix ffmpeg saving long paths (rB050980e635).
  • Fix unreported: Fix ffmpeg memory leaks (rBe435593fc0).
  • Other:
  • Fix T34446: Make Local on linked mesh object: object gets removed if redo function is used (rB07332dd2bb).
  • Fix T46465: Lag scrubbing w/ PlayAnim (rB0be6ca0b83).
  • Fix T46544: Can't unpack generated image (rBe96411aaad).
  • Fix T46626: Crash generating previews (rB7b7aba31f2).
  • Fix T46699: copy_prev_settings() gives misleading error message when previous version's config dir doesn't exist (rB06ef778e08).
  • Fix T46827: Appending Specific Groups Doesn't Work on Windows (rBda6578e647).
  • Fix T46918: - Cleanup - FileBrowser - get rid of useless operators and update a bit keymap (rBa7dbc0704f).
  • Fix T46929: error exporting Key configuration (rBe1698860ad).
  • Fix unreported: BLI_Buffer: fix BLI_buffer_resize w/ calloc flag (rB38f4aeb2d3).
  • Fix unreported: Fix memory leaks in PlayAnim (rBa595cda2cd).
  • Fix unreported: Fix crash w/ PlayAnim & long filenames (rBcebaedd709).
  • Fix unreported: Fix for missing id_lib_extern, assigning ID's (rB7dc80097a4).
  • Fix unreported: Fix curve mapping linear preset not setting handle type correctly (rB4f6b01ce1f).
  • Fix unreported: Fix broken groupobject usercount handling (rB18ecc8a78f).
  • Fix unreported: Fix for factory settings loading without UI (rB2d96666a71).
  • Fix unreported: Fix assert navigating into dir w/ `.blend` suffix (rBe060c90ebc).
  • Fix unreported: Fix (unreported) libquery's IDLooper for constraints not handling correctly referenced ID pointers (rBb061b5ae7a).
  • Fix unreported: Libquery: fix double-handling of object pointer in scene's basact base (rBf798c791cd).
  • Fix unreported: Fix isect_point_tri_v3 w/ degenerate faces (rBa4e151704f).
  • Fix unreported: Fix (unreported) bad LI_ID usercount when linking a new lib (rB24be453938).
  • Python:
  • Fix T46263: bpy api - assigning to object.matrix_basis with AXIS_ANGLE rotation mode does not work correctly (rB7967da2515).
  • Fix T46437: Make progress report py helper resitent to 'zero steps' passed value (rBfd506623d8).
  • Fix T46002: mathutils.geometry.intersect_line_line_2d doesn't operate on lines, but on line segments (rBe1b67c9bc0).
  • Fix T46520: mathutils.bvhtree crashes with distance input (rB5551948b31).
  • Fix T46521: Python: bvh.ray_cast doesn't find a plane facing in the other direction under certain circumstances (rB0d54aa9c02).
  • Fix T46807: image/clip/sound load has one user (rB24a387d6ff).
  • Fix T48806: mesh.materials.clear() does not decrement users counts (rBc8bf45c323).
  • Fix T46805: Scale along axis fails w/ Python (rB6ba9d1094a).
  • Fix T46891: Error removing PropertyGroup (rBa149a6784b).
  • Fix unreported: Fix invalid exceptions w/ preview API (rB25c00ae460).
  • Fix unreported: PyAPI: Change ray_cast to fix & improve behavior (rB08fb55eea2).
  • System:
  • Fix T46431: Init glew before glx-context crashes (rB9cea429f78).
  • Fix unreported: WM: Fix crash when a new window can't be created (rB8471362987).
  • Fix unreported: BLI_task: fix bad freeing of current task_thread in case POSIX thread creation fails (rBf56392f224).
  • Fix unreported: BLI_task: Fix/enhance logic of exiting worker threads (rB952afbf916).
  • Fix unreported: Filebrowser: fix preview handling to make correct use of task scheduler (rB15fb2bd477).
  • Fix unreported: Fix (unreported) broken background mode of Blender (due to OSD cleanup called also in background mode) (rB7bb16a5ccf).
  • Fix unreported: Fix (unreported) broken BLI_join_dirfile() in some cases on Windows (rBbab8deef17).

New in Blender 2.76 (Oct 12, 2015)

  • Cycles Rendering:
  • New Point Density texture.
  • Improvements for AMD GPUs (stability on Windows / Linux and compatibility with OSX El Capitan).
  • Camera zoom motion blur support.
  • Support for extended and clipped image texture extension.
  • User Interface:
  • View-port: The ongoing view-port project brought a big performance boost.
  • Node Editor: Auto-offset existing nodes when adding a new one.
  • File Browser
  • Arrow-key navigation and selection.
  • Huge rework of internal code, now quicker & lighter.
  • It's now possible to display the correct (user edited) shortcuts of modal operations in the UI.
  • Modeling:
  • Two new tools: Flatten Faces and Edge Offset.
  • Data Transfer supports transferring data between equal meshes better.
  • Absolute grid snapping for the 3D view was added.
  • Support custom normals for the Displace Modifier.
  • OpenSubdiv:
  • Initial integration of the Pixar OpenSubdiv library.
  • Greatly improves view-port playback performance.
  • GPU tessellation support.
  • Improves edge sharpness.
  • Sequencer:
  • New Text Effect for rendering text into sequencer output.
  • Exporting of text as subtitles.
  • Speed Effect can re-time scenes with subframe rendering.
  • Improved AltRMB Template-RMB.png selection behavior.
  • Freestyle NPR Rendering:
  • Freestyle memory consumption was reduced.
  • New stroke modifiers were implemented.
  • Animation:
  • Clean Channels tool was introduced that helps organizing channels.
  • A new add-on to create bone selection sets is bundled.
  • Game Engine:
  • Possibility of changing camera Lens Shift during game
  • Python API improvements.
  • Alpha Anti-Aliasing.
  • Improved Game Publishing Add-on.
  • Add-ons:
  • FBX Importer/Exporter got a number of new options.
  • OBJ Importer/Exporter now fully supports MTL emission of materials.
  • New version of the UV Add-on with new features.
  • More Features:
  • Tilled sculpt strokes.
  • Animation Player
  • Sound support!
  • Pause and start playing using Space.
  • A time indicator was added.
  • More datablock previews.
  • Blender Internal Particle Info Node.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • As for every Blender release, hundreds of bugs were fixed, thanks to the hardworking Blender developers.

New in Blender 2.76 RC 1 (Sep 18, 2015)

  • Initial support for Pixar's OpenSubdiv geometry subdivision technology.
  • A huge view-port performance boost.
  • Big file browser performance boost and arrow keys navigation support.
  • Node auto-offset feature that helps organizing node layouts.
  • Absolute grid snapping in the 3D view.
  • Sculpting with tiled strokes.
  • Text effect strips for the sequencer, supporting subtitle export
  • And: 100s of bug fixes and other improvements!

New in Blender 2.75 (Jul 2, 2015)

  • Blender now supports a fully integrated Multi-View and Stereo 3D pipeline
  • Cycles has much awaited initial support for AMD GPUs, and a new Light Portals feature.
  • UI now allows font previews in the file browser.
  • High quality options for viewport depth of field were added
  • Modeling has a new Corrective Smooth modifier.
  • The Decimate modifier was improved significantly.
  • 3D viewport painting now supports symmetry and the distribution of Dynamic Topology was improved
  • Video Sequence Editor: Placeholders can now replace missing frames of image sequences
  • Game Engine now allows smoother LOD transitions, and supports mist attributes animation
  • And: 100s of bug fixes and smaller feature improvements.
  • Multi-View and Stereo 3D:
  • Multi-View Render:
  • For this 5-minute guide we will take an existent .blend file that was made for monoscopic rendering and transform it in stereo-3d ready.
  • Introduction:
  • Start opening up your project file, in this case turntable.blend from the Creature Factory 2 Open Movie Workshop series from the Blender Institute by Andy Goralczyk.
  • Views Setup:
  • Go to the Render Layers panel and enable Views for this scene.
  • Camera:
  • To tweak the stereo 3d parameters select the camera in the Outliner. In the Camera panel go to the Stereoscopy tab and change the Convergence Distance.
  • The viewport will respond in real-time to those changes allowing you to preview the current depth value of the scene.
  • Viewport:
  • Before fine-tuning the camera parameters you can set the convergence plane in the viewport based in your scene depth layout. Go outside the camera view and you will instantly see the convergence plane in front of the camera.
  • You can toggle this and other display settings in the Stereoscopy tab of the viewport properties panel. In the following image the cameras frustum volumes are also visible.
  • Stereo 3D Display:
  • If you have a real 3d display at some point you can change the 3D display mode in the Window menu, by calling the Stereo 3D operator. Be aware that some modes require a fullscreen editor to work.
  • OpenGL Preview:
  • Before rendering your scene you can save an OpenGL preview of the animation for testing in the final display. In the Render Output panel you can chose the output Views Format.
  • The options include individual files per view, top-bottom, anaglyph among others. Pick the one that fits your display requirements.
  • Rendering and Image Editor:
  • Once you are happy with the results you can render out the final animation. In the Image Editor you can inspect the individual views and the stereo result.
  • Image Formats:
  • Your final animation can be saved in more robust formats than the ones used by the OpenGL render preview. In this example we saved as cross-eyed side-by-side stereo 3d.
  • Final Considerations:
  • As this guide showed, there is more to stereo 3d rendering than just generate two images. The earlier the stereo pipeline is considered the smoother it will get. The following sections are a more in-depth view of the individual components we visited in the workflow.
  • Window Stereo 3D Display:
  • An essential component of the Stereoscopy pipeline is the ability to display the stereo image in a proper display. Blender supports from high-end 3D displays to simple red-cyan glasses. On top of that you can set a different display mode for each window.
  • The display mode can be changed via the Window menu or if you create your own shortcuts for the wm.stereo_3d operator.
  • Display Mode:
  • Anaglyph:
  • Render two differently filtered colored images for each eye. Anaglyph glasses are required. We support Red-Cyan, Green-Magenta and Yellow-Blue glasses.
  • Interlace:
  • Render two images for each eye into one interlaced image. A 3D-ready monitor is required. We support Row, Column and Checkerboard Interleaved. An option to Swap Left/Right helps to adjust the image for the screen. This method works better in fullscreen.
  • Time Sequential:
  • Renders alternate eyes. This method is also known as Page Flip. This requires the graphic card to support Quad Buffer and it only works in fullscreen.
  • Side-by-Side:
  • Render images for left and right eye side-by-side. There is an option to support Cross-Eye glasses. It works only in fullscreen, and it should be used with the Full Editor operator.
  • Top-Bottom:
  • Render images for left and right eye one above another. It works only in fullscreen, and it should be used with the Full Editor operator.
  • Stereo 3D Camera:
  • When using the Stereo 3D scene view setup a stereo pair is created on-the-fly and used for rendering and previsualization. For all the purposes this works as two cameras that share most parameters (focal length, clipping, ...). The stereo pair, however, is offsetted, and can have unique rotation and shift between itself.
  • Interocular Distance:
  • Set the distance between the camera pair. Although the convergence of a stereo pair can be changed in post-production, different interocular distances will produce different results due to the parts of the scene being occluded from each point of view.
  • Convergence Plane Distance:
  • The converge point for the stereo cameras. This is often the distance between a projector and the projection screen. You can visualize this in the 3D Viewport.
  • Convergence Mode:
  • Off-Axis:
  • The stereo camera pair is separated by the interocular distance, and shifted inwards so it converges in the convergence plane. This is the ideal format since it is the one closest to how the human vision works.
  • Parallel:
  • This method produces two parallel cameras that do not converge. Since this method needs to be manually converged it can’t be used for viewing. This method is common when combining real footage with rendered elements.
  • Toe-in:
  • A less common approach is to rotate the cameras instead of shifting their frustum. The Toe-in method is rarely used in modern 3D productions.
  • Pivot:
  • The stereo pair can be constructed around the active camera with a new camera built for each eye (Center Pivot) or using the existing camera and creating (Left or Right). The latter is what is used when only one eye needs to be rendered for an existing mono 2D project.
  • Viewport Stereo 3D:
  • When you enable ‘Views’ in the Render Layer panel a new are is available in the 3D Viewport properties panel. In this panel you can pick whether to see the stereo 3d in the viewport, or which camera to see. It also allow you to see the Cameras, the Plane and the Volume of the stereo cameras.
  • Cameras:
  • When working with the Stereo 3D views setup you can inspect what each individual generated camera is looking or the combined result of them. In the Multi-View mode you can see the combined result of the left and right cameras (when available) or the current selected camera.
  • Plane:
  • The convergence plane represents the screen as it is perceived by the audience. Visualizing it in the 3D Viewport allows you to layout your scene based on your depth script outside the camera view.
  • Volume:
  • The intersection of the stereo cameras frustums helps planning the show by avoiding elements being visible by only one camera. The volume is defined by the cameras start and end clipping distances. The areas that are in the frustum of one camera only are known as retinal rivalry areas. They are tolerated in the negative space (the region from the convergence plane into the image) but are to be avoided at all costs in the positive space (the area from the convergence plane to the camera).
  • Multi-View and Stereo 3D Image I/O:
  • Multi-View and Stereo 3D:
  • Multi-View images can be saved in special formats according to the production requirements. By default the system saves each view as an individual file, thus generating as many files as views to be rendered. In stereo 3d productions, for the final deployment or even intermediary previews it’s convenient to save stereo 3d images, that are ready to use with 3D displays or simple anaglyph glasses. The formats supported match the display modes available for the window.
  • Lossy-Formats:
  • Some stereo 3D formats represent a considerable loss of data. For example, the Anaglyph format will cap out entire color channels from the original image. The Top-Bottom compressed will discard half of your vertical resolution data. The Interlace will mash your data considerably. Once you export in those formats, you can still import the image back in Blender, for it to be treated as Stereo 3D. You will need to match the window stereo 3d display mode to the image stereo 3d format though.
  • Lossless Formats:
  • Some formats will preserve the original data, leading to no problems on exporting and importing the files back in Blender. The Individual option will produce separate images that (if saved in a lossless encoding such as PNG or OpenEXR) can be loaded back in production with no loss of data. For the Stereo 3D formats the only lossless options are Top-Bottom and Side-by-Side without the Squeezed Frame option.
  • Multi-View Openexr:
  • Another option is to use Multi-View OpenEXR files. This format can save multiple views in a single file and is backward compatible with old OpenEXR viewers (you see only one view though). Multi-View native support is only available to OpenEXR.
  • Image Editor:
  • View Menu:
  • After you render your scene with Stereo 3D you will be able to see the rendered result in the combined stereo 3d or to inspect the individual views. This works for Viewer nodes, render results or opened images.
  • Views Format:
  • When you drag and drop an image into the Image Editor, Blender will open it as a individual images at first. If your image was saved with one of the Stereo 3D formats you can change how Blender should interpret the image by switching the mode to Stereo 3D, turning on Use Multi-View and picking the corresponding stereo method.
  • Compositor:
  • The compositor works smoothly with Multi-View. The compositing of a view is completed before the remaining views start to be composited. The pipeline is the same as the single-view workflow, with the difference that you can use Image, Movies or Image Sequences in any of the supported Multi-View formats.
  • The views to render are defined in the current scene views, in a similar way as you define the composite output resolution in the current scene render panel, regardless of the Image nodes resolutions or RenderLayers from different scenes.
  • Switch View Node:
  • If you need to treat the views separately you can use the Switch View node to combine the views before an output node.
  • Performance:
  • By default when compositing and rendering from the user interface all views are rendered and then composited. During test iterations you can disable all but one view from the Scene Views panel, and re-enable it after you get the final look.
  • Cycles Rendering:
  • Cycles:
  • Cycles improvements include: Long awaited (initial) support for rendering with AMD GPUs, a new Light Portals feature, a new built-in way for animated Seed, lot's of performance and memory optimizations.
  • Support for AMD GPUs:
  • The OpenCL Cycles kernel has been split into smaller parts, improving performance and stability.
  • Therefore, AMD GPUs can now be used to render with Cycles. Please check the GPU Rendering docs for more information about required hardware and supported features.
  • Currently only Windows and Linux are officially supported. On OSX there are still issues, which appear from the OpenCL compiler side and we can not work around yet from Blender.
  • For hardware which is not officially supported, it's possible to test split kernel work by setting the `CYCLES_OPENCL_SPLIT_KERNEL_TEST` environment variable to 1. It'll make all the OpenCL devices appear in User Preferences and will make sure split kernel is used on them.
  • Portals:
  • Area lamps can function as light portals now and help to sample the environment light, therefore improving convergence. Light portals help guide rays towards the environment light sources in interior scenes. It's like guiding rays towards openings in the scene, like for example windows. You can enable the Portal option in the lamp settings. Note: Rendering with Portals is usually slower, but as it converges more quickly, less samples are required. Every portal adds a render time penalty so use as few as possible.
  • Memory Optimizations:
  • Scene preparation / Rendering:
  • Free caches used by the synchronized objects
  • Free polygons after tessellation in order to reduce peak memory usage
  • Free unused images when rendering with locked interface
  • Reduce peak memory usage of scene synchronization by passing data ownership when converting derived mesh to mesh
  • Synchronize images after building BVH, reducing peak memory usage in production files
  • Avoid sloppy memory usage by BVH leaf nodes by splitting BVH nodes storage into inner and leaf nodes
  • Baking:
  • The memory footprint was considerably reduced when baking more than one object. The Baking-API changed to accommodate that
  • Performance Optimizations:
  • Generic:
  • World MIS table building is now multi threaded, reducing scene startup/update time.
  • Skip consecutive empty steps in Volume Decoupled Ray Marching code.
  • Make material preview rendering more responsive for complex shaders
  • Remove Emission shaders from the graph if color or strength is 0.
  • Use curve approximation for blackbody instead of lookup table
  • CPU:
  • Record all possible volume intersections for SSS and camera checks
  • Use native float->half conversion instructions for Haswell CPUs
  • GPU:
  • Speedup CMJ on GPU, makes it almost same speed as Sobol pattern
  • Optimize Beckmann slope sampling on GPU
  • Optimize clamp(x, 0, 1) into a single instruction
  • Various:
  • Panorama camera: Mirror ball is now available as projection.
  • Make animated seed a built-in feature.
  • User Interface:
  • User interface improvements include: File Browser font preview support, a new high quality option for viewport depth of field, initial support for editing values of multiple objects/bones/sequencer-strips, ability to reorder material slots, search buttons now contain an eyedropper button for accessing the eyedropper, a new way to open/close multiple panels was added.
  • Viewport:
  • Depth of Field:
  • Better quality depth of field effect with proper blur radius calculation. It can be enabled in the camera DoF settings when DoF is enabled in the viewport
  • High Quality:
  • Uses a more accurate representation of the DoF effect. Slower. Greyed out if not supported by the GPU.
  • Viewport Camera Blades:
  • Number of blades in aperture for polygonal bokeh in the viewport
  • FileBrowser:
  • Font Preview:
  • You can now preview font files in filebrowser by enabling the thumbnail view.
  • This works in much the same way as previewing images and movies. The previewed string is translatable and you're able to colorize it by setting the appropriate theme color available under "File Browser -> Theme Space Settings -> Text".
  • Custom Size for Previews:
  • In preview display mode, thumbnails now can be resized to be "Tiny", "Small", "Normal", and "Large". This is done using a "Tumbnails Size" menu in the File Browser header.
  • Multi-Selection Buttons:
  • Initial support for editing all selected items: Holding Alt, all selected objects/bones/sequencer-strips are affected when tweaking a property from the GUI.
  • Material assignment:
  • Material slots can now be reordered in the UI
  • This affects polygons' material indices (since polygons reference their assigned material by its material slot index).
  • Panel Drag-Collapse:
  • "Panel Drag-Collapse" allows to click and drag over multiple panels to quickly open/close them all. If the first panel was closed before clicking and dragging, all affected panels including the first one are opened, if the first one was open, all panels are closed.
  • Small Improvements:
  • Numpad-9 now switches to the opposite side of the view
  • Search buttons for choosing an object now contain an eyedropper icon as long as no object is set, that can be clicked to activate the eyedropper
  • The online manual of a button can now be accessed by mouse hovering it and pressing AltF1
  • Shift⇆ Tab to enable snapping and Ctrl⇧ Shift⇆ Tab to open the Snap Node Element menu now also work in the Node Editor (Exit Group now uses Ctrl⇆ Tab)
  • Other Changes:
  • Cycling button values (numbers, dropdowns) now uses CtrlWheel Template-MW.png, was AltWheel
  • Modelling:
  • Modelling improvements include: A new Corrective Smooth modifier for smoothing deformed areas was added, the Decimate modifier was improved, Metaballs got a great performance boost, the Rip Tool has new split off options, Edge Slide sliding can now be done un-clamped, Subdivde Smooth output was improved to be more even, more options for selection.
  • Modifiers:
  • Corrective Smooth Modifier:
  • New corrective smooth modifier to smooth over ugly deformation areas.
  • Decimate Modifier:
  • Flat surfaces would give poor topology.
  • Improved geometry distribution for flat surfaces
  • Improved quality of weighted decimate with support for scaling the weight influence
  • Tools:
  • Subdivide smooth now gives more even output
  • Rip Tool: Improved support for detaching different kinds of connected regions
  • Can now split off isolated faces-fans
  • Can now split off non-manifold vertices
  • Edge Slide: support for un-clamped sliding (Holding Alt allows to slide past bounds)
  • Selection:
  • Select linked, showing wire edges, delimiting by material. (not possible previously)
  • Checker de-select now has the option to skip steps to give more control
  • Select linked: Improved delimiter options and support for vertex and edge modes
  • Support for different kinds of delimiters (UV, Sharp Edges, Materials)
  • Select linked (LKey to pick whats under the mouse cursor) now supports redo
  • Metaballs:
  • Significant speedup calculating geometry (replace Octree with BVH)
  • Material assignment:
  • Material slots can now be reordered in the UI.
  • Sculpting/Painting :
  • Painting/Sculpting improvements include: Painting with symmetry is now possible, some great improvements were made for Dynamic Topology distribution, a new Dynamic Topology detail mode was added, the crease brush was improved.
  • Project Paint:
  • Symmetry Texture Painting in 3D:
  • Projection Paint now has Symmetry support.
  • Access from symmetry panel (as with sculpt)
  • Supports multiple axis at once
  • Supports all brush types including clone
  • Sculpt:
  • Improved dynamic topology distribution
  • Crease brush now creates a more curved profile, to sculpt tighter grooves
  • New dyntopo detail mode, "Brush", uses edge detail size as a percentage of the brush radius.
  • Other features:
  • Constraining a line stroke to 45 degree increments is now done using the Alt key. Ctrl key is back to being used for negative strokes.
  • Vertex Paint colors no longer influence the viewport color when painting in texture painting (except when used in the material and user toggles material shading mode)
  • Animation:
  • Animation improvements include: The new dependency graph which is the base needed for developing loads of neat features in the future (disabled by default), new features and updates aiming towards the planned workflow enhancements were made, the Action Editor got new features for unlinking Actions and to prevent unwanted/unintentional loss of data, strips in the NLA Editor now update their influence and time curves properly, new rigging tools, a bunch of Grease Pencil improvements.
  • Action Management:
  • Following on from the initial stopgap measures introduced in 2.74, this release introduces some additional features and polish to flesh out the planned workflow enhancements (see the planning docs for more details about the plans).
  • Switch to Next/Previous Action Layer:
  • With this feature (bcf1abb), it is now possible to quickly switch between different actions stacked/stashed on top of each other in the NLA Stack without having to go to the NLA Editor and doing a tab-select-tab dance, thus saving quite a few clicks. It was specifically designed with Game Animation / Action Library workflows in mind, but also helps layered animation workflows.
  • Usage:
  • Simply click on the up/down arrow buttons (between the mode selector and datablock selector) to go to the action in the NLA Track above/below the NLA Strip being whose action is being tweaked in the Action Editor.
  • Notes:
  • These still work when you're not editing the action used by a NLA Strip. If you're just animating a new action normally, it is possible to use the "down arrow" to temporarily jump down to the previous action without losing the new action you're working on, and then use the "up arrow" to get back to it once you're done checking the other action(s).
  • If there are multiple actions/strips on the same layer/track, then only the one closest to the current frame will be used.
  • The Next Layer/Previous Layer operators will take into account the settings to view/edit the action in isolation (i.e. Solo and NLA Muting). This was done to make it easier to preview different stashed actions.
  • If moving from a solo'd NLA Track to the active action, the NLA stack will be muted so that the action can be edited in isolation.
  • Likewise, if the NLA stack is muted when editing the action action, the NLA Track below it will be edited with solo enabled.
  • If switching between NLA Tracks, the solo status for the previous track will be transferred to the new track.
  • Safety Fixes for Browse Actions Dropdown (Action Editor):
  • The "browse" button in the Action Editor had a number of bugs, causing it to do "Evil Things (TM)". A number of fixes were made to fix these problems:
  • When in NLA tweakmode, the Browse menu would clobber the NLA state. Now, it exits tweakmode first, before trying to assign a new active action.
  • When changing away from a newly created action, this action will now get stashed in the NLA to prevent it from being lost. Although no data loss will happen now in this case, it is still recommended that previewing / switching between actions should be done using the NLA (i.e. enter tweakmode on the action you wish to preview) or Up/Down buttons (Action Editor header) instead.
  • Safety Features for Unlinking Actions:
  • Dedicated operators have been added for unlinking actions (X) from Animation Data/Animation Editors, in place of the generic datablock unlinking that used to be performed (53f4aa7). This allows us to perform a number of additional safety checks that provide some additional protections when unlinking actions.
  • These protections/conveniences are:
  • If the Action doesn't have any other users, there will now be a popup that data is going to get lost, with suggested ways to remedy this. It WILL NOT attempt to stash or retain that action in any way by itself.
  • When in Tweak Mode, it shouldn't be possible to unlink the active action. Now, the unlink button acts as a convenient way to exit tweak mode in such cases.
  • Hotkeys for Entering/Exiting Tweak Mode, Changing Editors, etc.:
  • Shift⇆ Tab in the NLA Editor will enter and exit tweakmode as usual, but will also make sure that the action can be edited in isolation (by flagging the NLA track that the action strip comes from as being "solo"). This is useful for editing stashed actions, without the rest of the NLA Stack interfering.
  • (Other hotkeys for switching between editors while toggling tweakmode were planned, but have not been included in this release due to a lack of time)
  • NLA:
  • NLA Strips - Local Keyframes for Time and Influence Controls:
  • Fixed a long standing bug (T36385) with how NLA Strip Time and Influence properties were getting animated
  • Now the keyframes for these settings are added to FCurves stored on the NLA Strips themselves, instead of these being FCurves included as part of the actions included in the NLA stack as before. The old setup did not work well as there were problems with lag, as well as it being unsuitable for use with a renderfarm. This was because by the time the NLA stack has been evaluated (and thus, the FCurves for these properties that were included in an action in that stack), it would already be far too late to alter how the NLA strip time/influence values were getting interpreted.
  • These can be found in the Dope Sheet/Graph Editors under the NLA Control Curves headings per datablock. These look like group channels, and they appear before all the groups/FCurves for that channel.
  • NLA Editor:
  • Name based filtering of animation channels works in the NLA Editor too now. Enable this by toggling the magnifying glass icon in the header, and type the text to filter by in the box beside it. This is case insensitive, and does not support regular expressions or wildcards. It checks the names of the tracks and strips for matches.
  • Animation Editors:
  • Proportional editing support has been added in the graph and editor editors, they can be toggled by using O key
  • Clean keyframes has been moved to a menu in X key and is now operating only on selected keyframes.
  • Auto normalization feature now uses the full range of the editor.
  • View current frame operator added for action and graph editor by pressing 0 NumPad
  • Name-based filtering of animation channels now updates in realtime as you type (i.e. live search)
  • Double clicking on a channel selects the channel keyframes .
  • Rigging:
  • Add Armature Symmetrize tool, to make make armatures symmetrical, creating bones where necessary
  • Armature/Pose select hierarchy now works more predictably, always following connected bones
  • The direction of bones created using the "Fill Bones" tool now point towards the active bone instead of the 3D cursor
  • Posing:
  • Several tweaks have been made to the "Propagate Pose" tool (in Blender since 2011!):
  • The "Selected Keyframes" mode will apply the pose on the selected bones to all selected keyframes, instead of Blender trying to guess which ones it should fix.
  • It can now be found from the toolbar and by using AltP in Pose Mode.
  • Numeric input now works for the Push, Relax, and Breakdowner tools
  • Dependency Graph:
  • The new Dependency Graph has landed! This commit integrates the work done so far on the new dependency graph system, where goal was to replace legacy depsgraph with the new one, supporting loads of neat features like:
  • More granular dependency relation nature, which solves issues with fake cycles in the dependencies.
  • Move towards all-animatable, by better integration of drivers into the system.
  • Lay down some basis for upcoming copy-on-write, overrides and so on.
  • The new system is living side-by-side with the previous one and disabled by default, so nothing will become suddenly broken.
  • It's a bit early to consider the system production-ready, there are some TODOs and issues were discovered during the merge period, they'll be addressed ASAP. But it's important to merge, because it's the only way to attract artists to really start testing this system.
  • There are number of assorted documents related on the design of the new system:
  • User:Aligorith/GSoC2013_Depsgraph#Design_Documents
  • User:Nazg-gul/DependencyGraph
  • There are also some user-related information online:
  • Bassam's post about the depsgraph for users
  • More experiments with new rigging setups
  • Grease Pencil:
  • Added hotkeys for quickly showing/hiding layers
  • H hides the active layer
  • ShiftH makes the active layer the only one visible
  • AltH makes all layers visible
  • A small and simple warning/indicator is now displayed in the top-right corner of editors when Stroke Edit Mode is enabled. This makes it easier to tell what mode you're in.
  • Clicking outside the current viewport where you are drawing (e.g. on the properties panels, headers, or in another editor) will exit Continuous Drawing mode (be0dcd4). This makes it easier to work with just a pen, without needing to have a keyboard handy for pressing Escape to exit.
  • With the new depsgraph enabled (using the --enable-new-depsgraph option), it is possible to use drivers on Grease Pencil properties. This is useful, as it can be used to automatically adjust the stroke thickness as the camera moves through the scene.
  • Game Engine:
  • Game Engine updates include: work on the physics simulation, with constraint improvements, better velocity clamping and collision masking; things have been simplified, by clarifying some options and adding a shadow box for sun lamps that'll help lighting things; Python programmers have more power, as we introduced access to more corners of the engine, and custom KX_GameObjects can now use additional initializer arguments. For details and more fixes, read on.
  • Level of Detail (LOD):
  • A new hysteresis parameter was introduced which prevents rapid alternation between detail levels when the camera moves close to a transition distance.
  • Hysteresis may be set:
  • Per scene, (default 10%) from the Scene context -> Level of Detail panel. This may be disabled if scene-wide hysteresis is not desired.
  • Per object (default 10%) from the Object context -> Levels of Detail panel. If active, this setting will overwrite the scene hysteresis setting.
  • Python API:
  • A new "currentLodLevel" attribute was added to the Python API of KX_GameObject. The attribute returns the current lod level of the game object. This attribute may be used to manage logic routines according to the discrete lod-distance from the camera, avoiding the need to separately compute the Vector distance to the camera in Python.
  • Compatibility:
  • For new blend files, the scene hysteresis setting is active by default, and the object setting disabled.
  • For the old blends, both hysteresis settings (per scene and per object) are set inactive by default.
  • It is now possible to lock the XYZ translation components of dynamic objects via the interface in: Properties » Physics (tab) » Physics (panel)
  • Rigid Body Joint Constraint Replication:
  • Blender now replicates rigid body joint constraints for group instances (DupliGroups).
  • GLSL Material Animations:
  • GLSL materials can finally be animated. The animatable material properties are:
  • Diffuse color
  • Diffuse intensity
  • Specular color
  • Specular intensity
  • Hardness
  • Emit
  • Alpha
  • World and Mist API with GLSL Animations
  • GLSL world and mist and can be animated. The animatable properties are:
  • Horizon color = Mist color
  • Ambient color
  • Mist start
  • Mist depth
  • Mist minimum intensity
  • Python API:
  • New world module with attributes for mist, background and ambient rendering.
  • Sun Lamp: New debug draw shadow box:
  • Sun Lamps now have a option "Show Shadow Box" to display a debug representation the range of the lamp, providing feedback about which objects project shadows for the selected Sun Lamp
  • Logic Brick Sensors:
  • "Frequency" parameter is renamed to "Skip" in the Logic Brick sensors as it represents skipped frames between pulses.
  • A new BGE python attribute 'skippedTicks' was introduced. The old 'frequency' attribute is maintained but deprecated.
  • Ordering Game Properties:
  • Game Properties can now be ordered with the new move up/down buttons
  • Collisions:
  • A Python API for the collision group / mask has been added
  • The maximum number of collision groups and masked has been increased from eight to sixteen. This means that the max value of collisionGroup/Mask is (2 ** 16) - 1
  • Collision groups that do not intersect used to collide on the first frame. Now this has been fixed so that they collide appropriately.
  • Additionally, EndObject will now activate objects that were sleeping and colliding with the removed object. This means that if a rigid body starts sleeping on top of another object, when the latter is removed the rigid body will activate and fall, rather than float midair as before.
  • The KX_GameObject.suspendDynamics() method now has an optional boolean "ghost" argument, that (when True) disables collision detection. This effectively makes the object a ghost.
  • Pre-Drawing Setup Callback:
  • There is a new callback available to control the drawing setup. This is useful to setup the camera matrices (model view and projection) before the drawing itself.
  • Python Sample Code:
  • The sample scene would need a default camera (not used for rendering), a dummy camera ('Camera.VR'), and two cameras ('Camera.Left', 'Camera.Right') that will be used for the actual rendering.
  • PyObjectPlus Subclassing (Mutating):
  • BGE Python subclassing now supports additional initialiser arguments.
  • Optional AddObject reference argument:
  • The reference argument has been made optional for the KX_Scene.addObject function. Without a provided reference object, the original rotation, scale and position of the source object is used.
  • New objects will then be added to the active layer of the scene.
  • New isSuspendDynamics attribute:
  • This is a new KX_GameObject attribute that returns the suspended state of the game object
  • Correct velocity clamping:
  • Velocity clamping is now applied on every physics subtick, instead of every logic tick (D1364)
  • New getDisplayDimensions method:
  • This new rasterizer method returns the set dimensions (not necessarily the actual dimensions) of the current display device (e.g, the monitor), in pixels
  • Rigid Body Constraint API keywords:
  • createConstraint() now accepts keyword arguments. Omitted arguments will fall back to default values
  • Compatibility Issues:
  • New color-management setting:
  • With the color-management fix, the "Color Management" switch in the BGE "Render > Shading" panel is being removed, use the "Display Device" setting in the "Scene > Color Management" panel instead.
  • Rigid body constraint API: initial values for the XYZ axis and Z rotation has been changed from 1.0 to 0.0. If these values were not set in older scripts, it is now necessary to set it on constraint creation, to get the same pivot position and rotation.
  • Sequencer:
  • Sequencer improvements include: A placeholder option for replacing missing frames, support for storing multiple proxies in one custom directory and a new option to store proxies per strip or per object.
  • Proxies:
  • It's now possible to store multiple proxies in the same custom directory since the directory names will get appended by the movie file name
  • A new option for proxy storage, "Project" allows to store all proxies in a per-project folder instead of storing them per strip
  • Placeholder Images:
  • Image sequences can use placeholder files. This works by ticking "Use placeholders" when adding an image strip. The feature detects the frame range of opened images using blender's frame naming scheme (filename.extension) and makes an image sequence with all files in between even if they are missing. This allows users to render an image sequence with a few frames missing and still the image strip will have the correct range to account for the missing frames. When the missing frames are rendered, users can refresh the sequencer and get the missing frames in the strip. The feature is also available when using the "change paths" operator and allows users to add more images to the range.
  • Add-ons:
  • Improvements for Add-ons include: A "UI Previews" API was created for displaying images in the UI as custom icons, the "Add Mesh Extra Objects" Add-on got a big update, the Collada exporter now has support for custom normals, the "Node Wrangler" Add-on was imroved, the Python executable is now included with official Blender releases for a much better multi-threaded access.
  • Add Mesh Extra Objects:
  • The Add Extra Objects Add-on got a big update
  • Start your modeling Quick & Easy
  • This update & modernization includes new menu structure, new look & new object types.
  • Add a Single Vert to edit mode with several choices. (Mirrored, Origin Only, Vert only)
  • Start Sculpting Quikly
  • Round Cube offers a quick all quad base.
  • Menger Sponge adds a beautiful Cube
  • XYZ Presets, over 20 math objects using Blender's built in preset system.
  • More information in the Wiki Page
  • 100%.png Extra Objects Wiki
  • Collada Exporter:
  • Export of Custom Normals.
  • C3D motion capture data importer:
  • Clarified some options, and fixed some scale issue.
  • Node Wrangler:
  • Rewrite 'Align Nodes' function (Shift-Equals) - nodes are now spaced evenly and consistently apart. Whether the nodes are aligned vertically or horizontally is now determined automatically.
  • Remove 'Line Antialiasing' user preference - there was no real performance hit, so there's no reason not to use this all the time. Antialiasing was also enabled for other drawing functions.
  • Bug fix: T44564 - Adding an image sequence didn't work for Shader nodes.
  • The logic for figuring out what image sequence the user is trying to add was improved. Sometimes users select only one frame, sometimes they select all the frames (Blender itself is inconsistent about this behavior), both methods are now accepted.
  • UI Previews:
  • UI previews is an addition to the blender python API that allows requesting of image previews from files and the displaying of said previews in the UI as custom icons.
  • It is now possible to load single image or a set of previews for use in the UI with the existing widgets. It is not possible to override the default icons or share icons between addons.
  • These preview images are in a dynamic cache, which can be deleted or refreshed at any time. For that reason, addons or UI scripts that rely on the feature have to carefully manage this, to not overload Blender with preview loading time and/or memory consumption.
  • A preview can be used as a custom icon in any place an icon can be used.
  • Development Guidelines:
  • If you want to use this in a release add-on:
  • Do not use this for advertising, logos or other non-functional use cases.
  • Use a minimum of custom icons. This helps uncluttering the interface and keeping Blender's interface uniform.
  • Only use these images in a way that is compatible with how rest of Blender works - as if it's a default interface we provide for everyone.
  • Only use the feature within the context and UI of your own Add-on. You cannot rely on other add-ons to have this already preloaded. This feature also does not allow replacing of the default icons.
  • Do not force preview image creation outside of the add-on dir, except when explicitly asked for by the user in the UI.
  • The default icon size in Blender is 32x32 and for previews 256x256. Your images will be scaled to fit these sizes on their maximum side.
  • Python API:
  • Access to add/remove color palettes `bpy.data.palettes`
  • The Python executable is now included with official Blender releases, so scripts can always spawn a Python process.
  • This can be accessed from `bpy.app.binary_path_python`.
  • More Features:
  • OpenEXR format:
  • Add support for saving to Dreamworks DWA format and B44 codec
  • Metadata support:
  • Metadata tags include the old stamp options. The old "Stamp" panel is changed to "Metadata". Blender now will always attach metadata on output rendered image files.
  • Also, the image editor and sequencer have options in their view menus to display blender related metadata.
  • For the sequencer, the displayed metadata are the data attached to the upper strip in the sequence.
  • Small Improvements:
  • Split scene simplification settings into viewport and render
  • Feature Videos:
  • Starting early 2014, Thomas Beck (BFCT & Blender developer) shows you in his "Blender Developer Sneak Peek" video series once a month new blender features that are currently in development. Over time, many of the features found in this release were topics in the show and can be watched now everytime you like in Full HD.
  • Filebrowser, VSE, User Interface & Grease Pencil:
  • Filebrowser:
  • Thumbnails: New display options (Tiny, Small, Normal, Large) 0:53
  • Fonts: Previews now supported 1:40
  • Viewport:
  • DoF high quality: Via the new checkbox "High quality" 2:44
  • VSE:
  • Proxy storage per strip or per project 4:44
  • Use placeholders to add not-yet-rendered files 9:40
  • UI:
  • Use Ctrl+MW to cycle values (previously Alt+MW) 12:40
  • Multi object value change: Hold Alt to change the same value on multiple selected objects. 13:25
  • Panel drag-collapse 15:54
  • View Online Manual' Shortcut 16:44
  • Add eyedropper for selecting object & obdata 17:22
  • Add material slot reorder buttons - Attention, Material order changes then... 17:30
  • View3D: Quad-view opposite axis switching Pressing Numpad9 now orbits to the opposite side in any viewport 19:02
  • Grease Pencil:
  • H/Shift-H/Alt-H hides and reveals Layers in Strokes Edit Mode 22:00
  • Draw status indicator in top-right corner when in Stroke Edit Mode 21:19
  • Nodes, Rendering, Painting & Sculpting:
  • Nodes & Rendering:
  • Snapping for Node Editor: Shift+Tab to enable it, Ctrl+Shift+Tab to open the menu, exit group now Ctrl+Tab 0:42
  • Cycles: Light portals 2:50
  • Cycles: Animated seed feature 9:10
  • Separate scene simplification into viewport and render 10:30
  • Show left/right buttons to change render layer/pass in UV Editor header 12:10
  • Cycles: OpenCL kernel split, so AMD cards are now in experimental state supported 12:34
  • Painting & Sculpting:
  • Project Paint: Symmetry support 13:40
  • Allow ctrl click to do negative stroke in line strokes 14:25
  • Use alt for angle constraints 15:00
  • Dyntopo detail expressed in percentage of brush radius 15:43
  • Simplify option split:
  • Scene simplification option was split into two parts: viewport settings and render settings.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • Animation:
  • Fix T43997: Paste fcurve keeps handle selection
  • Fix T44068: "Layered" option for auto keyframing doesn't "Insert Available Only" is enabled
  • Fix T36385: Animated Strip-Time doesnt update
  • Fix T44362: no easy way to repeatedly duplicate keyframes in action
  • Fix T44558: "Clear Keyframes" complains when operating on an array property and it had deleted the action in the process
  • Fix T44717: use_negative_frames ignored /w graph-editor
  • Fix T44036: Add option to bake into current action instead of creating a new one
  • Fix T45016: mask animation data lost after layer rename .
  • Fix T44997: Partial Propagate pose on selected keyframes only included those after the current frame
  • Fix unreported: Crash when trying to create new action in Shape Key DopeSheet mode
  • Fix unreported: Crash when using "On Selected Markers" mode for Propogate Pose with no markers present
  • Fix unreported: Drawing glitch when renaming animation channels
  • Fix unreported: Action Editor: Preemptive fix for null-pointer dereference
  • Fix unreported: Changing actions in the Action Editor using the Browse dropdown should happen in tweakmode
  • Fix unreported: Action Editor "Browse" Fix: Stash active action if nothing else uses it
  • Fix unreported: Fix: "Delete Keyframes" RMB-menu option didn't work on NLA Strip properties .
  • Fix unreported: Fix: Don't show "Clear Keyframes" option in RMB menu for NLA Strip properties .
  • Constraints:
  • Fix T44408: "Rest Length" property in the Stretch To constraint was getting clipped when using Metric Units
  • Grease Pencil:
  • Fix T44259: Secondary strokes get terminated early when drawing in Continuous Drawing mode
  • Fix T44412: Crash when trying to paint on a GPencil frame when the frames are out of order
  • Fix T44452: Inconsistent gpencil color in prefs
  • Fix T43867: Clicking outside the viewport exits now Grease Pencil "Continous Draw" mode
  • Fix T29029: Grease pencil fails in Quad View
  • Fix T44685: In grease pencil stroke editing, selecting points is offset by a few pixels
  • Fix T44084: Cursor gets reset after MMB scrolling in another area while in GPencil Continous Draw Mode
  • Fix T44774: Grease Pencil eraser size reset after exiting session
  • Fix unreported: Grease Pencil and negative frames
  • Fix unreported: "show_points" setting for Grease Pencil drawing didn't work
  • Objects:
  • Fix T45051: Curve parent bug .
  • Fix unreported: Fix wrong proxy pointer hanging around after making all local
  • Data / Geometry:
  • Armatures:
  • Fix T44219: Pose Breakdowner bug in Gooseberry rigs
  • Fix T43711: dual quaternion deform bug with shearing in deform matrix.
  • Fix T44591: Set PBone Group operator did not handled predifined group index in its invoke func.
  • Fix unreported: Glitch scaling bone radius
  • Fix unreported: parent tips staying selected after separate
  • Curve/Text Editing:
  • Fix T44186: Bezier Bevel facto mapping broken when 'start' was set to 'Resolution' and 'end' was not.
  • Fix T44213: Bevel object from different scene won't update generated bezier curve geometry
  • Fix T44737: Missing 'Spin' op entry in surface (NURBS) tools/menu.
  • Fix T44497: Crash on deleting curve handle with hook modifier
  • Fix T44991: Apply transform skips poly-radius
  • Mesh Editing:
  • Fix T39184: Multisegment bevel profiles should curve in-plane sometimes.
  • Fix T43975: Deleting a Shapekey can break the relative pointers
  • Fix T44027: Normal Edit Mod : Radial from object normals affected by target object scale.
  • Fix T44138: Crash in DataTransfer modifier when selecting a source with no loops
  • Fix T44270: Similar face region crash /w wire edge
  • Fix T44275: CTRL+LMB to extrude to mouse position conflicts with snapped
  • Fix T44258: Can't select similar regions
  • Fix T44364: Remove shape key crashes Blender
  • Fix T44359: `mesh_normals_loop_custom_set()` would not behave correctly with zero-normals.
  • Fix T44411: poll() function of MESH_OT_knife_project was not strict enough. (
  • Fix T44419: extruding when using lasso deselect
  • Fix T44383: Select face fails in some positions
  • Fix T44461: Crash and file corruption after calc_normals_split, calc_tessface execution.
  • Fix T44492: knife tool should cut across a split edge.
  • Fix T44522: loop remapping between meshes when using 'nearest vert, best matching normal' modes
  • Fix T44542: 'extend selection' editmode tool would select hidden elements.
  • Fix T44484: Edge-split corrupts mesh
  • Fix T44560: Merge Collapse tool - UVs operator panel option ignored with Collapse but not with other merge types.
  • Fix T44589: No way to add a skin data layer manualy.
  • Fix T44618: Rip Fill on a single vert would only generate one of the two expected faces.
  • Fix T44634: Slide edge not responding to ALT + WHEEL to change reference edge in "even mode".
  • Fix T42510: Limit by seams fails in edge/vert mode
  • Fix T44766: Connect fails /w selected ngon edges
  • Fix T44780: Decimate planar creates concave edges
  • Fix T44745: non manifold edges of mesh do not work when smoothing in
  • Fix T44915: vertex color lost when adding new layer in edit mode.
  • Fix T44742: Bevel now avoids vertex meshes when only two edges are beveled.
  • Fix T41177: Bevel shouldn't try to slide along edge when can't see it.
  • Fix T44964: Bisect tool /w nonuniform scale
  • Fix T45009: Bad 'tri area computation' code in knife tool.
  • Fix T45096: Bad UVs /w EdgeSlide & zero-area faces
  • Fix T44320: UV island overlap considered linked
  • Fix unreported: Incorrect assert in lnor code.
  • Fix unreported: BMesh: use inverse-square falloff /w smooth-subdiv
  • Fix unreported: Data transfer - Loop Islands Hell Fixes.
  • Fix unreported: Crash with datatransfer operator when source object was hidden.
  • Fix unreported: EdgeSlide: fix divide by zero
  • Fix unreported: BMesh: decimate wasn't using face/edge centers
  • Fix unreported: Mesh mirror failing on isolated verts
  • Fix unreported: join faces ignoring angle limit
  • Fix unreported: error joining tris -> quads
  • Fix unreported: crash clearing skin data on non mesh
  • Fix unreported: Correct vert/edge slide poll functions
  • Fix unreported: Fix error calculating bmesh normals )
  • Fix unreported: Fix crash transforming UV /w PET-connected mode
  • Modifiers:
  • Fix T44361: array modifier "fit curve" mode not working properly
  • Fix T44475: Merge option of Mirror Modifier behavior reversed.
  • Fix T44530: UV islands fail on subsurf after mirror modifier.
  • Fix T42893: Skin Modifier, changes randomly toggling editmode
  • Fix T44630: incorrect mirror modifier merge limit tooltip.
  • Fix T44611: 'make_links_data' modifiers would fail and crash with multires modifier.
  • Fix T44677: Normal Edit Modifier Radial Mode broken with target object.
  • Fix T39775: Skin modifier crash
  • Fix T44879: data transfer modifier was missing a copy function
  • Fix T36994: Make link modifier fails (soft body)
  • Fix unreported: modifiers stack not recalculated when mapping requirements change
  • Physics / Simulations / Sculpt / Paint:
  • Particles:
  • Fix T44183: particles in linked group offset from object
  • Fix T44268: too many virtual parents + non-100 display% = crash
  • Fix T44353, T43981: random particle distribution overlaps if number is greater than 256.
  • Fix T44593: particle volume distribution not working with large meshes.
  • Fix unreported: Crash when using particle emission with clump/roughness curves
  • Fix unreported: Yet another fix for crashing particles.
  • Fix unreported: Missing particles in render if they're disabled for viewport
  • Physics / Hair / Simulations:
  • Fix T43803: Crash playing smoke animation, when linked as group instance
  • Fix T44020: Crash exporting fluid sim to fbx
  • Fix T43694: Hair Clumps Point to Scene Center When Density is Texture-Controlled.
  • Fix T44193: Hair intersection with duplis causes flickering
  • Fix T44185, T44090: hair texture density working unreliable.
  • Fix T44960: Crash with 'Shape Cut' in edit hair mode.
  • Fix unreported: Unstable particle jittered distribution.
  • Fix unreported: rare crash duplicating fluidsim
  • Sculpting / Painting:
  • Fix T43959: jittering in 2D texture painting.
  • Fix T44124: Crash deleting brush
  • Fix T44308: painting in 2D editor offset by one pixel.
  • Fix T44390: Clay brush weirdness part-1
  • Fix T41893: inconsistent color management on sculpt texture nodes previews.
  • Fix T44627: locking alpha should happen in straight space
  • Fix T44627: black spots with lock alpha in projection paint:
  • Fix T44604: bad quality of rake with bezier curves.
  • Fix T44543: painted texture lost after first save
  • Fix T44553: Dyntopo ignores front-face option
  • Fix T44791: triangles when painting on a texpaint plane
  • Fix T44929, T44927: inconsistencies in texture paint UI
  • Fix T45013: negative curve falloff not working.
  • Fix T45060: Brush size snaps back to default max .
  • Fix unreported: Fix adding to paint-curves from the first point
  • Fix unreported: BMesh: resolve skinny face artifacts /w dyntopo
  • Fix unreported: Fix project painting on a negative scaled object
  • Fix unreported: Rake: store last position from mouse, don't store halfpoint between last
  • Fix unreported: Fix project paint worldspace coord calc from seam
  • Image / Video / Render:
  • Image / UV Editing:
  • Fix T44035: Proportional editing lag
  • Fix T44282: Image sampling line disappears after a while
  • Fix T44320: selecting islands can fail.
  • Fix T44351: Scopes make editmesh lag
  • Fix T44724: missing menu entries for 'view fit' (F) in clip/image editors.
  • Fix T44823: No menu entry for Circle Select in UV/Image editor.
  • Movie Clip Editor:
  • Fix T44110: Plane track doesn't work when built with scons
  • Fix T44752: Clip Editor doesn't respect ColorSpace setting when playback after Prefetch
  • Fix T45017: Crash when running 'track markers' operator with no clip loaded.
  • Fix unreported: Fix bad memory access freeing viewport which uses movie clip
  • Fix unreported: Deselecting with shift-LMB does not work in graph view
  • Fix unreported: Selecting curves in graph view always extends tracks selection
  • Nodes / Compositor:
  • Fix T43974: Alpha output of movie clip node crashes blender (rBc4b3b60aad)
  • Fix T44040: Blender crashes when nodes are muted
  • Fix T44064: Reroute two-node loop crash
  • Fix T44149: Node Groups do not work correctly
  • Fix T44343: Compositor image node cannot properly load multilayer EXRs
  • Fix T44494: crop node changes values during execution.
  • Fix T44624: world menu appears in node editor header with Blender internal.
  • Fix T44398: Compositing displace node makes image fuzzy with zero displacement
  • Fix T44683: Unable to mute movie clip when using stabilized display
  • Fix T44715: crash compositing with undefined node due to re-save in older version
  • Fix T44755: set_value node output in node tree not properly converted to Fix T44795: same menu item for different command in node editor.
  • Fix T44747: Drag toggle /w nodes (glitch)
  • Fix T44921: Node editor, nodes position not maintained after Material panel changes
  • Fix T44871: Blender hangs when using masking, dilate-erode and soften node.
  • Fix unreported: Patch D1283 by Alexander Romanov fixes reroute node type update not
  • Fix unreported: Updating node standard value won't work if node is hidden, patch by
  • Fix unreported: Node Editor using wrong snap element menu when called from shortcut
  • Render:
  • Fix T44021: Crash switching Rendering Engines while viewport rendering + animating
  • Fix T44028: Vertex Colors Baking error
  • Fix T44102: Mirrored objects render black with Blender Internal and Autosmooth. Fix T44240: Lamp Halo invisible in rendering.
  • Fix T43696: Baking tearing normals
  • Fix T44310: Other render slots cleared after each render
  • Fix T44322: Crash when trying to render spotlight halos.
  • Fix T44329: Blender Crash when rendering in 3DView.
  • Fix T41092: Bake-API: reduce memory footprint when baking more than one object
  • Fix T44541: aka gigapixel image render support in blender.
  • Fix T44556: Crash on the World Properties > Preview
  • Fix T44598: blender internal not giving same result on repeated texture bakes.
  • Fix T44880: transparency filter is only valid with raytransp, not ztransp.
  • Fix T44869: Crash rendering >2gb images
  • Fix T44984: wrong texture clamping when applying saturation > 1.0
  • Fix T44682: Save Buffers canceled renders show nothing in Image Editor .
  • Fix unreported: Race condition and bad memory access highlighting render tiles
  • Fix unreported: Opengl rendering always looking through camera
  • Render: Cycles:
  • Fix T43967: Background is wrong in 2.74
  • Fix T43786: Cycles bake disregards Auto Smooth (vertex per-face normals)
  • Fix T43926: Volume scatter: intersecting objects GPU rendering artifacts
  • Fix T44128: Ray visibility only enables diffuse if glossy is also enabled
  • Fix T44113: Ashikhmin-Shirley distribution of glossy shader at 0 roughness causes artifacts when background uses MIS
  • Fix T44222: Crash using pointiness attribute for volume shaders
  • Fix T44046: Cycles speed regression in 2.74 (CPU only)
  • Fix T44449: sm_52 kernel missing in CMake builds.
  • Fix T44512: Cycles fails normal bake /w scale flip
  • Fix T44544: Cached BVH is broken since BVH leaf split
  • Fix T44548: Cycles Tube Mapping off / not compatible with BI
  • Fix T44616: Cycles crashes loading 42k by 21k textures
  • Fix T44763: Surface Panel does not update correctly according to Node Output for Cycles UI
  • Fix T44989: Crash on linking external OSL material
  • Fix T41870: Cycles OSL - Changing rotation value in anisotropic shader crashes Blender .
  • Fix unreported: Fix displacement code creating cyclic dependencies in graph
  • Fix unreported: Fix wrong render result in certain configuration of render layer's surface/hair
  • Fix unreported: Fix wrong order in object flags calculations
  • Fix unreported: Fix wrong termination criteria in SSS volume stack update (rB7aab5c6ca9)
  • Fix unreported: Fix possible uninitialized XML read state which might cause crashes
  • Fix unreported: missing features gathering from the bump graph
  • Fix unreported: crash doing render preview of external OSL script
  • Fix unreported: wrong name displayed for the debug passes
  • Fix unreported: Cycles: Fix missing node distance update when only two child intersected in QBVH.
  • Render: Freestyle:
  • Fix T44127: Python does not guarantee to free all objects on exit...
  • Fix T44404: freestyle crashes blender.
  • Fix T44404: freestyle crashes blender.
  • Fix unreported: Fixed a crash due to missing call of StrokeShader.__init__() in Python.
  • Fix unreported: Line style ID datablocks not copied when fully copying a scene.
  • Fix unreported: Freestyle: Fix for wrong assertion failure upon inverted face normals.
  • Sequencer:
  • Fix T43989: Sequencer - Ctrl snapping a sequencer strip does not work if you specify the x axis.
  • Fix T43986: VSE Mask Modifier don't move with video-Clip.
  • Fix T44121: : VSE Preview scaling issue when using proxies and Show Overexposed
  • Fix T44122: rendering OpenGL preview movie with audio has wrong audio
  • Fix T44458: strip modifier mask not copied correctly when doing scene
  • Fix T44465: Crash using VSE OGL render + Grease Pencil
  • Fix unreported: Crash adding mask modifier
  • Fix unreported: Shift duplicate and snap crashes in sequencer
  • Fix unreported: reserve frames in sequencer failing with big frame ranges.
  • Fix unreported: off by one error in display of start/end frame in sequencer.
  • UI / Spaces / Transform:
  • 3D View:
  • Fix T44029: textures disappear in viewport if GPU mipmap generation is
  • Fix T44076: SSAO in solid mode will disable antialiasing in wireframe
  • Fix T44118: Rotated background image disappears
  • Fix T43987: ambient occlusion different between offscreen
  • Fix T44056: dof high quality shader error in ATI cards.
  • Fix T41191: Custom Loop Normals Viewport shading not updating when set from py script
  • Fix T44077: material update fails in textured mode when VBOs are off.
  • Fix T43987: ambient occlusion wrong for Intel cards on windows
  • Fix T44251: Changing views using numpad broken
  • Fix T44249: Cursor depth offset
  • Fix T44350: View3D layer out of sync /w scene
  • Fix T44385: SSAO inverted with new Intel drivers.
  • Fix T44474: Rotation manipulator not hidden completely with all axes
  • Fix T44422: Zoom to mouse fails in camera view
  • Fix T44011: Ruler/Knife/Loop-cut fail in quad-view
  • Fix T44464: Viewport mipmaps no longer toggle off
  • Fix T44516: grid lines obscuring selection outline.
  • Fix T44505: Fix ortho part of T44505
  • Fix T44565: World background artifacts when world shader is void (or
  • Fix T41739: 3D view solid draw mode missing some material node updates.
  • Fix T44594: disable depth of field in wireframe/bounding box modes. We
  • Fix T44718: Cycles GLSL not working for NURBS objects.
  • Fix T44713: GLSL and BI inconsistency converting color to float node socket.
  • Fix T44762: Materials flicker in edit-mode
  • Fix T44744: tangents incorrect in edit mode.
  • Fix unreported: fix view-selected zoom logic
  • Fix unreported: Crash with non-camera as a camera
  • Fix unreported: Eyedropper with quad-view
  • Fix unreported: GPU_shader_export fails /w some lamp attrs
  • Fix unreported: Don't show smoke domain when render-only enabled
  • Input (NDOF / 3D Mouse):
  • Fix T44612: add support for mouse button 6 and 7 on OS X.
  • Fix T44614: Maya keymap left mouse click to add cut not working.
  • Fix T44739: OS X RMB emulation giving wrong mouse button release event.
  • Fix T44740: Tweak events stuck (ignored release)
  • Fix T44821: Making warp shortcut fails
  • Fix T40621: Tablet in walk mode fails
  • Fix unreported: Fix duplicated IME input
  • Fix unreported: Fix for debug-only crash when setting "Any" keymap input type
  • Fix unreported: ndof: fix Linux device detect regression
  • Outliner:
  • Fix T44162: modifier's icons toggle update issue
  • Fix T44201: Crash Deleting Hierarchy in Outliner
  • Fix T44212: Crash on Group Rename.
  • Fix T44348: Blender crashes when selecting bone from inactive scene in outliner
  • Fix T44476: Hiding Grease Pencil from Outliner RMB doesn't update 3D
  • Fix T44439: outliner's treestore could keep invalid ID pointers, could crash on undo due to invalid mem access.
  • Text Editor:
  • Fix T44381: Un-indent undo fails
  • Transform:
  • Fix T44592: Zero scale on an axis, zeros all
  • Fix unreported: Fix bend in object mode (wasn't rotating objects)
  • Fix unreported: error redoing shrink fatten
  • User Interface:
  • Fix T44003: Flatty Light: GPencil vertices and timeline keyframes black
  • Fix T44237: translation does not work in spacebar search.
  • Fix T44237: translation does not work for input sockets in 'Active node properties' panel.
  • Fix T44395: String untranslated in open file window.
  • Fix T44406: the Hebrew font causes trouble.
  • Fix T44432: Zoom to mouse fails /w FCurve editor
  • Fix T44470: File Selection sometimes surpresses last Character.
  • Fix T44477: Overlapping tooltips in Outliner
  • Fix T44405: Importing keyconfig with changed shortcut in "Screen Global"
  • Fix T42495: Fullscreen area icon glitch
  • Fix T44586: Viet language problem for Blender Interface
  • Fix T44376: Buttons context, invalid data access
  • Fix T44794: Blend From Shape tool X Icon UI Bug?
  • Fix T44814: 'preview' icons would not greyout.
  • Fix T44842: Modal Timer (template) should return {'CANCELLED'} when cancelled!
  • Fix T44872: Missing UI control in Musgrave texture properties
  • Fix T44892: Cursor warp, invoked outside the area (rBb147473f02)
  • Fix T44976: 3D View turns into an Image Editor after saving render
  • Fix T44930: File-select in redo panel, disables UI
  • Fix T37746: Presets in splash failed to redraw
  • Fix T45003: some UI/i18n issues.
  • Fix T45156: scaling region crash.
  • Fix unreported: Fix broken uiTemplateIconView().
  • Fix unreported: `widget_draw_preview()` not taking into account given alpha.
  • Fix unreported: RMB menu in popup, included 'Header' submenu
  • Fix unreported: Don't crash with pie menus with more than 8 items. Fix unreported: Fix ugly drawing of closed panels in horizontal layout
  • Fix unreported: Fix UI string clip (reverse search separator char)
  • Fix unreported: tooltip colors not initialized correctly
  • Game Engine:
  • Fix T43793: BGE: Fix for T43793 Increment frame_start/end value to 255 frames
  • Fix T43980: BGE: MouseLook (actuator) triggers MouseMovement (sensor)
  • Fix T43788: BGE: Light casts shadow when use_shadow unchecked Fix T43724 and T41599: BGE: addObject() with KX_FontObject and
  • Fix T43994: BGE: Steering actuator bug with Navmesh
  • Fix T43178: BGE has hard-coded 60 Hz as frame rate
  • Fix T44065: fixed vehicle constraint
  • Fix T27322: World F-Curve
  • Fix T43592: World GLSL
  • Fix T36703: Character motion actuator local movement not working correct.
  • Fix T36285: Wrong viewport scale.
  • Fix T43800: getScreenVect()/getScreenPosition()/modelview_matrix returns incorrect results
  • Fix T43537: ImageMirror does not work in BlenderPlayer with quad buffer
  • Fix T44389: Tooltips swapped in Logic Editor
  • Fix T42341: Sensor.frequency is badly named
  • Fix T44374: Crash when collision sensor deactivated
  • Fix T43536: logic.getCurrentScene() returning wrong scene in
  • Fix T38335: incorrect triangle index in raycast result
  • Fix T43822: Videotexture does not use sky color for off-screen
  • Fix T44700: mesh without material in blenderplayer.
  • Fix T41299: Group API for child object in dupli instance group.
  • Fix T43761: No re-creation of display list after a mesh modification.
  • Fix T42244: LibLoad crash with logic brick KX_TouchSensor
  • Fix T40555: LibLoad material caching issue
  • Fix T44778: missing specular transparency slider in game engine
  • Fix T44919: BGE mathutils attrs leak memory
  • Fix T44704: BGE regression importing bpy.types
  • Fix unreported: Light layer check
  • Fix unreported: BGE crashes when RunPythonCallBackList() is called with maxargcount != minargcount
  • Fix unreported: fix bugs with physics collision mask/group
  • Fix unreported: Fix ghash assert during BGE libload
  • Fix unreported: Fix rna default value in BGE UI

New in Blender 2.75 RC 2 (Jun 22, 2015)

  • Among new features are AMD OpenCL rendering and stereo/multiview support!

New in Blender 2.75 RC 1 (Jun 11, 2015)

  • HIGHLIGHTS:
  • Re-Designs:
  • The Baking-API now uses an object_id in the bake() function and in the pixel_array table.
  • Multi-View and Stereo 3D:
  • Real-time visualization of stereoscopic effect
  • Viewport feedback of stereoscopy cameras, convergence and volumes
  • Camera stereo settings (pivot, convergence, ...)
  • Render of multiple views
  • Compositor and Sequencer
  • Cycles support
  • And more!
  • Cycles Rendering:
  • Initial support for AMD GPUs
  • Support for Light Portals
  • Several Performance and Memory optimizations
  • Sculpting/Painting:
  • New: Symmetry painting support for texture painting in 3D viewport.
  • More Features:
  • Image metadata support and display
  • "Simplify" for scenes is now split into viewport/render
  • BUG FIXES:
  • 3D View:
  • Fix T44029: textures disappear in viewport if GPU mipmap generation is (rB72419eebc2)
  • Fix T44076: SSAO in solid mode will disable antialiasing in wireframe (rBf65e3c7f1b)
  • Fix T44118: Rotated background image disappears (rB3eb33b804d)
  • Fix T43987: ambient occlusion different between offscreen (rB590efaacb8)
  • Fix T44056: dof high quality shader error in ATI cards. (rBc6ce8200dd)
  • Fix T41191: Custom Loop Normals Viewport shading not updating when set from py script (rBbacdfc70e2)
  • Fix T44077: material update fails in textured mode when VBOs are off. (rBb98c7bcf3a)
  • Fix T43987: ambient occlusion wrong for Intel cards on windows (tested on (rBf3b45eb76f)
  • Fix T44251: Changing views using numpad broken (rB1604a26fe6, rB92755da471)
  • Fix T44249: Cursor depth offset (rB986972701e)
  • Fix T44350: View3D layer out of sync /w scene (rB17a9b05b9d)
  • Fix T44385: SSAO inverted with new Intel drivers. (rB04daaee0fd)
  • Fix T44474: Rotation manipulator not hidden completely with all axes (rB6885d316b1)
  • Fix T44422: Zoom to mouse fails in camera view (rB27e03dcd21)
  • Fix T44011: Ruler/Knife/Loop-cut fail in quad-view (rB3f80accfb3)
  • Fix T44464: Viewport mipmaps no longer toggle off (rB84db9fdf4d)
  • Fix T44516: grid lines obscuring selection outline. (rBf8c383472a)
  • Fix T44505: Fix ortho part of T44505 (rB859ac8fbc6)
  • Fix T44565: World background artifacts when world shader is void (or (rB28ea3f5b94)
  • Fix T41739: 3D view solid draw mode missing some material node updates. (rB6159f9a55a)
  • Fix T44594: disable depth of field in wireframe/bounding box modes. We (rB73c090fe81)
  • Fix T44718: Cycles GLSL not working for NURBS objects. (rB3cff7768d5)
  • Fix T44713: GLSL and BI inconsistency converting color to float node socket. (rB4139686817)
  • Fix T44762: Materials flicker in edit-mode (rBe8561e966d)
  • Fix T44744: tangents incorrect in edit mode. (rB8843a09df3)
  • Fix unreported: fix view-selected zoom logic (rBe0611ca832)
  • Fix unreported: Crash with non-camera as a camera (rBcae23bab6b)
  • Fix unreported: Eyedropper with quad-view (rB68fe630735)
  • Fix unreported: GPU_shader_export fails /w some lamp attrs (rB2b0613b948)
  • Fix unreported: Don't show smoke domain when render-only enabled (rBde953bf7b8)
  • Animation:
  • Fix T43997: Paste fcurve keeps handle selection (rBf03e004c23)
  • Fix T44068: "Layered" option for auto keyframing doesn't "Insert Available Only" is enabled (rB1a5c5ac742)
  • Fix T36385: Animated Strip-Time doesnt update (rB2b4ff142ab)
  • Fix T44362: no easy way to repeatedly duplicate keyframes in action (rB54c18d4849)
  • Fix T44558: "Clear Keyframes" complains when operating on an array property and it had deleted the action in the process (rBdebcd6b217)
  • Fix T44717: use_negative_frames ignored /w graph-editor (rB77ef3f9041)
  • Fix T44036: Add option to bake into current action instead of creating a new one. (rB6973e26bf9)
  • Fix unreported: Crash when trying to create new action in Shape Key DopeSheet mode (rBb7afbaf8cc)
  • Fix unreported: Crash when using "On Selected Markers" mode for Propogate Pose with no markers present (rBf30b60d139)
  • Fix unreported: Drawing glitch when renaming animation channels (rB03f2e5d4a6)
  • Fix unreported: Action Editor: Preemptive fix for null-pointer dereference (rB6589d07c8f)
  • Fix unreported: Changing actions in the Action Editor using the Browse dropdown should happen in tweakmode (rBe4fbc8fc8d)
  • Fix unreported: Action Editor "Browse" Fix: Stash active action if nothing else uses it (rBa0e1b6573a)
  • Grease Pencil:
  • Fix T44259: Secondary strokes get terminated early when drawing in Continuous Drawing mode (rB59df941ea5)
  • Fix T44412: Crash when trying to paint on a GPencil frame when the frames are out of order (rB09f2aa9382)
  • Fix T44452: Inconsistent gpencil color in prefs (rB6bc26540c2)
  • Fix T43867: Clicking outside the viewport exits now Grease Pencil "Continous Draw" mode (rBbe0dcd4e34)
  • Fix T29029: Grease pencil fails in Quad View (rB4e1c27f646)
  • Fix T44685: In grease pencil stroke editing, selecting points is offset by a few pixels (rB206f29c12c)
  • Fix T44084: Cursor gets reset after MMB scrolling in another area while in GPencil Continous Draw Mode (rB2b9d806432)
  • Fix T44774: Grease Pencil eraser size reset after exiting session (rB389564c711)
  • Fix unreported: Grease Pencil and negative frames (rB582fa5e36e)
  • Fix unreported: "show_points" setting for Grease Pencil drawing didn't work (rB5f6b958e96)
  • Armatures:
  • Fix T44219: Pose Breakdowner bug in Gooseberry rigs (rB1492db09d1, rB441f68e2b0)
  • Fix T43711: dual quaternion deform bug with shearing in deform matrix. (rBb6caefdaa9)
  • Fix T44591: Set PBone Group operator did not handled predifined group index in its invoke func. (rBd33b564f91)
  • Fix unreported: Glitch scaling bone radius (rB6461fbd9ce)
  • Fix unreported: parent tips staying selected after separate (rB77f0f3c54e)
  • Audio:
  • Fix T43853: Audio animation bug (fcurves) (rB2fa593a6f7)
  • Fix T44815: Sound bake doesn't check filepath (rB39b85e452f)
  • Fix unreported: AUD_OpenALDevice::getPosition returns negative values (rB770b109deb)
  • Collada:
  • Fix T44648: Collada finding bone chains during import crashes when no bones are there (rB0525db39d1)
  • Fix T44884: Index counter for active UV Map used wrong offset (rB51bec8e22e)
  • Fix T44884: corrected a wrong usage of the CustomLayer API (due to a misunderstanding) (rBa5a1d4aa3a)
  • Constraints:
  • Fix T44408: "Rest Length" property in the Stretch To constraint was getting clipped when using Metric Units (rB0b691563ea)
  • Curve/Text Editing:
  • Fix T44186: Bezier Bevel facto mapping broken when 'start' was set to 'Resolution' and 'end' was not. (rB1b327aa219)
  • Fix T44213: Bevel object from different scene won't update generated bezier curve geometry (rB2d05466700)
  • Fix T44737: Missing 'Spin' op entry in surface (NURBS) tools/menu. (rB4d45f47920)
  • Fix T44497: Crash on deleting curve handle with hook modifier (rB4ffcc6ff56, rBe529882be0)
  • Fix T44991: Apply transform skips poly-radius (rB22a4fcb146)
  • File I/O:
  • Fix T44089: All addons do not use same default for orientations. (rBcf365275c2)
  • Fix T44243: File browser behavior is inconsistent between append and open. (rBb444887054)
  • Fix T44113: Some System Folders do not contain go back arrow. (rB114d1b23d2)
  • Fix T44235: UNC Path Fails in open. (rBaa24704749)
  • Fix T44533: system_bookmarks not showing utf standard ( umlauts etc. ) (rBce32aae80c)
  • Fix unreported: Do not systematically do live-update when tab-completing textedit buttons. (rB3f30ebf64a)
  • Fix unreported: Use off_t for filesize (was int) (rBec710775cf)
  • Game Engine:
  • Fix T43980: BGE: MouseLook (actuator) triggers MouseMovement (sensor) (rB73ad76970e)
  • Fix T43788: BGE: Light casts shadow when use_shadow unchecked (rB6e17420548)
  • Fix T43724 and T41599: BGE: addObject() with KX_FontObject and (rB176ecd9c9c)
  • Fix T43994: BGE: Steering actuator bug with Navmesh (rBdd3ade250d)
  • Fix T43178: BGE has hard-coded 60 Hz as frame rate (rB30527e3e55)
  • Fix T44065: fixed vehicle constraint (rBd21018b334)
  • Fix T27322: World F-Curve (rBe7ae96ad41)
  • Fix T43592: World GLSL (rBc73693d4a5)
  • Fix T36703: Character motion actuator local movement not working correct. (rB29e968a315)
  • Fix T36285: Wrong viewport scale. (rBf5648f6db9)
  • Fix T43800: getScreenVect()/getScreenPosition()/modelview_matrix returns incorrect results (rB465a5d29c0)
  • Fix T43537: ImageMirror does not work in BlenderPlayer with quad buffer (rBb329016b29)
  • Fix T44389: Tooltips swapped in Logic Editor (rB9b9978656d)
  • Fix T42341: Sensor.frequency is badly named (rB8c98b1649d)
  • Fix T44374: Crash when collision sensor deactivated (rB4cd37541b0)
  • Fix T43536: logic.getCurrentScene() returning wrong scene in (rBa2f9a0cfd9)
  • Fix T38335: incorrect triangle index in raycast result (rB6ee0327594, rB8647c7d501)
  • Fix T43822 Videotexture does not use sky color for off-screen (rBdc95ca92ca)
  • Fix T44700: mesh without material in blenderplayer. (rB2fa4a48bce)
  • Fix T41299: Group API for child object in dupli instance group. (rB5dc22fbbfb)
  • Fix T43761: No re-creation of display list after a mesh modification. (rB3b359f1fea)
  • Fix T42244: LibLoad crash with logic brick KX_TouchSensor (rB0b5bf9d419)
  • Fix T40555: LibLoad material caching issue (rB377822729c)
  • Fix T44778: missing specular transparency slider in game engine (rBa39efae03d)
  • Fix T44919: BGE marhutils attrs leak memory (rB33a7b72678)
  • Fix unreported: Light layer check (rBe0aeafdf0a)
  • Fix unreported: BGE crashes when RunPythonCallBackList() is called with maxargcount != minargcount (rBbf6bde232d)
  • Fix unreported: fix bugs with physics collision mask/group (rB546031b694)
  • Fix unreported: Activate collision mask/group in UI. (rB62b13c6d07)
  • Fix unreported: Collision callbacks for compound controllers (rB4616a7a4d3)
  • Fix unreported: Compound child shape added on instance game object (rB15751238d5)
  • Fix unreported: Double jumps are not working with character motion actuator (rB8bf9e1412f)
  • Fix unreported: Fix crash during physics mesh update. (rB4d8f7eddda)
  • Fix unreported: Fix Bullet shape margin for triangle mesh static objects (rB909d3228b1)
  • Fix unreported: Fix black material on meshes without materials in blenderplayer. (rB2da9a39418)
  • Fix unreported: bug with default material and MTFace. (rB153cebd95b)
  • Image / UV Editing:
  • Fix T44035: Proportional editing lag (rBc451dba550)
  • Fix T44282: Image sampling line disappears after a while (rBbb2300de94)
  • Fix T44320: selecting islands can fail. (rB5197aa04c6)
  • Fix T44351: Scopes make editmesh lag (rB41350a91b5)
  • Fix T44724: missing menu entries for 'view fit' (F) in clip/image editors. (rB08f30ef31c)
  • Fix T44823: No menu entry for Circle Select in UV/Image editor. (rB025a646114)
  • Mesh Editing:
  • Fix T39184: Multisegment bevel profiles should curve in-plane sometimes. (rB2140cb60cb)
  • Fix T43975: Deleting a Shapekey can break the relative pointers (rB6aaedc7cfd)
  • Fix T44027: Normal Edit Mod : Radial from object normals affected by target object scale. (rB2ab4489f17)
  • Fix T44138: Crash in DataTransfer modifier when selecting a source with no loops. (rBd97b97460c)
  • Fix T44270: Similar face region crash /w wire edge (rB59bfc5c76e)
  • Fix T44275: CTRL+LMB to extrude to mouse position conflicts with snapped (rBaf23e8d44a)
  • Fix T44258: Can't select similar regions (rB20a780e3e8)
  • Fix T44364: Remove shape key crashes Blender (rBf684dfc432)
  • Fix T44359: `mesh_normals_loop_custom_set()` would not behave correctly with zero-normals. (rB8ad37b0d22)
  • Fix T44411: poll() function of MESH_OT_knife_project was not strict enough. (rB50522cba92)
  • Fix T44419: extruding when using lasso deselect (rBfa761dfe6d)
  • Fix T44383: Select face fails in some positions (rBd57a93a7cb)
  • Fix T44461: Crash and file corruption after calc_normals_split, calc_tessface execution. (rBf75c89b3f4)
  • Fix T44492: knife tool should cut across a split edge. (rBc2f861453e)
  • Fix T44522: loop remapping between meshes when using 'nearest vert, best matching normal' modes (rB34abe82205)
  • Fix T44542: 'extend selection' editmode tool would select hidden elements. (rB78956b6a83)
  • Fix T44484: Edge-split corrupts mesh (rBe9dcb068c7)
  • Fix T44560: Merge Collapse tool - UVs operator panel option ignored with Collapse but not with other merge types. (rB74d31279cd)
  • Fix T44589: No way to add a skin data layer manualy. (rB3a808270df)
  • Fix T44618: Rip Fill on a single vert would only generate one of the two expected faces. (rB4487358da7)
  • Fix T44634: Slide edge not responding to ALT + WHEEL to change reference edge in "even mode". (rB9190d18b74)
  • Fix T42510: Limit by seams fails in edge/vert mode (rBba9dbaae64)
  • Fix T44766: Connect fails /w selected ngon edges (rBdf0a1fa3c5)
  • Fix T44780: Decimate planar creates concave edges (rBe37c4e5819)
  • Fix T44745: non manifold edges of mesh do not work when smoothing in (rB07def553d2)
  • Fix T44915: vertex color lost when adding new layer in edit mode. (rB7173069cbe)
  • Fix T44742: Bevel now avoids vertex meshes when only two edges are beveled. (rBfd1ea5e3db)
  • Fix T41177: Bevel shouldn't try to slide along edge when can't see it. (rB896f08bde8)
  • Fix T44964: Bisect tool /w nonuniform scale (rBbcfe38aa03)
  • Fix T45009: Bad 'tri area computation' code in knife tool. (rBec3c2d3be9)
  • Fix unreported: Incorrect assert in lnor code. (rB9542cf041a)
  • Fix unreported: BMesh: use inverse-square falloff /w smooth-subdiv (rB6e02f1da74)
  • Fix unreported: Data transfer - Loop Islands Hell Fixes. (rBcdabf7e353)
  • Fix unreported: Crash with datatransfer operator when source object was hidden. (rBe560bbe1d5)
  • Fix unreported: EdgeSlide: fix divide by zero (rBcb7fdf45cd)
  • Fix unreported: BMesh: decimate wasn't using face/edge centers (rB24e1d7f4f4)
  • Fix unreported: Mesh mirror failing on isolated verts (rB2c000cc9fc)
  • Fix unreported: join faces ignoring angle limit (rBed2cb8de2f)
  • Fix unreported: error joining tris -> quads (rB4737722968)
  • Fix unreported: crash clearing skin data on non mesh (rBf9b6f5756c)
  • Fix unreported: Correct vert/edge slide poll functions (rBc0ca70a3b2)
  • Fix unreported: Fix error calculating bmesh normals (rBb07be730b2)
  • Modifiers:
  • Fix T44361: array modifier "fit curve" mode not working properly (rB4fb33d82e2)
  • Fix T44475: Merge option of Mirror Modifier behavior reversed. (rBe1a53b6d52)
  • Fix T44530: UV islands fail on subsurf after mirror modifier. (rBd920b8e075)
  • Fix T42893: Skin Modifier, changes randomly toggling editmode (rBabd68c6e45)
  • Fix T44630: incorrect mirror modifier merge limit tooltip. (rB0e9b210595)
  • Fix T44611: 'make_links_data' modifiers would fail and crash with multires modifier. (rBaa3fc89257)
  • Fix T44677: Normal Edit Modifier Radial Mode broken with target object. (rBae00e42bc2)
  • Fix T39775: Skin modifier crash (rB7969b238db)
  • Fix T44879: data transfer modifier was missing a copy function (rB52cfd0eef8)
  • Fix T36994: Make link modifier fails (soft body) (rB9454377c71)
  • Fix unreported: modifiers stack not recalculated when mapping requirements change (rBc64f491f9f)
  • Movie Clip Editor:
  • Fix T44110: Plane track doesn't work when built with scons (rB0f0e080a26)
  • Fix T44752: Clip Editor doesn't respect ColorSpace setting when playback after Prefetch (rBcecd1f98a4)
  • Fix T45017: Crash when running 'track markers' operator with no clip loaded. (rB825892ae7a)
  • Fix unreported: Fix bad memory access freeing viewport which uses movie clip (rB3e5cd52783)
  • Fix unreported: Deselecting with shift-LMB does not work in graph view (rB0d64e26740)
  • Fix unreported: Selecting curves in graph view always extends tracks selection (rB730e61b446)
  • Nodes / Compositor:
  • Fix T43974: Alpha output of movie clip node crashes blender (rBc4b3b60aad)
  • Fix T44040: Blender crashes when nodes are muted (rBc69b5e0276)
  • Fix T44064: Reroute two-node loop crash (rB8d0b104f43)
  • Fix T44149: Node Groups do not work correctly (rB8af5390968)
  • Fix T44343: Compositor image node cannot properly load multilayer EXRs (rB66e2fc39ce)
  • Fix T44494: crop node changes values during execution. (rBbcac112dde)
  • Fix T44624: world menu appears in node editor header with Blender internal. (rB7c3a714124)
  • Fix T44398: Compositing displace node makes image fuzzy with zero displacement (rB7c2905b8ec)
  • Fix T44683: Unable to mute movie clip when using stabilized display (rB38eab96f9b)
  • Fix T44715: crash compositing with undefined node due to re-save in older version (rBb68fa820d6)
  • Fix T44755: set_value node output in node tree not properly converted to (rB78411dc7d7)
  • Fix T44795: same menu item for different command in node editor. (rB4b8dcfc0f5)
  • Fix T44747: Drag toggle /w nodes (glitch) (rBbfa7586ba3)
  • Fix T44921: Node editor, nodes position not maintained after Material panel changes (rB89025958af)
  • Fix unreported: Patch D1283 by Alexander Romanov fixes reroute node type update not (rB0abb6f3ef0)
  • Fix unreported: Updating node standard value won't work if node is hidden, patch by (rB69bf3a9e94)
  • Fix unreported: Node Editor using wrong snap element menu when called from shortcut (rBd1230ca723)
  • Transform:
  • Fix T44592: Zero scale on an axis, zeros all (rB52b9d83417)
  • Fix unreported: Fix bend in object mode (wasn't rotating objects) (rB7fd93dc8dc)
  • Fix unreported: error redoing shrink fatten (rBa5a648c7c6)
  • Outliner:
  • Fix T44162: modifier's icons toggle update issue (rB70d9c01325)
  • Fix T44201: Crash Deleting Hierarchy in Outliner (rB4153ff3610)
  • Fix T44212: Crash on Group Rename. (rB71af08e1c9)
  • Fix T44348: Blender crashes when selecting bone from inactive scene in outliner (rB825b015e92)
  • Fix T44476: Hiding Grease Pencil from Outliner RMB doesn't update 3D (rBdc36e1fe39)
  • Fix T44439: outliner's treestore could keep invalid ID pointers, could crash on undo due to invalid mem access. (rBf271d85b86)
  • Particles:
  • Fix T44183: particles in linked group offset from object (rB43101289a6)
  • Fix T44268: too many virtual parents + non-100 display% = crash (rB4b685e1b90)
  • Fix T44353, T43981: random particle distribution overlaps if number is greater than 256. (rB86f80c481c)
  • Fix T44593: particle volume distribution not working with large meshes. (rB1d0f1a1ec9)
  • Fix unreported: Crash when using particle emission with clump/roughness curves (rB8463e6cb41)
  • Fix unreported: Yet another fix for crashing particles. (rB4dc141f933)
  • Fix unreported: Missing particles in render if they're disabled for viewport (rBc523e82e31)
  • Physics / Hair / Simulations:
  • Fix T43803: Crash playing smoke animation, when linked as group instance (rB1cac8c23b5)
  • Fix T44020: Crash exporting fluid sim to fbx (rB07f53d6454)
  • Fix T43694: Hair Clumps Point to Scene Center When Density is Texture-Controlled. (rBd4ac58d049)
  • Fix T44193: Hair intersection with duplis causes flickering (rBdd0604c606)
  • Fix T44185, T44090: hair texture density working unreliable. (rBdced56f02a)
  • Fix T44960: Crash with 'Shape Cut' in edit hair mode. (rBd5bca524d5)
  • Fix unreported: Unstable particle jittered distribution. (rBa0a6cb129e)
  • Fix unreported: rare crash duplicating fluidsim (rB7f89bc8e85)
  • Python:
  • Fix T44137: bpy.path.is_subdir fails (rBb87eaef1f7)
  • Fix T40762: Python can't access macro values (rB3160740421)
  • Fix T44822: python enums' itemf callback did not handle 'NULL' context case. (rBa80c1e50bc)
  • Render:
  • Fix T44021: Crash switching Rendering Engines while viewport rendering + animating (rB1724513fc6)
  • Fix T44028: Vertex Colors Baking error (rB63897304a9)
  • Fix T44102: Mirrored objects render black with Blender Internal and Autosmooth. (rB4685092fd8)
  • Fix T44240: Lamp Halo invisible in rendering. (rB89530f1486)
  • Fix T43696: Baking tearing normals (rB8cc475c40b)
  • Fix T44310: Other render slots cleared after each render (rB5d212fb812)
  • Fix T44322: Crash when trying to render spotlight halos. (rBb30a2fe3f4)
  • Fix T44329: Blender Crash when rendering in 3DView. (rB1e71270f77, rB085fa2e3d7)
  • Fix T41092: Bake-API: reduce memory footprint when baking more than one object (rB394c5318c6)
  • Fix T44541: aka gigapixel image render support in blender. (rB2909975385)
  • Fix T44556: Crash on the World Properties > Preview (rB078e589263)
  • Fix T44598: blender internal not giving same result on repeated texture bakes. (rBe73f1035d7)
  • Fix T44880: transparency filter is only valid with raytransp, not ztransp. (rB1bede8644a)
  • Fix T44869: Crash rendering >2gb images (rBabc4a3d455)
  • Fix T44984: wrong texture clamping when applying saturation > 1.0 (rB9927849708)
  • Fix unreported: Race condition and bad memory access highlighting render tiles (rB3d6642db83)
  • Fix unreported: Opengl rendering always looking through camera (rB5dd63a977f)
  • Render: Freestyle:
  • Fix T44127: Python does not guarantee to free all objects on exit... (rBf7dbce9914)
  • Fix T44404: freestyle crashes blender. (rBb466a82fa5)
  • Fix T44404: freestyle crashes blender. (rB85ae4b87af)
  • Fix unreported: Fixed a crash due to missing call of StrokeShader.__init__() in Python. (rB3da7226844)
  • Fix unreported: Line style ID datablocks not copied when fully copying a scene. (rB046388830a)
  • Render: Cycles:
  • Fix T43967: Background is wrong in 2.74 (rB13d443496c)
  • Fix T43786: Cycles bake disregards Auto Smooth (vertex per-face normals) (rB1cd4070e35)
  • Fix T43926: Volume scatter: intersecting objects GPU rendering artifacts (rBed7e593a4b)
  • Fix T44128: Ray visibility only enables diffuse if glossy is also enabled (rB22dfb50622)
  • Fix T44113: Ashikhmin-Shirley distribution of glossy shader at 0 roughness causes artifacts when background uses MIS (rBaf399884e1)
  • Fix T44222: Crash using pointiness attribute for volume shaders (rB3639a70eae)
  • Fix T44046: Cycles speed regression in 2.74 (CPU only) (rBbf11e362c5)
  • Fix T44449: sm_52 kernel missing in CMake builds. (rB5db143efbb)
  • Fix T44512: Cycles fails normal bake /w scale flip (rBe1ed47eb5b)
  • Fix T44544: Cached BVH is broken since BVH leaf split (rB2e91bcfb9d)
  • Fix T44548: Cycles Tube Mapping off / not compatible with BI (rB41d817f15d)
  • Fix T44616: Cycles crashes loading 42k by 21k textures (rBf0f481031c)
  • Fix T44763: Surface Panel does not update correctly according to Node Output for Cycles UI (rB7487a4d4ac)
  • Fix T44989: Crash on linking external OSL material (rB546a0e2d96)
  • Fix unreported: Fix displacement code creating cyclic dependencies in graph (rBa43d00d51e)
  • Fix unreported: Fix wrong render result in certain configuration of render layer's surface/hair (rBcca4405437)
  • Fix unreported: Fix wrong order in object flags calculations (rBe5f3193df3)
  • Fix unreported: Fix wrong termination criteria in SSS volume stack update (rB7aab5c6ca9)
  • Fix unreported: Fix possible uninitialized XML read state which might cause crashes (rB16794f908f)
  • Fix unreported: missing features gathering from the bump graph (rBf45f2ac687)
  • Fix unreported: crash doing render preview of external OSL script (rB0589a814ba)
  • Fix unreported: wrong name displayed for the debug passes (rB6c8f2049f6)
  • Sequencer:
  • Fix T43989: Sequencer - Ctrl snapping a sequencer strip does not work if you specify the x axis. (rB05e3c261a4)
  • Fix T43986: VSE Mask Modifier don't move with video-Clip. (rB6786ef6783)
  • Fix T44121: : VSE Preview scaling issue when using proxies and Show Overexposed (rB581afa9da3)
  • Fix T44122: rendering OpenGL preview movie with audio has wrong audio (rBc0ef4e9b78)
  • Fix T44458: strip modifier mask not copied correctly when doing scene (rB9b4c8a2507)
  • Fix T44465: Crash using VSE OGL render + Grease Pencil (rBde687b6fa0)
  • Fix unreported: Crash adding mask modifier (rB64451f0928)
  • Fix unreported: Shift duplicate and snap crashes in sequencer (rB77ff544d93)
  • Fix unreported: reserve frames in sequencer failing with big frame ranges. (rB8c6a9b9edc)
  • Fix unreported: off by one error in display of start/end frame in sequencer. (rB0e02ad8b64)
  • Sculpting / Painting:
  • Fix T43959: jittering in 2D texture painting. (rB79393cb7a2)
  • Fix T44124: Crash deleting brush (rBb38b5846ba)
  • Fix T44308: painting in 2D editor offset by one pixel. (rBd75bfdfafc)
  • Fix T44390: Clay brush weirdness part-1 (rB05b6de545a, rB3a4a2a9427)
  • Fix T41893: inconsistent color management on sculpt texture nodes previews. (rB2775eaf01a)
  • Fix T44627: locking alpha should happen in straight space (rB11cf1ebdd1)
  • Fix T44627: black spots with lock alpha in projection paint: (rBe6a7fdd309)
  • Fix T44604: bad quality of rake with bezier curves. (rBa5dead2e8c)
  • Fix T44543: painted texture lost after first save (rB924f31e54f)
  • Fix T44553: Dyntopo ignores front-face option (rB5dfe88adba, rBdc3533030a)
  • Fix T44791: triangles when painting on a texpaint plane (rBd3c67bc81e)
  • Fix T44929, T44927: inconsistencies in texture paint UI: (rB43913fe212)
  • Fix T45013: negative curve falloff not working. (rB9f911f62dc)
  • Fix unreported: Fix adding to paint-curves from the first point (rB890e533c76)
  • Fix unreported: BMesh: resolve skinny face artifacts /w dyntopo (rBd2da8aa27a)
  • Fix unreported: Fix project painting on a negative scaled object (rBf829f556b4)
  • Fix unreported: Rake: store last position from mouse, don't store halfpoint between last (rB15fd37fab2)
  • Fix unreported: Fix project paint worldspace coord calc from seam (rB9207c8d669)
  • Text Editor:
  • Fix T44381: Un-indent undo fails (rBc740027e30)
  • User Interface:
  • Fix T44003: Flatty Light: GPencil vertices and timeline keyframes black (rB62070ae6e1)
  • Fix T44237: translation does not work in spacebar search. (rB99d8e08ed9)
  • Fix T44237: translation does not work for input sockets in 'Active node properties' panel. (rB13a63234d6)
  • Fix T44395: String untranslated in open file window. (rB255fb79ff3)
  • Fix T44406: the Hebrew font causes trouble. (rBeced87b2d6)
  • Fix T44432: Zoom to mouse fails /w FCurve editor (rB912397756a)
  • Fix T44470: File Selection sometimes surpresses last Character. (rB4da050674e)
  • Fix T44477: Overlapping tooltips in Outliner (rB18aaae101a)
  • Fix T44405: Importing keyconfig with changed shortcut in "Screen Global" (rBde8e89d4f5)
  • Fix T42495: Fullscreen area icon glitch (rB3bffcc675b)
  • Fix T44586: Viet language problem for Blender Interface (rB2c72edc7f1)
  • Fix T44376: Buttons context, invalid data access (rB77e6a001a9)
  • Fix T44794: Blend From Shape tool X Icon UI Bug? (rB6b40a4bcb1)
  • Fix T44814: 'preview' icons would not greyout. (rB78918e761f)
  • Fix T44842: Modal Timer (template) should return {'CANCELLED'} when cancelled! (rB5e66827029)
  • Fix T44872: Missing UI control in Musgrave texture properties (rB18208c8ad9)
  • Fix T44892: Cursor warp, invoked outside the area (rBb147473f02)
  • Fix T44976: 3D View turns into an Image Editor after saving render (rB4f94947157)
  • Fix T44930: File-select in redo panel, disables UI (rBcb9bd23d0c)
  • Fix T37746: Presets in splash failed to redraw (rBaf980a20a4)
  • Fix T45003: some UI/i18n issues. (rB3092e1031d)
  • Fix unreported: Fix broken uiTemplateIconView(). (rB6a1c123df4)
  • Fix unreported: `widget_draw_preview()` not taking into account given alpha. (rB1ac0fef345)
  • Fix unreported: RMB menu in popup, included 'Header' submenu (rB9b1ca19396)
  • Fix unreported: Don't crash with pie menus with more than 8 items. (rBded0004f8b)
  • Fix unreported: Fix ugly drawing of closed panels in horizontal layout (rB3100fbef5e)
  • Fix unreported: Fix UI string clip (reverse search separator char) (rB2c7cb8ce59)
  • Fix unreported: tooltip colors not initialized correctly (rB91d424b82a)
  • System:
  • Fix T44025: pixelFormat retain was left, for 2.74 backport (rB0582aa6f13)
  • Fix T44217: Crash when starting .blend without "Load UI" enabled (rB4b847595ee)
  • Fix T44266: win32 delete's malloc'd memory (rB00f732f268)
  • Fix T44265: Win32 error checking GL version (rBa1c2b1a8a8)
  • Fix T31546: fragment program gets created every frame (rB866532360c)
  • Fix T44132: Crash after open EXR format (rB3de45ee7fe)
  • Fix T44759: Blender has problems reading and writing 42k images to PNG (rBac636a3c97)
  • Fix unreported: Attempt to fix an error in compilation of geometry shaders in Intel 4000 (rB0ef9f61410)
  • Fix unreported: Crash loading file without scene in bg mode (rB7f4b6a345e)
  • Fix unreported: Fix double-free on copied Text compiled py-code (rB920fa0f963)
  • Fix unreported: Fix multilayer OpenEXR not supporting metadata. (rBde68066c1c)
  • Fix unreported: a broken symlink to an addon resulted in a blank addon tab (rB07d51141ae)
  • Input (NDOF / 3D Mouse):
  • Fix T44612: add support for mouse button 6 and 7 on OS X. (rBc641a5563f)
  • Fix T44614: Maya keymap left mouse click to add cut not working. (rB2d590670b4)
  • Fix T44739: OS X RMB emulation giving wrong mouse button release event. (rB43ee3f4040)
  • Fix T44740: Tweak events stuck (ignored release) (rB718bc078a8)
  • Fix T44821: Making warp shortcut fails (rBde0c269c28)
  • Fix T40621: Tablet in walk mode fails (rBc8711b6f6f)
  • Fix unreported: Fix duplicated IME input (rB6e72f06069)
  • Fix unreported: Fix for debug-only crash when setting "Any" keymap input type (rB02a5cf75a2)
  • Fix unreported: ndof: fix Linux device detect regression (rB55b7a8c027)
  • Other:
  • Fix T43976: Edit-mode crash /w (scene/screen.scene) mismatch (rB06cc89d744)
  • Fix T44093: Color picker SV+H order wrong. (rBe8b6d86f95)
  • Fix T44092: Maya preset doesn't allow attaching Nodes to Frames via D&D (rBb714b23443)
  • Fix T44026: ID prop delete leaves names in _RNA_UI (rB1c329af74c)
  • Fix T44133: SSAO in OpenGL rendering from orthographic camera did not (rB4fd2f678ea)
  • Fix T43266: when we have a blendfile name use only that without the pid (rB9b4172cc6c)
  • Fix T44290: Clear users & fake-user conflict (rB796c3c7748)
  • Fix T44433: print "unknown" rather than "1970-01-01" when .blend date is unknown. (rB4e40bdd02c)
  • Fix T27642: Add version in .exe installer properties (rB3ec8bcebf3)
  • Fix T44882: color picker in texpainting doing linear interpolation even (rB2f2f7c0e87)
  • Fix unreported: Fix RNA active spline assignment (rBd0fcbab152)
  • Fix unreported: Fix crash using removed data as function arguments (rBdb710e6c0d)
  • Fix unreported: Fix crash using "Copy to selected" on ID-props (rBff1ed872d9)
  • Fix unreported: Out-of-bounds read BKE_deform_flip_side_name (rB8b6e777736)
  • Fix unreported: Loading of indexed .bmp files (rB4b3641ec99)
  • Fix unreported: Fixes for backbuf selection logic (rB62e149881a)
  • Fix unreported: Crash in blenderplayer when scrubbing off screen. (rBf6062638c1)
  • Fix unreported: drawing text on >2gig buffers (stamp for eg) (rBc67abff7f0)

New in Blender 2.75 Test 1 (May 21, 2015)

  • RE-DESIGNS:
  • Files saved in 2.74 subversion 3 or newer, when opened in 2.74 subversion 2 or older will lose their packed images.
  • The Baking-API now uses an object_id in the bake() function and in the pixel_array table.
  • Multi-View Render:
  • For this 5-minute guide we will take an existent .blend file that was made for monoscopic rendering and transform it in stereo-3d ready.
  • Introduction:
  • Start opening up your project file, in this case turntable.blend from the Creature Factory 2 Open Movie Workshop series from the Blender Institute by Andy Goralczyk.
  • Views Setup:
  • Go to the Render Layers panel and enable Views for this scene.
  • Camera:
  • To tweak the stereo 3d parameters select the camera in the Outliner. In the Camera panel go to the Stereoscopy tab and change the Convergence Distance.
  • The viewport will respond in real-time to those changes allowing you to preview the current depth value of the scene.
  • Viewport:
  • Before fine-tuning the camera parameters you can set the convergence plane in the viewport based in your scene depth layout. Go outside the camera view and you will instantly see the convergence plane in front of the camera.
  • You can toggle this and other display settings in the Stereoscopy tab of the viewport properties panel. In the following image the cameras frustum volumes are also visible.
  • Stereo 3D Display:
  • If you have a real 3d display at some point you can change the 3D display mode in the Window menu, by calling the Stereo 3D operator. Be aware that some modes require a fullscreen editor to work.
  • OpenGL Preview:
  • Turn Table OpenGL Rendering Preview:
  • Before rendering your scene you can save an OpenGL preview of the animation for testing in the final display. In the Render Output panel you can chose the output Views Format.
  • The options include individual files per view, top-bottom, anaglyph among others. Pick the one that fits your display requirements.
  • Rendering and Image Editor:
  • Once you are happy with the results you can render out the final animation. In the Image Editor you can inspect the individual views and the stereo result.
  • Image Formats:
  • Your final animation can be saved in more robust formats than the ones used by the OpenGL render preview. In this example we saved as cross-eyed side-by-side stereo 3d.
  • Final Considerations:
  • As this guide showed, there is more to stereo 3d rendering than just generate two images. The earlier the stereo pipeline is considered the smoother it will get. The following sections are a more in-depth view of the individual components we visited in the workflow.
  • Window Stereo 3D Display:
  • An essential component of the Stereoscopy pipeline is the ability to display the stereo image in a proper display. Blender supports from high-end 3D displays to simple red-cyan glasses. On top of that you can set a different display mode for each window.
  • The display mode can be changed via the Window menu or if you create your own shortcuts for the wm.stereo_3d operator.
  • Display Mode:
  • Anaglyph:
  • Render two differently filtered colored images for each eye. Anaglyph glasses are required. We support Red-Cyan, Green-Magenta and Yellow-Blue glasses.
  • Interlace:
  • Render two images for each eye into one interlaced image. A 3D-ready monitor is required. We support Row, Column and Checkerboard Interleaved. An option to Swap Left/Right helps to adjust the image for the screen. This method works better in fullscreen.
  • Time Sequential:
  • Renders alternate eyes. This method is also known as Page Flip. This requires the graphic card to support Quad Buffer and it only works in fullscreen.
  • Side-by-Side:
  • Render images for left and right eye side-by-side. There is an option to support Cross-Eye glasses. It works only in fullscreen, and it should be used with the Full Editor operator.
  • Top-Bottom:
  • Render images for left and right eye one above another. It works only in fullscreen, and it should be used with the Full Editor operator.
  • Stereo 3D Camera:
  • When using the Stereo 3D scene view setup a stereo pair is created on-the-fly and used for rendering and previsualization. For all the purposes this works as two cameras that share most parameters (focal length, clipping, ...). The stereo pair, however, is offsetted, and can have unique rotation and shift between itself.
  • Interocular Distance:
  • Set the distance between the camera pair. Although the convergence of a stereo pair can be changed in post-production, different interocular distances will produce different results due to the parts of the scene being occluded from each point of view.
  • Convergence Plane Distance
  • The converge point for the stereo cameras. This is often the distance between a projector and the projection screen. You can visualize this in the 3D Viewport.
  • Convergence Mode:
  • Off-Axis:
  • The stereo camera pair is separated by the interocular distance, and shifted inwards so it converges in the convergence plane. This is the ideal format since it is the one closest to how the human vision works.
  • Parallel:
  • This method produces two parallel cameras that do not converge. For the viewport stereo 3d preview a Viewport Convergence Distance is used. For rendering this is not considered though. This method is common when combining real footage with rendered elements.
  • Toe-in:
  • A less common approach is to rotate the cameras instead of shifting their frustum. The Toe-in method is rarely used in modern 3D productions.
  • Pivot:
  • The stereo pair can be constructed around the active camera with a new camera built for each eye (Center Pivot) or using the existing camera and creating (Left or Right). The latter is what is used when only one eye needs to be rendered for an existing mono 2D project.
  • Viewport Stereo 3D:
  • When you enable ‘Views’ in the Render Layer panel a new are is available in the 3D Viewport properties panel. In this panel you can pick whether to see the stereo 3d in the viewport, or which camera to see. It also allow you to see the Cameras, the Plane and the Volume of the stereo cameras.
  • Cameras:
  • When working with the Stereo 3D views setup you can inspect what each individual generated camera is looking or the combined result of them. In the Multi-View mode you can see the combined result of the left and right cameras (when available) or the current selected camera.
  • Plane:
  • The convergence plane represents the screen as it is perceived by the audience. Visualizing it in the 3D Viewport allows you to layout your scene based on your depth script outside the camera view.
  • Volume:
  • The intersection of the stereo cameras frustums helps planning the show by avoiding elements being visible by only one camera. The volume is defined by the cameras start and end clipping distances. The areas that are in the frustum of one camera only are known as retinal rivalry areas. They are tolerated in the negative space (the region from the convergence plane into the image) but are to be avoided at all costs in the positive space (the area from the convergence plane to the camera).
  • Multi-View and Stereo 3D Image I/O:
  • Multi-View and Stereo 3D:
  • Multi-View images can be saved in special formats according to the production requirements. By default the system saves each view as an individual file, thus generating as many files as views to be rendered. In stereo 3d productions, for the final deployment or even intermediary previews it’s convenient to save stereo 3d images, that are ready to use with 3D displays or simple anaglyph glasses. The formats supported match the display modes available for the window.
  • Lossy-Formats:
  • Some stereo 3D formats represent a considerable loss of data. For example, the Anaglyph format will cap out entire color channels from the original image. The Top-Bottom compressed will discard half of your vertical resolution data. The Interlace will mash your data considerably. Once you export in those formats, you can still import the image back in Blender, for it to be treated as Stereo 3D. You will need to match the window stereo 3d display mode to the image stereo 3d format though.
  • Lossless Formats:
  • Some formats will preserve the original data, leading to no problems on exporting and importing the files back in Blender. The Individual option will produce separate images that (if saved in a lossless encoding such as PNG or OpenEXR) can be loaded back in production with no loss of data. For the Stereo 3D formats the only lossless options are Top-Bottom and Side-by-Side without the Squeezed Frame option.
  • Multi-View Openexr:
  • Another option is to use Multi-View OpenEXR files. This format can save multiple views in a single file and is backward compatible with old OpenEXR viewers (you see only one view though). Multi-View native support is only available to OpenEXR.
  • Image Editor:
  • View Menu:
  • After you render your scene with Stereo 3D you will be able to see the rendered result in the combined stereo 3d or to inspect the individual views. This works for Viewer nodes, render results or opened images.
  • Views Format:
  • When you drag and drop an image into the Image Editor, Blender will open it as a individual images at first. If your image was saved with one of the Stereo 3D formats you can change how Blender should interpret the image by switching the mode to Stereo 3D, turning on Use Multi-View and picking the corresponding stereo method.
  • Compositor:
  • The compositor works smoothly with Multi-View. The compositing of a view is completed before the remaining views start to be composited. The pipeline is the same as the single-view workflow, with the difference that you can use Image, Movies or Image Sequences in any of the supported Multi-View formats.
  • The views to render are defined in the current scene views, in a similar way as you define the composite output resolution in the current scene render panel, regardless of the Image nodes resolutions or RenderLayers from different scenes.
  • Switch View Node:
  • If you need to treat the views separately you can use the Switch View node to combine the views before an output node.
  • Performance:
  • By default when compositing and rendering from the user interface all views are rendered and then composited. During test iterations you can disable all but one view from the Scene Views panel, and re-enable it after you get the final look.disable all but one view from the Scene Views panel, and re-enable it after you get the final look.
  • CYCLES RENDERING:
  • OpenCL Kernel Split:
  • The OpenCL Cycles kernel has been split into smaller parts, improving performance and stability of it. (7f4479da425b)
  • Currently only AMD cards are enabled for the new split kernel. Not all the features are supported yet, and that being said no motion blur, camera blur, SSS and volumetrics for now. Also transparent shadows are disabled on AMD devices because of some compiler bug.
  • This kernel also only implements regular path tracing and supporting branched one will take a bit.
  • Important: Please make sure you have the latest AMD driver installed for your GPU/APU. We also highly recommend a HD 7000 series GPU or above (GCN architecture), older cards are not supported and probably won't work.
  • Portals
  • Area lamps can function as light portals now and help to sample the environment light, therefore improving convergence. You can enable the Portal option in the lamp settings. Note: Rendering with Portals is usually slower, but as it converges more quickly, less samples are required (f478c2c)
  • Memory Optimizations:
  • Scene preparation / Rendering:
  • Free caches used by the synchronized objects
  • Free polygons after tessellation in order to reduce peak memory usage
  • Free unused images when rendering with locked interface
  • Reduce peak memory usage of scene synchronization by passing data ownership when converting derived mesh to mesh
  • Synchronize images after building BVH, reducing peak memory usage in production files
  • Avoid sloppy memory usage by BVH leaf nodes by splitting BVH nodes storage into inner and leaf nodes
  • Baking:
  • The memory footprint was considerably reduced when baking more than one object. The Baking-API changed to accommodate that
  • Performance Optimizations:
  • Generic:
  • World MIS table building is now multi threaded, reducing scene startup/update time.
  • Skip consecutive empty steps in Volume Decoupled Ray Marching code.
  • Make material preview rendering more responsive for complex shaders
  • Remove Emission shaders from the graph if color or strength is 0.
  • Use curve approximation for blackbody instead of lookup table
  • CPU:
  • Record all possible volume intersections for SSS and camera checks
  • Use native float->half conversion instructions for Haswell CPUs
  • GPU:
  • Speedup CMJ on GPU, makes it almost same speed as Sobol pattern
  • Optimize Beckmann slope sampling on GPU
  • Optimize clamp(x, 0, 1) into a single instruction
  • Various:
  • Panorama camera: Mirror ball is now available as projection.
  • Make animated seed a built-in feature.
  • USER INTERFACE:
  • Viewport:
  • Depth of Field:
  • Better quality depth of field effect with proper blur radius calculation.
  • High Quality:
  • Uses a more accurate representation of the DoF effect. Slower.
  • Viewport Camera Blades:
  • Number of blades in aperture for polygonal bokeh in the viewport
  • Navigation:
  • Numpad9 now switches to the opposite side of the view e160da30ea18223379eed160ba10c74af0d505e1
  • FileBrowser:
  • Font Preview:
  • Font preview with tinted thumbnails
  • You can now preview font files in filebrowser by enabling the thumbnail view.
  • This works in much the same way as previewing images and movies. The previewed string is translatable and you're able to colorize it by setting the appropriate theme color available under "File Browser -> Theme Space Settings -> Text"
  • Custom Size for Previews:
  • In preview display mode, thumbnails now can be resized from 32px to 256px
  • Small Improvements:
  • "Panel Drag-Collapse" allows to click and drag over multiple panels to quickly open/close them all. If the first panel was closed before clicking and dragging, all affected panels including the first one are opened, if the first one was open, all panels are closed.
  • Search buttons for choosing an object now contain an eyedropper icon as long as no object is set, that can be clicked to activate the eyedropper
  • The online manual of a button can now be accessed by mouse hovering it and pressing AltF1
  • Shift⇆ Tab to enable snapping and Ctrl⇧ Shift⇆ Tab to open the Snap Node Element menu now also work in the Node Editor (Exit Group now uses Ctrl⇆ Tab)
  • Other Changes:
  • Cycling button values (numbers, dropdowns) now uses CtrlWheel Template-MW.png, was AltWheel Template-MW.png.
  • MODELING:
  • Modifiers:
  • Corrective Smooth Modifier:
  • New corrective smooth modifier to smooth over ugly deformation areas.
  • Tools:
  • Subdivide smooth now gives more even output.
  • Rip Tool: improved support for detaching different kinds of connected regions.
  • Can now split off isolated faces-fans
  • Can now split off non-manifold vertices
  • Edge Slide: support for un-clamped sliding (Holding Alt allows to slide past bounds)
  • Selection:
  • Checker de-select now has the option to skip steps to give more control
  • Select linked: improved delimiter options and support for vertex and edge modes.
  • Support for different kinds of delimiters (UV, Sharp Edges, Materials)
  • Select linked (LKey to pick whats under the mouse cursor), now supports redo.
  • Material assignment:
  • The Material Slot widget has the ability to rearrange the slot order
  • This affects polygons' material indices (since polygons reference their assigned material by its material slot index).
  • Metaballs:
  • Significant speedup calculating geometry (replace Octree with BVH)
  • SCULPTING / PAINTING:
  • Project Paint:
  • Symmetry Texture Painting in 3D:
  • Projection Paint now has Symmetry support.
  • Access from symmetry panel (as with sculpt)
  • Supports multiple axis at once.
  • Supports all brush types including clone.
  • Sculpt:
  • Improved dynamic topology distribution
  • Crease brush now creates a more curved profile, to sculpt tighter grooves
  • New dyntopo detail mode, "Brush", uses edge detail size as a percentage of the brush radius.
  • Other features:
  • Constraining a line stroke to 45 degree increments is now done using the Alt key. Ctrl key is back to being used for negative strokes.
  • Vertex Paint colors no longer influence the viewport color when painting in texture painting (except when used in the material and user toggles material shading mode)
  • SEQUENCER:
  • It's now possible to store multiple proxies in the same custom directory since the directory names will get appended by the movie file name.
  • A new option for proxy storage, "Project" allows to store all proxies in a per-project folder instead of storing them per strip.
  • Image sequences can use placeholder files. This works by ticking "Use placeholders" when adding an image strip. The feature detects the frame range of opened images using blender's frame naming scheme (.filename) and makes an image sequence with all files in between even if they are missing. This allows users to render an image sequence with a few frames missing and still the image strip will have the correct range to account for the missing frames. Then, when the missing frames are rendered, users can refresh the sequencer and get the missing frames in the strip. The feature is also available when using the "change paths" operator and allows users to add more images to the range. The feature works best if the first frame is available already.
  • ANIMATION:
  • Action Management:
  • Following on from the initial stopgap measures introduced in 2.74, this release introduces some additional features and polish to flesh out the planned workflow enhancements (see the planning docs for more details about the plans).
  • Switch to Next/Previous Action Layer:
  • With this feature (bcf1abb), it is now possible to quickly switch between different actions stacked/stashed on top of each other in the NLA Stack without having to go to the NLA Editor and doing a tab-select-tab dance, thus saving quite a few clicks. It was specifically designed with Game Animation / Action Library workflows in mind, but also helps layered animation workflows.
  • Usage:
  • Simply click on the up/down arrow buttons (between the mode selector and datablock selector) to go to the action in the NLA Track above/below the NLA Strip being whose action is being tweaked in the Action Editor.
  • Notes:
  • These still work when you're not editing the action used by a NLA Strip. If you're just animating a new action normally, it is possible to use the "down arrow" to temporarily jump down to the previous action without losing the new action you're working on, and then use the "up arrow" to get back to it once you're done checking the other action(s).
  • If there are multiple actions/strips on the same layer/track, then only the one closest to the current frame will be used.
  • The Next Layer/Previous Layer operators will take into account the settings to view/edit the action in isolation (i.e. Solo and NLA Muting). This was done to make it easier to preview different stashed actions.
  • If moving from a solo'd NLA Track to the active action, the NLA stack will be muted so that the action can be edited in isolation.
  • Likewise, if the NLA stack is muted when editing the action action, the NLA Track below it will be edited with solo enabled.
  • If switching between NLA Tracks, the solo status for the previous track will be transferred to the new track.
  • Safety Fixes for Browse Actions Dropdown (Action Editor):
  • The "browse" button in the Action Editor had a number of bugs, causing it to do "Evil Things (TM)". A number of fixes were made to fix these problems:
  • When in NLA tweakmode, the Browse menu would clobber the NLA state. Now, it exits tweakmode first, before trying to assign a new active action. (e4fbc8f)
  • When changing away from a newly created action, this action will now get stashed in the NLA to prevent it from being lost. Although no data loss will happen now in this case, it is still recommended that previewing / switching between actions should be done using the NLA (i.e. enter tweakmode on the action you wish to preview) or Up/Down buttons (Action Editor header) instead. (a0e1b65)
  • Safety Features for Unlinking Actions:
  • Dedicated operators have been added for unlinking actions (X) from Animation Data/Animation Editors, in place of the generic datablock unlinking that used to be performed (53f4aa7). This allows us to perform a number of additional safety checks that provide some additional protections when unlinking actions.
  • These protections/conveniences are:
  • If the Action doesn't have any other users, there will now be a popup that data is going to get lost, with suggested ways to remedy this. It WILL NOT attempt to stash or retain that action in any way by itself.
  • When in Tweak Mode, it shouldn't be possible to unlink the active action. Now, the unlink button acts as a convenient way to exit tweak mode in such cases.
  • Hotkeys for Entering/Exiting Tweak Mode, Changing Editors, etc.
  • Shift⇆ Tab in the NLA Editor will enter and exit tweakmode as usual, but will also make sure that the action can be edited in isolation (by flagging the NLA track that the action strip comes from as being "solo"). This is useful for editing stashed actions, without the rest of the NLA Stack interfering.
  • (Other hotkeys for switching between editors while toggling tweakmode were planned, but have not been included in this release due to a lack of time)
  • NLA:
  • NLA Strips - Local Keyframes for Time and Influence Controls
  • Fixed a long standing bug (T36385) with how NLA Strip Time and Influence properties were getting animated.
  • Now the keyframes for these settings are added to FCurves stored on the NLA Strips themselves, instead of these being FCurves included as part of the actions included in the NLA stack as before. The old setup did not work well as there were problems with lag, as well as it being unsuitable for use with a renderfarm. This was because by the time the NLA stack has been evaluated (and thus, the FCurves for these properties that were included in an action in that stack), it would already be far too late to alter how the NLA strip time/influence values were getting interpreted.
  • These can be found in the Dope Sheet/Graph Editors under the NLA Control Curves headings per datablock. These look like group channels, and they appear before all the groups/FCurves for that channel.
  • NLA Editor:
  • Name based filtering of animation channels works in the NLA Editor too now. Enable this by toggling the magnifying glass icon in the header, and type the text to filter by in the box beside it. This is case insensitive, and does not support regular expressions or wildcards. It checks the names of the tracks and strips for matches.
  • Animation Editors:
  • Proportional editing support has been added in the graph and editor editors, they can be toggled by using O key
  • Clean keyframes has been moved to a menu in X key and is now operating only on selected keyframes.
  • Auto normalization feature now uses the full range of the editor.
  • View current frame operator added for action and graph editor by pressing 0 NumPad
  • Name-based filtering of animation channels now updates in realtime as you type (i.e. live search)
  • Double clicking on a channel selects the channel keyframes.
  • Rigging:
  • Add Armature Symmetrize tool, to make make armatures symmetrical, creating bones where necessary.
  • Armature/Pose select hierarchy now works more predictably, always following connected bones
  • The direction of bones created using the "Fill Bones" tool now point towards the active bone instead of the 3D cursor
  • Posing:
  • Several tweaks have been made to the "Propagate Pose" tool (in Blender since 2011!):
  • The "Selected Keyframes" mode will apply the pose on the selected bones to all selected keyframes, instead of Blender trying to guess which ones it should fix.
  • It can now be found from the toolbar and by using AltP in Pose Mode.
  • Numeric input now works for the Push, Relax, and Breakdowner tools
  • Dependency Graph:
  • The new Dependency Graph has landed! This commit integrates the work done so far on the new dependency graph system, where goal was to replace legacy depsgraph with the new one, supporting loads of neat features like
  • More granular dependency relation nature, which solves issues with fake cycles in the dependencies.
  • Move towards all-animatable, by better integration of drivers into the system.
  • Lay down some basis for upcoming copy-on-write, overrides and so on.
  • The new system is living side-by-side with the previous one and disabled by default, so nothing will become suddenly broken. The way to enable new depsgraph is to pass `--enable-new-depsgraph` command line argument.
  • It's a bit early to consider the system production-ready, there are some TODOs and issues were discovered during the merge period, they'll be addressed ASAP. But it's important to merge, because it's the only way to attract artists to really start testing this system.
  • There are number of assorted documents related on the design of the new system:
  • User:Aligorith/GSoC2013_Depsgraph#Design_Documents
  • User:Nazg-gul/DependencyGraph
  • There are also some user-related information online:
  • Bassam's post about the depsgraph for users
  • More experiments with new rigging setups
  • Grease Pencil:
  • Added hotkeys for quickly showing/hiding layers
  • H hides the active layer
  • ShiftH makes the active layer the only one visible
  • AltH makes all layers visible
  • A small and simple warning/indicator is now displayed in the top-right corner of editors when Stroke Edit Mode is enabled (f5adbcc). This makes it easier to tell what mode you're in.
  • Clicking outside the current viewport where you are drawing (e.g. on the properties panels, headers, or in another editor) will exit Continuous Drawing mode (be0dcd4). This makes it easier to work with just a pen, without needing to have a keyboard handy for pressing Escape to exit.
  • GAME ENGINE:
  • Level of Detail (LOD):
  • Hysteresis settings per Scene
  • Hysteresis settings per Object
  • Hysteresis:
  • A new hysteresis parameter was introduced which prevents rapid alternation between detail levels when the camera moves close to a transition distance.
  • Hysteresis may be set:
  • Per scene, (default 10%) from the Scene context -> Level of Detail panel. This may be disabled if scene-wide hysteresis is not desired.
  • Per object (default 10%) from the Object context -> Levels of Detail panel. If active, this setting will overwrite the scene hysteresis setting.
  • Python API:
  • A new "currentLodLevel" attribute was added to the Python API of KX_GameObject. The attribute returns the current lod level of the game object. This attribute may be used to manage logic routines according to the discrete lod-distance from the camera, avoiding the need to separately compute the Vector distance to the camera in Python.
  • Compatibility:
  • For new blend files, the scene hysteresis setting is active by default, and the object setting disabled.
  • For the old blends, both hysteresis settings (per scene and per object) are set inactive by default.
  • Rigid Body Joint Constraint Replication:
  • Blender replicates now rigid body joint constraints for group instances (DupliGroups).
  • New isSuspendDynamics attribute:
  • This is a new KX_GameObject attribute that returns the suspended state of the game object.
  • New getDisplayDimensions method:
  • This new rasterizer method returns the set dimensions (not necessarily the actual dimensions) of the current display device (e.g, the monitor), in pixels.
  • World (Mist):
  • GLSL Animations:
  • GLSL world and mist and can be animated. The animatable properties are:
  • Horizon color = Mist color
  • Ambient color
  • Mist start
  • Mist depth
  • Mist minimum intensity
  • Python API:
  • New world module with attributes for mist, background and ambient rendering.
  • New Rigid Body Constraint API keywords:
  • createConstraint() now accepts keyword arguments. Omitted arguments now fall back to default values
  • Logic Brick Sensors:
  • "Frequency" parameter is renamed to "Skip" in the Logic Brick sensors as it represents skipped frames between pulses.
  • A new BGE python attribute 'skippedTicks' was introduced. 'frequency' attribute is maintained but deprecated.
  • Game Properties:
  • Game Properties have buttons for moving them up/down now
  • PyObjectPlus Subclassing (Mutating):
  • BGE Python subclassing now supports additional initialiser arguments.
  • Sun Lamp: New Draw debug shadow box:
  • New Check option "Show Shadow Box" in shadow panel of sun lamp to get feedback about which objects project shadows when we use a Sun lamp.
  • Collisions:
  • A Python API for the collision group / mask has been added
  • The maximum number of collision groups and masked has been increased from eight to sixteen. This means that the max value of collisionGroup/Mask is (2 ** 16) - 1
  • Collision groups that do not intersect used to collide on the first frame. Now this has been fixed so that they collide appropriately.
  • Additionally, EndObject will now activate objects that were sleeping and colliding with the removed object. This means that, unlike now, if a rigid body starts sleeping on top of another object, when the latter is removed the rigid body will activate and fall, rather than float midair as before.
  • The KX_GameObject.suspendDynamics() method now has an optional boolean "ghost" argument, that (when True) disables collision detection. This effectively makes the object a ghost.
  • Pre-Drawing Setup Callback:
  • There is a new callback available to control the drawing setup. This is useful to setup the camera matrices (model view and projection) before the drawing itself.
  • Python Sample Code:
  • The sample scene would need a default camera (not used for rendering), a dummy camera ('Camera.VR'), and two cameras ('Camera.Left', 'Camera.Right') that will be used for the actual rendering.
  • Optional AddObject reference argument:
  • The reference argument has been made optional for the KX_Scene.addObject function. Without a provided reference object, the original rotation, scale and position of the source object is used.
  • New objects will then be added to the active layer of the scene.
  • BGE python supports more than 2 UV channels now:
  • A new argument has been introduced in getUV/setUV methods to be able to get/set all the possible UV channels. This new argument is optional. If it is not used then the first UV channel is used maintaing this way the same behaviour as before.
  • Due to this change, getUV2/setUV2 methods have been deprecated. Please, use getUV(1) and setUV(uv, 1) instead.
  • GLSL Material Animations:
  • GLSL materials can finally be animated. The animatable material properties are:
  • Diffuse color
  • Diffuse intensity
  • Specular color
  • Specular intensity
  • Hardness
  • Emit
  • Alpha
  • Loc Translation for Dynamic Objects:
  • The XYZ translation can now be lock for dynamic objects.
  • Compatibility Issues:
  • With the color-management fix, the "Color Management" switch in the BGE "Render > Shading" panel is being removed, use the "Display Device" setting in the "Scene > Color Management" panel instead.
  • Rigid body constraint API: initial values for the XYZ axis and Z rotation has been changed from 1.0 to 0.0. If these values were not set in older scripts, it is now necessary to set it on constraint creation, to get the same pivot position and rotation.
  • ADD-ONS:
  • Add Mesh Extra Objects:
  • Extra Objects Update.
  • Start your modeling Quick & Easy
  • This update & modernization includes new menu structure, new look & new object types.
  • Add a Single Vert to edit mode with several choices. (Mirrored, Origin Only, Vert only)
  • Start Sculpting Quikly
  • Round Cube offers a quick all quad base.
  • Menger Sponge adds a beautiful Cube
  • More information in the Wiki Page
  • Extra Objects Wiki
  • Collada Exporter
  • Export of Custom Normals (rBbbae0664a3df).
  • C3D motion capture data importer
  • Clarified some options, and fixed some scale issue (rBAb1a53b343d).
  • Python API:
  • Access to add/remove color palettes `bpy.data.palettes` 26a2b7b38f0d16273e52fd5272381ea5a52bb10a 29195197147a882849859ea963cae42484dfeaba
  • UI Previews:
  • UI previews is an addition to the blender python API that allows requesting of image previews from files and the displaying of said previews in the UI as custom icons.
  • It is now possible to load single image or a set of previews for use in the UI with the existing widgets. It is not possible to override the default icons or share icons between addons.
  • These preview images are in a dynamic cache, which can be deleted or refreshed at any time. For that reason, addons or UI scripts that rely on the feature have to carefully manage this, to not overload Blender with preview loading time and/or memory consumption.
  • Development Guidelines:
  • If you want to use this in a release add-on:
  • Do not use this for advertising, logos or other non-functional use cases.
  • Use a minimum of custom icons. This helps uncluttering the interface and keeping Blender's interface uniform.
  • Only use these images in a way that is compatible with how rest of Blender works - as if it's a default interface we provide for everyone.
  • Only use the feature within the context and UI of your own Add-on. You cannot rely on other add-ons to have this already preloaded. This feature also does not allow replacing of the default icons.
  • Do not force preview image creation outside of the add-on dir, except when explicitly asked for by the user in the UI.
  • The default icon size in Blender is 32x32 and for previews 256x256. Your images will be scaled to fit these sizes on their maximum side.
  • MORE FEATURES:
  • OpenEXR format:
  • Add support for saving to Dreamworks DWA format and B44 codec
  • Metadata support:
  • Metadata tags include the old stamp options. The old "Stamp" panel is changed to "Metadata". Blender now will always attach metadata on output rendered image files.
  • Also, the image editor and sequencer have options in their view menus to display blender related metadata.
  • For the sequencer, the displayed metadata are the data attached to the upper strip in the sequence.
  • Small Improvements:
  • Split scene simplification settings into viewport and render
  • FEATURE VIDEOS:
  • Simplify option split:
  • Scene simplification option was split into two parts: viewport settings and render settings

New in Blender 2.74 Test 1 (Mar 4, 2015)

  • CYCLES:
  • BVH:
  • Ray/Triangle intersection is now watertight. This is expected to address quite a reasonable amount of reports from the bug tracker, plus it might help reducing the noise in some scenes. (f770bc4757a2)
  • Implementation of a QBVH optimization structure for CPU with SSE2 support and above. GPU rendering, non-SSE and 32bit processors still using regular BVH. (03f28553ff07)
  • Optimization:
  • Optimize vector math node without links to a single value node. (43421e9c5354)
  • Optimize black world backgrounds (cd723967970e)
  • Reduce lag between shader tree modification and viewport render (2dfe5e3)
  • Various:
  • Pointiness attribute in action.
  • Added attribute indicating how "pointy" the geometry surface is. Available via "Pointiness" output of the Geometry node. (227a940)
  • Cycles now uses clipping plane instead of clipping sphere (54fd3f3).
  • Added field-of-view options to the equirectangular panorama camera (4118c1b).
  • Image texture now supports sphere and tube mapping (12ccac6, dda3554).
  • Added support for texture mapping from another object (df07a25).
  • Added support for cubic image texture interpolation on CPU 3b9d455
  • USER INTERFACE:
  • Viewport:
  • Viewport Compositing
  • Frank from project gooseberry with Ambient Occlusion and Depth of Field. The current viewport compositing system includes two effects that can be used as a post process in the 3D viewport and during offscreen rendering. The goal is to generalize the system and allow node definition of effects in the future but for now there are only two hard-coded effects that can be used.
  • The controls for the effects can be found in a few places:
  • To control how the effect appears in a certain 3D viewport, use the checkboxes, "Ambient Occlusion" and "Depth Of Field" located under the "Shading" panel. Camera objects, also have a new panel in their properties, "GPU Depth of Field" that controls the real time depth of field effect. This is used during sequencer or OpenGL rendering and when looking through a camera in the 3D viewport.
  • Limitations:
  • The current system depends on the scene depth buffer to generate information for the effects. As such, any drawing that writes to the depth buffer, such as widgets and wires will contribute in the effects.
  • The SSAO effect relies on the surface normals to function, however since the current system is not true deferred shading, those get composited from the depth buffer and smooth shading is not taken into account. Also there will be artifacts at mesh edges due to the composited nature of the normals.
  • Multisampling will not work in this first iteration - it requires too much memory to do properly.
  • Ambient Occlusion - This effect tries to simulate the effects of ambient occlusion by doing raycasting in screen space. To control the effect, the following controls are added:
  • Strength:
  • This factor directly multiplies the computed color of the effect, so increase this for a stronger effect.
  • Distance:
  • The maximum world space distance the effect is computed in.
  • Attenuation:
  • How strongly the effect attenuates with distance. Increasing this makes far away surfaces contribute less to the effect. Use this to get rid of some banding artifacts.
  • Samples:
  • The amount of samples used for the effect. Higher is better but makes the effect slower
  • Color:
  • Color of the effect, can be modified to give a different feel, from ambient lighting to dirt/rust.
  • Depth Of Field:
  • This effect tries to simulate a depth of field effect, similar to one produced by a camera. The effect is controlled by certain options of the active camera, namely, the GPU fstop option (in the depth of field panel), the focal length, the sensor size and the focus distance/focus object.
  • Options influencing the effects. Ambient Occlusion settings in green, Depth of Field settings in yellow
  • Viewport f-stop:
  • This setting is relevant to the aperture of the camera lens. Less means more blur.
  • Distance:
  • The distance where the focus of the lens is. Using the eyedropper (E) it's possible to sample directly on the 3D viewport to set the focus
  • Focus:
  • Same as above but uses the centre of an object to define the focus. Overrides distance when used.
  • Focal Length:
  • More focal length means more blur.
  • Size:
  • Bigger sensor size means less blur.
  • Outliner:
  • You can now delete a whole hierarchy of objects (parent/child relationships) (82223270a83f7)
  • Alphabetical sorting is now an option (ffe56536f10507)
  • "Show Active" will now open the tree to show the child (3356f3f0bb15fa)
  • Support drag&drop objects to groups (61c66a996ca5e5)
  • Modifiers & Constraints now have their own dedicated ContextMenus [toggle render, visibility & delete atm.] (23214ecad03bfe)
  • Orphaned Datablocks Mode:
  • A new mode was added to the Outliner for displaying "orphaned" datablocks (030b0aa)
  • Orphaned datablocks are those which have either:
  • 0 users
  • A "fake" user only
  • In the case of the former, they will be quietly discarded from the file on the next save + reload. Hence, it is helpful to have a view where you can confirm which ones fall into this category and might be worth saving.
  • We also include datablocks with a fake user only so that datablocks given a user above can have that easily turned off again (in case the user makes a mistake). Another benefit of showing these is that it become easier to remove fake users from datablocks you no longer want retained without having to hunt for them.
  • Managing Datablocks - To Save or Not To Save:
  • The restriction columns are used to display usercount indicators and toggles to manage whether datablocks get saved or not. (16689a1)
  • The first column shows an icon to indicate whether that datablock is going to get saved. A tick indicates the datablock will be saved, while a cross indicates the opposite. Clicking on this changes whether the datablock will get saved.
  • The second column shows the usercount.
  • The third column shows whether the datablock has a fake user.
  • The second and third columns are pretty much redundant (functionally speaking). While it is possible to also toggle fake users by clicking in the third column, its role here is more as information for power users (and hopefully to allow others to connect the relationship between the saved/not saved status and fake users)
  • Purging All Unused Datablocks:
  • A "Purge All" button has been added in the header of the "Orphaned Datablocks" mode in the Outliner (263518e). This makes it possible to remove unused datablocks from the file/session "without closing and reopening. It does so by wrapping up the save and "revert" (i.e. reload the saved file from disk, without needing to quit Blender) operators along with a confirmation prompt for good measure.
  • Caveats:
  • Ultimately, we still cannot really cleanly delete any datablocks from the current session outright without reloading the file/data at some point. Thus, we do need to reload the file again before it can be used.
  • This does mean that this operation is irreversible. Notably, Undo history is lost is doing this operation. Hence the warnings... (Then again, undo/redo actually reloads the entire scene DB from memory, so it's not anything uncommon)
  • Small improvements:
  • UIList search box now updates immediately, as other search boxes in Blender UI (3e034831de8)
  • FileBrowser now has a searchbox (like e.g. outliner, etc.) (dcc5997527d)
  • FileBrowser's bookmarks are now editable (name and order, 9e2abbc9ba5d)
  • Flatty Light (now for real!): A new theme based on the 2.5x default, but flat and a bit lighter
  • Tools:
  • 'Split Concave Faces' tool has been added so you can make sure all your Quads/NGons are convex.
  • Access from 'Mesh -> Cleanup' menu (64124ba904dcaac2bf029a55943282843b8a2603).
  • 'Connect Vertex Path' tool has been added, to connect vertices in the order they're selected, running a second time closes the loop (b1dbda143da35d367ba7c4a05f81ee5b21b42999)
  • 'Edge Slide' now supports UV Islands (2d1e07268645b481dbbb924a5f638dc9fa870945)
  • 'Vertex Slide' now supports UV correction (2d1e07268645b481dbbb924a5f638dc9fa870945)
  • 'Vertex Connect' (Jkey) can connect multiple selected points (b1dbda143da35d367ba7c4a05f81ee5b21b42999)
  • 'Vertex Connect' (Jkey) can connect vertices by edges (as well as splitting faces) (b1dbda143da35d367ba7c4a05f81ee5b21b42999)
  • Other Tools:
  • 'Fit camera view' has been enhanced, it now also works with orthographic cameras (780bb88a7a5b30)
  • Selection:
  • Select similar faces in Edit mode has a new option, select by Flat/Smooth shading (c79c48cc93b5)
  • Custom Normals:
  • Meshes now support custom normals, i.e. normals differing from automatically computed ones. Main current features are Py accessors to allow importing of custom normals (use by FBX importer so far), ability to transfer normals in DataTransfer tools (see below), and a modifier to do some basic normal editing ('Radial' normals for low-poly trees, and 'Directional' ones to make them point towards a given target).
  • DATA HANDLING:
  • Mesh Data Transfer:
  • New operator and modifier to transfer data layers from one mesh to another, using various mapping methods. UVs, VCols and VGroups are supported, not yet shape keys.
  • Notes:
  • Weight transfer button/menu entry in WeightPaint mode now uses that generic modifier, old vgroup-specific one has been removed. All things possible with old modifier should remain possible with new one, though.
  • Modifiers:
  • Hook modifier now has multiple falloff options, as well as custom curve falloff, there is also an option to compensate for non-uniform scale (c69458985cdb0cc1b388b81f61e5091c73461003)
  • Particles:
  • A large number of hair system improvements from the Gooseberry branch have been accepted into the main Blender code.
  • HAIR:
  • Hair Dynamics - Further Improvement:
  • The features mentioned below are a big step forward from the previous state of the code. However, more improvements are possible. Simulation of hair is still a young area of computer science and 3D graphics, and many new algorithms and approaches have been developed since the introduction of these features into Blender.
  • Fix for long-standing stability issues resulting from different hair segment lengths after cutting. Very short hairs almost inevitably result from using the cutting tool. When the ratio of shortest to longest hairs gets too extreme though, the simulation solver will not converge and the simulation "explodes" (this was already a problem during the Sintel open movie production, see e.g. [1])
  • Collision support for hair! Hair now supports basic collision with objects in the Blender scene.
  • Note on self-collision:
  • The collision feature for hair works as a hair-mesh interaction, but does not support hair-hair self-collision. The reason is primarily computation cost: due to the large number of contact points of hair strands with themselves the amount of calculation is prohibitively high. In high-end productions these issues have been partially addressed using advanced threading schemes, but for the typical Blender use-case (small studios, small budgets) the development of true self-collision does not have a high priority. See also "Volumetric Calculations" below.
  • Volumetric Calculations:
  • Some phenomena of real world hair can be simulated more efficiently using a volumetric model instead of the basic geometric strand model. This means constructing a regular grid such as those used in fluid simulations and interpolating hair properties between the grid cells. Currently the hair system supports two volume-based features:
  • Internal Friction: Simulate hair-hair collision and friction by smoothing velocity of nearby hairs.
  • Target Density: Generate an outward force on hair above a critical density (puffing), to prevent hair from collapsing in on itself.
  • Bending stiffness improvement:
  • The force model used to describe stiffness of cloth does not work very well when applied to strand geometry. This made it impossible to create reasonably stiff strands and could lead to instability when trying to crank up the solver stiffness parameter. The new force model for hair bending creates an actual first order approximation of an angular spring. In addition the new bending model also allows a deformed rest shape for hair, rather than always returning hair into a straight shape. This makes actual grooming a lot more useful.
  • CHILD HAIR MODIFIERS:
  • Child path calculation is now properly threaded again and integrated into the common Blender task scheduler.
  • Optionally curve widgets can now be used instead of a "shape" value, to define clumping and roughness amount along child strands. This is much more flexible and intuitive than a fixed function with abstract parameters.
  • Curling radius is now a user-defined parameter instead of using the distance from the parent. This is much more realistic because the curling radius of natural hair depends on the growth pattern and material only. grouping hair around a parent is a secondary effect (clumping), which does not affect the radius or frequency of the curl.
  • New kink mode: "Spiral". This mode generates a spiral at the end of each hair. Radius and Resolution parameters define the overall size, while the Shape parameter makes a the spiral grow in- or outward.
  • Tools and Operators:
  • "Copy Particle Systems" is a new operator that allows copying of entire particle/hair systems from one object to another. This also includes possible grooming data ("hair edit"), which is important in a production pipeline where the underlying mesh may change slightly after grooming has already started.
  • Note on Connect/Disconnect:
  • The Connect/Disconnect feature in particle edit mode is similar to this operator. However, it requires somehow transferring mesh data and everything else to the particle system's object. The copy operator works the other way around: it copies the particle system over to another object instead, which is much more convenient and less risky.
  • Note on other data: Particle systems share the same settings and may have dependencies that are not copied along with them, like UV maps, textures, materials, etc.. This means you may have to copy and adjust these additional features manually to get the same result on a different object.
  • "Shape Cut" grooming tool trims hairs using a mesh object boundary. This is a quicker way of avoiding protruding hair sections from lengthening than using the cutting tool. It works especially well for characters with extensive fur, where working in a single plane with the cutting tool becomes tedious.
  • Minimum-twist curve framing for the particle instance modifier removes ugly artifacts and degenerate mesh faces.
  • Developer Tools and Internal Improvements:
  • New code library `bf_physics` to avoid cluttering of `blenkernel` and allow easier integration of C++ code.
  • Generalized mass-spring system solver for cloth and hair. Currently particle still use an intermediate fake cloth modifier, but should eventually use this API directly.
  • Alternative solver for the Lagrangian cloth/hair dynamics equations based on the Eigen3 library (WIP)
  • New visual debugging utility system for quickly displaying points, vectors, lines, etc.. This helps a lot when working with abstract physical properties that are not usually displayed in the viewport.
  • SCULPTING/PAINTING:
  • Textured Brushes:
  • On right, the new rake and random angle settings for brush texture and brush texture mask.
  • The new dithering option for texture painting. Especially useful for gradients.
  • Using Cavity Mask option while painting a texture in order to define the object's edges nicely.
  • Rake And Random mapping are not mutually exclusive anymore
  • Random mapping takes a range value.
  • Rake and Random are supported independently for mask brushes too.
  • Line strokes now support constrains to 45 degree increments when holding control down after starting a stroke.
  • Texture Painting:
  • Support for dithering when painting on byte images has been added. Control the amount by using the slider in the options panel.
  • Support for cavity masking during painting. Cavity masking means that the brush will be masked if there is a cavity or a hill on the mesh surface depending on the mesh options. The cavity algorithm is vertex-based for now.
  • Sequencer:
  • Slip tool now supports numerical input
  • Setting proxies is now done to all selected strips at once using a dialog in the proxy panel
  • FREESTYLE NPR RENDERING:
  • Optimization:
  • Memory consumption optimization in stroke rendering. Auto-generated stroke meshes are packed into a minimum number of mesh objects to reduce the overheads of Blender object creation. (d8b00a3bf5c1)
  • Animation:
  • Grease Pencil
  • Editing:
  • It is possible to copy (CtrlC) and paste (CtrlV) selected strokes (or actually, selected points/segments) (c080572). This can be used for copying strokes between different layers, frames, or even different Grease Pencil datablocks.
  • AltS can now be used to adjust the pressure values of selected stroke points. This provides a way to modify the thickness of strokes
  • Added an operator to duplicate the active layer (d5f3aee)
  • L can also be used to activate the Select Linked functionality now
  • Drawing Tools:
  • When drawing with "Continuous Drawing" enabled, it is now possible to quickly use the eraser for one-off strokes without exiting the drawing mode, starting again with the eraser, and then exiting and returning to the original mode. (18e849b)
  • The appearance of the eraser has been improved, to make its purpose clearer (da78d2d74255)
  • F can be used to control the size of the eraser in Strokes Edit Mode (ab3f037)
  • UI Tweaks:
  • Color swatches for both Stroke and Fill colors are now shown (155bb05)
  • Grease Pencil data and layers are now shown in the Outliner (68fc2e2)
  • Vertex size and color are now themable, as is the color of Grease Pencil keyframes in the timeline (c50003c)
  • Viewport Rendering:
  • In order to fix T43149 (i.e. tessellated triangle lines showing up in filled regions when using light colors on a dark background), the per-polygon smoothing has been disabled. To avoid jagged edges on the edges of filled regions and volumetric strokes, enable Viewport Multisampling (found under User Preferences -> System)
  • Fixed bug where strokes with only a single point were getting drawn with what were often described as "large square dots". The cause was that for single point strokes, the pressure values were getting ignored. (813dcb9)
  • Animation Editors:
  • There is now a "Paste Flipped" tool for keyframes now, which can be used when animating walk cycles (2f16098)
  • Keyframe lines in the timeline are now drawn at 60% height, making it easier to see where the time cursor is when dealing with dense datablocks. (895fa8b)
  • Keying Sets:
  • The way that the keyframing settings toggles on the Keying Set and Keying Set Paths has changed. Toggles have been added beside these options to specify whether they are used to override the parent value (i.e. the Keying Set's value, or the User Preferences setting). Previously, this was only just additive. [IMAGE NEEDED] e0ee74a
  • Constraints:
  • Spline IK has a new "XZ Scale Mode" to provide more artistically desirable volume preservation (f0361fc).
  • The new volume preservation mode uses the same technique as the Stretch To constraint, and allows setting restrictions on the minimum and maximum scaling that a bone undergoes to reach its target.
  • The old method is still available, but has been renamed to "Inverse Scale". Old files will continue to use the old method, while it is recommended (but not required) to use the new method for new rigs.
  • GAME ENGINE:
  • Physics:
  • Collision callbacks now receive the first collision point and corresponding normal, for each colliding object. (dd65a44c9a19 & D926)
  • ADD-ONS:
  • Import Images as Planes:
  • Now support animations (movies) for Cycles as well, also fixed setting len from video (rBA468a9845651e).
  • Auto Tile Size (New):
  • Estimate and set the tile size that will render the fastest
  • Node Wrangler:
  • Now renamed the file to node_wrangler.py instead of node_efficiency_tools.py, so you will have to enable it and save your preferences again.
  • A change in Blender's core (rBc792e546991bd) now allows Lazy Functions to work when clicking on the contents of the node too (not only on empty space) (old behavior, new behavior)
  • POV-Ray Renderer:
  • Rendered with POV-Ray:
  • Quite a few new features from POV-Ray where added to the exporter, among which volumetric rendering.
  • FBX IO:
  • IMPORT Added support for embedded image files (rBA6a090568c38e4fe6).
  • IMPORT Added support for custom normals (rBAa00934e26c46).
  • OBJ IO:
  • IMPORT Added support for custom normals (rBAcfdf95dc8a0eae).
  • IMPORT reworked code, importing big meshes with polygons can be up to six or seven times faster (rBAc307a89e281a).
  • Python API:
  • Quaternion now has support for exponential map representation (rB9fa628f35be3)
  • MORE FEATURES:
  • .blend Files & Libraries:
  • You can now enforce generation (and hence saving) of previews for materials, textures, lamps, world and images datablocks (File → Data Previews → Refresh DataBlock Previews menu entry), useful for material lib files e.g. Note it can take a bit of time when using Cycles materials - and do not forget to save the file once done! (3027ff8b13fb29e92)
  • Background images:
  • Background images can now be rotated and flipped.
  • Compositing:
  • Plane Track Deform compositor node now supports samples motion blur (1dddcfb). See Features Video for demo.
  • Blender Internal Rendering:
  • Added gamma node support for BI. (rB01c18)
  • Plane Track Deform Blur:
  • The Plane Track now supports Motion Blur, calculated from the motion of the plane track. That makes it easier to composite 2D Elements into live action footage, which usually has a bit of motion blur. By matching the blur appearance with the shutter speed and samples values of the plane track node you can now integrate images much better into your footage.

New in Blender 2.73a (Jan 21, 2015)

  • Add render tests for Cycles:
  • The idea is to use the set of really small images from the lib folder and run Cycles render on them comparing render output to reference images in the tests repository.

New in Blender 2.73 (Jan 21, 2015)

  • Aside of the improvements in many areas (and 2D/3d vector animation!), a lot of work was done on stabilizing and fixing.
  • A major upgrade was given to the Grease Pencil tool, which inter alia brought the ability to edit and animate strokes. The first developments from the Gooseberry Project like a Sequencer Backdrop, Cycles viewport world background and others were added. Cycles got various improvements and speedups, as well as support for cameras inside volumes, the UI got a new 'minimalistic' fullscreenmode and Input Method Editor support for textbuttons (used for complex Chinese and Japanese character input), the Knife-tool was improved, Freestyle got a SVG exporter, and many more features which are worth checking out!

New in Blender 2.73 Test 1 (Dec 11, 2014)

  • CYCLES RENDERING:
  • Optimization:
  • Optimization for Mix RGB shaders (Mix blending mode), when the factor is 0.0 or 1.0. This reduces memory usage and improves performance a bit. Optimize math node without links to a single value node.
  • Volume Rendering:
  • Added camera in volume support.
  • Faster rendering of homogeneous volumes, when using decoupled ray marching.
  • Shading:
  • Better area lamp sampling using an area preserving parameterization paper. This makes an area light sample a bit slower but this is usually more than compensated by the reduction in noise.
  • Support for cubic voxels interpolation. This setting is per shader, and can be found below the volume sampling method menu, inside the Properties Editor.
  • A new "Max Bounces" option was added for lamps, which can be used to control how many light bounces the lamp will influence.
  • GPU Rendering:
  • Geforce 9xx GPUs are now supported.
  • USER INTERFACE:
  • Editor Fullscreen:
  • A new fullscreen mode for the editors allow the users to work in a clean environment with no UI elements. To exit this mode all it needs is to move the mouse to the top right corner of the editor to reveal the return icon. A shortcut to toggle the Header bar visibility is also available.
  • Input Method Editor Support:
  • Input Method Editors (IMEs) are widely used in east Asia to make it possible to input complex characters with latin keyboards. We now support such input for text buttons on Windows. The following IMEs are supported on Windows 7 and Windows 8:
  • Sougou PINYIN (Chinese)
  • Bing PINYIN (Chinese)
  • QQ PINYIN (Chinese)
  • Microsoft integrated (Japanese)
  • Pie Menus:
  • A new confirm threshold in the user preferences allow users to confirm a pie menu without releasing the pie menu key in drag style interaction mode. Once the mouse stops, and after its distance is greater than the release threshold, the current selection of the pie menu is activated. This allows users to drag select through chains of pie menus quickly.
  • Support for nested pie menus is also included. It is possible to spawn nested pies with the event system responding better.
  • Small improvements:
  • Render slots can now be renamed via the properties panel.
  • UI Emboss option is now themable, allowing for more variation in theme styles (such as flat and dark themes).
  • Expanded Enums (as set of toggles) can now be Shift-dragged like sets of regular toggles.
  • MODELING:
  • Selection:
  • Select similar regions
  • Select more/less can now step over adjacent faces. This keeps a square shaped selection when using grid topology.
  • Tools:
  • Shrink/Fatten now uses face-normals when used in face-mode
  • Knife-tool now allows to freehand draw cuts when holding down the left mouse button.
  • Knife-tool can close the cut-loop by double clicking.
  • Smooth tool: Hard min/max values of smooth factor are now a bit more permissive, allowing user to set extreme unrealistic ones (soft values remain in safe, normal range).
  • Data Handling:
  • Shapekeys reordering (Move up/down) has been rewritten, only change visible from user is new options to move on top/bottom of the list
  • Modifiers:
  • BevelWeight support for vertices in Bevel modifier
  • SCULPTING/PAINTING:
  • The operator now does a simple cube unwrap followed by a pack operation resulting in better quick UV layouts that won't hang on greater poly counts and will use the image space better. It's still recommended to make a custom unwrap
  • Usability improvements:
  • Radial operators (F, ShiftF, CtrlF, ShiftD) can now be edited by typing numbers on keyboard
  • Paint mask selection now only shows selection boundary (so you can better see what you are painting)
  • SEQUENCER:
  • Backdrop:
  • Sequencer now has a backdrop like the node editor. To enable, check the option on the header menu
  • Snapping:
  • holding ctrl while G transforming now snaps selected strips to start and endpoints of other strips. The position of the mouse relative to the selection influences where the strips are snapped. If it's closer to the start of the selection, then the start frame of the selection gets snapped, else the end frame will get snapped.
  • Snapping is also supported when moving the frame indicator in the seqiencer. Click and start dragging and press Ctrl.
  • Slip tool:
  • The slip tool (S key) allows users to change the position of the contents of a strip without moving the strip itself.
  • IMPORT/EXPORT:
  • Collada Importer:
  • Joints & Bones:
  • Collada does not support the concept of Bones like in Blender. Instead of this we only have Joints. A Joint is equivalent to the Head of a Blender Bone:
  • Because of this the Bone Tail is not defined when a Collada File is imported. For subsequent bones (bone chains) this is normally not a big problem because a parent's bone tail is typically connected to a child's Bone Head, so the bones can be recreated from the data.
  • The Dangling Bone Tail:
  • But this is no longer true for the leaf bones (the end bone of a bone chain). There we always end up with a "dangling tail". In many cases we can derive the bone orientation from the Joint Transformation Matrix that is provided in the Collada Imnport. However, this keeps us with a bone of correct rotation but arbitrary length.
  • We solve the bone length problem by detecting the smallest bone in the Armature and take that as a measure for the leaf bone length. This is done automatically by the Importer and in most cases this approach still gives convenient results. There is currently no way to influence this Importer behavior.
  • When Collada does not care:
  • Sometimes the leaf bones are exported with a wrong or missing transformation matrix. In that case all Leaf bones might point into unwanted directions. We found that aligning the leaf bones towards their parent bones gives reasonable results in these cases. So the Importer now provides an Option "Fix Leaf Bones"
  • Connected and unconnected Bones:
  • Collada does only know about Parent-Child relationship regarding Bones. However blender supports also connected/unconnected Bones. It is not straight forward to find which bones shall be connected and which bones shall be left unconnected.
  • By default Blender only connects 2 bones if the parent bone has exactly one single child bone. This can give us inconvenient results like in the example aside. Here the problem is that each Bone of the main Skeleton has one additional child bone (a collision Volume Bone in this case). Hence because of the connection rule above, no bones are actually connected and we get a very inconvenient Rig.
  • We have added an experimental option to the Importer "Find Bone Chains". This option searches "best matching" chains of bones, so that whenever a Parent has multiple children, it determines which is the most reasonable bone chain to create.
  • The Bone Chain Finder works best for symmetric Rigs. For asymmetric rigs it does not work well at all. Because of this the chain finder is p[rovided as an option and it is disabled by default.
  • Where is it? Import Options Panel - You find the new options in the Collada Import Panel
  • Fix Leaf Bones:
  • Orient the Leaf bones along their parent bones.
  • Find Bone Chains:
  • Try to find best matching chains of connected bones.
  • Minimum Chain Length:
  • Controls what size a child bone chain must have at least to be considered as possible subsequent chain for a bone. Actually we haven't yet found any situation where changing the default value would give better results.
  • FREESTYLE NPR RENDERING:
  • Built-in SVG exporter:
  • Freestyle SVG Export options.
  • Freestyle now has a built-in SVG exporter (D785). This feature is implemented as an addon, and can be enabled in the user preferences (render section). Features of the exporter include:
  • a user interface
  • integration with the parameter editor and some of its settings, in particular color
  • transparency
  • thickness
  • visibility
  • stroke caps
  • dashes
  • support for animation
  • some extra attributes that make manipulation of the exporter's result in Inkscape easier.
  • the ability to export fills (a closed external contour with the underlying material's color)
  • View map caching:
  • View Map Cache option.
  • New render layer option named "View map cache" is added to reuse a previously computed view map for subsequent rendering. The cache is automatically updated when the mesh geometry of the input 3D scene has been changed.
  • This functionality offers a major performance boost for Freestyle animation rendering when camera-space mesh geometry is static, as well as for repeated still renders with updates of line stylization options.
  • Although the "View map cache" toggle is a render layer option, the cache memory is shared by all render layers and scenes. This means that if Freestyle is used for two or more render layers (possibly in different scenes through the compositor), then the cached view map for one render layer is replaced by a new view map for another render layer and hence no performance gain is expected.
  • ANIMATION:
  • Grease Pencil:
  • In the first major upgrade of the Grease Pencil functionality since it was first introduced in 2008, this release brings a number of improvements aimed at making it easier to use Grease Pencil for hand-drawn storyboarding in 3D. Of course though, many of these improvements are useful for other workflows too - including for motion graphics, for correctly wayward bloopers while drawing, or just in general everyday usage.
  • It is now possible to edit Grease Pencil strokes
  • Use D Tab, or toggle the "Enable Editing" toggles in the Toolbar/Properties regions to enter "Stroke Edit Mode". In this mode, many common editing tools will operate on Grease Pencil stroke points instead.
  • Tools implemented include Select, Select All/Border/Circle/Lasso,Linked /More/Less, Grab, Rotate, Scale, Bend, Shear, To Sphere, Mirror, Duplicate, Delete. Proportional Editing works when using the transform tools.
  • Grease Pencil stroke settings can now be animated:
  • NOTE: Currently drivers don't work, but if time allows, this may still be added before the release.
  • Strokes can be drawn with "filled" interiors, using a separate set of colour/opacity settings to the ones used for the lines themselves. This makes use of OpenGL filled polys, which has the limitation of only being able to fill convex shapes. Some artifacts may be visible on concave shapes (e.g. pacman's mouth will be overdrawn)
  • "Volumetric Strokes":
  • An alternative drawing technique for stroke drawing has been added which draws strokes as a series of screen-aligned discs.
  • While this was originally a partial experimental technique at getting better quality 3D lines, the effects possible using this technique were interesting enough to warrant making this a dedicated feature. Best results when partial opacity and large stroke widths are used.
  • Improved Onion Skinning Support:
  • Different colours can be selected for the before/after ghosts. To do so, enable the "colour wheel" toggle beside the Onion Skinning toggle, and set
  • the colours accordingly.
  • Different numbers of ghosts can be shown before/after the current frame
  • Grease Pencil datablocks are now attached to the scene by default instead of
  • the active object:
  • For a long time, the object-attachment has proved to be quite problematic for users to keep track of. Now that this is done at scene level, it is easier for most users to use.
  • An exception for old files (and for any addons which may benefit from object attachment instead), is that if the active object has a Grease Pencil datablock, that will be used instead.
  • It is not currently possible to choose object-attachment from the UI, but it is simple to do this from the console instead, by doing: context.active_object.grease_pencil = bpy.data.grease_pencil["blah"]
  • Various UI Cleanups:
  • The layers UI has been cleaned up to use a list instead of the nested-panels design. Apart from saving space, this is also much nicer to look at now.
  • The UI code is now all defined in Python. To support this, it has been necessary to add some new context properties to make it easier to access these settings. e.g. "gpencil_data" for the datablock
  • "active_gpencil_layer" and "active_gpencil_frame" for active data, "editable_gpencil_strokes" for the strokes that can be edited
  • The "stroke placement/alignment" settings (previously "Drawing Settings" at the bottom of the Grease Pencil panel in the Properties Region) is now located in the toolbar. These were more toolsettings than properties for how GPencil got drawn.
  • "Use Sketching Sessions" has been renamed "Continuous Drawing", as per a suggestion for an earlier discussion on developer.blender.org. By default, the painting operator will wait for a mouse button to be pressed before it starts creating the stroke. This is to make it easier to include this operator in various toolbars/menus/etc. To get it immediately starting as when you hold down DKEy to draw), set "wait_for_input" to False. The "Convert to Geometry" operator is now included in the toolbar, making it easier for modellers who are hand-drawing curves.
  • GPencil Layers can be rearranged in the "Grease Pencil" mode of the Action Editor, and color swatches are displayed beside the name of each item to make it easier to keep track of which is which Toolbar panels have been added to all the other editors which support these.
  • Undo support works again when "Continuous Drawing" is enabled. This has been broken since at least 2.69, due to a fix for not accidentally adding drivers in the node editor while drawing.
  • Pie menus for quick-access to tools:
  • A set of experimental pie menus has been included for quick access to many tools and settings. It is not necessary to use these to get things done, but they have been designed to help make certain common tasks easier.
  • D Q = The main pie menu. Reveals tools in a context sensitive and
  • spatially stable manner.
  • D W = "Quick Settings" pie. This allows quick access to the active
  • layer's settings. Notably, colours, thickness, and turning
  • onion skinning on/off.
  • Graph Editor:
  • Revised the set of operators for showing/hiding curves from the keyframes area. We now have the following operators:
  • H = Hide selected curves
  • ShiftH = Show only the selected curve (and hide everything else)
  • AltH = Show all previous hidden curves
  • MORE FEATURES:
  • Optimization - Use SSE2 intrinsics together with multi-threading for mesh deform modifier
  • ADD-ONS:
  • FBX Add-on:
  • Features available in the 'experimental' version of the add-on in 2.72 have been merged into the 'stable' one, and experimental removed. This mostly adds some advanced handling/tweakings of armatures import/export (like auto-orientation of bones, add/remove leaf bones, etc.), to address differences between Blender's and FBX's armature models.
  • Also, import - first imported animation/action is now linked to its object
  • Python API:
  • BMVert/Edge/FaceSeq.ensure_lookup_table now needs to be called before int subscription 785b90d7efd048a3c6d586db3760ef31fb41b1ca
  • Grease Pencil data is now created on the Scene instead of per Object by default. However, old files may still have Grease Pencil data on Object level which will get used instead. There are two ways this can be worked around:
  • if ob: gpd = ob.grease_pencil; if not gpd: gpd = scene.grease_pencil
  • gpd = context.gpencil_data

New in Blender 2.72 (Oct 4, 2014)

  • Cycles GPU rendering supports Volume and Subsurface Scattering now. The User Interface comes with optional Pie Menus now and the Tooltips have been improved. For Modeling, a new intersection tool has been added in Edit Mode. Texture painting workflow has been streamlined with easy access to painted images and UV layers. The Compositor now comes with a Sun Beam node. Freestyle NPR rendering is now available with Cycles as well. Additionally, Blender 2.72 features three new addons.
  • Cycles Rendering:
  • Volume rendering and Subsurface Scattering are available on GPU, Volume and Glossy sampling was improved, new Ashikhmin-Shirley distribution for Glossy and Anisotropic BSDFs, memory usage during rendering was lowered, faster OSL rendering, Anamorphic Bokeh support, and better control over caustics.
  • User Interface:
  • The long awaited pie menus are available as an addon for ⇆ Tab, Z, Q, ⇆ Tab⇧ ShiftCtrl, ., CtrlSpace operators. New Tooltip design makes important information more noticeable. Python text is displayed in a monospaced font. Blender Internal preview now behaves like the Cycles preview, it starts rendering at low resolution and improves from there. Improved units parsing, even though devs claim Blender not to feature a units engine it does a better job now.
  • Modeling:
  • A new intersection tool was added, to quickly cut up geometry. It's a bit like boolean but not calculating interior/exterior.
  • The Bevel Tool and the Bevel Modifier now have the option to set the material of the newly created faces to the material in a given slot.
  • Sculpting/Painting:
  • Texture painting workflow has been streamlined with easy access to painted images and UV layers, ability to generate strokes with curves and lines has been added, more blend modes are available and new tools to fill and mask have been added.
  • Compositing:
  • A new Sun Beams node has been added to the compositor.
  • Game Development:
  • A new Mouse Actuator allowing between other things to do mouse look has been added.
  • The Property Sensor has new evaluation types.
  • The TrackTo Actuator has new menus to select up/track axis.
  • The Property Actuator has a new level mode.
  • The Mouse Over Any Sensor has a new X-Ray and Property/Material detection options.
  • A new BGE Debug and Contrainst Wrapper API have been added.
  • Freestyle NPR Rendering:
  • The Freestyle line rendering engine has been integrated into Cycles in addition to the Blender Internal (BI). Freestyle provides Cycles users with a versatile non-photorealistic (NPR) line rendering solution. Most Freestyle options work in the same way for both Cycles and BI. Line textures in Freestyle for Cycles are defined by means of shader nodes (unlike Freestyle for BI, which relies on the conventional texture mapping and influence panels). New per-material Freestyle line settings provide a reliable mean to specify line colors applicable to both Cycles and the BI. The Freestyle Python API also has user-visible updates for better code readability and run-time performance.
  • Animation - More Features:
  • Color ramps now support color interpolation in hue mode both clock- and counter-clock-wise. CtrlF in animation editors now works as a shortcut for activating the Filter by Name functionality. Weights now draw in wireframe mode in the 3D view. Temporary data gets deleted when closing Blender. The video editor got enhanced by a gaussian blur filter. New camera presets: Blackmagic Pocket Cinema and Blackmagic Production 4K.
  • Animation - Addons:
  • FBX improvements: Import now supports armatures, shapekeys, animations, with shapekeys also being supported for export.
  • New DXF importer with support for 3D(SubD) geometry, and geo-referencing. It imports curve types as curves and adds control over various geometry merge options.
  • New UV addon for align distribution and copy/paste (!!) of UVs.
  • New Game Publishing Addon is available for game developers!
  • New addon for named layers & grouped layer management
  • Also includes changes from the previous RC version

New in Blender 2.72 RC 1 (Sep 24, 2014)

  • BUG FIXES:
  • 3D View:
  • Fix T40850: Object emitter of particles not visible in viewport when GLSL and "only render" checked. (4236e3b)
  • Fix T40867: Autokeyframe in camera view not working. (730a155)
  • Fix T40364: Texture images are not properly displayed in the material preview in BI when using SSS. (7587e82)
  • Fix T40775: Clearing material texture slot through Python does not update 3D View render. (180a7ac)
  • Fix T40939: Border render and SSS doesn't work correct in rendered viewport. (e34e0c2)
  • Fix T41128: Box selection bug with armatures. (6a43ee6)
  • Fix T41206: Camera-only render border broken. (1a9252d)
  • Fix T41137: Old render result from viewport render in camera view does not go away when middle clicking. (354b17d)
  • Fix T41499: Can't use Deselect/Select All tool while in Texture Paint mode. (f11057f)
  • Fix for transparency issues in 3D Viewport. (a9bb96e)
  • Fix for image user count not being decreased when deleting a 3D View background image. (320b7a5, 0fc05c1)
  • Fix for assigning a background image without increasing its usercount. (ed871df)
  • Animation:
  • Fix T40801: Selecting group objects by KeyingSets didn't work with builtin KeyingSets. (11e0ddd)
  • Fix for invalid memory access in graph editor when deleting the last vertex in a fcurve. (19f89a0)
  • Armatures:
  • Fix T40991: Mirrored armatures not restored properly when cancelling. (b617d6d)
  • Fix T41088: Canceling pose library preview does not reset to previous pose. (0fd194c)
  • Fix T41075: Segfault when attempting to escape from bone translation. (57a3403)
  • Fix T41227: Unselectable items are selected when they are unhidden. (e0fd1bf)
  • Fix T41228: Selection of bones bug. (9765265)
  • Audio:
  • Fix T41133: Speakers with animated pitch cause clicks in rendered animations, crashes or huge filesizes in rendered audio. (31e1a31)
  • Collada:
  • Fix T40829: Collada Export with 'Include Material Textures' selected crashes. (b5acd1a)
  • Constraints - Meta Editing:
  • Fix T41010: MetaBall duplivert unwanted movement bug. (e0d8e62)
  • Curve Editing:
  • Fix T41443: Crash on using "Separate" tool with Curves & Hooks. (ddb843a)
  • Fix T41085: Blender crashes when using "spline" or "segments" for bevel curve factor. (6c7467e)
  • File I/O - Game Engine:
  • Fix T40761: Bone constraints broken in the BGE. (c92c3ef)
  • Fix T40912: Collision callbacks don't work if set directly. (49aff41)
  • Fix T40923: An error from a python controller on a LibFreed object causes a crash. (4af848e, 04fdd35)
  • Fix T29419: Behavior of applyImpulse (GameObject method) doesn't match the behavior described in the documentation. (1f43b08)
  • Fix T40909: BGE softbodies broken. (3a9e588)
  • Fix T40257: Frustum culling not working properly. (315609e)
  • Fix T40146: BGE Compound parent crash. (dfe1b9b)
  • Fix for a bug causing frequent crash on scene restart with Navmesh. (8aa203a)
  • Fix crash and return boolean from scene.replace(). (fb49c5a)
  • Image / UV Editing:
  • Fix T41201: Blender crashes when UV editing. (d49b86d)
  • Mesh Editing:
  • Fix T40948: Fill holes fails in certain case. (e1819cc)
  • Fix T41164: Knife creates duplicate verts. (1510d0d)
  • Fix T39387: Knife makes duplicate verts with subsurf. (818a036)
  • Fix for dissolve faces iterating over verts while removing. (0ea7302)
  • Fix bug in validate mesh code (could use index out of range). (51120ef)
  • 3D Text Editing:
  • Fix T40839: Object font text rendering bug. (6a2cefc)
  • Fix T41047: Text objects flipping. (ea30641)
  • Modifiers:
  • Fix T40556: Curve Modifier does not work when used in a Background scene. (61e5f81)
  • Fix T40877: Bezier Hook to a new object does not work properly. (f4cf845)
  • Fix T41039: Hook modifier sometimes fails to retain correct bezier curve point assignment. (397bc87)
  • Fix T40831: Shrink wrap modifier causes very high CPU usage when targeting meshes with shaped keys. (5bfbe64)
  • Fix T41360: Crash on Boolean Modifier. (0fe70b5)
  • Motion Tracking:
  • Fix incorrect 2d stabilization for masks. (569eafc)
  • Movie Clip Editor - Nodes / Compositor:
  • Fix T40878: Inconsistent translate node. (03929ae)
  • Fix T40903: Rendering alpha channel is broken. (ecc2e29)
  • Fix T40986: Crash on using the viewer node inside of group nodes. (a5902fb)
  • Fix T40658: UV map node not working for GLSL materials. (1161b00)
  • Fix for broken subpixel sampling for render layers node. (ca8d8f5)
  • Objects:
  • Fix T40823: Crash when using LoD operator without valid object. (92ecbd2, 92ecbd2)
  • Fix T40862: Numinput transform did not take into account scale_length. (cadf77d)
  • Fix T40164: Linking a Group of linked Groups doesn't use Dupli Visibility correctly. (c9ac51e)
  • Fix T41003: Object Info's Random socket produces erratic results when material is applied to multiple Dupli instances of an object. (5b0e4cd)
  • Fix T41019: Calculate Mass does not calculate actual volume. (4633e65)
  • Fix T40432: Scaling to zero with manipulate center points works precisely on second time. (1526620)
  • Fix T41149: Dissolve crash due to autoSmooth. (f5cee25)
  • Fix T40958: Align rotation + project individual elements not working. (4f18ab1)
  • Outliner - Particles:
  • Fix T40815: Particle birth times not initialized correctly. (259a436)
  • Fix T40983: Particle texture use of generated coordinates is wrong. (06d943c)
  • Fix T41113: Hide doesn't work on particle systems. (8620008)
  • Fix T41114: Particle systems cause memory corruption due to invalid dmcache index (again). (b984489)
  • Fix T41403: Grid Particles only partially generated. (bd623d9)
  • Physics / Hair / Simulations:
  • Fix T40733: Segfault with hair particles cache and vgroups. (d8b0470)
  • Fix T41295: Rigid bodyfield weights not working. (3cd2c61, 29e1592)
  • Python:
  • Fix T41156: UILayout.prop_enum() does not observe "text" parameter override. (cf9d5db)
  • Fix T41196: Calling Bake operator from Python causes a crash. (234ae0b)
  • Fix T41454: Command "Dirty Vertex Colors" prompts Python error. (bb39925)
  • Fix T41204: Setting light distance through Python in BGE incorrectly sets the light's energy instead of distance. (a21a9dd)
  • Fix T41272: KX_Light.color() returns wrong values. (a4c5570)
  • Fix addon crash when trying listdir a directory we have no permission to. (3a58c46)
  • Fix for mathutils.Euler on big endian systems. (a108532)
  • Render:
  • Fix T41395: Set Object As Camera causes strange renders. (5d1d23d)
  • Fix T41349: Muting texture nodes can cause crashes. (1743c81)
  • Fix T41457: Viewport resolution divider uses Freestyle for every resolution. (2184ac8)
  • Fix T40744: MIP Map is generating strange noise in texture. (1ca8684)
  • Fix T41408: Diffuse and specular passes were incorrect with combined/color passes disabled. (d425cb0, be755f3)
  • Fix T41060: Wrong texture 'Object' mapping in 3DView Rendered mode. (e9ef7a8)
  • Fix T40566: Light instances disappear in rendered viewport. (e5fd559)
  • Fix for when an object had dupliobjects children, it was never rendered at all, even if having particle systems. (80d3eb6)
  • Render: Freestyle:
  • Fix T40833: Crash when rendering with freestyle. (ea3c2eb, 6c6fa74)
  • Fix T41180: Crash when using motion blur with Freestyle. (698a9a2)
  • Fix T41464: Material Boundary bug in Freestyle. (eb8964f)
  • Render: Cycles:
  • Fix T40816: SSS brightness difference with Sample All Direct Lights. (8ef2314)
  • Fix T40797: Crash on render on specific file with volumentrics and 'use hair' clicked on render layer. (a8233d7)
  • Fix T40836: Cycles volume scattering shader crash. (cb95544)
  • Fix T40795: Dot output is inverted in viewport with Cycles. (7dbedf6)
  • Fix T40843: Cycles does not support viewport render override. (6ff6883)
  • Fix T40712: Duplicators don't generate orco and UV coordinates in Cycles viewport preview. (2fe0cf5)
  • Fix T39286: Display percentage ignored in Cycles viewport. (2fe0cf5)
  • Fix T41005: Seemingly random crashes with cycles rendering. (5e216a6, f6a174f)
  • Fix T41023: Specific material cause bad render result, different on CPU/GPU. (594ff72, 7149942)
  • Fix T41044: World space location affects object space normal pass during bake. (50d3014)
  • Fix T41122: Mask modifier followed by hair particles causes crash on render. (3ca78a4)
  • Fix T41079: Solid black render of object with negative scale and smooth shading. (9fcaac5)
  • Fix T41116: Motion Blur causes random black surfaces on rigged models. (eb8f85d)
  • Fix T41115: Motion Blur renders objects black, but not in Viewport Preview. (eb8f85d)
  • Fix T41160: Rendering duplifaces crashed Blender. (638bb78)
  • Fix T41139: Cycles Hair roughness causes artifacts. (34937f6)
  • Fix T41197: Blender freezes to infinite loop when switching to PAUSED Cycles rendered viewport. (42aef16)
  • Fix T41222: Cycles gives weird output when baking (4096*4096) resolution on GPU. (983cbaf)
  • Fix T41362: CPU and GPU rendering gives different results. (8bed4e6)
  • Fix T41219: Cycles backface detection doesn't work properly. (bfaf4f2)
  • Fix T41474: Second render layer doesn't render if first one has "Use Surfaces" disabled. (a6ae12a)
  • Fix T41267: Wrong light distribution with when having objects with motion blur. (2e5e1e2)
  • Fix T41013: Crash when using OSL in Cycles. (5e216a6)
  • Fix for crash with environment maps and packed images. (dc40928)
  • Sequencer:
  • Fix T40851: "Sequencer" auto-check after changing spaceview and scene. (0caee78)
  • Fix T41086: VSE separate images increases file size abnormally. (2e43617)
  • Fix T41241: Cropping strips puts a transparent line through the image. (fa8d38d)
  • Fix T41323: Video window taking all the space when switching to split view. (f37c3dd)
  • Sculpting / Painting:
  • Fix T40691: Dyntopo changes lost on save if sculpting on multiple objects. (dcc6300)
  • Fix T40758: Front facing not consistent in sculpt mode. (dbc04c5, bd777ff)
  • Fix T40997: Artifacts appear when unhiding part of the mesh in dyntopo. (f5caab2)
  • Fix T40981: Clipping border does not work with GLSL on ATI's or Intel GPU's. (a498d88, 4097f9c)
  • Fix T41193: Sculpting uses 100% CPU. (115458b)
  • Fix T41354: Cursor never gets reactivated in UV sculpting. (26dc8b7)
  • Fix T41386: Use Alpha bug. (ba345bc)
  • Fix crash on dyntopo when show diffuse option + collapse is used. (05935b5)
  • Text Editor:
  • Fix T41379: Drag n Drop .txt files into the text editor fails. (5ad353b)
  • User Interface:
  • Fix T40841: Copy and Paste objects no longer functions from one running instance of Blender to another. (4c83fae)
  • Fix T40885: "Reset Curve" is backwards on Custom Falloff Curves (Lights). (2e64b83)
  • Fix T40065: Pressing in separate render result window does not focus main window. (fef9463)
  • Fix T40895: Zooming out a lot on the Curves Panel crashes Blender. (f004893)
  • Fix T40888: Memory error when selecting Cycles render engine. (8c9c93c)
  • Fix T40548: After canceling, F-Curve handlers don't go back to original position. (22fa831)
  • Fix T40791: Changing path to movie file does not mark the project as changed. (aa620b5)
  • Fix T41109: Reloading image that has been modified outside Blender does not update image in Image Texture nodes. (9a45c9d)
  • Fix T41100: Draw other object UV's doesn't work when both objects have no image. (1f3c846)
  • Fix T41077: Dope sheet's column select (Alt+RMB) gets ignored with NLA Strips. (c03d8a1)
  • Fix T41042: Irrelevant Bezier handles still affect Graph Editor Show All. (73d157e)
  • Fix T41157: Unchecking "Use Gradient" and selecting "Fill tool" not working. 1134ca7
  • Fix T41223: F-Curve sliders won't update values during playback when mouse cursor is outside the left panel. (42ba931)
  • Fix T41240: Home key doesn't show everything on F-Curves. (3a4e8f8)
  • Fix T41258: Crash when entering edit mode while viewport render is enabled. (eb016eb)
  • Fix T41236: Rendered viewport doesn't update with material actions. (54472df)
  • Fix T41175: Quad View - Properties Region - Clip option not updating. (6ba4db2)
  • Fix T41415: Lasso keymap not working in UV editor. (4bd252d)
  • Fix T40717: Screen does not update while scrolling or zooming with touchpad on a laptop. (2eebe61)
  • Fix T41435: Info-text lags changing space-types. (dae74d2)
  • Fix T41427: Region overlap moves into wrong window. (968e1b3)
  • Fix T41467: Modifier view buttons changing positions. (e85bcfa)
  • Fix T41462: "Reload from trusted" button not prompting for confirmation. (71ce415)
  • Fix T41426: Scroll issues with floating menus. (de12cd7)
  • Fix T39630: Mouse Wheel doesn't detect Multi Window Focus. (adb08de)
  • Fix T41497: Colour Ramp UI bug causes invalid interpolations between RGB and HSV/HSL. (7a36251)
  • Fix for NLA editor not being updated on using "Make Links" (Ctrl)+(L). (481e8ab)
  • Fix for selecting object channels in NLA editor didn't make the object active. (89aee74)
  • Fix for glitch with menus not reliably setting an active item. (47e7ce6, 784c99f, 4c3b25e)
  • System:
  • Fix T39825: Crash on startup with tablet. (d5297b6)
  • Fix T40766: Startup fails with UnicodeDecodeError on Windows. (d4599ff)
  • Input (NDOF / 3D Mouse):
  • Fix T40980: Exporting animation in MPEG Matroska using ffv1 and FLAC codecs fails. (6c70559)
  • Fix T41507: Empty prevents image deletion. (e44cd30)
  • Fix T40792: Blender reports missing files when those files have been packed into a blend. (50ca320)
  • Fix T41035: Scale Manipulator Ctrl+Alt+S issue with Maya shortcuts. (813ece7)
  • Fix T41081: Presets not working on pinned properties panels. (cf3bb40)
  • Fix T40824: Emulate 3 Button Mouse option breaks some functionality in other places. (3ccd9b7)
  • Fix T41062: "copy to selected" doesn't work for all attributes. (5336e68)
  • Fix T41431: Min/Max custom property range mismatch. (7728ffa)
  • Fix T38722: Adding units in Imperial setting results in inconsistent values. (8535b9b)

New in Blender 2.72 Test 1 (Sep 12, 2014)

  • 3D View:
  • Fix for transparency issues in 3D Viewport.
  • Object emitter of particles not visible in viewport when GLSL and "only render" checked.
  • Autokeyframe in camera view not working.
  • Fix for image user count not being decreased when deleting a 3D View background image.
  • Fix for an odd situation where you could assign a background image without increasing its usercount.
  • Texture images are not properly displayed in the material preview in BI when using SSS.
  • Clearing material texture slot through Python does not update 3D View render.
  • "Select Grouped" Pass Index mode is redundant. Revert "Object Select Similar tool now has a Pass Index option."
  • Border render and SSS doesn't work correct in rendered viewport.
  • Gravity in walk mode hard-coded, cannot use alternate scene scale.
  • Box selection bug with armatures.
  • 3D View rendered mode crashes on new scene.
  • Camera-only render border broken.
  • Undo crashing with background images set.
  • "Add to Selection" mode locks.
  • Old render result from viewport render in camera view does not go away when middle clicking.
  • Can't use Deselect/Select All tool while in Texture Paint mode.
  • Viewport shading is different between material and rendered modes.
  • Animation:
  • Selecting group objects by KeyingSets didn't work with builtin KeyingSets.
  • Mirrored armatures not restored properly when cancelling.
  • Fix for invalid memory access in graph editor when deleting the last vertex in a fcurve.
  • Canceling pose library preview does not reset to previous pose.
  • Segfault when attempting to escape from bone translation.
  • Unselectable items are selected when they are unhidden.
  • Selection of bones bug.
  • Copy Custom Property function does nothing with pose bones.
  • Modeling:
  • Fix for dissolve faces iterating over verts while removing.
  • Dissolve verts with adjacent regions, removes the dividing edge.
  • Crash when using LoD operator without valid object.
  • Numinput transform did not take into account scale_length.
  • Curve Modifier does not work when used in a Background scene.
  • LoD add and remove commands crash without a valid object.
  • Bezier Hook to a new object does not work properly.
  • Linking a Group of linked Groups don't take Dupli Visibility correctly.
  • Object Info's Random socket produces erratic results when material is applied to multiple Dupli instances of an object.
  • Calculate Mass does not calculate actual volume.
  • Fix potential bug in loop normals code.
  • Fix for bmesh_vert_separate adding to visithash multiple times.
  • Bevel face material can be set in tool and modifier.
  • Fix wrong index update when removing curve points.
  • Hook modifier sometimes fails to retain correct bezier curve point assignment.
  • MetaBall duplivert unwanted movement bug.
  • Scaling to zero with manipulate center points works precisely on second time.
  • Object font text rendering bug.
  • Dissolve crash due to autoSmooth.
  • Fix bug in validate mesh code (could use index out of range).
  • Shrink wrap modifier causes very high CPU usage when targeting meshes with shaped keys.
  • Blender crashes when UV editing.
  • Face snapping doesn't work properly.
  • Align rotation + project individual elements not working.
  • Text objects flipping.
  • Fill holes fails in certain case.
  • Fix crash on edit mode with multi-align project.
  • Crash on Boolean Modifier.
  • Knife creates duplicate verts.
  • Knife makes duplicate verts with subsurf.
  • Separate bug with Curves & Hooks.
  • Blender crashes when using "spline" or "segments" for bevel curve factor.
  • Fix for BKE_deform_flip_side_name() getting fooled by extra separator characters.
  • The function BLI_bvhtree_find_nearest() gives inaccurate results.
  • Fix mesh validate skipping first vertex.
  • Fix crash in BKE_mesh_validate_arrays().
  • Fix for BMesh fill using arbitrary face-flipping.
  • Mesh triangle fill creates flipped faces.
  • Empty prevents image deletion.
  • Sculpting/Painting:
  • Dyntopo changes lost on save if sculpting on multiple objects.
  • Front facing not consistent in sculpt mode.
  • Artifacts appear when unhiding part of the mesh in dyntopo.
  • Clipping border does not work with GLSL on ATI's or Intel GPU's.
  • Sculpting uses 100% CPU.
  • Fix crash on dyntopo when show diffuse option + collapse is used.
  • Cursor never gets reactivated in UV sculpting.
  • Flag uses color transform by default, and it shouldn't.
  • Fix undo in texture painting not refreshing float images in viewport if 16 bit float textures was off.
  • Use Alpha bug.
  • The alpha setting of creating new image in the texture painting mode doesn't work.
  • Fix crash on texture painting after new scene is added.
  • Fix uninitialized imagepaint values on new scene.
  • Soft light texture blend mode has zero effect.
  • Physics and Particles:
  • Segfault with hair particles cache and vgroups.
  • Particle birth times not initialized correctly.
  • Particle texture use of generated coordinates is wrong.
  • Hide doesn't work on particle systems.
  • Particle systems cause memory corruption due to invalid dmcache index (again).
  • Rigid bodyfield weights not working.
  • The maximum value for smoke initial velocity is too low.
  • Grid Particles only partially generated.
  • Fix 'quick smoke' not rendering anything (texture coordinates was left unset).
  • Tracking:
  • Fix incorrect 2d stabilization for masks.
  • Compositor:
  • Fix for broken subpixel sampling for render layers node.
  • Inconsistent translate node.
  • Rendering alpha channel is broken.
  • Crash on using the viewer node inside of group nodes.
  • UV map node not working for GLSL materials.
  • Sequencer:
  • "Sequencer" auto-check after changing spaceview and scene.
  • VSE separate images increases file size abnormally.
  • Cropping strips puts a transparent line through the image.
  • Video window taking all the space when switching to split view.
  • User Interface:
  • Use cursor x-location for tooltip placement.
  • Copy and Paste objects no longer functions from one running instance of Blender to another.
  • Fix for NLA editor not being updated on using "Make Links" (Ctrl)+(L).
  • "Reset Curve" is backwards on Custom Falloff Curves (Lights).
  • Pressing in separate render result window does not focus main window.
  • Zooming out a lot on the Curves Panel crashes Blender.
  • Memory error when selecting Cycles render engine.
  • Typo in tooltip for SSS property.
  • Hide bevel factor in the Text Panel.
  • Fix for selecting object channels in NLA editor didn't make the object active.
  • After canceling, F-Curve handlers don't go back to original position.
  • Changing path to movie file does not mark the project as changed.
  • Fix wrong interface flags combination in inverse kinematics panel.
  • Reloading image that has been modified outside Blender does not update image in Image Texture nodes.
  • Draw other object UV's doesn't work when both objects have no image.
  • Dope sheet's column select (Alt+RMB) gets ignored with NLA Strips.
  • Irrelevant Bezier handles still affect Graph Editor Show All.
  • UILayout.prop_enum() does not observe "text" parameter override.
  • UI problems with GSoC 2013 Paint.
  • Prevent dragging a popup from activating a button.
  • Hard limit on scene gravity.
  • F-Curve sliders won't update values during playback when mouse cursor is outside the left panel.
  • Home key doesn't show everything on F-Curves.
  • Crash when entering edit mode while viewport render is enabled.
  • Rendered viewport doesn't update with material actions.
  • Fix for glitch with menus not reliably setting an active item.
  • Quad View - Properties Region - Clip option not updating.
  • Fix for out of bounds write while dragging.
  • CM view selection is difficult with multiple views.
  • Drag n Drop .txt files into the text editor fails.
  • Fix marker selection margin ignoring DPI.
  • Fix uninitialized memory use.
  • Lasso keymap not working in UV editor.
  • Screen does not update while scrolling or zooming with touchpad on a laptop.
  • UI wobbles using scrollbar.
  • Info-text lags changing space-types.
  • Region overlap moves into wrong window.
  • Modifier view buttons changing positions.
  • "Reload from trusted" button not prompting for confirmation.
  • Scroll issues with floating menus.
  • MMB not behaving like RMB in modified keymap.
  • Mouse Wheel doesn't detect Multi Window Focus.
  • Some UI op buttons don't have an option to edit shortcuts.
  • Colour Ramp UI bug causes invalid interpolations between RGB and HSV/HSL.
  • Import/Export
  • Collada:
  • Collada Export with 'Include Material Textures' selected crashes.
  • Error message on trying to import COLLADA triangle strips is wrong.
  • MPEG:
  • Exporting animation in MPEG Matroska using ffv1 and FLAC codecs fails.
  • Game Engine:
  • Bone constraints broken in the BGE.
  • Collision callbacks don't work if set directly.
  • An error from a python controller on a LibFreed object causes a crash.
  • Behavior of applyImpulse (GameObject method) doesn't match the behavior described in the documentation.
  • BGE softbodies broken.
  • Frustum culling not working properly.
  • BGE Compound parent crash.
  • Python KX_lightObject.distance bug. Patch by Jon Szabo (thatonejonguy).
  • Constraint wrapper using degrees instead of radians.
  • Fix for a bug causing frequent crash on scene restart with Navmesh.
  • Fix crash and return boolean from scene.replace().
  • KX_Light.color() returns wrong values.
  • Render:
  • Set Object As Camera causes strange renders.
  • Muting texture nodes can cause crashes.
  • Viewport resolution divider uses Freestyle for every resolution.
  • Blender Internal:
  • Fix for when an object had dupliobjects children, it was never rendered at all, even if having particle systems.
  • MIP Map is generating strange noise in texture.
  • Diffuse and specular passes were incorrect with combined/color passes disabled.
  • Wrong texture 'Object' mapping in 3DView Rendered mode.
  • Light instances disappear in rendered viewport.
  • Cycles:
  • SSS brightness difference with Sample All Direct Lights.
  • Crash on render on specific file with volumentrics and 'use hair' clicked on render layer.
  • Cycles volume scattering shader crash.
  • Dot output is inverted in viewport with Cycles.
  • Cycles does not support viewport render override.
  • Massive shading failures with glass node mixing, whiteouts and blackouts.
  • Fix for crash with environment maps and packed images.
  • Duplicators don't generate orco and UV coordinates in Cycles viewport preview.
  • Display percentage ignored in Cycles viewport.
  • Seemingly random crashes with cycles rendering.
  • Intermittent crash clicking material color selector.
  • Specific material cause bad render result, different on CPU/GPU.
  • Distant Lamps have no influence on Volumes.
  • World space location affects object space normal pass during bake.
  • Mask modifier followed by hair particles causes crash on render.
  • Can't paint texture in Cycles.
  • Static BVH shading problem.
  • Solid black render of object with negative scale and smooth shading.
  • Motion Blur causes random black surfaces on rigged models.
  • Motion Blur renders objects black - but not in Viewport Preview.
  • Rendering duplifaces crashed Blender.
  • Cycles Hair BSDF roughness problem.
  • Tangent space required UV map.
  • Blender freezes to infinite loop when switching to PAUSED Cycles rendered viewport.
  • Cycles gives weird output when baking (4096*4096) resolution on GPU.
  • CPU and GPU rendering gives different results.
  • Fix for nested Cycles sessions.
  • Cycles backface detection doesn't work properly.
  • OpenGL error when using Cycles engine.
  • Second render layer doesn't render if first one has "Use Surfaces" disabled.
  • Setting small tile size results in wrong bake with stripes rather than the expected noise pattern.
  • Ashikhmen Shirley shader has excessive fireflies.
  • Wrong light distribution with when having objects with motion blur.
  • Fix wrong image update tagging (float vs. byte images).
  • Cuda renders objects in black with MIS enabled in world setting.
  • Freestyle:
  • Fix for "cast shadows only" materials not handled properly.
  • Crash when rendering with freestyle.
  • Fix for segmentation fault in pipeline.
  • Fix for crash in the constructor of freestyle.types.StrokeVertexIterator.
  • Crash when using motion blur with Freestyle.
  • Fix for a crash during access to Scene properties from within Python.
  • Fix for vertex colors not working properly.
  • Material Boundary bug in Freestyle.
  • Open Shading Language:
  • Crash when using OSL in Cycles.
  • OSL compiler signature changed with 1.5.
  • OSL bug in getmessage ("trace", "geom:name", output).
  • API change in OSL.
  • Crashing OSL when optimization level > O0 is used for osl_shaders.cpp.
  • Python API:
  • Calling Bake operator from Python causes a crash.
  • Fix addon crash when trying listdir a directory we have no permission to.
  • The Python ops log doesn't work.
  • Fix for mathutils.Euler on big endian systems.
  • Command "Dirty Vertex Colors" prompts Python error.
  • Fix missing tag for detecting changes with bpy.data.node_groups[...].is_updated().
  • Miscellaneous:
  • Blender reports missing files when those files have been packed into a blend.
  • Crash on startup with tablet.
  • Scale Manipulator Ctrl+Alt+S issue with Maya shortcuts.
  • Presets not working on pinned properties panels.
  • Speakers with animated pitch cause clicks in rendered animations, crashes or huge filesizes in rendered audio.
  • Fix crash in cases when first BA step happens with all zero-weighted tracks.
  • Emulate 3 Button Mouse option breaks some functionality in other places.
  • Fix memory leak of main lock when reading from library files.
  • Fix for double freeing of MEM_guardedalloc'ed memory originating from BLF_lang_set().
  • Saving a copy changes lib paths.
  • "copy to selected" doesn't work for all attributes.
  • Startup fails with UnicodeDecodeError on Windows.
  • Fix out of bounds read when recalculating mipmaps.
  • Min/Max custom property range mismatch.
  • Adding units in Imperial setting results in inconsistent values.

New in Blender 2.71 (Jun 26, 2014)

  • The Blender Foundation and online developer community is proud to present Blender 2.71. Much awaited new features for Cycles renderer include deformation motion blur, fire/smoke and volume rendering and a baking API. User interface now allows for draggable popups and resizable preview widgets. Animation has new interpolation types with “easing equations” presets. Modeling now allows to “split normals” and Sculpting/Painting has new HSL color wheel and constant detail in dyntopo. Game development now allows deactivating logic bricks, multi-threaded animations, cast only materials and “unlimited” action layers. Freestyle NPR rendering has a new textured strokes feature, along with line sorting options.
  • Cycles Rendering:
  • Cycles now includes support for rendering volume textures, fire and smoke, deformation motion blur, baking textures from cycles materials, more texture interpolation modes and a dedicated UV layer node.
  • Animation:
  • More easing equations added to the IPO editor for better animation control, locking time to other windows is again possible, auto snapping is now independent from display type.
  • The user interface now offers more feedback, especially on errors, updates driver expressions automatically on editing, includes more icons and offers more editing tools.
  • New tools also include lasso selection support, non-linked duplication for strips, and setting preview range based on selected strips.
  • Modelling:
  • The new per-face normals feature allows blender to display and export sharp edges correctly without geometry duplication.
  • In addition, selection tools offer more options.
  • Sculpting/Painting:
  • New features include a HSL color wheel for color selection and tools to handle homogenous density in dynamic topology sculpting.
  • Dyntopo and matcap display for sculpt mode have also had performance optimizations.
  • Game Engine:
  • UI to deactivate logic bricks, multi-threaded animations, shadows-only materials and more action layers are among the new features for the game engine
  • Freestyle NPR Rendering:
  • Freestyle has been upgraded with textured stroke support. Textured stroke support makes it possible to apply patterns to the lines and simulate rough surfaces or different kinds of brush tips for the strokes themselves.
  • Line sorting also gives artists more control over the order of line drawing
  • User Interface:
  • Interface features include new icons for texture painting, resizeable preview widgets and draggable popups.
  • More Features:
  • More control for curve bevelling, explicit shadow cast control for blender internal materials, new distortion model for motion tracking and better handles for mask editors.

New in Blender 2.71 Test 1 (May 26, 2014)

  • CYCLES RENDERING:
  • Deformation Motion Blur
  • Fire and Smoke Rendering
  • Baking API
  • Volume Rendering
  • Optimizations
  • Branched Path
  • Nodes
  • CUDA
  • USER INTERFACE:
  • OpenGL Render options are now available inside the Info Editor -> Render menu, among the OpenGL Render / Animation operators. This is consistent for Blender Internal and Cycles now, before these settings were in different panels.
  • Dragging popups by their title area is now possible.
  • Mat/tex/etc. preview widgets are now resizable.
  • ANIMATION:
  • F-Curves
  • Drivers
  • Armatures
  • Constraints
  • Transform Constraint - Backward Compatibility Issue
  • Dope Sheet Editor
  • Graph Editor
  • Animation Editors:
  • Decouple auto-snapping behavior from time display type
  • Jumping between key-frames only considers selected data by default
  • 2D Views: Lock Time to Other Windows option restored
  • NLA Editor:
  • UI Changes
  • Tools
  • Equations:
  • The New Interpolation Types
  • Easing
  • MODELLING:
  • Selection:
  • Loop-select on edge boundaries now extends to select all boundaries if the current boundary is already selected 276ef3b3b5192aad5c3e5e02c69246
  • Switching modes can optionally contract selection (Holding Ctrl while switching from Face -> Edge, Edge -> Vertex)
  • Tools:
  • Set edges smooth/sharp is now in the Shading panel of 3DView tools, together with already existing smooth/flat faces, and new smooth/sharp vertices (which simply tag vertices’ edges as smooth/sharp).
  • Split Normals, Stage I:
  • Blender can now use “split normals” (i.e. normals per vertex per face) to draw smooth/sharp edges/faces in the 3DView, and both Cycles and BI renderers. In Edit mode, it also can draw split normals as lines, just like usual vertex or face ones.
  • SCULPTING/PAINTING:
  • HSL Color Wheel:
  • Support for HSL (Hue, Saturation, Lightness) based color wheel.
  • Sculpting:
  • Support for constant detail in dyntopo sculpting.
  • Working with constant detail:
  • Constant detail is a tool to help maintain the same level of detail across the mesh. Dyntopo allows flexibility in how detail is handled during sculpting, so setting the mode to constant will not immediately convert the whole mesh to the detail value displayed in the topology panel. However, further strokes will utilize that setting while in constant detail mode.
  • GAME DEVELOPMENT:
  • Blender Game Engine:
  • Deactivating Logic Bricks
  • Multi-Threaded Animations
  • Skinning Profile Time Moved
  • Cast Only Material Option
  • FREESTYLE NPR RENDERING:
  • New feature #1: Textured strokes:
  • Using textures through the Freestyle GUI
  • Using textures in Python scripting
  • New feature #2: Sorting:
  • Sort options
  • MORE FEATURES:
  • 3D Text:
  • Text-boxes can now be selected in editmode
  • Curves bevel factor mapping:
  • Bevel Factor Mapping allows to control the relation between bevel factors (number between 0 and 1) and the rendered start and end point of a beveled spline.
  • ADDONS:
  • Python API:
  • Sequencer.elements.push renamed to append

New in Blender 2.70 (Mar 20, 2014)

  • Includes changes from the previous RC version

New in Blender 2.70 RC 1 (Mar 6, 2014)

  • New features include initial support for volumetrics in Cycles, and faster rendering of hair and textures. The motion tracker now supports weighted tracks and has improved planar tracking. For mesh modeling there are new Laplacian deform and wireframe modifiers, along with more control in the bevel tool. The game engine now supports object levels of detail.
  • The first results from the new user interface project are also in this release, with dozens of changes to make the interface more consistent and powerful. This is also the first release of the multithreaded dependency graph, which makes modifier and constraint evaluation faster in scenes with multiple objects.
  • Cycles Rendering:
  • Cycles now has initial support for volume rendering including emission, absorption and scattering. Volume rendering can be used to render effects like fire, smoke, mist, absorption in glass, and many other effects that can't be represented by surface meshes alone.
  • CPU rendering performance was improved, particularly for hair, textures and Open Shading Language.
  • Motion Tracker:
  • Trackers can now be weighted, to keep the result stable as feature disappear or become difficult to track. The plane track workflow was improved to be easier to control. Automatic feature detection was made more robust using a new detector algorithm.
  • User Interface:
  • The toolbar now has tabs to organize tools in categories. Multiple buttons can now be edited at once, for example for XYZ axes or color channels. Transform tools now have a mode to enter expressions and units. Other changes were done to improve lists, header menus, tooltips, buttons, menus and more.
  • Modeling:
  • The Laplacian Deform modifier was added to pose a mesh while preserving geometric details of the surface, and a new wireframe modifier allows you transform your mesh into a wireframe representation. The boolean modifier now supports ngons, and there are improvements to the bevel, screw and triangulate modifiers.
  • The bevel tool now offers more control over the bevel profile and results, and the knife tool was improved as well.
  • Threaded Dependency Graph:
  • An important change that happened under the hood is the threaded dependency graph. This means that object modifiers and constraints, among other things, can now be computed with multiple threads taking advantage of multicore processors. This will be most noticeable with scenes that have many objects, or multiple objects with heavy modifiers. This is the first step in making the dependency graph in Blender more powerful.
  • Game Development:
  • The Blender game engine now supports discrete level of detail for meshes. For game developers, support for working with Photoshop PSD files has been added.
  • A new view navigation walk mode has been added, which has a control scheme as typically found in first person shooter games. This can be useful for game developers to navigate levels as if in a game.
  • Freestyle NPR Rendering:
  • The Freestyle Python API is an essential part that makes it a highly programmable NPR rendering engine. This API has been reorganized.
  • More Features:
  • Many small changes and features were done all over Blender. Some notable new feature are normalized display for FCurves, derivative map baking, baking to vertex colors, better visualization of masks and control over mask filling, gravity option for sculpting, negative texture values to support vector displacement and a Lamp Data shading node to create more customized NPR shaders.
  • Addons:
  • Several addons have been added and updated, including Node Wrangler (aka Node Efficiency Tools) and a new Sketchfab Exporter addon
  • BUG FIXES:
  • 3D View:
  • Fix T37281: View3D could have invalid transform orientation using undo (d44c79b)
  • Fix T37586: Auto-perspective was changing to perspective while orbiting (a65ef6a)
  • Fix T37663: Black matcap when object located on a curve (4627516)
  • Fix T37727: Z-offset problems with camera view (90e7be4)
  • Fix T37842: Missing 3D view redraw when editing group layers and offset (90b831d)
  • Fix T37834: Smoke opengl render not delivering correct alpha channel (355c699)
  • Fix T37869: Vertex paint + wireframe draw mode + smoke domain did not draw correct (e7ac87a)
  • Fix T37170: Missing curve outline when using constructive modifiers (d94202b)
  • Fix T38229: 3D view shadeless display not supported with GLSL, so hide in UI (cda894f)
  • Fix T38328: GLSL display shows texture mapping completely messed up in some cases (1234831)
  • Fix T38435: Crash when pressing MMB in walk mode (482823a)
  • Fix T38472: Allow orbiting locked view when they are already 'user' (bb36037)
  • Fix T35810: Texture faces display white in 3D view, when used as a Particle Object (6a4f2fd)
  • Fix T38633: glsl not working well with mixed cycles/blender material nodes (a252e27)
  • Fix T38784: Smoothview using perspective transition with ortho camera (dde6642)
  • Fix T38766: Blender material transparency setting not taken into account for viewport (7ef1ed1)
  • Correct GLSL preview: material using shader nodes didn't consider "Transparency" is a shader pipeline option. (6489c1f94d7b)
  • Animation:
  • Fix T37097: Setting scene frame does not update active camera (eb1b4c3)
  • Fix T37146: Dopesheet / Graph editor, select columns between markers doesn't appear to work (e401fef)
  • Fix T36687: Animation channels can't be grouped in action editor (a8a4431)
  • Fix T36950: Restrict Frame Range not being obeyed on Driver F-Curves (a1d553a)
  • Fix T36844: Cannot set Restrict Frame Start for FModifiers until Frame End has been adjusted (737239c)
  • Fix T37495: Duplis weren't handling negative scaled objects properly (2d4bfc5)
  • Fix T37624: Rename Marker does not update Marker in 3D View until Frame Change (a6188af)
  • Fix T37667: Rotational difference driver target marked invalid even though valid (6b54752)
  • Fix T37755: Autokey doesn't work for local Z-Axis in Camera view with MotionPaths enabled (fcdc04a)
  • Fix T37103: Keyframing custom properties issue (FCurve would not reflect Custom props type changes) (51f5c99)
  • Fix T37883: Dope Sheet - Selecting object channels in AnimEditors doesn't make them active (48b9680)
  • Fix T37929: Inherit scale for dupli faces was not shown greyed out when it should be (c9c0d11)
  • Fix T38025: Key-framing lattice points fails (f754410)
  • Fix T38105: Action Editor refresh is missing when a keyframe is inserted in 3D view (fa88c7f)
  • Fix T37886: Material does no update when changing keyframes in dopesheet (08981f3)
  • Fix T38347: Adding object visibility keyframes in the outliner groups and libraries view not working (257f408)
  • Fix T38411: Free keyframe handles do not snap to frames when duplicating (1d260d8)
  • Fix T38610: Lattice U/V/W should not be animatable, is not supported (efc6735)
  • Fix T38737: Box select channels in dope sheet doesn't select corresponding bones in rig (4ff3ec8)
  • Fix T38863: FCurve auto-clamp allows handle to move past X bounds (4622fc4)
  • Fix T38817: FCurve autoclamp error (ba08031)
  • Fix T38877: F-Curve modal input is incorrect when set to Imperial units (96a51e9)
  • Fix T38467: Animation playback is not synchronized when Screen Layout changes (d2a5ea0)
  • Fix T36496: Unwanted behavior with NLA strip blend mode Replace (53b03ef)
  • Armatures:
  • Fix T37031: Bones are not selectable in weight paint mode anymore (cb6e795)
  • Fix T37072: Crash on RMB click on bone's custom property (46b807b)
  • Fix T37067: Bone Crash when holding Ctrl+RMB (ebc2cc1)
  • Fix T36203: Transformation bone constraint breaks Track To / Dumped Track (7a10bac)
  • Fix T37336: Toggle selecting a pose-bone from object mode would de-select all others (6f3f107)
  • Fix T37751: Crash subdividing bones (a930fb1)
  • Fix T37709: Memory corruption when freeing custom bone shape objects (122e2b4)
  • Fix T38077: Scaling bones in EditMode drawn using envelope display mode scales joint radii instead (0445454)
  • Fix T38251: "Apply Visual Transform to Pose" Offsets bone unpredictably (be87a65)
  • Fix T38393: Bone roll not restored properly after cancelling rotation of bones (1e0654f)
  • Fix T38547: Crash in skeleton sketching (e91ddf0)
  • Fix T38837: Ctrl+RMB can't select posemode (4a61df9)
  • Fix T38843: Bone parallel to world z axis flicking when scale in edit mode (65c5be9)
  • Fix T38407: Bone roll calculation flips local axes at wrong rotation angle (f23f07c)
  • Audio:
  • Fix T36819: Audio Only Sequencer wont render (bef6b06)
  • Fix T37293: Audio does not Scrub, plays fully instead (1457924)
  • Fix T37362: Audio strips sometimes are evaluated incorrectly (c53f80a)
  • Fix T38500: Audio of a scene strip can't be muted (2b9702f)
  • Collada:
  • Fix T38366: Export collada crash - if you set a keyframe (bb83bdf)
  • Fix T32843: Collada Spotlight angle animation is in radians not degrees (d291d15)
  • Fix T38847: Reject reuse of child bones as root bones. That doesn't make sense anyways (3111f08)
  • Constraints:
  • Fix TT37894 IK constraint desactivation does not work as expected (8a8ee2c)
  • Curves / Metas:
  • Fix T37251: Snap not working correctly in metaball edit mode (1799482)
  • Fix T37428: NurbsPath Mesh Deform "Binding" not available or not functional (6f67f7c)
  • Fix T37225: UV map for closed curves incorrectly generated (cc55913)
  • Fix T37750: Incorrect stats for dupli-metaballs (8b53717)
  • Fix T37056: Making segment flips curves it's not needed (202bb32)
  • Fix T38135: Global start and end point of the curve was set to zero radius & weight, when using 'linked' option (08eaa8d)
  • Fix T38149: Crash adding metaball with zero radius (9e1ca28)
  • Fix T38209: Curve's didn't account for negative scale (54e56cd)
  • Fix T38562: Wrong curve tilt after Switch Direction (54dd355)
  • Fix T38786: Curve unable to make segment (103583c)
  • File I/O::
  • Fix T37011: "Save Copy" option misfunction (9aeced4)
  • Fix T37199: .ogg file is not recognized as a movie in File Browser (fc0e225)
  • Fix T37290: Movie files filtering does not show *.ts files (2742cb6)
  • Fix T37591: 'Extensions' option ignored for movies (d45ea33)
  • Fix T37240: Saving a new file always had absolute paths, now remap (95bf31e)
  • Fix T37864: Save/save_as blend now refuses to save and report an error, when filepath is not writeable (01745d3)
  • Fix T37481: Image Sequence can't be loaded (04f81c8)
  • Fix T38303: Same names with different case sorted unpredictable in the file browser (dcba34b)
  • Fix T38303: Inconsistent sorting of names in Append/Link view (ba49d7e)
  • Fix T38353: Some EXR files from other applications not loading correctly (70e844e)
  • Fix T38658: H.264 with "Lossless Output" enabled gives lossy output (209a68a)
  • Fix T38644: H.264 with PNG RGBA encoding crashes (2175302)
  • Fix T38808: Image opened with 'relative path', gets absolute path (b6bb6d1)
  • Game Engine:
  • Fix T37325: applyRotation() wasn't working correctly on rigid bodies in the game engine (T37325)
  • Fix T37289: ID User decrement error for Shapes on Bones when playing in BGE (2b0162b)
  • Fix T37040: Removing vehicles in BGE causes a crash (c73f82b)
  • Fix T37171: Camera parented to a bone doesn't move with the bone, unless another object is parented too (0f32bc4)
  • Fix T37566: KX_GameObject.resumeDynamics() was not properly restoring collision groups and masks (eba07b7)
  • Fix T36804: The property sensor when set to interval was causing a memory leak (8aff45d)
  • Fix T37920: BGE LibLoad failed for meshes with no materials (6a47330)
  • Fix T38145: Python error popup when pressing shift+Z in blender game mode (6d6bb2d)
  • Fix T37892: BL_ArmatureConstraint.active returns wrong value (dfac6c4)
  • Fix T38325: Game Engine Bitmap fonts failed for characters >128 (2f46ed5)
  • Fix T38110: GameEngine keyboard sensor ignores unicode characters (3b71cab)
  • Fix T37964: KX_GameObject missing NULL checks for m_physicsController (f3c7cb0)
  • Fix T38654: Using a non-camera object for the SetCamera Scene Actuator causes a segfault (16c75cf)
  • Fix T38739: Simulations, unsupported in the Game Engine, could not be removed from the UI. (3436c41)
  • Fix T38645: Mouse reversed in standalone player with kde (9753641)
  • Image / UV Editing:
  • Fix T37123: UV editor view does not update when using large faces (a709cb2)
  • Fix T37468: Image empties now use no interpolation when mipmaps are disabled (ea79dce)
  • Fix T37472: Crash when packing UV islands (4da651c)
  • Fix T37464: Crash when pressing "V" in UV/Image editor (95d3286)
  • Fix T37407: Deleting UVMap in EditMode with opened Image Editor segfaults (fd88ce4)
  • Fix T37680: Texture image scale is not refreshing (b987548)
  • Fix T37326: inversion of image channels did not do an undo push (8e5b023)
  • Fix T37826: Opening a new image in the image editor (c193dbe)
  • Fix T37718: Texture compression missing (04eb24a)
  • Fix T37718: Umage was not saving with proper settings second time (b0c4133)
  • Fix T38283: UV unwrap giving wrong results with particular meshes (4c6a72a)
  • Fix T38574: UV sculpting cursor could be visible during render preview in image editor (1dfd82d)
  • Fix T38548: Edit externally always uses first frame only (70924a7)
  • Mesh Editing:
  • Fix T37012: The new export split normal does nor produce correct results (110b32c)
  • Fix T37030: Loop Cut and Slide doesn't clear header text if you click a blank area (ecc5eb5)
  • Fix T37046: Dissolve edges and vertices problem with triangulate (b20d3ba)
  • Fix T37013: Mesh > bisect can't fill the cut if it lines up with two or more adjacent vertices (1ae0de2)
  • Fix T37100: Segfault when I rotate an edge (f12ac5b)
  • Fix T37145: "Triangulate Face" crash in specific scene it was asserting if the last edge faces were already all set (8f22c12)
  • Fix T37160: Rotate edge direction changed between 2.64 and 2.65 (55201ce)
  • Fix T37179: All transformation normals drawn when proportional edit, individual origins and normal transform orientation are set (c3b746f)
  • Fix T37388: Grid fill crashes blender in specific situation (7fc1088)
  • Fix T37053: Bevel artifacts bug (9a78cda)
  • Fix T36998: Bisect would operate on unselected vertices (bea9c3a)
  • Fix T37399: Crash with wireframe (wasn't clearing edge tag) (4c42e73)
  • Fix T37559: Crash dissolving vertices in some situations (283f43d)
  • Fix T37571: Knife Select should be disabled when no faces are selected (84334bd)
  • Fix T37203: New face from an edge failed if only one vert was connected to a wire edge (caf6bf8)
  • Fix T37143: Wrong normal dir with individual origins + one vert selected (47a8b38)
  • Fix T37692: Follow active quads failed on unselected-active-face (700e799)
  • Fix T37946: Error filling ngons (af32c1c)
  • Fix T37965: Loop multicut confirmation not happening when numeric input is used (d8f4cb9)
  • Fix T38019: Edge/Vertex Slide recognises Even and Flipped as if they were numerical values (aef307c)
  • Fix T38186: Mesh inset didn't follow edge directions for flat surfaces (5611fb6)
  • Fix T38166: Vertex slide C key doesn't work (e07e8e3)
  • Fix T38300: Bevel didn't always reconstruct faces properly (45b9822)
  • Fix T38358: Face snapping fails on Orthographic view (77089a3)
  • Fix T38675: Bad bevel on slanted L (6de3a8a)
  • Fix T38655: Face path select fails with edge/vert select enabled too (13870d5)
  • Fix T38756: Regression with vertex slide responding to mouse events (e82d648)
  • Fix T38858: Crazy spaces was unpredictable with co-linear edges (b5d6f14)
  • Fix T38834: Knife constraint is offset after moving the view (a815e04)
  • Fix T38872: Crazyspace could use stale derivedMesh data (1e05956)
  • Fix T38871: Bevel could create a far-out spike (1582dd5)
  • Fix T38936: Bevel strange flickering on big meshes (37ef7f3)
  • Modifiers:
  • Fix T37085: Hook modifier work when created with Ctrl+H, but not when created via modifier panel (22c019a)
  • Fix T37252: Mask modifier doesn't copy settings on object copy (c241bf3)
  • Fix T37266: Skin modifier can't be copied (b375388)
  • Fix T37315: Mirror+MeshDeform cause crash when Vertex Group is referred (26dc289)
  • Fix T37476: Bevel modifier got weight from wrong edge (7a899ce)
  • Fix T37413: Fit-Curve option for Array Modifier ignores constraint results (cee7fbd)
  • Fix T37519: Screw Modifier ignores material setup (74a1e4d)
  • Fix T37612: UV warp modifier bone name doesn't update when renamed (8cb0256)
  • Fix T37247: Modifier "Mask" not updated correctly when switching from objects (33bc6a3)
  • Fix T37541: Multires not reading external displacement file after entering edit mode (5102a02)
  • Fix T37121: Decimate works badly with flat surfaces (3f5b59c)
  • Fix T37837: mirror modifier merge does not place vertices at the center. (7214001)
  • Fix T37691: Screw modifier created zero length normals (d7033d5)
  • Fix T37859: Smoke modifier taking deforming modifiers into account in some cases (19c0c79)
  • Fix T37914: Mask modifier behaves differently until painted (d064968)
  • Fix T38354: Excess memory allocation when projecting onto object with multires (afb9393)
  • Fix T38521: Skin modifier crash with zero radius vertices (52bae96)
  • Fix T37916: Bad bevel result after mirror modifier (b4fb1e6)
  • Fix T38638: Modifiers on curves kept warnings (56f6bc0)
  • Fix T38567: Branch smoothing on skin modifier broken (c625658)
  • Fix T38736: ShrinkWrap modifier doesn't work after Subsurf (e87c462)
  • Fix T38800: Setting UV projector caused zero user objects (7078fb9)
  • Fix T38003: Skin modifier crash with long edges (ca2b432)
  • Motion Tracking:
  • Fix T38281: Motion tracker crash blender (910f4df)
  • Fix T38700: Plane track can't be adjust when select mouse is set to left (7aa86ec)
  • Movie Clip Editor:
  • Fix T37119: Prefetching doesn't fetch last frame of an image-sequence (71dae0c)
  • Fix T37118: Prefetch frames doesn't respect input color space 992902c
  • Fix T37117: Prefetching fails with non-ascii characters in path (47f3654)
  • Fix T37757: Mask Pivot Point individual origins doesnt work (a0a09d1)
  • Fix T38670: Mask transform without a movieclip crashes (1776cb9)
  • ( Fix T38944: Fonts too small in Movie Clip Editor on Retina display (58bd0e5)
  • Nodes / Compositor:
  • Fix T37057: Detach (Alt + D) doesn't work in nodes editor / compositor (dfea1dd)
  • Fix T37084: Backdrop not invalidating inside node groups (78efff5)
  • Fix T37175: Viewer node issue for newly toggled render passes (268e519)
  • Fix T37221: Multilayer EXR inputs generate pink frame/last displayed frame when using an image sequence offset (e667f12)
  • Fix T37261: Rendering a Render Layer from another scene doesn't update (c9fdec1)
  • Fix T37312: Backdrop value offset is not refreshed (f3a137c)
  • Fix T37333: Bad default value in Color Balance (b91e841)
  • Fix T37493: Defocus node with angle = 90° rotates bokeh only for ~1.5° (bc6ba9e)
  • Fix T37525: Viewer node causes crash (1e479d1)
  • Fix T37172: Plane Tracker Deform - No perspective (06c86e7)
  • Fix T37741: Duplicating node editor did not copy node tree pointers (964252c)
  • Fix T37890: Compositor did not take number of thread setting into account (29e3b09)
  • Fix T37939: Crash on exit (reading from freed node trees) (d9e0a94)
  • Fix T37970: Node scale/rotate use incorrect pivot (a857a6f)
  • Fix T38075: Crash from shader node add/replace tree view template (ebf23b5)
  • Fix T38142: Socket interface 'type' enums are not initialized (10b5ad5)
  • Fix T38141: Wrong add reroute node location with shift LMB cut on OS X / retina (84fa507)
  • Fix T38128: Snapping to node border uses node centers (19da32a)
  • Fix T38011: Compositing artifacts with a group nodes setup (9c883a1)
  • Fix T38355: Crash with Shader Node Group with missing datablock, only in "Material" viewport shading (21c56f7)
  • Fix T38473, T38473: Fixed Scene pointers in Composite and Defocus nodes don't get updated based on context (1687023)
  • Fix T38498: properly unlink scene pointers from SpaceNode (11112d4)
  • Fix T38529: Blur node size 0 doesn't work (51efa8a)
  • Fix T38487: Wrapped translate node in combination with other buffered nodes (Blur) causes crash due to chained read/write buffer operations (7ee9de2)
  • Fix T38651: Compositor Normal Node Sphere unchangable when Reset All To Default Values is used on it (ecd0565)
  • Fix T38680: File output subpath file-select operator uses absolute path (266e1b3)
  • Fix T38506: Bokeh blur node - size bugs with OpenCL (1355387)
  • Fix T38488: Single pixel line artifact with Rotate and Wrapped Translate nodes (d516fed)
  • Fix T38603: Output File node sockets were drawing the regular socket label in addition to the actual specialized socket ui (32ba1ce)
  • Fix T37719: NodeTrees lose users on undo (f1a0278)
  • Fix T38798: Can get stuck in world nodes when switching from Cycles to BI. (b5aef37)
  • Fix T38813: Missing color management in texture nodes preview(39cad75)
  • Fix T37334: Better "internal links" function for muting and node disconnect (fd553c5) :
  • Fix compositor rendering scenes multiple times in some cases (3718c04)
  • Fix for random crash in localized node group freeing while tweaking group default values (cc35ad2)
  • Objects:
  • Fix T37032: Blener crashes when parent to new object (830974b)
  • Fix T37090: Blender crashes on "Make single user" option (e99586f)
  • Fix T37338: Add objects from addon work in a Linked Scene (be09e69)
  • Fix T37445: Crash with snapping and shrink-wrap modifier (2b946f4)
  • Fix T37465: UV Coords we're incorrect when converting from a curve (0469971)
  • Fix T37573: Adding grid primitive slow for many subdivisions (aa3c06b)
  • Fix T37471: Copy/Paste objects broke relative paths (d428405)
  • Fix T37671: Edit Texture Space on Skin Resize crash (4ac17b3)
  • Fix T37212: Wrong user counter when more than 32K users (55416f4)
  • Fix T37769: Inconsistent behavior of Remove Selected From Active Group (653d645)
  • Fix T37595: Switching modal transform broke with trackball rotation (2195dd3)
  • Fix T38234: Changing smooth/flat shading on linked mesh data should not be allowed (8c44495)
  • Fix T38217: Fix glitch adding Monkey with view align (38e683c)
  • Fix T38161: Copy Material to Others causes incorrect viewport display if target object uses more materials (df88dbf)
  • Fix T38265: Transferring vertex weights from an object with modifiers not working (386d3a9)
  • Fix T38409: Snapping Bug (0cb4928)
  • Fix T37577: Joining two objects with different UVs destroys UVs of one object in some specific cases (605910f)
  • Fix T38717: Copy Vertex Group To Selected fails when all Vertex Groups are empty (a938640)
  • Fix T38721: Vertex Group pop menu (CTRL+G) Set Active Group not updating Vertex Groups Panel (d85d117)
  • Outliner:
  • Fix T37168: Outliner refresh error after removing constraints (bf04c76)
  • Fix T37304: Arrow Keys Stop Working When Mouse Over Outliner (98be886)
  • Fix T37324: Crash calling Warp operator in Outliner (c8e2b54)
  • Fix T38471: Parenting in the outliner was possible with library linked objects (8acf717)
  • Particles:
  • Fix T37110: After deletion of large scene, file still huge due to particle objects (2871b0d)
  • Fix T37159: Particle Emitter set to not render still appears in 3D view, when display set to rendered only (34cd28d)
  • Fix T37195: Particles crash with viewport render (01da2c0)
  • Fix T38476: Incorrect hair draw type after editing particle system in edit mode (e9fda25)
  • Fix T35247: Particle texture behaves incorrectly after changing the number of particles (78c491e)
  • Physics / Hair / Simulations:
  • Fix T37106: Hair Length vanishes when Advanced is enabled (023b25b)
  • Fix T37246: Dynamic paint end frame is limited to 9999 (7bc6192)
  • Fix T37270: Blender crashes in several situations (57f7262)
  • Fix T37297: Crash when Adding and Removing Fluid Particlesystem (c366f08)
  • Fix T37319: Forcefield on translated, unselected lamp draws in origin (c215faf)
  • Fix T37359: Dynamic Paint deletes inactive texture from smoke domain when using a material as brush color (5feb0d2)
  • Fix T37712: Point cache index lookup crashed with 0 points stored (793b73e)
  • Fix T37906: Adding force field settings to boids gives hard crash (f72b86d)
  • Fix T37993: Mass of Rigid Body ignores scene unit scale (33a027b)
  • Fix T38112: Rigid Body can't be created for objects with linked mesh (3739f53)
  • Fix T38196: Crash with smoke simulation (ca2a144)
  • Fix T38227: Cloth cache storing only every 10 frames (a86f43d)
  • Fix T38111: Duplicating BOIDS emitter cause glitchy operation (df72d3c)
  • Fix T38233: Right click in Particle Edit mode closes application (c78d9a3)
  • Fix T38157: Rigid body, crazy f-curves after bake to keyframes (4c89a65)
  • Fix T36190: Rigid Body bake to keyframes bakes wrong the rotations (377bb55)
  • Fix T38294: Enabling hair dynamics very slow / hangs with many hairs (8506e3a)
  • Fix T37673: Ray casting could fail with 0 collision margins (6fe5b3b)
  • Fix T38388: Creating a new scene with full copy sets rigidbody collision shapes to box (f17a1bd)
  • Fix T36769: Fluid sim modifier can crash blender (1ab86e3)
  • Fix T35328: Disk caches of multiple particle systems on a single object overwrite each other (aa3d88d)
  • Python:
  • Fix T37105: Long int IDproperties produces errors at weird spots (f5660a0)
  • Fix T37249: Crash calling wm.progress_update() with no active window (2123386)
  • Fix T37149: Macros store settings from a cancelled operation (285e09b)
  • Fix T37698: Crash from invalid context access when freeing custom python nodes on Blender exit (193dd13)
  • Fix T37752: Color rna path functions missing (ab19545)
  • Fix T37903: Operator log serialization broken for sets (14c9899)
  • Fix T38008: Bug in templates operator_nodes.py (http://operator_nodes.py/) (de147a9)
  • Fix T38013: Incorrect RNA Path when trying to keyframe the nth vertex of Bezier curve shape key data (c8dd6b6)
  • Fix T38104: mathutils.cell_vector() always returns (0,0,0) (55f7a4a)
  • Fix T38016: Setting Object.matrix_world does not take bone parents into account (a0dbee6)
  • Fix T38150: Implementation mismatch in bmesh python (18db6c5)
  • Fix T38402: Invalid message for bad type assignments (Quat, Vector) (bd697dd)
  • Fix T38515: Python menu tooltip description affecting unrelated menus (10b8247)
  • Fix T38525: missing update when running bpy.ops.transform.* from the console (f49e89f)
  • Fix T38541: sys.exit fails when blender is built as a py-module (a397009)
  • Fix T38715: Setting object mode fails from command line (e3f4037)
  • Fix T38539: Can't set near sensor distance above 100 via python (3a44e97)
  • Fix T38753: Python script paths weren't escaped (Win only) (99edd29)
  • Fix T38769: Python missing access to text materials (cb1b6b5)
  • Fix T38778: Properties from bpy.props could be edited as custom props (bb62f9a)
  • Render:
  • Fix T37045: Blender Internal SSS rendering black on some system when the SSS reflection color was set to 1 1 1 1a3011a
  • Fix T36936: Crash when starting BI rendered view (69cbf3d)
  • Fix T37301: Command line render gives seg fault 11 on OS X (106699e)
  • Fix T37414: Local view not taken into account for blender internal F12 render over 3D view (29790d4)
  • Fix T37656: Huge amount of RAM used during start when rendering large images (9df2499)
  • Fix T37604: Deadlock when stopping rendered viewport (Blender Internal) (5036ac6)
  • Fix T37675: blender internal viewport render not updating properly with volumes (15927e0)
  • Fix T36474: Blender 2.68a crashes upon rendering (602dcb4)
  • Fix T38062: Normal map baking gave randomly values 127 or 128 in flat areas (0d57724)
  • Fix T37958: Part of blender internal approximate AO / indirect light preprocess could not be cancelled (62f9be7)
  • Fix T37976: Blender internal transparent shadows from volumes not working correct (82a7a3d)
  • Fix T38306: Dupliframes causing viewport render to continually restart (2aeb492)
  • Fix T38318: Blender internal viewport now uses viewport, not render visibility (162d6c7)
  • Fix T38319: No camera error message for render not showing correctly (7da44ef)
  • Fix T37940: Curve Render bug in Blender Internal Render (1c8abf8)
  • Fix T38323: Blender viewport render in particle hair edit mode renders halos (c2fbec7)
  • Fix T36165: Blender internal HDR textures with negative values got clamped (9f90320)
  • Fix T38726: blender internal viewport render crash when deleting render layer. (2771268)
  • Fix T38801: Dupli objects with modifiers exhibit bad transform artifacts in Blender Internal renderer (188f8d0)
  • Fix T38773: Inconsistent conversion of colors and float values in Blender Internal shader nodes (3ae641e)
  • Fix T38831: Blender internal enabling shadow pass changes material node diffuse (1dbd3ae)
  • Blender Internal: Fix material preview that the bounce lights permanently disappear once volume material is used. (1239c265cb80)
  • Render: Freestyle:
  • Fix T37070: LineStyle appears in Outliner by default though Freestyle is not enabled (7e64342)
  • Fix T37092, T37381: crashes in the .object() method of Freestyle iterators (ef1bc03)
  • Fix T38887: Error in (still unused) freestyle math function implementation (da5e6b9) :
  • Fix for occasional crashes due to numerical instability in Freestyle Perlin noise modifiers with a large 'octaves' value (8046437)
  • Fix crash in freestyle vector parsing (f1a989f)
  • Fix for Freestyle stroke rendering performed for each SSS material (0c9d897)
  • Fix for iterations over 0D elements in the reversed order (a169989)
  • Render: Cycles:
  • Fix T36991: After rendering with Sampled Motion Blur, the moving objects place is wrong (c1541a9)
  • Fix T37002: Viewport render shows white on old graphics cards with no support for non-power-of-two textures (9d7567d)
  • Fix T37109: Missing cycles texture display in edit mode (abee8a8)
  • Fix T37134: Viewport not displaying correct with multi GPU render and graphics card that does not support CUDA OpenGL interop (4516076)
  • Fix T37192: Rendered preview causes crash when deleting a material node in shader node editor (8bdbbca)
  • Fix T37194: OSL script crashes blender (06fb71b)
  • Fix T37627: Create scene with copy settings did not copy cycles settings (b65eb76)
  • Fix T37163: Mask layers that are also excluded not rendering correct with multiple render layers (b98ff5c)
  • Fix T37159: Rendering particle emitter mesh incorrectly when using non-hair particles (f67dda6)
  • Fix T37694: Particles emitter object rendering when it shouldn't (7e5d2fe)
  • Fix T37704: Hair render error with hair density vertex group (d7945b7)
  • Fix T37264: CPU render had limited number of float images, bumped to 1024 (1bebdc9)
  • Fix T37884: Hair rendering crash with UV coordinates (8ed0878)
  • Fix T37817: CUDA detection problem on Windows with non-ascii paths. (241fcca)
  • Fix T38129: Viewport render display with very bright colors turning black (4d72a5e)
  • Fix T38192: OSL got incorrectly enabled in preview render when GPU was selected for rendering of the main scene (a02a977)
  • Fix T37706: Avoid cycles crash when using a stack that exceeds SVM stack limits (e9227c7)
  • Fix T37978: Cycles nodes with multiple Material Output nodes not predictable (fc3be51)
  • Fix T38311: Cycles BVH cache crash on Windows (4b820fb)
  • Fix T37177 Spikes in sculpting (8748840)
  • Fix T37250: Dynotopo initial triangulation (8d11abb)
  • Fix T37670: Paint mode + procedural map colours error (d3f3fb8)
  • Fix T37177: Sculpting can act on opposite side of mesh in orthographic camera (9efef3c)
  • Fix T37807: Gravity causes crashes when using shif-smoothing (94a2801)
  • Fix T37812: Anchored sculpting on a flat plane created artifacts (2d06ecf)
  • Fix T37387: VIEW3D_OT_view_selected in sculpt mode zooms far from sculpted object if last sculpt stroke ends outside the mesh (e915ecd)
  • Fix T38045: Clone stamp crashes (0dabf82)
  • Fix T38024: Crash when rebuilding sculpt mode buffers (d9697bc)
  • Fix T38269: Scene full copy in mesh edit or sculpt mode did not copy mesh edits (018fe81)
  • Fix T37967: Autosave does not save dynamic topology edits while in sculpt mode (fbf821c)
  • Fix T38267: Dynamic paint Use Object Material not working correct in some cases (f074b67)
  • Fix T37685: Automatic weights affected by face masking outside weight paint mode (0847549)
  • Fix T38427: Sculpt mode dimension changes don't Undo (30b5aef)
  • Text Editor:
  • Fix T37122: New Open-Shortcut different from Text > Open Text Block (31b38a6)
  • Fix T37572: Text editor scrolling not working well with Mac trackpad panning (a53e864)
  • Fix T38264: Undo/redo broken with text overwrite mode in text editor (insert key) (7c6f605)
  • User Interface:
  • Fix T37007: Save to file - increment number doesn't update background color of filename field if hovered (1255b1e)
  • Fix T37038: User prefs > Input - Category names cut off (67fb71a)
  • Fix T37049: Default keybindings: Text editor auto-complete accepts Return, but not Numpad Enter (b83f755)
  • Fix T37047: Expanded Enum Alignment glitching (e192f5b)
  • Fix T37078: Search props don't react on click at the right end (where 'X' is if field not empty) (d4cf5e3)
  • Fix T37077: User prefs > Input and Outliner Keymaps mismatch in representation (ef765b3)
  • Fix T37091: Reset to default of Sky Texture's Dot freezes it at 0,0,0 (c4e7a22)
  • Fix T37224: Icons: tiny interface issue with certain DPI settings (1512cda)
  • Fix T37275: Can't import 2.68a keymap (ddcb116)
  • Fix T37327: Inconsistent numeric input conversion (5ef717b, 396fb31)
  • Fix T37393: Input dimensions are case sensitive in the property panel, uppercase input is misinterpreted (d27f810)
  • Fix T37442: Disabled uiList would "freeze" Blender when trying to drag-resize it (d49498a)
  • Fix T37345: Image baking progress bar wrongly appears in node editor (8948d53)
  • Fix T37511: Toggle-drag feature was crashing with menu items (b6b4aab)
  • Fix T37506: Duplicate Area into New, was disabled on fullscreen but works ok (67aff56)
  • Fix T36756: Use Frame Rate option toolip was unclear about which FPS value to respect (55e3be5)
  • Fix T37535: Hebrew charset was missing two chars (631ae08)
  • Fix T37545: SV+H color cube display changes H slider position when modifying S or V (25560a3)
  • Fix T37411: Transform mouse constraint could fail in some situations (31a1bcf)
  • Fix T37485: Autocomplete while appending and autocomplete folder behaviour (9c5fb7b)
  • Fix T36976: Drag and drop tooltip not working with retina and drawing off screen near top of the window (8a54336)
  • Fix T37189: Inconsistent icons for Force field (c6f425c)
  • Fix T37710: Missing bounds check for active UI list item could crash (d74d6c7)
  • Fix T37463: Increasing window size would add space around menu header (91d8519)
  • Fix T37739: uiList drag-resize was not working as expected outside of panels (a1031d5)
  • Fix T37777: layout.column_flow() not working correct with retina / DPI (9c6fc9f)
  • Fix T37843: area split widget missing in python console editor (f92bb64)
  • Fix T37830: UILists text now right align (dce8259)
  • Fix T37947: Large cursors now also work on linux/mac for the edit mode cross (0775e73)
  • Fix T37992: german NUMPAD-COMMA is not translated to decimal dot (for modal numinput) (1fa63b3)
  • Fix T38044: Filter Key Binding shows Incorrect result (da16b30)
  • Fix T38083: Submenu arrow is overlayed by menu hotkey (1914d80)
  • Fix T38356: Crash when UIList.filter_items returns too few items (c0a4089)
  • Fix T37038: User preferences > input category names unnecessarily cut off (be849f6)
  • Fix T38447: Deactivated hotkeys are still showing in menu (65b1ace)
  • Fix T38466: F12 / ctrl F12 shortcuts not showing in Render menu (7d4c045)
  • Fix T38640: Password values showed in tooltips (2413b44)
  • Fix T38643: Frame labels are invisible with default theme (80f3956)
  • Fix T38685: Missing auto refresh button text on image nodes (641d653)
  • Fix T38706: dropdown labels in popups not updating (6466454)
  • Fix T37756: File > open with file selector already open not restoring screen correctly (0de1df4)
  • Fix T38678: Long strings on Search widget not getting shortened/no tooltip (c35ac8f)
  • Fix T38602: Aligned layout breaks if panel too wide (64eea27) :
  • Fix for outline width theme option being ignored for non mesh object types (7f9cdae)
  • Fix: tab completing a filepath name in file browsers asks to create a new directory if name was not fully matched (035d864)
  • System:
  • Fix T37602: OSX: quitting from the File Menu does not ask (de1660d)
  • Fix T38143: pressing F12 key in the text editor on OS X would type an invalid character. (79e040b)
  • Fix T38190: Linux tablet: Issue with XInput/GHOST? (75ab57e)
  • Fix T38370: Ubuntu 14.04 opencolorio segfaults blender on parsing colormanagement/config.ocio (e2e9c51)
  • Fix T38422: Error writing AAC frame when using FFmpeg compiled with vo_aacenc (a61e3b9)
  • Fix T36652: .blend file with minimized window not loading correctly on Windows (0e492ac)
  • Fix T38876: hide area split widget in lower left of widget on OS X (d7a2d2b)
  • Other:
  • Fix T34675: Info view shows duplicate operators with incorrect values of args (ad34a5c)
  • Fix T37488: Crash with --debug reading userpref.blend (53753c0)
  • Fix T37088: Crash with eyedropper (shortcut E) (df060e5)
  • Fix T37543: Multiline 3D Text saved in edit mode breaks on load (d232486)
  • Fix T37065: Cmd+c not working in Info - console (d846c9a)
  • Fix T37688: User Preferences do not load correctly (68d39a2)
  • Fix T37722: Can't undo deleting a screen layout (9b932c1)
  • Fix T37731: Some window manager operators unnecessarily required a window to be active (51263c6)
  • Fix T37747: Keymap import error with region timers (79288a3)
  • Fix T37713: Proxy not updated for first frame in background render (522f17d)
  • Fix T37795: Resetting a button to the default value could crash (aab5878)
  • Fix T38108: Blender freeze in remembering operator properties (09d6ad6)
  • Fix T38124: Grease Pencil Line thickness (d785c64)
  • Fix T38176: Can't set vertex coordinate to 0.0 when it's set to 0.0000001 (6eedf08)
  • Fix T38315: Keymap configuration export did not export deactivated items correct (418aafd)
  • Fix T37198: Vorbis encoding is broken (1ace875)
  • Fix T38042: Keymap crash after reloading operators (1713db2)
  • Fix T38184: Key events getting lost when modal operator is running (deab0d1)
  • Fix T38367: Operators activated from popups didnt reuse settings (9a1dcfb)
  • Fix T38359: Incorrect display of material slot with pinned particle settings (289c5de)
  • Fix T37661: Color ramps and curve mapping editing not disabled for linked data (95e153a)
  • Fix T38400: Crash in image_listener accessing deleted object (dd684f5)
  • Fix T38516: Crash when using color picker from redo panel (e2541f8)
  • Fix T38538: Repeat history menu show operators that can't be repeated (d2699f2)
  • Fix T38606: C curve in the curve mapping compositing node not extrapolating correct (42946c3)
  • Fix T38650: Crash from enum item functions returning NULL instead of a single terminator item (280f9d3)
  • Fix T38635: Key configuration search not working well when typing 'slash' (a5cfd3f)
  • Fix T38720: Clear preview range operator missing notifier to redraw timeline (bff99b1)
  • Fix T38812: Color picker incorrectly cancelling operation when clicking next to it (97c66c9)
  • Fix T38827: Input preferences can not find Left Mouse or Left Arrow (0301835)
  • Fix T38836: Change screencast timer limits so you can record with higher FPS (593d856)
  • Fix T38846: Render layer checkbox is not refreshed (ecbae4a)
  • Fix T38853: Right click menu add driver should not be possible to redo (c4eab10)
  • Fix T38881: Cloth preset rubber not working with "translated data names" i18n option (32c1827)
  • Fix T38945: Empty "System Bookmarks" and "Recent" panel were drawn in the File Browser, although these were disabled in User Preferences (1754c0d)
  • Fix animplayer to use preview range if preview is enabled
  • Fix "Sample Color" not working in vertex paint mode. (aec701721184)
  • blender-thumbnailer.py (http://blender-thumbnailer.py/): Fix GVFS support not working with Python 3. (bf2f6d6161bc)

New in Blender 2.69 (Oct 30, 2013)

  • Includes changes from the previous RC version
  • BUG FIXES:
  • 3D View:
  • Fix #36278: X,Y Direction wrong after bpy.ops.view3d.viewnumpad. (r58596)
  • Fix #36277: Right click no longer selects the camera. (r58614)
  • Fix #36499: Proportional edit circle was drawing behind objects in some cases. (r59360)
  • Fix #36409: Continuous Grab problem with arrow keys. (r59546)
  • Fix #36632: 3D Viewport does not show textures in "Texture" shading mode. (r59740)
  • Fix #36732: Auto depth feature misbehaves on orbit with mouse cursor outside the model. (r60159)
  • Fix #36736: You can still transform objects while navigating view with Maya preset. (r60168)
  • Fix #36718: Wrong lighting on text objects. (r60201)
  • Fix #34663: Cannot rotate view while using Knife tool with Maya preset. (r60207)
  • Fix #36773: Dolly breaks in quad view (r60249)
  • Fix #27536: GLSL object space normal maps have wrong shading. (r60261)
  • Fix #36939: Objects with nodes appear in gray in viewport, using Solid shade, and the Blender Engine (or Game Engine). (r60542)
  • Animation:
  • Fix #36538: Discontinuity (Euler) Filter - never ends - (deadlock?). (r59427)
  • Fix #36613: View select/all shortcuts not working in graph editor with the maya key configuration preset. (r59704)
  • Fix #36754: animation not evaluated on object two levels down in dupligroups. (r60222)
  • Fix #32346: Node animation, removing nodes keeps f-curves. (r60495)
  • Fix #36919: Cannot delete keyframe of animated simulation parameter if simulation has been disabled. (r60506)
  • Fix all actions created when keyframing now have their "id-root" set appropriately. (r60501)
  • Fix: when deleting all keyframes of an f-curve, the f-curve was incorrectly deleted if it had a driver. (r59761)
  • Armatures:
  • Fix #36391: Removing an armature with a custom bone shape object would not decrement the object user count when removing the armature. (r58992)
  • Fix #36663: Bone properties sometimes vanish when mousing into properties window. (r59939)
  • Fix #36906: AutoName operator do not update the display of the bone's name in the Bone Properties. (r60485)
  • Fix double-free happening when having proxy with motion paths. (r59135)
  • Collada:
  • Fix #36148: Collada instance nodes are not scaled properly during import. (r58743)
  • Fix wrong usage of the set attribute with multiple UV sets. (r58829)
  • Curves / Metas:
  • Fix #36007: ends of curves do not fit. (r58997)
  • Fix #36384: Inconsistent curve fill behaviour. (r59152)
  • Fix #36317: Keyframing metaball elements did not work yet. (r59024)
  • Fix #36438: Adding Metaball when unit scale is smaller than 0.01 seemingly hangs Blender (r59307)
  • Fix #36747: Curve bevel and extrude issue. (r60193)
  • Fix #36900: Single spline handle can't be "scaled". (r60467)
  • File I/O:
  • Fix #36455: OBJ fails to import relative paths on ms-windows (r59147)
  • Fix #36636: Incorrect assignment of Smoothing Groups on export. (r59743)
  • Fix #36755: EXR Layers are not fully updated on scene load or image refresh. (r60234)
  • Game Engine:
  • Fix #35563: Object colour setting for objects and fonts not using colour management like materials. (r58425)
  • Fix #36151: "Distance model not carrying over to standalone" reported by Florian Schneider (drjaska). (r58428)
  • Fix #35472: Sun variance shadows does not work in game engine.(r58523)
  • Fix #21488: Pumpkin in Gamekit Tutorial flips upside down. (r58558)
  • Fix #29575: Object not drawn in game engine. (r58563)
  • Fix #18804: Shadow type faces cast onto invisible faces (non-GLSL).(r58610)
  • Fix #33215: KX_MeshProxy.transformUV() argument ValueError. (r58975)
  • Fix #32360: Standalone Player switches not working. (r59862)
  • Fix #35522: Broken game engine compatibility since 2.66a on some ATI cards. (r60054)
  • Fix a memory leak with PyType_Ready_ADD. (r58837)
  • Warp Mesh not working. (r59126)
  • Image / UV Editing:
  • Fix #36286: UV face display not working for concave ngons. (r58626)
  • Fix #36408: Setting `image.colorspace_settings.name` changes saved alpha. (r59078)
  • Fix #36535: Color difference when saving image. (r59401)
  • Fix #36187: Crash loading large images. (r59978)
  • Fix #36020: SmartUV Project is messy on a cube was using very simple/stupid check to rotate us islands. (r60035)
  • Fix #36081: Ngones causes problems with lightmap packing. (r60039)
  • Fix #36845: New generated blank image doesn't update preview (properties editor). (r60414)
  • Fix #36435: Crash on unwrap with specific mesh. (r60483)
  • Fix #36981: Removing Sample line fails during render. (r60584)
  • Masking:
  • Fix #36701: Mask pivioting doesnt honor parenting. (r60040)
  • Mesh Editing:
  • Fix #36259: Select linked flat faces with Shift+Ctrl+Alt+F does not work in ver. 2.68 (r58551)
  • Fix #36256: Checker Deselect, failed with de-selected active face. (r58554)
  • Fix #36349: Separate mesh by material creates meshes with all the materials from the original. (r59139)
  • Fix #36517: You can edit a texture space (Shift-T) of a linked mesh (r59314)
  • Fix #36352: Inset individual, uncheck "select outer" selects zero faces. (r59330)
  • Fix #36453: Scaling faces with individual origins would permanently turn of proportional editing because this combination doesn't work, but it should be only temporary. (r59362)
  • Fix #36412: Pivot of active element switches to last selected face after duplicating vertices. (r59728)
  • Fix #36697: Topology mirror causes vertices to jump. (r60029)
  • Fix #36246: Weight tools do not mirror properly in vertex selection mask mode. (r60186)
  • Fix #36211: Bridge edge loops joining vertecies that are far away. (r60210)
  • Fix #36861: In face select masking circle select selects all when out of focus. (r60429)
  • Fix #36894: Maya keymap delete/backspace would immediately delete a mesh element. (r60457)
  • Fix #36913: GHASH_FLAG_ALLOW_DUPES assert and crash in Edge Collapse. (r60499)
  • Fix #36923: Merge / Delete vertices crashes for some meshes (r60523)
  • Fix #36947: "Edge Slide" bugs when "Even" is on. (r60541)
  • Modifiers:
  • Fix #36282: Spin error with non uniform scale add support for passing object matrix to bmesh transform operators. (r58620)
  • Fix #36417: vertex weight mix modifier crash with texture mask and subsurf modifier preceding it. (r59028)
  • Fix #36301: Mirror modifier does not mirror vertex normals when there are no faces. (r59547)
  • Fix ##36532: Baked Cloth Sim read/sync to device for Cycles to Render, causes geometry errors. (r59777)
  • Fix #36356: Faces not drawn with constructive modifier + dynamic paint. (r59971)
  • Fix #36299: Skin Modifier causes crashes in combination with multiple Subdivision modifiers. (r60063, r60066)
  • Fix #36291: Applying subsurf to mesh or setting subdivisions to zero crashes Blender. (r60158)
  • Fix #36759: UV Project - Specified UV Map doesnt work properly. (r60260)
  • Fix #36781: Triangulation modifer creases. (r60353)
  • Fix for 2 memory leaks in dualcon library (remesh modifier), quite bad since they leaked on every evaluation. (r58907)
  • Motion Tracking:
  • Fix #36283: Crash by activating "Clear Active" in Movie Clip Editor.(r58613)
  • Fix #36231: Motion tracker bug caused by uninitialized covariance matrix. (r59128)
  • Fix #36587: Tracking markers fail to track near the left and right edge of a movie clip. (r59765)
  • Fix for crash in track_markers_freejob (use freed memory). (r58544)
  • Fix for freed memory access clearing tracks in the clip editor. (r58685)
  • Movie Clip Editor:
  • Fix #36605: Segfault when border selecting markers in the "graph" mode when no track is active. (r59651)
  • Fix muted footage in MCE still was reading the frames from disk. (r60188)
  • Nodes / Compositor:
  • Fix #36264: New modulo math node not viewable in GLSL mode. (r58716)
  • Fix #36267: Connecting value node to reroute node makes value node non-functional. (r58763, r58764)
  • Fix #36266: First undo in compositor decrements usercounter without a reason. (r58991)
  • Fix #36146: Cycles SSS Shader Node - Scale Value Input Box - to sensitive. (r59031)
  • Fix #36468: "Buffer Groups" option changes compositing output. (r59188)
  • Fix #36589: Node Editor displays incorrect Material name when Pinning. (r59590)
  • Fix #36609: glsl materials with reroute nodes not working correct. (r59669)
  • Fix #36639: Textures not reloaded after fixing paths. (r59737, #36639)
  • Fix #36628: Muting bump node alters material visibility. (r59742)
  • Fix #36113: Translate's wrapping has 1 pixel gap in X and Y after scale node. (r59823)
  • Fix #36692: Crash with split viewer compositing node and rendering. (r59964)
  • Fix #36694: Texture node groups tend to crash Blender a lot. (r59983, r60058)
  • Fix #36700: z-depth not rendering properly at (n*256)+1 dimensions. (r60049)
  • Fix #36706: Prevent invalid sockets in the FileOutput node by removing sockets without storage data. (r60064, r60065)
  • Fix #36739: Delete new nodes added via the Add menu or toolbar if the subsequent transform operator is cancelled. (r60197)
  • Fix #36797: Make linked node groups local does not work (r60324)
  • Fix #36850: Material Node Editor Crash Always. (r60468)
  • Fix #36968: Shortcut search inconsistency node-editor. (r60574)
  • Fix for writing to freed memory enabling texture node tree. (r58655)
  • Fix issue with EWA filtering in compositor which disabled alpha. (r59261)
  • Objects:
  • Fix #36383: Add object to group check for dependency cycles did not work correctly when the group contained two objects duplicating the same group. (r59002)
  • Fix #36308: Custom hotkey "Set Object Mode" - "Object Mode" doesn't work properly. (r59530)
  • Fix #34462: Crash when switching modes via mix of TAB and spacebar menu. (r59628)
  • Fix #36189: Link group, delete instanced object, link group again would not create an instance. (r59773)
  • Fix #36699: ASCII-character "|" blocks parenting.(r60031)
  • Fix #36537: "Grid Floor Scaling" can have some unexpected behaviour on new objects. (r60157)
  • Fix #36758: Add Group Instance crash (r60212)
  • Fix #36771: Prevent 'Apply Transform' for Objects with a linked mesh. (r60227)
  • Fix #36749: Joining objects with more than one uv map depends on list order. (r60288)
  • Fix #36793: Missing update on undo with proxy object that is not using a proxy group. (r60345)
  • Outliner:
  • Fix #36260: 2,300 Objects Makes Blender Unresponsive (outliner being slow). (r58855)
  • Fix #36288: Renderlayer toggles behave unexpected in Outliner. (r58861)
  • Fix #36486: Outliner doesn't allow to expand Hierarchies of armature if it's present on 2 Scenes. (r59207)
  • Fix #36672: Outliner allowed to toggle linked group visibility.(r59878)
  • Fix #36709: Renaming multiple objects in the outliner halts the interface. (r60092)
  • Fix crash happening when clearing parent in outliner modes which doesn't support this. (r59112)
  • Particles:
  • Fix #36274: Empty particle texture slots should not have any influence, same as for materials, world, lamps, etc. (r59026)
  • Fix #36451: Particle system crashes blender. (r59102)
  • Fix #36479: Particle instance Modifier random position snaps objects to 0 position. (r59713)
  • Fix #36625: Particle Instances ignores Group offsets. (r60230)
  • Fix #36630: Particlesystem - boids - goal - collision. (r60392)
  • Fix #36853: Undo not working for Particles Hair - Free Edit. (r60436)
  • Physics / Hair / Simulations:
  • Fix #36265: Smoke doesn't work if domain object has negative scale. (r58802)
  • Fix #35541: Point cache doesn't load existing frames from disk if cache file name is changed. (r58830)
  • Fix #36600: Smoke subframes not working with initial velocity. (r59655)
  • Fix #36382: Simulation cache can not be saved for linked objects. (r59772)
  • Fix #36791: Fire ignores force fields when smoke is set to 0.0 (r60316)
  • Fix #36827: 2.69 bug with smoke domain, particle emitter and a force field causes a crash (r60406)
  • Fix #36847: If Force Field in Ridgid Body group, crash at first frame of animation on playback. (r60421)
  • Fix #36846: Adding a cloth sim to an object does not make it possible to go into Particle Mode for that object. (r60438)
  • Fix for possible out of bounds read, printing a warning with pointcache header. (r58656)
  • Python:
  • Fix #36363: ray_cast face index with n_gons. (r58950)
  • Fix #36528: crash when reinitializing bmesh from mesh. (r59545)
  • Fix #36387: User Preferences "Addons" panel bogs down the whole interface. (r59588)
  • Fix #36584: Inputs/outputs of created node group not accessable by their names. (r59589)
  • Fix #36688: First time access of brush curve in object mode leads to hard crash. (r59965, r60055)
  • Fix #36492: Keymap: Issue setting operator path properties. (r59982)
  • Fix #36713: Crash from adding gear from 'extra objects' addon (r60085)
  • Fix #36444: view3d.viewnumpad operator should not animate. (r60156)
  • Fix #36777: uv_on_emmiter make Blender crash. (r60251)
  • Fix #36835: Removing an addon has strange behavior. (r60437)
  • Fix #36924: Calling .define(...) on Macro subclass crashes Blender, if subclass wasn't registered. (r60518)
  • Render:
  • Fix #36302: Multires baking to zero 0 was showing error but still was baking. (r58752)
  • Fix #36394: Rendering a point density texture with a hair particle system did not work correct. (r59021)
  • Fix #36454: 'Tiles' settings in Render/Performance panel don't respect keyframes. (r59296)
  • Fix #36347: Blender crashes when clicking on 'render' in 'viewport shading' (r59335)
  • Fix #36441: Opengl render of smoke wrong after regular render with blender internal. (r59446)
  • Fix #36541: Blender internal raytrace render hangs with high ray depth. (r59472)
  • Fix #36555: Preview render in properties editor did not get cancelled and restarted fast enough on resizing the editor. (r59611)
  • Fix #36598: Blender render crash baking and then doing a full sample render. (r59617)
  • Fix #36194: Halo material on Layer 2 produces flares on layer 1. (r59776)
  • Fix #36449: Switching between render slots during render would leave some tiles black until the end of the render. (r59778)
  • Fix #36717: Don't grey out AO distance property, as it affects the AO Render Pass and AO closure as well. (r60102)
  • Fix #36710: Custom UI Button Not Respecting Render Layer Settings. (r60108)
  • Fix #36757: Vertex coloring in preview window meshes default to black, makes preview useless. (r60206)
  • Fix #36800: Closing render window during render crashes. (r60343)
  • Fix #36842: OpenGL Animation Playblast renders 1 too many frames. (r60430)
  • Fix #36948: Blender internal viewport render crashes holding shift+Z pressed to quickly toggle it on/off. (r60547)
  • Fix for frame reporting to console was wrong when not using Render Layers in compo. (r58951)
  • Fix for displacement bake buffer might be allocated twice. (r60256)
  • Fix for margin which didn't work properly with normalized displacement baking. (r60257)
  • Fix images didn't get clear when using multires baker from python script. (r60259)
  • Render: Freestyle:
  • Fix #36321: 'Mark Freestyle Edge' still showing with Cycles renderer. (r58738)
  • Temporary fix for gaps in strokes when objects are behind the lines. (r59373)
  • Fix #36374: Read unitialized memory in Freestyle. (r59460)
  • Fix #36602: crash with freestyle and full sample render of empty render layer. (r59644)
  • Fix #36599: Line thickness modifier with certain blend types incorrectly calculated. (r59652)
  • Fix #36649: Drivers for Freestyle parameters in Render Layer panel don't appear in Graph Editor. (r59785)
  • Fix for missing filter button to visualize/hide animation data related to line styles. (r59786)
  • Fix for redundant multiple animation data items of the same line style in DopeSheet. (r59787)
  • Fix #36650, #36650: Animation of freestyle line thickness and linestyle did not render correct in animations, due to missing updates. (r59844)
  • Fix #36727: Curve Object Scaled to 0 + Freestyle = Crash. (r60150)
  • Fix for Freestyle hang up in stroke rendering. (r60383)
  • Render: Cycles:
  • Fix #36235: Crash deactivating render layer during rendering. (r58718)
  • Fix #36290: Generated texture coordinates were not sticking to the surface again, got lost in an unrelated optimization. (r58723)
  • Fix #36380: Render error with sun lamp that has object scale 0,0,0. (r58931)
  • Fix #36355: Render of objects with both duplis and hair would not render the hair in some cases. (r58999)
  • Fix #36437: Cycles no longer rendering Emitter object (Particle Systems). (r59076)
  • Fix #36545: Crash with branched path tracing, correlated multi-jittered sampling and subsurface scattering. (r59447)
  • Fix #36594: 16 bit tiff not loading with correct color space in cycles. (r59643)
  • Fix #36611: Cycles issue loading png file with 2 channels. (r59668)
  • Fix #36137: cycles render not using all GPU's when the number of GPU's is larger than the number of CPU threads. (r59676)
  • Fix #36620: sss + indirect light rendering artifacts, due to wrong correlation in the random numbers. (r59705)
  • Fix #36327: Layers exclude layers animation did not work well. (r60023)
  • Fix #36719: UV pass not rendering in second render layer if first render layer does not have the UV pass enabled as well. (r60110)
  • Fix #36725: mismatch between viewport and render result when no world is linked to the scene in cycles. (r60176)
  • Fix #36738: Object ray visibility flags not working in cycles viewport if there is only a single object in the scene. (r60177)
  • Fix #36731: Border render not updating properly with persistent images setting enabled in cycles. (r60178)
  • Fix #36741: cycles AO pass giving values > 1.0 with transparency. (r60198)
  • Fix #36750: windows crash with empty cycles scene. (r60203)
  • Fix #36790: OSL point parameters of shader nodes not initialized correctly from UI inputs (r60325)
  • Fix #36822: Sky Turbidity values > 10 could result in weird behavior and crashes with the new sky model. (r60388)
  • Fix #36823: SSS node now displays a warning, that it does not work on the GPU. (r60389)
  • Fix #35684: Unable to use full 6GB of memory on NVidia Titan GPU.(r60400)
  • Fix #36863: OSL clamp, min and max functions have wrong signature when arguments are integers. (r60427)
  • Fix #36873: OpenCL render status show negative sample count. (r60440)
  • Fix #36882: Gamma node not working with glsl materials. (r60441)
  • Fix #36316: Dots in cycles render on certain CPUs with 32 bit linux builds. (r60509)
  • Fix #36935: Rendering under Windows XP32 SP3 with latest SVN is white. (r60550, r60573)
  • Fix #36962: "Render emitter" option for hair is ignored in Cycles. (r60567)
  • Fix cycles too slow export of meshes with uvs when a motion vector pass is used. (r60013)
  • Fix cycles issue with mapping node rotation and scale order. (r60371)
  • Sequencer:
  • Fix #36262: Paste strip with video or sound content from another file crashes Blender (r58565)
  • Fix #36423: Audio strips contain selectable (visual) blend modes and opacity value. (r59242)
  • Fix #36570: Changing the filename of a image strip doesnt refresh sequencer. (r59622)
  • Fix #36124: VSE - Input Color option does not work for video files. (r59734)
  • Fix #36359: Sequencer frame indicator not updating during animation render. (r59771)
  • Fix #36422: Trimmed audio files (hard cut only) in a metastrip have their trim removed. (r60453)
  • Sculpting / Painting:
  • Fix #36225: 2.67b & 2.68 crashes at the first click-and-drug paint brush stroke -2.66 doesn't. (r58539)
  • Fix #36280: Dynamic Topology crashes with active face. (r58715)
  • Fix #34413: Dyntopo, smooth shading normals not getting uploaded to GPU and undo buffers. (r59245)
  • Fix #34485: Sculpt strength weirdly inverted with some mesh part. (r59250)
  • Fix #36577: Sculpt area plane texture mapping + random angle did not work. (r60008)
  • Fix #36748: Sculpting/image painting does not respect undo steps limit. (r60196)
  • Fix #36695: Scale brush stroke with maximum scale component, except layer brush where the previous algorithm is used. (r60515)
  • Fix #36930: Dynamic topology sculpting with masks gave bad results. (r60548)
  • Text Editor:
  • Fix #36656: Text editor undo error when undoing paste command (r59856)
  • Fix #36742: Pasting image into text editor causes freeze. (r60173)
  • Fix #36724: Ctrl+F in text editor opens Toolbar, but no longer closes it. (r60270)
  • User Interface:
  • Fix #36269 Crash upon right click on menu and left click on item. (r58583)
  • Fix #36373: Maya and max key configurations for mesh loop select did not work correct when doing an extend loop select, then doing a regular loop select, it would still extend. (r58993)
  • Fix #36243: One screen should never be used by multiple windows, but this could happen when a screen was maximized to a single editor, now that case is disabled too. (r59023)
  • Fix #36359: and #36359: timeline no longer did redraw during animation render. (r59027)
  • Fix #36530: Texture tab refreshing problem. (r59374)
  • Fix #36330: Clicking Scrolled Object Properties Tab Brings Up Wrong One. (r59454)
  • Fix #36324: Theme color for label buttons are broken. (r59511)
  • Fix #36595: File browser sorting with link/append would mix together .blend files and directories instead of keeping them separate like regular file browse. (r59614)
  • Fix #36682: Disable shift+backspace shortcut to delete all text in text fields. (r59955)
  • Fix #36641: Maya key configuration shift + LMB drag border select did not work anymore. (r59970)
  • Fix #36271: Missing (+) icon for toolbar in compositing layout in default startup.blend. (r60011)
  • Fix #36641: Maya keymap: Border select doesn't add to selection. (r60225)
  • Fix #36226: Select Linked works not in touch with Prefs. (r60255)
  • Fix #36382: Bake buttons for linked objects could be grayed out when they shouldn't be. (r60329)
  • Fix #36783: Click outside splash screen to close it would not highlight the button under the mouse, and so clicking the button failed without first moving the mouse. (r60348)
  • Fix for missing theme color: Expose theme color of shadow UVs and UVs of other objects. (r59842)
  • Fix for window join action being interpreted as a split (r59794 r59795)
  • System:
  • Fix #36459: Official blenderplayer can not go fullscreen on Linux. (r59812)
  • Fix #35920: Adding a new node in Node Editor failed for "High DPI" (Only Mac retina now). (r59835)
  • Fix #36593: Crash duplicating window on OS X in some situations. (r59962)
  • Fix #36702: blenderapplication window position and size. (r60046)
  • Fix #36707: Blender Opens in fullscreen and stays like that. (r60067)
  • Fix #36501: Blenderplayer can not change video resolution in Mac OSX. (r60165)
  • Fix #36319: Keyboard Inputs Unresponsive When Using An Overlay Scene. (r60334)
  • Fix #36891: On OS X, cmd+s or cmd+o did not work when pressing them over the text editor. (r60450)
  • Fix #36852: Duplicate window crash on OS X. (r60456)
  • Other:
  • Fix #36270: Crash with pinning. (r58629)
  • Fix #36548: "Grease Pencil" Problems. (r59444)
  • Fix #36551: Camera has wrong rotation in default scene. (r59445)
  • Fix #36685: Crash calculating tangent space data on degenerate geometry. (r59943)
  • Fix #36788: Changing the built in keying set prints "attempt to free NULL pointer" to console. (r60291)
  • Fix #36826: Make screencast with quicktime output gave black flickering areas. (r60402)
  • Fix #36831: Grease Pencil dont create a drawing in current frame less than 1. (r60412)
  • Fix #36830: 'Reset to Default Value' on Current Area Type button causes crash. (r60420)
  • Fix #36859: Grease Pencil - Frames.new() doesn't create frame if frame_number

New in Blender 2.69 RC 1 (Oct 8, 2013)

  • Modeling:
  • A new hidden wire display option was added to help with retopology. Mesh Bisect is a new tool to cut meshes in half. The Bridge, Edgenet fill, Grid fill and Symmetrize tools were improved. New curve and lattice editing tools were added too.
  • Cycles Rendering:
  • Hair rendering was improved with a new Hair shader and reorganized settings. Subsurface scattering uses a new sampling algorithm and now supports bump mapping and texture blurring. Sky rendering now uses a more accurate sky model. New blackbody, vector transform and HSV nodes were added. The non-progressive integrator was renamed to Branched Path Integrator, and is now available for GPU rendering.
  • Motion Tracker:
  • Motion tracking gathered such feature as plane track, which is used to replace billboards, screens and other flat things on the footage.
  • More Features:
  • Lists in the user interface can now be resized, sorted and filtered. Further there are small improvements for vertex parenting, empty objects, the shrinkwrap modifier, mask editing, armatures, f-curves and drivers.
  • Addons:
  • FBX Import support has been added and FBX/OBJ can now export split normals (without the need for the edge split modifier).
  • Bug Fixes:
  • In addition to the new features, over 270 bugs that existed in previous releases have been fixed.

New in Blender 2.69 Test 1 (Sep 26, 2013)

  • Subsurface Scattering:
  • Bump mapping is now supported.
  • New Texture Blur input controls how much of the color texture is blurred.
  • New falloff functions and sampling algorithm, see documentation.
  • Direct, Indirect and Color render passes are now available for SSS.
  • Hair:
  • The hair settings have been simplified in the UI and the user doesn't need to enable the "Experimental" feature set any more.
  • A new hair BSDF node, with two closure options was added. These closures allow the generation of the reflective and transmission components of hair. The node allows control of the highlight colour, roughness and angular shift.
  • CUDA:
  • The Branched Path Trace integrator (Non-Progressive integrator) is now available on the GPU.
  • Sky Model:
  • The Hosek / Wilkie Sky model has been added to Cycles, which gives more natural results, especially for sunsets and sunrise.
  • Nodes:
  • A Ray Depth (current bounce) info can now be retrieved from the Light path node, to limit shaders or lights to e.g direct lighting.
  • Added a Blackbody node to convert a temperature in Kelvin to an RGB color. This can be used e.g. for lights, to easily find the right color temperature.
  • New Vector Transform node, to convert a vector, point or normal between World Object Camera coordinate space.
  • Combine / Separate HSV nodes are now available in Cycles as well.
  • The Mapping node now has an option to define what kind of vector the mapping is being applied to. There are option to specify if it's a Texture, Point, Vector or Normal. Point is the previous behavior, Texture is the new default, where rather than the texture coordinate, the texture is transformed, which may be more intuitive.
  • Usability:
  • Progressive / Non-Progressive integrator have been renamed to Path Trace / Branched Path Trace.
  • Presets are now available inside the Sampling panel. Also added Total Samples amount info.
  • Add a "Square Samples" option to the Sampling panel, to use squared values for ease of use. This can make tweaking easier from an artist point of view.
  • Color management settings are now used for 3D viewport rendering. RGB curve mapping however is not supported yet.
  • Measured film response data is now also available as "Looks", to emulate photographic film from Agfa and Kodak.

New in Blender 2.68a (Jul 25, 2013)

  • Crash deleting a sequence strip
  • Viewport render with CMJ sampler and unlimited passes freezes
  • BGE, Blender crashes on Game Engine start
  • BGE, Shadow Only lamps only work with Specular enabled
  • removing vertex colors crashes
  • BGE, fix crash with Game actuator
  • Fix BGE, incorrect exception for SCA_JoystickSensor.axisSingle access
  • Dynamic Topology undo crash
  • Cloth Simulation Doesn't Work on Rearranging Modifiers
  • Painting Undo Enable Face paint Crash
  • Crash using factor input on color mix node
  • Ocean Modifier (Geometry in Displace) - Subdivision Surface crash
  • Fix Ocean Modifier crash when size is zero
  • BGE, illegal operator in Expression Controller
  • OpenGL viewport rendering to a new window fails

New in Blender 2.68 (Jul 18, 2013)

  • MODELING:
  • General Improvements:
  • Add option to remove all shape keys at once (r57246)
  • Add curve falloff options to loop-cuts smooth option (r56562)
  • Mirror tools now give feedback if verts can't be mirrored (r57245)
  • Select shortest path now works for vertices - (Ctrl+RMB), (r57224)
  • Lattice object now has an active element (r57320)
  • Add Catmull-Rom spline as an option for lattice deform (r57733)
  • Mesh normal re-calculation has been improved to give more reliable results with non manifold edges and work stably independent of orientation (r58088)
  • The modifier stack has been optimized to eliminate unnecessary normal-calculations (r57145)
  • Edge length display - keep within the view bounds so you can see edge length even when zoomed in (r57165)
  • Bridge Tool:
  • The bridge tools has been rewritten to include support for more advanced features such as briding between loops of different size, the ability to bridge multiple loops at once, subdivision, surface blending and bridging face regions.
  • Grid Fill:
  • The grid fill tool has been added which can fill in a grid from 2 connected edge loops.
  • Proportional Editing:
  • Added support for x-mirror (r57616)
  • Added the option to use Projected (2D) coordinates, has the advantage that you can deform areas without the twisting you normally get (r57608)
  • Snap to Symmetry:
  • This editmesh tool lets you snap a meshes vertices to their mirrored neighbors with an adjustable tolerance (r57590)
  • Useful when dealing with models which are close to being symmetrical but not enough for blender to recognize them when x-mirror option is enabled.
  • Unlike the Symmetrize tool, this re-positions vertices to their mirrored locations rather than duplicating the mesh from one side to another.
  • Dissolve:
  • Added the Face Split - When dissolving vertices into surrounding faces, you can often end up with very large, uneven ngons.
  • The face split option limits dissolve to only use the corners of the faces connected to the vertex. (r56579)
  • Vertex Connect:
  • When there are only 2 vertices select, a cut can now be made across unselected faces, a little like the knife tool, however this is limited to straight cuts across connected faces. (r57653)
  • CYCLES RENDERING:
  • Performance:
  • Official Blender on Windows has become significantly faster, getting closer to performance on Linux and Mac OS X. Especially scenes with much geometry will benefit from the optimization, rendering often 30% faster. Linux and Mac OS X also benefit but more on the order of 10%.
  • CUDA:
  • Support for NVidia Tesla K20, GTX Titan and GTX 780 graphics cards was added.
  • CUDA performance is also improved, rendering 25% faster on various graphics cards and scenes.
  • For users making own Blender builds: please upgrade to CUDA toolkit version 5.0 for best performance.
  • Hair rendering is now available on the GPU as well. (r56600)
  • New Nodes:
  • Wireframe node to get access to Mesh triangle wireframe data. (r56928)
  • Toon BSDF with Diffuse and Glossy component is now available for Cartoon like effects. (r56980)
  • Wavelength node to convert wavelength to RGB colors. (r57368)
  • Render Passes:
  • Mist pass support was added, with start, depth and falloff control. This pass can be used in compositing to add fade out object that are further away, for example as a factor input for a Mix RGB node. If the pass is enabled in a render layer a Mist Pass panel will be shown in the world properties. (r57278)
  • Ray Visibility:
  • Ray visibility is now supported for all light sources: lamps, emitting meshes and the world environment. Using these options it's possible to let light from these sources only selectively affect diffuse, glossy or transmission shaders.
  • Open Shading Language:
  • Westin Sheen and Westin Backscatter closures were added for testing, useful for Cloth like effects. (r56900)
  • MOTION TRACKER:
  • Reconstructed scene scale ambiguity:
  • Improved algorithms which deals with reconstructed scene scale ambiguity (r56632).
  • This is done by scaling reconstructed scene in a way so reconstructed cameras variance is unity with a median in the 3D scene origin.
  • Such approach helps in cases when different keyframe pair gives the same exact reconstruction from math point of view but some of which could be considered bad by artists because of bad scale.
  • Scene Orientation:
  • Added a button to apply scale on scene solution (r56635).
  • This is an alternative to using camera to scale the scene and it's expected to be better :solution because scaling camera leads to issues with z-buffer.
  • Apply scale on scene reconstruction when applying scale on camera (r56764)
  • This means when you've got reconstructed scene assigned to a 3D camera (via camera solver constraint) and applies scale on this camera from Ctrl-A menu, scale will be applied on the reconstructed scene and reset camera size to identity.
  • This is very useful feature for scene orientation, when you'll just scale camera by S in the viewport to match bundles some points in the space, and then you'll easily make camera have identity scale (which is needed for nice working motion blur without loosing scale of bundles themselves.
  • Behavior of apply scale for cameras without clip assigned to them does not change at all.
  • Refine Markers Position:
  • Added Refine Markers Position operator (r56716).
  • This operator will run a tracker from previous keyframe to current frame for all selected markers. Current markers positions are considering initial position guess which could be updated by a tracker for better match.
  • Automatic Keyframe Selection:
  • Added an option to select keyframes used for initial reconstruction automatically (r57133). This option enables some fancy math algorithms which tries to find a keyframe pair with minimal reconstruction error and best scene scale guess.
  • Smaller improvements:
  • Made bundles in 3D viewport have constant size (they're not affected by camera scale anymore) (r56633)
  • Set scene frames operator for clip editor (r56664). This operator will set scene's start/end frames to match clip's start frame and footage duration.
  • Marker placement for motion tracker by clicking on a desired location (r57138).
  • Track Position node now could output absolute position of track at a given frame (r57414)
  • PHYSICS:
  • Particles:
  • Use Modifier Stack - The Emission panel now has a Use Modifier Stack option to emit particles from the mesh with modifiers applied. Previously particles would only be emitted from faces that exist in the original mesh. Emitting from faces in the original mesh is mostly useful for hair, to preserve it through mesh editing operations and changing subdivision surfaces levels for viewport and rendering. For emitter particles it can be more useful to take all modifiers into account, but one must be careful to always use the same number of subdivision surface levels for this to work correctly. (r57005)
  • Normal-Tangent Rotation - Normal-Tangent rotation mode added, so you can control the orientation around the normal based on the faces UV coordinates, allows for deformations that keep the particles facing the same way. (r58232)
  • Smoke:
  • Full Sample - A new Full Sample" option was added to high resolution smoke panel. (r56665). When high resolution and full sample are enabled, the emitters now take the finer grid into account. Before the emitters where showing the blocks of the normal resolution grid even when the additional high resolution was enabled. This allows to use a lower base resolution for the simulation in many cases.
  • Subframes - Emitters now have a "Subframes" option, for fast fast moving emitters. This allows for a smooth flow of smoke or fire even for emitters moving very fast. Previously, one puff of smoke was emitted for every frame, resulting in disjoint spots of smoke.
  • USABILITY:
  • User Interface:
  • Display menu items key shortcuts in the button tooltips. (r57172).
  • Drag-Toggle now allows all layers to be set at once. (r56748)
  • Color picker now supports 3 digit hex colors like HTML, e.g. #123 becomes #112233. (r57135)
  • Units, display 0.5mm rather than 500um, nicer when dealing with very small sizes but not microscopic (r57149)
  • Double click now selects entire words (like on file path segments) (r57280)
  • File-selector now maps back and forward history to back and forward buttons on a 5 button mouse. (r57285)
  • For users without middle-mouse buttons, you can now use Circle and Border de-select by holding SHIFT. (r57577)
  • Expanded control of enum properties in bitflag mode now follow other similar controls behavior (i.e. click only select one item, shift-click to (de)select several ones). See e.g. transform manipulators selectors, in the header of 3D views (r56706).
  • Icon-only expanded enums where still using the label to compute their width, now they just take room needed by the icon (r57576).
  • Weight Paint:
  • Reworked Weight Paint panel and added make it work in weight paint mode when vertex selection is enabled. (r57468)
  • Weight tools such as limit-total, levels, clear - that operate on many groups can now select from active/deformed/non-deformed/all. (r57005)
  • Sequencer:
  • Added a mask modifier for sequence strips (r56582).
  • Fix naming of strips when adding a bunch of video files at once, previously all strips got the same name (from first file name), now each get a name matching it's underlying file (r57610).
  • Other:
  • Auto indent for multi-line Python statements in the Python console. (r56558))
  • Support for storing text styles in themes (r57275).
  • Transformation Constraint now allows applies rotation offsets too (like for location) (r57309)
  • 2D painting now supports texture masks and does masking more consistent with projection painting. (r56699)
  • Python Security:
  • Auto-running Python scripts can now be controlled more securely.
  • Addons:
  • New: Texture Atlas - Addon to bake shadow and lightmaps for an entire scene.
  • New: Edit Linked Library - Quick editing of linked assets, opening the library file and returning to the original file.
  • Python API:
  • Add popup menu to allow python scripts to show popups without having to define a menu class first (r57170)
  • Add Mesh.calc_smooth_groups() function to calculate smooth groups from sharp edges (r57452)
  • Add BMVert.is_boundary attribute (r56781)
  • BUG FIXES:
  • 3D View:
  • Fix #35617: cycles GLSL object texture coordinates were wrong. (r57231)
  • Fix #35602: VBO + dynamic topology sculpt did not show specularity. (r57234)
  • Fix #35629: Incorrect Rendered Viewport Horizontal Splitting. (r57241)
  • Fix #35650: Fly mode with parenting was broken for both locked/unlocked parent mode. (r57267)
  • Fix #35663: Some object types don't draw bounds other than "Box". (r57324)
  • Fix #35694: Lattice; Display Type: "Bounds" not working. (r57456)
  • Fix #35911: Show weights not working with a weight edit modifier in edit mode. (r58009)
  • Fix #36090: Blender displays strange symbol in edge length. (r58165)
  • Fix #35827: Object selection through camera view not working in some cases. (r58201)
  • Fix for using scaled cameras with fly mode and camera-to-view locking r57440
  • Fix GLSL not showing shading properly on the backside of faces. (r57702)
  • Fix unnecessary 3D viewport redraws in various cases, in particular when editing node materials. (r57714)
  • Fix incorrect GLSL bump mapping in editmode when the UV coordinates are flipped, was not passing sign on to GLSL shader. (r57906)
  • Animation:
  • Fix #35378: Shape Key Animation Data still linked when creating full copy of scene. (r57221)
  • Fix #35613: Dopesheet, Graph Editor Trouble Selecting Channels. (r57240)
  • Fix #35643: Animated textures are invisible in Graph Editor if it is not linked via material. (r57332)
  • Fix #35263, #35382: NLA Animated Influence is ignored if strips below have zero total influence. (r57333)
  • Fix #35382: NLA "Multiply" Blend Mode calculated incorrectly. (r57345)
  • Fix #35887: Keyframes inserted at wrong time on offsetted NLA Strips when using "Auto Keying" + "Insert Available Only". (r57902)
  • Fix #35744: FCurve select changes on Graph Editor Resize. (r57905)
  • Fix #35991: Show warning message to when trying to edit driven values in number buttons. (r57974)
  • Fix #35992: Crash using make links > animation data between empty and mesh object. (r57975)
  • Fix #35998: Crash when trying rename Driver in Outliner. (r57984)
  • Fix #35977: Bake Action doesn't work properly. (r58012)
  • Fix #35948: Toggle-Draw AutoKeyframe Bug. (r58134)
  • Fix #36082: Animation playback not working after rendering of background scenes and multiple render layer nodes. (r58157)
  • NLA Bugfix: When clicking on a channel name in the channel list while still in tweakmode (r57907)
  • Armatures:
  • Fix #35671: Automatic armature weights assignment crashed with an empty mesh. (r57296)
  • Fix #35901: Hooks on armature bones are calculated in wrong space. (r57843)
  • Fix #35856: Bones gets scaled chaotically when during NLA Strip Blend In/Out. (r57904)
  • Fix #35997: Add armature > single bone, then change location or rotation would move only the origin and not the bone. (r57997)
  • Fix #36099: Undo crashes on an armature with ID-Properties armatures undo state now stores ID-properties. (r58173)
  • Fix #36128: Not deselect all bone when I press the A button in edit mode. (r58250)
  • Audio:
  • Fix #35230: CPU freeze at playback after cutting/deleting/duplicating audio strip. (r57598)
  • Collada:
  • Fix #35555: Collada: export destroys mesh in some cases. (r57208)
  • Fix #35592: Collada (DAE) exporter messes up vertex colors. (r57209)
  • Fix #34823: Collada: nodes exporting world matrices. (r58227)
  • Fix #36060: Collada Import: animated armature+mesh problem. (r58242)
  • Fix #36122: Collada import - Keyframes offset after recording and playing. (r58264)
  • Fix crash during collada export when armature has animation data. (r57761)
  • Collada miport: Report 'unknown animation class' only when relevant. (r58263)
  • Curves:
  • Fix #35686: Grease pencil to curve conversion causes NAN weights on vertices. (r57308)
  • Fix #35670: Selectionmode LMB dont change the controlling for putting curve points with strg+lmb. (r57329)
  • Fix #35669: Snap curvepoints dont work correct when another object is selected. (r57330, r57371)
  • Fix #36042: Subdividing a cyclic spline shifts start/end points. (r58070)
  • Fix #36066: Crash when Tab out text object. (r58106)
  • Fix #36004: Vertex parent on curve point results in blank 'parent_type' on child object. (r58123)
  • Fix #36176: Text bevel flipped for overlapping characters. (r58339)
  • Fix 3d text 'insert lorem' crash (r57805)
  • Fix joining behavior for curves and armatures (when active object not selected). (r58146)
  • File I/O:
  • Fix #35656: Crash on File Browser (r57370)
  • Fix part #35859: lib linking errors were not shown when opening files through open recent. r57736
  • Fix #36127: 10 bit DPX render would crash when doing rendering animations from the UI on OS X. (r58269)
  • Game Engine:
  • Fix #32218: logic.addScene() Not Adding Scenes in Order. (r57536)
  • Fix #35479: OSKEY (Command Key on Mac) not working. (r57593)
  • Fix #34781: bge.texture.ImageRender does not show Font object. (r57594)
  • Fix #35447: LibLoad Meshes and Scenes causes crash of blender. (r57596)
  • Fix #33163: Text Font Bug. (r57623)
  • Fix #32775: LibFree crashing. (r57626)
  • Fix #35815: makeScreenshot() relative path not working in Blenderplayer. (r57645)
  • Fix #35811: Blenderplayer crash on closing if file saved with an actual version. (r57680)
  • Fix #35737: Action actuator in property mode don't work with values lower then 1. (r57681)
  • Fix #34185: billboard scale problem in groups. (r57691)
  • Fix #30450: F-Curve on bone not working. (r57692)
  • Fix #35884: Evil bge.types.BL_Shader.setUniformMatrix3() (r57815)
  • Fix game anaglyph colors are inverted. (r57646)
  • Image / UV Editing:
  • Fix #35453: "copy mirrored uv coords" doesn't work. (r57244)
  • Fix #35645: UV Stitch often crash Blender (hidden faces related). (r57266)
  • Fix #35611: 'Quick Edit' in Texture mode + RGBA16bit gives bright results. (r57313)
  • Fix #35658: OpenEXR (from Maya) - missing passes. (r57353)
  • Fix #35749: Image Editor: "Replace Image" operator didn't refresh icon for image. (r57476)
  • Fix #35548: Island selecting mode problem in UV editor. (r57508)
  • Fix #35900: Image editor save multilayer EXR was not using the compression codec specified by the user. (r57847)
  • Fix #36022: Inconsistent naming for new images. (r58040)
  • Fix #36089: Crash when using a tiff without TIFFTAG_EXTRASAMPLES. (r58164)
  • Fix #36145: Error in inverting channels in the UV/Image Editor. (r58262)
  • Mesh Editing:
  • Fix #35578: New bridge tool; bowtie crossing when destination edges form one half of an 'X'. (r57159, r57163)
  • Fix #35603: Crash with "Tag Freestyle Edge Mark". (r57210)
  • Fix #35311: Planar Decimate / Limited Dissolve fails to merge some adjacent faces optionally limit by face flipping. (r57216)
  • Fix #35623: separate mesh operator did not redraw the outliner. (r57232)
  • Fix #35636: bridge tool: error symmetry. (r57259)
  • Fix #35648: Loop cut, smoothness showing wrong symmetrical. (r57331)
  • Fix #35738: Delete edge loop removes extra vertices when working on small scale objects. (r57445)
  • Fix #33374: Extrude and mirror editing 2.65 RC1 (r57494)
  • Fix #35902: Build navigation mesh crash with multiple meshes selected. (r57848)
  • Fix #35551: The topology mirror setting affected shape key and vertex group but this was confusing as there was no setting visible for it. (r57856)
  • Fix #35914: Blender crashes when trying to use vertex selection masking on a copy directly after using SHIFT+d (r57888)
  • Fix #35936: Can't create new vertex group when using Ctrl G menu. (r57901)
  • Fix #35939: [Edit - Vertex mode] [Select]-[Mirror] did not returns right result. (r57916)
  • Fix #35994: Shape key mirror without topology did not properly work after doing mirror with topology. (r57993)
  • Fix #35989: Bridge tool flip mash open edge loops were calculating flipping incorrectly. (r58018)
  • Fix #35806: Unable to check "Correct UVs" option in "Loop Cut and Slide" (Keymap Editor). (r58087)
  • Fix #36055: Edge/Face Info display on wrong position with key frames display editmesh stats with deform modifiers. (r58121)
  • Fix #36100: Bevel lost selection interpolating loop was copying face attributes including selection. (r58177)
  • Fix #35582: Bevel weird results. (r58176)
  • Fix #36105: Bevel UV Flicker. (r58179)
  • Fix #36106: Defining the Loopcut number with the keyboard is limited to 130 mousewheel value is now clamped too and raised the limit to 500. (r58187)
  • Fix for crash in edgering subd when 3+ disconnected edge rings were found. (r57196)
  • Fix for sculpt distortion happens when flipping mesh normals. (r57373)
  • Fix for editmesh transform connected, the distance checks could get into a feedback loop so that the result depended on the order of verts/edges. (r57527)
  • Fix for vert/face mask modes using last used select option when using the select-all key shortcut. (r57752)
  • Modifiers:
  • Fix #35678: Duplicating an object with Displace modifier does not increase the reference count of the texture. (r57354)
  • Fix #35710: Mesh explodes while using solidify modifier with tubular non-manifold base mesh. (r57405)
  • Fix #35911: Show weights not working with a weight edit modifier in edit mode. (r57891)
  • Fix #35966: remesh modifier + particle use modifier stack option did not work well together. (r57934)
  • Fix #35990: Bevel modifier crashes specific mesh. (r57976)
  • Fix #35987: Bevel gives nan vertices. (r58014)
  • Fix #34445, #35109: New Bevel's issue with Edge Split modifier. (r58076)
  • Fix #36079: Use Modifier Stack Crash with Particles (r58140)
  • Fix #36141: Crash with skin and remesh modifier in edit mode. (r58247)
  • Fix #36058: Displace Modifier errors using a baked Image and displace baking inconsistency between 2.67/2.68RC and previous versions. (r58270)
  • Fix for problem with creating weight-paint preview. (r57419)
  • Movie Clip Editor:
  • Fix #35773: Drag-to-Open failed in Movie Clip Editor. (r57568)
  • Nodes / Compositor:
  • Fix #35570: Old group nodes with empty socket name strings crash. (r57139)
  • Fix #35599: MovieClip node crashes when using multilayer exr (r57202)
  • Fix #35625: Blender crashes after texture bake complete. due to missing node group. (r57247)
  • Fix #35633: Cannot Add Group Node In Blender 2.67a. (r57249)
  • Fix #35640: Linked Node Materials appear to be editable. (r57252, r57253, r57401)
  • Fix #35400: Dilate Erode Feather Bug - feathering wraps around image. (r57297)
  • Fix #35703: Viewer node doesn't updates image sometimes. (r57410)
  • Fix #35724: Backdrop zoom can be set to a very small value, making the backdrop disapear. (r57453)
  • Fix #35439: Render Border have weird influence on compositing. (r57604)
  • Fix #35546: clicking cycles "Use Nodes" did not do a proper undo push. (r57741)
  • Fix #35809: Dragging a non-active node in the node editor did not work reliably. (r57823)
  • Fix #35922: RGB Input Node doesn't work properly. (r57885)
  • Fix #36024: Data loss between saves for custom node trees. (r58074, r58075)
  • Fix #36050: Backdrop not working. (r58113)
  • Fix #36041: Chroma key broken. (r58141)
  • Fix #35586: Add an option to the Z Combine compositing node to disable the Z buffer antialiasing that was restored in 2.67 after it was missing in the new compositor implementation. (r58202)
  • Fix #36086: Activating the opencl option in the compositor causes blender crash on some systems (r58338)
  • Fix crash when passing non-existing socket type to sockets.new() function. (r57430)
  • Fix crash when getting active ID from a node tree with missing groups. (r57963)
  • Fix deadlock in coordinate wrapping operation with zero dimension. (r57964)
  • Objects:
  • Fix #35935: make links > groups, which copies group membership between objects, would also copy object dupligroups (next item in the menu). (r57968)
  • Particles:
  • Fix #36093: Stationary Particle system - particle Y axis fails to follow emitter object rotation. (r58192. r58229)
  • Physics / Hair / Simulations:
  • Fix #35477: Clicking "Connect Hair" button translates a mesh by it's object location. (r57213)
  • Fix #35628: Dynamic paint waves over ocean modifier doesn't work (r57254)
  • Fix #35609: Hair cut tool cuts in a wrong place, draw steps should default to 2. (r57698)
  • Fix #35406: Hair puff brush bug - puff was interpolating hair that made longer strands cirl up. (r58137)
  • Fix #36115: Dynamic paint not showing correct result after file load or undo. (r58200)
  • Fix particle lasso-select inverting the selection. (r58138)
  • Fix particle hair display percentage not properly getting restored after rendering. (r57717)
  • Python:
  • Fix #35434: Segmentation fault switching screen layout from python. (r57204)
  • Fix #35489: mode_set() not working in background mode, Scene change doesn't change mode either. (r57205)
  • Fix #35683: Addon working fine in console. But crashed when click GUI button. (r57336)
  • Fix #35346: Python: still UI issue with popup and dropdown list (r57425, r57562, r57563)
  • Fix #35850: Documentation error for mathutils.Vector. (r57674)
  • Fix #35507: BMesh module: Crash on to_mesh() if faces.layers.tex is used but no loops.layers.uv. (r57755)
  • Fix #35860: Crash if pressing in import dialog. (r57852)
  • Fix #35984: No way to know if a datablock is in editmode. (r57980)
  • Fix #36155: Crash with __contains__. (r58310)
  • Render:
  • Fix #35497: Rendering preview range gives wrong duration. (r57157)
  • Fix #35624: Rendering to a new window, then switching scene in the main window, would still continue to render the previous scene in the render window on F12. (r57229)
  • Fix #35405: Properties editor preview render restarted unnecessarily after F12 render. (r57377)
  • Fix #35664: Blender internal material index pass + ztransp + multiple materials assigned to a mesh did not work correct. (r57439)
  • Fix #35768: Crash in with "free image textures" option and 3D viewport with textured draw mode open. (r57474)
  • Fix #35848: Render crash in background mode due to missing G.main. (r57663)
  • Fix #35807: Blender internal motion blur render without antialiasing would give black speckles (self intersection errors) in raytraced shadows. (r57606)
  • Fix #35846: Crash rendering with dupligroups visible in 3D viewport during render in some cases. (r57740)
  • Fix #35882: Render to image editor, ctrl+up fullscreen, click back to previous did not work. (r57787)
  • Fix #35412: Blender internal "from dupli" texture coordinates not working with particles in linked groups. (r57851)
  • Fix #35964: Viewport render not updating with linking materials with ctrl+L. (r57933)
  • Fix #35986: "Full sample AA not supported without 3d rendering" message was displayed even with antialiasing disabled. (r57966)
  • Fix #35957: Blender internal viewport render did not do correct color management for image textures. (r57999)
  • Fix #36005: Viewport rendering crashes blender. (r58017)
  • Fix #36044 #36044: Blender Internal viewport rendering crash while editing data. (r58080)
  • Fix #35739, #35937, #35739: Undo crashes and missing updates with blender internal viewport rendering. (r58082)
  • Fix #35969: Blender Internal and Cycles not updating mesh while in edit mode. (r58084)
  • Fix #36075: Editing shading nodes could still crash blender internal rendered draw mode. (r58132)
  • Fix #36091: External render engines like Luxrender don't work well with the save buffers option. (r58174)
  • Fix #35470: Crash rendering from the terminal in some cases due to render info text threading issue. (r58203)
  • Fix [1] #36173]]: Current frame doesn't update while OpenGL Rendering Animation. (r58331)
  • Fix [2] #36150]]: Missing Preview Render Updates with Add/Remove material slot. (r58335)
  • Fix for crash deleting the world when viewport preview is used. (r58039)
  • Fix blender environment map texture looking different on the first render with an image file. (r58122)
  • Render: Freestyle:
  • Fix #35561: Freestyle + read full sample layers = crash. (r57369)
  • Fix #35353: Freestyle + Compositor + Auto-render renders freestyle lines in the wrong place. (r57415)
  • Fix #35883: Freestyle + envmap render crashed. (r57782)
  • Fix #35808: Blender internal viewport with freestyle would keep continuously rerendering for no reason. (r57839)
  • Partial dix #35695: Freestyle produces extra line across an object with pointed areas. (r58006)
  • Fix #35970: Freestyle + Particles = Crash. (r58063)
  • Fix #36009: Rendered ortho view messes up Freestyle lines in 3D viewport. (r58129)
  • Fix #35695: Freestyle produces extra line across an object with pointed areas. (r58180)
  • Fix #35482: 2.67 freestyle line visibility computation bug. (r58222)
  • Render: Cycles:
  • Fix #35591: Rendering with OSL seems to cap "weird" numbers in certain places in the nodes. (r57178)
  • Fix #35587: Cycles: image movie to single image crashing. (r57192)
  • Fix #35614: Cycles objects on mask layer in render layers were writing passes such as motion/uv/normal but they should have been excluded from them. (r57230)
  • Fix #35644: Lamp specials menu still showed blender internal energy and falloff distance when cycles was selected as renderer. (r57265)
  • Fix #35672: Missing update when changing light ray visibility during viewport render. (r57290)
  • Fix #35677, #35525: , #35525: cycles viewport not updating properly in some situations. (r57306)
  • Fix #35653: Manual texture space location and size not working in cycles viewport. (r57349)
  • Fix #35681: Cycles excluded layers still got evaluated before and after rendering even if they were not used on any render layers. (r57352)
  • Fix #35251: Cycles crash rendering with a particular user preferences configuration. (r57378)
  • Fix #35733: Lamps on render layers that are both excluded and used for masking should not be used, same as emissive meshes. (r57432)
  • Fix #35729: Cycles normal maps not showing properly in preview render. (r57434)
  • Fix #35730: Cycles not rendering dupliverted metaball, needs another special exception. (r57437)
  • Fix #35771: "Specials" ->"Size Y" doesn't work for Cycles area lamp. (r57539)
  • Fix #35812: Cycles image texture node not doing proper alpha handling of PNG images with open shading language enabled. (r57637)
  • Fix #35847: Cycles group nodes did not work well exposing inputs like normal or texture coordinate. (r57676)
  • Fix #35896: Cycles crash with OSL image textures and viewport + preview render running at the same time. (r57846)
  • Fix #35954: Missing cycles viewport render update when changing the object or material pass index. (r57929)
  • Fix #35944: Adding keyframes or drivers on image sequences offset did not work for cycles image texture node. (r57931)
  • Fix #36037: Cycles from dupli generated texture coordinates were wrong. (r58057)
  • Fix #36063: Cycles 3D viewport was incorrectly influenced by blender internal material halo settings. (r58083)
  • Fix #36064: Cycles direct/indirect light passes with materials that have zero RGB color components gave non-grey results when you might no expect it. (r58086)
  • Fix #36080: Fix cycles crash with certain group node setups, accessing freed memory. (r58149)
  • Fix #36053: Slow GPU render with panorama camera + depth of field. (r58158)
  • Fix #36139: Cycles not taking texture spacing settings into account for generated coordinates on text objects. (r58265)
  • Fix related #35681: Avoid some unnecessary cycles updated when using exclude render layers. (r57307)
  • Fix cycles world ray visibility not working correct with multiple importance sampling. (r57948)
  • Sequencer:
  • Fix #36027: Close gap shifts clip leaves keyframes behind. (r58038)
  • Fix #36124: VSE - Input Color doesn't invalidate cache properly for movies. (r58257)
  • Sculpting / Painting:
  • Fix #35545: Weight paint with mirror modifier does not accurate represent bone influence (r57206)
  • Fix #35638: Object disappears when rotating after using the simplify brush. (r57311)
  • Fix #35793: Crash When Painting Gradient Weight. (r57564)
  • Fix #35457: Mirror the U texture coordinate does not work in projection painting regression since 2.61 (r57706)
  • Fix #34909: Texture paint mode does not correctly update when using textures larger than 2048x2048. (r57735)
  • Fix #35858: Weight Paint: Hiding faces isnt flushing the flag to the vertices. (r57751)
  • Fix #34837: Texture Painting using Face Selection Mask fails to show texture if more than 1 texture is used (r57764)
  • Fix #35583: Smooth brush ignores hidden parts. (r57768)
  • Fix #35365: Texture cloning not behaving correctly in perspective view. (r57776)
  • Fix #33068: Can't paint weights of some vertices in some situations. (r57781)
  • Fix #35858: Weight Paint: Hiding faces isnt flushing the flag to the vertices. (r57895)
  • Fix #35975: "Select Linked" = "Select All" in Weight Paint mode. (r57955)
  • Fix #35057: Texture paint viewport performance drop. (r58079)
  • Fix #36039: Texture paint bug with face selection on subdivided object. (r58109)
  • Fix #36153: Crash when choosing a brush. (r58311)
  • User Interface:
  • Fix #35567: Shift+LMB doesn't toggle selection when using the Maya preset. (r57154)
  • Fix #35468: Screen list shows temp layout (r57214)
  • Fix #35610: Multiresolution Modifier Complains About Sculpt Mode. (r57220)
  • Fix #35646: Image offset value in empty image display mode should be unitless (r57263)
  • Fix #35668: Tooltip for Euler Discontinuity Filter was misleading (r57411)
  • Fix #35713: Set Origin not waiting for user input when invoked form search menu. (r57422)
  • Fix #35741: Material shows WORLD texture_context by default. (r57497)
  • Fix #35774: Confusing Text in Texture Paint Panel. (r57504)
  • Fix #35790: Panel Section Arrows Wrong Theme Colors. (r57694)
  • Fix #35767: Transforming nodes in the node editor changed the wireframe color of the active object in the 3D view. (r57715)
  • Fix #35715: Graph editor > channels > move.. menu item showed wrong keyboard shortcut. (r57734)
  • Fix #35750: List items in properties editor (text colors not following list item theme). (r57760)
  • Fix #35880: Popup menus like F6 redo did not use the right theme color for highlighted text, (r57771)
  • Fix #35880: Theme color of enabled option buttons in popups was still controlled by the wrong color, now it's controlled by "Menu Back" text color. (r57785)
  • Fix #35802: Searchbox menu not opening when opened from a popup near the bottom of the window. (r57822)
  • Fix #35974: Smoke flow force field icon missing in add menu. (r57956)
  • Fix #36001: Crashing copying long strings in text buttons. (r57996)
  • Fix #36010: Missing 3D view header redraw when assigning shortcut key to mesh automerge. (r58002)
  • Fix #36038: Auto Keying warning message is clamped in Japanese. (r58049)
  • Fix #35841: WM_OT_context_[toggle/cycle/etc.] operators dont show shortcut keys in menus (or tooltips) for properties they are used to toggle/cycle through. (r58058)
  • Fix #36043: Missing Tooltip for Excluded Paths field of Auto Run Python Scripts in User Preferences -> File. (r58069)
  • Fix #36059: Region overlap did not show scopes overlapping in the image editor. (r58081)
  • Fix #36008: Can't set values higher than 1.0 in HSV colour picker (But can in RGB) - also some strange behavior. (r58105)
  • Fix #36030: Datablock drag and drop to buttons not working with a certain number of objects in the scene. (r58120)
  • Fix #36065: UI labels are shown in the theme color for unselected list items. (r58142)
  • Fix #36109: UI softlock when first property of an operator is String disable editing a string on operator UI popups, causes feedback loop. (r58197)
  • Fix #36135: File name of previously saved render result no longer remembered. (r58231)
  • Fix text shadow offset was causing text to clip r57271
  • Fix filesel autocomplete, it had the bad behavior entering a non-existing name (r57572)
  • Fix OSX "Life resize" was also being called during opening of windows - when things are not initialized yet. (r57181)
  • Fix a few DPI/retina scaling issues in the graph editor and movie clip editor. (r57819)
  • System:
  • Fix #35728: "Load Factory Settings" changes temp fonder to "/temp/\" (r57479, r57500)
  • Fix #35825: "Find missing files" seems to search for files which are not missing Made finding paths for files that exist optional (and off by default), since its handy for relocating projects. (r57678)
  • Fix #35824: finding missing files not working correct for filepaths with special characters on Windows. (r57739)
  • Fix #35890: memory leak in OS X ghost locale detection. (r57821)
  • Fix #35904: On Windows force NVidia Optimus, which does automatic graphics switching between an integrated Intel and a dedicated NVidia card, to use the dedicated card for Blender. (r57857)
  • Fix #36157: Memory Leak in GHOST_DropTargetX11 would leak a little bit of memory for every window created. (r58309)
  • Other:
  • Fix #35501: Operator log: some property changes log as [...].(null) = ... (r57211)
  • Fix #35661: Maya key config - select operations are skipped by "undo". (r57338, r57340)
  • Fix #35691: Context Override replaces instead of overrides. (r57346)
  • Fix #35704: Simplify on scene with dupli recursion crashes. (r57376)
  • Fix #35574: Export Key Map issue. (r57380)
  • Fix #35747: Lasso select could crash if there was an Armature in PoseMode somewhere. (r57475)
  • Fix #35590: Connected proportional editing gives unexpected results (r57532)
  • Fix #35855: Change "Scene" crashes randomly. (r57689)
  • Fix #35844: "Blender User Preferences" window don't save size font. (r57703)
  • Fix #35884: Crash opening .blend with generated color grid image and preview render. (r57845)
  • Fix #35958: texture timeout with value 0 not preserved when saving user preferences. (r57932)
  • Fix #35933: setting shortcut keys in object mode menu didn't work correct. (r57967)
  • Fix #36014: Individual Origin Translation across Normal Orientation doesn't work properly. (r58015)
  • Fix #36073: Changing list items misses undo push. (r58130)
  • Fix #36076: Metaballs as particles with particle texture (size influence) crashes Blender (r58147)
  • Fix #36107: Moving origin of instanced objects doesn't work properly. (r58249)
  • Fix missing compositor refresh due to missinfg mask notifiers, (r57668)
  • Fix for crash reading from a freed scene when exiting blender. (r57810)
  • Avoid crashes running screendump and screen editing operators in background mode. (r57842)
  • Fix for Make Local -> All not working correct with multy-user datablocks (leads to crashes). (r57896)

New in Blender 2.68 RC1 (Jul 2, 2013)

  • Usability and Tools:
  • Mesh transform active element matrix.pngImproved mesh editing tools: Improved bridge tool, grid-fill tool, options to selectively apply weight paint tools, TODO more.
  • Weight Paint tools reworked

New in Blender 2.67b (Jun 1, 2013)

  • Interface:
  • fix stack corruptions in special cases for search popup
  • fix #35547: incomplete tooltips in node editor
  • fix #35374: Region overlap + bugs, was missing keymap for REGION_TIMER, which ended up in missing updates happening.
  • Viewport:
  • fix #35459: global texture coordinates not working with GLSL shaders.
  • fix #35473: Using Redo panel in View3D after Grease Pencil action moves GP layer to that area
  • Animation:
  • fix #35443: : Animation player doesn't play some movie formats
  • fix getting selected bones: wrong list member size for memory setting
  • fix for confusion switching active group when running mirror
  • Composite/Nodes:
  • fix for node-searh menu
  • fix for node item polling
  • Fix #35495:, Material preview don't update (PyNodes regression)
  • fix for node menu: Show the group input/output nodes in the Input/Output categories respectively, so they can be added with the usual UI in case the user deletes them.
  • Render:
  • fix #35458: crash in image sampling
  • fix #35500: Material Copy Crash on specific scenes
  • Render (Cycles):
  • fix #35506: enter local view, enable render draw mode, exit local view would keep rendering in the background
  • Render (Freestyle):
  • fix for a crash due to de-referencing of a StrokeVertex Python wrapper object
  • fix #35478: Spatial Noise crashes Blender on Render
  • fix #35493: Blender crash when rendering freestyle in background mode
  • fix for freestyle bug which happened when the sketchy chaining is used, stroke geometry may contain a 180-degree U-turn.
  • Modifiers:
  • fix #35450: bevel make large spikes sometimes.
  • fix #35513: Multires modifier normal corruption on apply base
  • Tools:
  • fix #35451: crash with extrude, grab, grab
  • fix regression in 2.67a, crash in loop-select
  • fix #35462: regression with ortho-camera adding points
  • fix #35518: UV Mapping crashes the Blender with specific image file
  • Fix #35504: Blender crashes on separating curves with different Evaluation Time / keyframes
  • fix #35503: edit-mesh and mirror modifier - extruding was creating faces where it shouldn't.
  • fix #35543: bezier curve width and twist fail to apply when more than 1 point is edited
  • fix #35509: edit-mesh manipulator median point used bad orientation
  • Paint:
  • fix error where selecting mask brush once lead to changes in behavior of other brushes hotkeys.
  • Fix #35426: incorrect masking with projection painting.
  • Game Engine:
  • Fix #35480: object without material crash blender when starting game engine
  • Physics:
  • fix smoke noise tile was saved in Blender executable directory
  • Python:
  • fix/workaround installing addons (problem with osx permissions)
  • Other:
  • Collada: was missing recalculate of normals after mesh import

New in Blender 2.67a (May 21, 2013)

  • Interface:
  • Fix #35286: 'Reset to Default Theme' makes some node titlebars go black (r56647)
  • Fix #35261: double clicking the up arrow in the file browser to go up multiple directories fast would start drag and drop (r56653)
  • Fix #56662: files with numbers higher than 2147483648 or with different numbers of leading zeros would show in random order in the file browser. (r56662)
  • Fix #35284: outline name edit textbox did not show properly in some cases. (r56670)
  • Fix #56672: search menu buttons (with an X on the right side to clear) had text overlapping the X icon (r35281)
  • Fix #35273: click in empty space to deselect as used by the Maya keymap gave a python error when used in pose mode. (r56673)
  • Fix #35262: assigning shortcuts from e.g. delete or selection mode menus (r56676)
  • Fix #35307: popup menus in nodes, with nodes outside window boundary, were clipped (r56688)
  • Fix #35342: multi-sample antialiasing makes tooltips look blurry (r56766)
  • Fix #35415: multi-sample don't work in 2.66 and newer (regression) (r56912)
  • Fix for toggle drag not working in popups (r56747 r56881)
  • Change to drag-lock behavior, only use with outliner (this way layers can be changed all at once) (r56748)
  • Viewport:
  • Fix #35259: Fix crash when enabling mesh analysis intersect with wire edges (r56539)
  • Fix eternal loop with background scenes (r56689)
  • Animation:
  • Fix #35253: Fix failure to animate X, Y, Z values in nodes with vector sub-menu (r56581)
  • Fix #35384: animation to enable/disable render layers was applied one frame too late when rendering animations. (r56851)
  • Fix #35398: changing render layer name causes animation to be lost. (r56868)
  • Fix material/lamp drivers not working sometimes when they were used by multiple objects (r56707)
  • Fix for shape-key drivers executing for every call to derivedmesh (r56880)
  • Sequencer:
  • Fix #35390: the verticel line indicating scene end frame was off by one (r56872 r56882 r56894)
  • Composite/Nodes:
  • Fix #35252: Fix crash with the node placed partially behind the screen (r56572)
  • Fix #35291: crash deleting 'Group Output' node in compositor (r56654)
  • Fix #35327: compositing Z combine node was not giving the same result as previous versions when the Z values were the same (r56755)
  • Fix #35330: Blur node crash due to size overflow (r56759)
  • Fix #35349: multiple viewers nodes crashing during render (r56791)
  • Fix #35376: node editor throwing python error on some files saved with 2.66 test builds. (r56830)
  • Fix #35388: grouped nodes not editable in properties ui. (r56857)
  • Fix #35369: crop node or FileOutput node bug. (r56879)
  • Fix #35313: object and ID anti-aliased masks are incorrect when using border render + crop (r56898)
  • Fix string escaping when building python expression for nodes (r56610)
  • Fix crash loading node groups caused by versioning error (r56611)
  • Fix for add_node operator, prevent it from re-using settings from a previous call (r56613)
  • Fix note add operators were not using UNDO option (r56648)
  • Render:
  • Fix #35219: Fix blender internal auto ray bias to avoid the terminator shadow problem was giving light flickering on a mesh with animated hair strands. (r56577)
  • Fix #35280: crash when setting Environment Map imagefile (r56620)
  • Fix #35335: Crash when rendering a text object with a remesh modifier and a material texture (r56749)
  • Render (Cycles):
  • Fix #35272: GPU crash with anisotropic shader in group node. (r56650 r56663)
  • Fix #35282: color ramp set to constant interpolation did not work well (r56651)
  • Fix #35306: normal mapping not working with flat shading. (r56682)
  • Render (Freestyle):
  • Fix #35352: geometry spatial noise freezes on render (r56836)
  • Fix #35385: rendering crash with modifiers (r56839)
  • Fix #35245: Freestyle getting stuck on view map creation + memory leaks. (r56905)
  • Fix crash when closing blend files with no line styles (r56711)
  • Fix for a copy-and-paste bug in a Freestyle Python API helper function (r56806)
  • Fix for memory leaks in Freestyle Python API components (r56778 r56807)
  • Fix for missing finalization of memory blocks allocated in the Freestyle module (r56826)
  • Fix for built-in style module sketchy_multiple_parameterization.py not working correctly (r56867)
  • Modifiers:
  • Fix #35317: crash with boolean modifier using an object whose library linked mesh datablock went missing (r56698)
  • Tools:
  • Fix #35257: 'Brige > Merge' sometimes flips result (r56606)
  • Fix #35292: edge slide slow with big image in image editor (r56671)
  • Fix #35289: UV layout export to image was extremely slow for large meshes (r56674)
  • Fix #35326: even edge slide on open edge crashes (r56735)
  • Fix #35308: Edge Split operator splits unselected edges (r56760)
  • Fix for strange behavior with loop select involving ngons (r56773 r56783 r56784 r56785), See: comparison
  • Fix loopselect-slide (with multicut enabled) changing from vertex-select to edge-select. (r56863)
  • Paint:
  • Fix part of #35372: distorted strokes when painting zoomed out with a small brush size (r56816)
  • Fix #35057, #35372: slow texture painting performance. (r56823)
  • Fix #35355: 2D image paint View mapping mode was dependent on zoom, this was wrong, it should just fit the texture in the brush circle. (r56833)
  • Fix #35372: sculpting/painting long brush strokes with small brush size would take up a lot of memory. (r56834)
  • Fix #56901: calling any paint operator from operator search menu with mouse crashes blender. (r56901)
  • Fix crash on 2d painting when no active object is present (regression), (r56892)
  • Fix Painting / Sculpting: improve pressure sensitivity (regression) (r56896)
  • Fix crash due to shared paint cursor function (regression). (r56902)
  • Sculpt:
  • Fix #35337: sculpt performance regression, partial redraw was not working anymore due to paint cursor redraw problem. (r56763)
  • Fix sculpt getting slower as you paint a longer stroke. Partial redraw was redrawing the whole area that was painted on from the start of the stroke (r56767 r56828)
  • Fix #35364: 'D Key' shortcut inconsistency (r56815 r56873)
  • Fix #35354: dyntopo - materials and UI display issues (r56820)
  • Game Engine:
  • Fix #31757: Fix setGLSLMaterialSetting has no effect (regression) (r56605)
  • Fix #34382: vertex position doesn't update when set through Python and "Cast Buffer Shadows" is disabled (r56639)
  • Fix #35204: new alpha-enabled shadows fail when UVs Change (r56643)
  • Fix #34631: error displaying texface (r56679)
  • Fix #34044: error displaying texface for objects with no material (r56680)
  • Fix #35320: crash when adding property without setting material (r56745)
  • Fix #35329: action actuator crash with replacemesh, pointers got outdated. (r56756)
  • Add missing python properties on ActionActuator: layer, layerWeight (r56906)
  • Particles:
  • Fix #35296: particles crash with long object name (r56668)
  • Rigid Body:
  • fix #35403: Highlight not updating instantly when removing from Rigid body
  • Python:
  • Fix #35319: 2x2 matrix inverse and adjugate were wrong. (r56700)
  • Fix #35336: added a warning in the doc string for nodetree.nodes.new() (r56800)
  • Other:
  • Fix OS X build with 10.6 SDK, was not working due to recent fullscreen bug fixes. (r56601)
  • Fix #35255: Fix build for older OpenCollada versions failed (r56537 r56538)
  • Fix #35267: cmd+v, cmd+c on OS X for copy/paste worked in some editors like the 3D view and text editor but not in the animation editors(r56661 r56678)

New in Blender 2.67 (May 8, 2013)

  • Freestyle Line Rendering Engine:
  • Freestyle is a new non-photorealistic (NPR) rendering engine integrated into Blender. Originally developed as a stand-alone program in an academic research project, Freestyle provides artists with a new tool set for generating 2D line drawing out of a given 3D scene prepared with Blender. Generated lines can be stylized by a variety of stylization options for tweaking line color, alpha transparency, line thickness, and line geometry. The resulting line art can be combined with other render components (e.g., render passes from the Blender Internal renderer and Cycles) through render layers and the compositor. Examples of Freestyle use cases include cartoon rendering, architectural visualization, technical drawing, blue prints, and computer-generated sketches. Freestyle expands Blender's rendering capabilities on the basis of geometry-based visualization solutions specifically geared to 2D-like computer graphics.
  • Paint System Improvements:
  • The stroke system and brush texture access has been unified and as a result there are many more tools now shared across paint modes. Brush angle control, better brush overlays, separate texture control for alpha and a brand new stencil mapping mode with direct mouse control have been implemented. Many improvements and bug fixes have also been made.
  • Cycles Rendering:
  • A Subsurface Scattering shader is now available, to create materials such as Wax, Marble or Skin. Minimum pixel width was added to hair rendering and several performance improvements have been made, to render scenes without hair or motion blur faster. The OSL shading system received performance improvements as well.
  • Motion Tracker:
  • Camera and object motion solver motion are much more accurate and faster because the Ceres library is used now for the bundle adjustment step. In addition the tripod solver is finally fixed and has become usable for longer footage. Smaller fixes were done as well.
  • Compositing Nodes:
  • Added border for compositor viewer node, which restricts what is to be composited for faster previews. Also border rendering and cropping are finally working as expected. Some optimization was done as well.
  • Python Nodes:
  • The API now supports custom node types. Nodes can be defined and registered in python scripts like other UI classes. This allows the creation of entire new node systems for addons, external render engines and the like.
  • Node Editor:
  • Node Groups editing is less cluttered and more consistent with other nodes. Multiple node editor windows can be used independently. Nesting node groups is fully supported. Pinning is supported as well in the node editor to disable context switching.
  • Usability and Tools:
  • New mesh modeling tools: Individual Face Inset, Poke Face and Knife Project. Faster image display in the image and movie clip editors. Better support for UTF-8 text in the text and console editors, and various improvements to other editors.
  • 3D Printing Toolset:
  • An addon to help with 3d printing is now bundled as well as a new ruler tool and mesh-analysis display attributes such as thickness, sharp-areas and distortion.
  • Addons:
  • New addons are the node efficiency tools and VRML2 export.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • 3D View
  • Fix #34492: clipping border not working with GLSL/matcap and Nouveau drivers. (r55251)
  • Fix #34711: matcap option not showing when switching from cycles material/rendered draw mode to blender internal. (r55730)
  • Fix #34825: Transparent background of Empty Images clips objects behind them away when Empty is not selected. (r55746)
  • Fix #34903: Lock Camera to View allows Numpad orbit, but not Numpad pan. (r55893)
  • Fix #34908: compressed DDS files did not display properly when their mipmap levels did not go down to 1x1 image size. (r55906)
  • Fix #34961: camera fly mode would reset camera scale. (r55990)
  • Fix #35043: Camera view breaks with multiple scenes and the "view center camera" action. (r56192)
  • Fix #35007: Clipping border error. (r56220)
  • Fix #34706: Projection precision is zoom dependent. (r56226)
  • Fix #35063: GLSL texture node Value output was not outputting alpha. (r56267)
  • Fix #34714: cycles viewport render would restart when minimizing and unminimizing a maximized Blender window in Ubuntu Unity (r56278)
  • Fix #35121: cycles 3D viewport render pause button not working during render. (r56360)
  • Animation
  • Fix #32492: Part 3: Error filter now includes drivers where there are errors with the variables/targets, even if those errors are for variables which aren't used (r55070)
  • Fix #34394, #31843: Visual Keying not working for bones. (r55103 )
  • Fix #34688: Auto-Keying doesn't include custom properties when pasting poses. (r55457)
  • Fix #34932: Drivers on world nodes not updating on frame changes. (r55923)
  • Fix #34805: Bake action ignores parent motion. (r55954)
  • Fix #34836: Crash when driver variable has path == 'data' (r56206)
  • Fix #34869: Switching actions does not trigger animation refresh. (r56232)
  • Fix #34958: keyframe many items would fail if there was a (") in the text. (r56249)
  • Fix #34645: NlaStrip Tweak Mode - No automatic action length sync on exit (r56314)
  • Fix #35151: NLA editor: the channel list and the main area were not perfectly aligned, and could jump a bit around (r56416)
  • Bugfix: Selecting AnimData "expanders" in AnimEditors works again. (r55261)
  • Bugfix: Filtering option in NLA Editor to include AnimData blocks with no actions or NLA data attached was broken. (r55266)
  • Armatures
  • Fix #34541: Sketching bones created bones with 0 radius for envelope. (r55105)
  • Audio
  • Fix #33518: Jack sync doesn't work in 2.64, 2.64 or 2.65 stable versions (r55616)
  • Collada
  • Fix #34443: Ability to set 'Pivot Center for rotation/scale' missing in weight paint mode. (r54888)
  • Fix #35014: Import crash with UV coordinates. (r56153)
  • Fix #35073: Face normals calculation used wrong mloop index. (r56292)
  • Fix #35229: Crash exporting constraints with no target set. (r56508)
  • Constraints:
  • Curves:
  • Fix #34444: Counter intuitice name for curve Select Nth Number of Points. (r54884)
  • Fix #34616: Wrong face culling for curves with constructive modifiers. (r55273)
  • Fix #34785: only one curve cap is visible while backface culling is enabled. (r55627)
  • Fix #35039: Issues with capson cyclic curve. (r56200)
  • Fix #35026: Curve build modifier behaves unexpected oncurves without faces. (r56204)
  • Fix #35097: only one curve cap is visible while backface culling is enabled (r56330)
  • File I/O
  • Fix #34511: Invalid Audio/Video codec combination produces hung filehandle. (r55189)
  • Fix #34608: MultiLayer OpenEXR (from Maya) - passes lost in Compositor Image Node. (r55210)
  • Fix #34626: voxel data texture can't read > 2GB files on Windows. (r55247)
  • Fix #34689: Multilayer EXRs don't load correctly if one layer is named and the other is not. (r55498)
  • Fix #34745: TGA with size of 4Kx8K won't load. (r55557)
  • Fix #34776: Linking the group in this .blend causes crash with this starting scene (r55610)
  • Fix #34779: Channels disappear from multilayer exr sequence. (r55624)
  • Fix #34929: Windows would show a "No disk in drive" error popup when one of the recently opened files was on a DVD that's no longer there in the DVD drive. (r55966)
  • Fix #35139: Output panel options are not taken into account when you safe your render (JPG) (r56376)
  • Fix #35081: opening .blend files with chinese characters not working. (r56454)
  • Fix #35143: Animplayer treated .tif extensions as movie files, so that didn't work. (r56412)
  • Fix quicktime video export not properly supporting animation of audio properties like volume. (r56494)
  • Fix for non-terminated reading of JPEG metadata. (r56495)
  • Fix double free error in OpenEXR when file cannot be saved. (r56456)
  • Game Engine
  • Fix #28753: Mouse Over doesn't work at certain angles. (r54733)
  • Fix #34483: multi UV glsl materials not working correct after changes to support more than 2 UV maps. (r54965)
  • Fix #34523: 2dfilter produces render error (objects disappear). (r55010)
  • Fix #34677: Setting Boolean property on KX_GameObject creates Int type. (r55396)
  • Fix #34550: getVertexArrayLength changed in 2.66 (r55483)
  • Fix #34505: Vertex Colors not working in the BGE (for custom GLSL shaders) when multitexture and no material. (r55487)
  • Fix #34997: When starting the game engine in one window and switching to a second window, the game would stop drawing in the first and mess up the OpenGL state of the second. (r56148)
  • Fix #34383: Blender crash Steering actuator. (r56353)
  • Fix #34609: mesh.getVertex doesn't work as spected with poly.getMaterialIndex() and poly vertex indexes (r56460)
  • Fix #34889: negative lights not working in glsl view and game engine. (r56484)
  • Image / UV Editing
  • Fix #34589: Strange behavior with projection painting and 16bit PNGSs. (r55195)
  • Fix #34672: Image sampling line didn't use color management for byte buffers. (r55367)
  • Fix #34772: Incorrect aspect for tex mapping from camera view. (r55606)
  • Fix #34866: UV/Image Editor breaks on mode change + undo (r55823)
  • Fix #34978: For cycles, images displayed in the UV editor where coupled to the active image texture node in the material. (r56070)
  • Fix #35011: UV unwrap giving poor results for ngons. (r56152)
  • Mesh Editing
  • Fix #34611: Bevel modifier needs to limit amount to max without overlap. (r55234)
  • Fix #34620: SHIFT+T (texture space transform) crashed in editmode. Not checking NULL pointer. (r55244)
  • Fix #34633: Merge First/Last crashes Blender. (r55292)
  • Fix #34603: ALT-F fails, freezes, CPU=100% (r55579)
  • Fix #34802: Individual Transformation Confusing in Edit Mode. (r55771)
  • Fix #34918: Interactive bevel doesn't accept +/- keys to change # of segments, only scrollwheel. (r55890)
  • Fix #34947: Alt-F Fill not working. (r55949)
  • Fix #35009: Edge/Vertex Slide issue using G-G. (r56162)
  • Fix #35025: Mesh Debug samples strange behavior. (r56181)
  • Fix #35058: Mesh > Edge/Face > Bevel would do vertex bevel if that was used in the operator the previous time. (r56240)
  • Fix #24887: Crash on snapping verts on other object. (r56254)
  • Fix #34657: Smoothing will not be updated in object mode, when hiding faces in edit mode and changing shape. (r56258)
  • Fix #35085: Loop cut slide didn't work nice with multicut. (r56318)
  • Fix #35156: Edge slide gg shortcut brings up wrong settings. (r56402)
  • Modifiers
  • Fix #34526: crash using mask modifier + subsurf + UV map. (r55255)
  • Fix #35113: solidify modifier not preserving clamp option on duplicating the object or modifier. (r56338)
  • Fix #35149: solidify modifier + vertex parent not working after going in and out of editmode on the child object. (r56447)
  • Movie Clip Editor
  • Fix #34574: Empty Movie Clip Editor crash on select. (r55130)
  • Fix #35146: Move Clip Editor: "T-key panel" bug (r56381)
  • Fix issue with bright frames appearing in clip editor when compositor is open. (r55968)
  • Fix missing angle zerolization when 2d stabilization is disabled. (r56516)
  • Fix for crash when using 2D stabilization for float movie clips (r56517)
  • Nodes / Compositor
  • Fix #34436: Texture node editor crash on node delete. (r54908)
  • Fix #34599: Mask nodes stop working if output is later piped through HSV node. (r55204)
  • Fix #34617: Track Position node behaves wrong when creating second connection from output socket. (r55298)
  • Fix #34709, #34709: cycles group nodes were not working well with 0 or 2+ group input/output nodes. (r55440)
  • Fix #34694: Bokeh Blur operation was writing outside of allocated memory in case of (0, 0) size buffers, with the usual unpredictable results. (r55444)
  • Fix #34758: Nested node groups (groups inside other groups) were ungrouped ("inlined") repeatedly causing corrupted memory + crash. (r55566)
  • Fix #33628: Segmentation fault after pasting a closed group of nodes into an open group. (r55752)
  • Fix #34948: Bug with cycles group nodes. (r55955)
  • Fix #34910: NodeGroup input/output sliders bug. (r56037)
  • Fix #34911: Compositor with multiple views autozooms to node when creating a link. (r56115)
  • Fix #35037: Compositor: MultilayerEXR + undo loses image. Crash when selecting in Image Editor. (r56201)
  • Fix changing image ID datablock from browser in Image node didn't change output sockets. (r55211)
  • Fix for crash in special cases when mixing translate node with other. (r55215)
  • Objects
  • Fix #34726: Appending a group to 'Active Layer' doesn't work. (r55503)
  • Fix #34972: Blender crashes when Force Field-> Curve Guide is created. (r56060)
  • Particles
  • Fix #34667: trail_count option missing for Particle (emitter) System Render Panel "Path" UI (r55500)
  • Physics / Simulations
  • Fix #34519: deleted cache after duplicating an object with baked simulation. (r55065)
  • Fix #32233: exporting bullet format results in corrupt files. (r55096)
  • Fix #34561: Possible smoke crash if smoke flow had lower density than adaptive domain "threshold". (r55179)
  • Fix #34710: Crash on duplicating object with cloth modifier. (r55449)
  • Fix #34685: Dynamic paint sub-steps don't work if brush is animated through parent chain longer than 2 objects. (r55517)
  • Fix #34721: Smoke adaptive domain threshold ignores high resolution data. (r55518)
  • Fix #34749: Fluid domain > 10GB crashes Blender - out of memory (r55567)
  • Fix #34857: Negative temp.diff. in a smoke simulation doesn't work. (r55801)
  • Fix #34783: smoke simulation crash when changing frame while preview rendering. (r56273)
  • Fix #34806: rigid body world settings were not copied with a full scene copy. (r56282)
  • Fix #35082: Blender Freeze when change smoke domain setting (r56306)
  • Fix #35115: Character physics type fails collision with static type with an action r56369
  • Fix #35110: Dynamic Paint does not paint accurately in baked "Image Sequence" on Armature-Posed-Mesh (r56384)
  • Fix #35173: Object's draw_type resets when removing smoke (r56469)
  • fix #35071: Bullet Convex Hull Crashes on Win32 with SSE (r56519)
  • Python
  • Fix #34768: Out of bounds access in console selection. (r55621)
  • Fix #34636: bpy.app.handlers.load_post not run on startup file loading after splashscreen. (r55643)
  • Fix #34804: Only timeline_markers[0] is selectable if multiple markers at same frame. (r55655)
  • Fix #34856: crash passing an object rather than a mesh to bpy.data.mesh.remove(). (r55757)
  • Fix #34863: bge.render.makeScreenshot from Blender was only saving PNG files, while the docs said it followed the settings in the Output panel. (r55781)
  • Fix #34881: Bad characters in error output (PyConsole) if trying to use a Bmesh UV Layer on a BMVert. (r55813)
  • Fix #34870: bmesh.ops.* parameter lists and descriptions don't show in PyConsole on auto-complete. (r55829)
  • Fix #34898: Typo in error message of mathutils.Vector * Also fixed some more cases of "more then" -> "more than". (r55885)
  • Fix #34875: Some property subtypes not working (no unit suffix), precision=0 not supported. (r55910)
  • Fix #34902: Unicode decode error in Python console when completing a method name of text object in edit mode. (r55914)
  • Fix #34941: Space.draw_handler_add now supports PRE_VIEW and POST_VIEW callbacks for more editors: timeline, graph, action, NLA, sequencer, image, clip. (r55937)
  • Fix #34983: bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_torus_add() ignores rotation-parameter. (r56223)
  • Fix #35056: crash running bpy.ops.transform.rotate() in background mode. (r56227)
  • Fix #35068: bpy.ops.node.output_file_add_socket() fails if there is no "node" in the context. (r56272)
  • Fix #35150: Crash when bmesh operation called from within a Panel draw() (r56396)
  • fix #35154: Python: UI issues with invoke_props_dialog() - highlighed buttons that were never pressed could be activated by accident when canceling search popup. - canceling a search popup on a popup would close both. (r56399)
  • Render
  • Fix #34481: camera focal length and sensor size did not use units yet, now they do. (r55248)
  • Fix #34551: blender crash rendering with save buffers. (r55253)
  • Fix #34671: Video file overwritten even though overwrite option is unselected. (r55371)
  • Fix #34803: blender internal SSS rendering black/nan with negative texture colors. (r55735)
  • Fix #34923: Images that have their alpha calculated should not get de-premultiplied. (r55960)
  • Fix #34817: improve OpenGL preview render speed, it got quite a bit slower since 2.60. (r55970)
  • Fix #34992: OpenGL Preview Renderer: Displacement Modifier with Noise Texture not working. (r56073)
  • Fix #35017: Ssetting alpha to zero for ray-transp material with refraction did not render. (r56134)
  • Fix #34895: Spotlamp with buffer shadow + object without "Cast buffer shadow" = artifact. (r56145)
  • Fix #35091: Blender internal does not render face texture alpha. (r56316)
  • Fix #35171: crash rendering cube with two subsurf modifier in some circumstances. (r56441)
  • Fix #35174: Dynamic paint displacement missing in render. (r56472)
  • Fix crash rendering material with "Face Textures" option. (r56513)
  • Render: Cycles
  • Fix #34414: Python error with frame_change callback and Cycles motion blur. (r54941)
  • Fix #34654: Cycles hair particle system modifier obeys viewport visibility as well. (r55332)
  • Fix #34700: Cycles depth of field now works with orthographic cameras too. (r55454)
  • Fix #34759: Cycles texture influence for particles not shown correct when switching to a different texture slot. (r55739)
  • Fix #34700: Orthographic camera DOF was still not working correct. (r55763)
  • Fix #34625: Duplivert/face rendering with modifier could crash accessing UV and generated coordinates on the original mesh, after the change that made duplis take modifiers into account. (r55765)
  • Fix #34601: Cycles OSL crash when using preview render and viewport render at the same time, due to shared texture cache system. (r55792)
  • Fix #34867: Cycles viewport render did not respect viewport visibility for modifiers with text/curve/surface objects. (r55796)
  • Fix #34679: Cycles image texture alpha fringes. New rule is now that color output will not give straight RGB values if the alpha output is used, so that mixing with a transparent BSDF gives the correct result. (r55818)
  • Fix #34877: The render status feedback (progress bar) does not take into account specific Renderlayer samples. (r55821, [http://projects.blender.org/scm/viewvc.php?view=rev&root=bf-blender&revision=55826 r55826 rr55826])
  • Fix #34880: Cycles motion blur render issue with some compilers. (r55832)
  • Fix #34871: Cycles/CUDA/sm_35: Build problems probably due to issues with float3 operators. (r55839)
  • Fix #34921: Cycles rendered a specific scene with a small high poly object contained in a large low poly object very slow, due to failure case of fast multithread BVH binning. (r55912)
  • Fix #34740: Cycles rendering issue mixing glossy/glass BSDF's with zero or very low roughness and same index of refraction. (r55922)
  • Fix #34322: Cycles crash with (undo) save during threaded render. (r55991)
  • Fix #34966: Cycles packed PNG images were showing alpha fringe, packed images were not properly premultiplied. (r56088)
  • Fix #35004: Fireflies with .tif image in cycles, try to avoid extreme values when openimageio can't detect premul/straight alpha correct. (r56112)
  • Fix #34725, #34725: cycles crash with OSL and both a 3D viewport and preview running at the same time. (r56208)
  • Fix #35077: cycles incorrectly rendered an empty with dupligroup that was dupliverted by its parent. (r56294)
  • Fix #34172: cycles BVH build crashing in some rare circumstances on 32 bit linux. (r56303)
  • Fix #35102: crash with experimental cycles displacement feature due to uninitialized memory usage. (r56333)
  • Fix #35207: addition to previous fix to avoid OSL getting uninitialized. (r56492)
  • Fix #35209: cycles generated texture coordinates did not stick to deforming meshes. (r56500)
  • Fix for material icon rendering with cycles. (r55961)
  • Sequencer
  • Fix #34782: Video Editor - Subtract after transform fails. (r55644)
  • Fix #34811: Wrong result of add/subtract effects. (r55924)
  • Fix #35117: Properties region didn't respond to "Nkey" to hide the region. (r56355)
  • Fix #35182: VSE, speed control Trim duration (soft) end reset to 0. (r56467)
  • Fix: Scopes in sequencer were not drawing OK (drawing code assumed alpha). (r55603)
  • Fix: Histogram in Sequencer now uses same formula to quantify R G B as the other histogram in Blender (per channel). (r55603)
  • Sculpting / Painting
  • Fix #34370: Collapse-edges crash in dyntopo. (r54827)
  • Fix #34416: Sculpt with ALT-B affects unseen mesh parts. (r55008)
  • Fix #34501: Painting on image editor with texture brush causes memory leaks in render module. (r55017)
  • Fix #34641: "Front Faces Only" option in SculptMode behaves weird. (r55343)
  • Fix #34348: Collapse short edges affects masked geometry. (r55344)
  • Fix #34720: Sculpt mode T panel has no texture preview. (r55499)
  • Fix #34730: Brush texture angle gets offset incorrectly due to rake setting. (r55561)
  • Fix #34773: smooth brush used on a shape key messes up the topology. (r55642)
  • Fix #34813: smooth brush used on a shape key messes up the topology - part2. (r55694)
  • Fix #34860: View in Weight Painting mode no longer rotates around active bone (r55769)
  • Fix #34970: in glsl mode the vertex paint face mask is not visible (r56131)
  • Fix #34818: Sculpting Mode only rotates around geometry origin. (r56168)
  • Fix #34640: colors darkening when using the vertex paint blur tool. (r56293, r56295)
  • Fix #34233: bad alpha blending for 2D image painting. (r56337, r56359)
  • Fix #35140: texture paint would give 'noisy' strokes and poor results for strokes crossing themselves. (r56391)
  • Fix #35141: stencil and 3D texture mode did not work with 2D image paint. (r56410, r56411)
  • Fix #35166: texture paint mask texture stencil not scaling properly. (r56440)
  • Fix #35166: texture mask stencil Reset Transform did not work properly. (r56474)
  • Fix 2D painting gave squares rather than a disk for the "Max" curve falloff shape. (r56458)
  • Fix for weight gradient when used with active-unselected object (r56462)
  • Text Editor
  • Fix #34460: Text editor freezes when turning on syntax highlight. (r54907)
  • Fix #34610: Syntax highlighting freezes. (r55206)
  • Fix #34405: Side panel of Text editor re-scales if hovered the 1st time (if window not maximized). (r55504)
  • Fix #34905: Text editor: replacing matches by empty string not allowed. (r55889)
  • Fix crash when overwriting ascii character with multibyte character. (r54917)
  • Fix for cursor jumping error stepping backwards (r56506)
  • fix for glitch in text editor using: Ctrl+(Backspace / Delete). (r56521)
  • User Interface
  • Fix #34374: Fixed tooltip for checker-select, it works on the active item, not selected ones. (r54786)
  • Fix #34450: Vertical zooming in graph editor is very unresponsive r54910
  • Fix #34334: Ugly shadow in UI popups. (r54954)
  • Fix #34490: Copy and paste floating point number fields losses precision. (r55005)
  • Fix #34560: Wrong angle for text in Horizontal mode of Properties space. (r55107)
  • Fix #34573: Icon File for interface theme doesn't work currently. (r55159)
  • Fix #34365: Dragging option (cursor change) for region dividers in editors was having an N-even sensitivity hotspot. (r55163)
  • Fix #34598: Modifier-Icon in Outliner does not appear. (r55197)
  • Fix #34621: I18n Switch Issue When Gimbal and Rotation Manipulator On. (r55245)
  • Fix #34716: Change Trim Duration (soft) value nothing happening. until mouse drag footage (image sequence). (r55573)
  • Fix #34775: Persistent "can't find file" when saving packed .blends. (r55626)
  • Fix #34850: "x" to clear ID prop fields is too close to the right border (r55745)
  • Fix #34862: some operators like mesh separate or object clear parent were not showing shortcuts in menus. (r55797)
  • Fix #34936: Unable to select items using only the arrow keys. (r55952)
  • Fix #34974: The open region indicator (with +) didn't do alpha blending properly, so it wasn't visible for any theme color. (r56110)
  • Fix #34868: Pulldown menus with long shortcut text labels got clipped badly occasionally. (r56126)
  • Fix #34943: Extreme narrow scaled editors lead to crash in some circumstances. (r56129)
  • Fix #34822: Blender does not respect custom modifier keys. (r56142)
  • Fix #35051: When viewing a complex node setup in the material properties, the properties were continuously redrawing, which slowed down everything else. (r56210)
  • Fix #35055: Crash in Edit Source feature for multilevel menus. (r56242)
  • Fix #35072: View name of 3Dview is clamped in Japanese just increase size of string to allow for utf8 chars. (r56286)
  • Fix #34545: Render layer name is unwantedly translated in composite node editor. (r56300)
  • Fix #35124: Outliner was drawing "Animation" category even when no actions/strips/drivers existed. (r56354)
  • Fix #35178: Autoselect-in-list for Vertex Group selection doesn't work. (r56465)
  • Fix: multisample viewport drawing didn't work well with selection or particle brushes, due to issues with color coded drawing or slow/buggy reading from such a buffer on some systems. (r55316 )
  • Fix curves widget error: after deleting a point, and click to add a new point, on dragging it the point flipped up 20 pixels r55370
  • Fix: drawing disabled buttons now draw OK in all cases. (r55379)
  • System
  • Fix #35157: export key configuration did not export text input events correctly. (r56475)
  • Other
  • Fix #34649: Texture size limit user preference not working. (r55310)
  • Fix #34713: MultiSample broke GPencil Surface sticking mode. (r55462)
  • Fix #34467: File Browser deletes unselected files. (r55556)
  • Fix #34698: Axis Locking works incorrect don't do projection when constraints are used. (r55587)
  • Fix #34658: GreasePencil eraser deletes strokes through geometry, surfacemode. (r55588)
  • Fix #34847: Box selecting shape keys of a mask causes crash. (r55744)
  • Fix #34954: Sample Color gets stuck with custom shortcut. (r55967)
  • Fix #34896: Previous session is restored even when a .blend file should be loaded. (r56006)
  • Fix #34967: Display transform makes byte image with alpha=0 black. (r56065)
  • Fix #34897: Select edge loop shortcut not working in Maya preset. (r56085)
  • Fix #34350: Maya Keyboard map preset problems. (r56209)
  • Fix #29932: Left Shift + Numpad 1,2,3 not Aligning to Active (r56285)
  • Addons
  • Fix #34350: Rigify, UIList resize, resizes wrong list II/II r4274
  • Fix #35040: Rigify, dev tools panel was displayed regardless of mode. (r4488)
  • Fix: Rigify, move widget meshes to match the bones, even if the widget meshes already exist r4277
  • Fix: Rigify, deleted WGT objects now get properly replaced on generation r4278
  • Fix: Rigify, certain kinds of import errors were being suppressed in rig types. (r4321)
  • Fix: Rigify, two bugs in IK/FK snapping that made it fail in some cases. r4334
  • Fix: Rigify, biped arm/leg rigs. The bbone elbow was causing weird twisting and sharp bend angles r4342
  • Fix: MilkShape3D, error export for non-select objects r4303
  • Fix: MHX Import, bug with lipsyncing r4416
  • Fix: X3D, exporting UV's was broken r4325
  • Fix: X3D, import comma separated coordinates failed r4464
  • Fix: X3D, import of lists of images and alpha support. (r4327)
  • Fix: X3D, import face colors r4362
  • Fix: 3DS, import material transparency value short/float fix r4369
  • Fix #34607: MDD import didn't default to linear interpolation r4466
  • Fix #34864: OBJ Import, Save&Load - Relative Paths ticked, Textures tab uses absolute paths r4450
  • Fix: MeshF2, crash when all faces are selected. (r4416)
  • Fix #34682: STL importer ValueError exception r4429
  • Fix 3D-Coat: axis error r4472
  • Fix: export .X format, smooth normals export bug. (r4477)

New in Blender 2.67 RC (Apr 26, 2013)

  • Paint System Refactoring
  • Changes for Usability, tools, interface
  • FreeStyle - NPR Render
  • 3D Printing Toolset
  • Addons
  • Bug Fixes
  • Compositing Nodes:
  • Added border for compositor viewer node, which restricts are to be composited for faster previews. Also border rendering and cropping are finally work as expected. Some optimization was done as well
  • Cycles Rendering:
  • Major Cycles improvement is subsurface scattering, which is used for materials like skin and milk. Hair also had some improvements
  • Motion Tracker:
  • Camera and object motion solver motion are now much more accurate and faster because of Ceres library used for bundle adjustment step. In addition tripod solver is finally fixed and become usable for long footage. Smaller fixes were done as well

New in Blender 2.66a (Mar 7, 2013)

  • Interface:
  • Image editor scope and clip editor track preview did not resize properly with different DPI settings.
  • Alt+MouseWheel changes frame as well as buttons
  • Fix UI/DPI: user preferences window size now takes into account DPI, otherwise the buttons don't fit properly.
  • Fix soft shadow at top edge incorrectly drawn
  • Screencast could be started twice
  • Panel color were not updated from old files properly
  • Allow trackpad and magic mouse swipes to control brush size for circle select.
  • Window position not saving correctly for next start-up (r54879)
  • quicktime video codec menu showing blank (r54942)
  • Viewport:
  • GLSL materials using multiple UV layers fail in editmode
  • View3D Mini-Axis drawing in error with overlay
  • Manipulator handles drawn incorrectly by depth
  • Fix glitch rotating the camera in camera mode drawing helper-line in random locations
  • Animation:
  • Fix zoom for graph-editor (and other editors)
  • Sequencer:
  • Strip modifier - Mask multiply failure
  • Added RGBA|RGB channels toggle to sequencer preview
  • Fix sequencer crash when pasting strips after creating new file
  • Composite/Nodes:
  • Inputs list in file output doesn't appear properly
  • Crash when using image output node
  • "Record Composite" image op segfaults in compositor code
  • Inconsistent behavior of "Color Mix Node" and "Alpha Over Node"
  • Adding reroute node into invalid links would crash the compositor
  • MovieClip/Tracking:
  • Fix memory leak when loading multilayer EXR as movie clip
  • Fix for incorrect subpixel precision of marker when using track offset
  • Render:
  • Displacement map Bake margin does not work
  • Node editor delete texture crash
  • Image Sequence texture didn't allow "Offset" with fcurves.
  • Weird noise bug with Texture nodes
  • Fix for texture preview render with show alpha enabled
  • Fix image transparency backwards compatibility. Now the texture datablock has a 'Use Alpha' option again
  • Render (Cycles):
  • viewport render stuck with no objects in the scene.
  • hair render in dupligroup did hide the emitter properly in some cases
  • Modifiers:
  • Shrinkwrap modifier project along normal did not work correctly
  • applying screw modifier turns object to black
  • Tools:
  • Border select in UV Image window crashed
  • Fix for weight paint using values over 1.0 when blending
  • Fix for regression in 'object.shape_key_transfer' operator since BMesh merge
  • Edge slide results in segmentation fault on certain mesh
  • Origin to Center of Mass is missing in menu Object > Transform
  • Fix selecting linked faces
  • mesh.select_mode operator could not be configure the use_extend and use_expand properly
  • Selection of bones in armature edit mode only toggles between two bones
  • Copy/Paste objects hangs
  • Solidify crease error
  • Fix missing select menu for weight, vertex, texture paint modes.
  • Fix joining meshes could loose crease/bevel weights
  • Edge toggline bevel failed
  • Sculpt:
  • Collapse-Edges crash in dyntopo
  • Crash when dyntopo enabled and using view plane mode
  • Blender Crashes on toggling modes, dynatopo sculpt/object mode
  • Game Engine:
  • Fix protection clipping
  • Character walkDirection ADD mode -#INF error
  • Enable alpha buffer (useful for TV broadcasting)
  • Ray cast on Triangle mesh bounded Rigid Body Object crashes
  • Webcam support under Linux in Standalone broken
  • Action Actuator "caching" the previous ran actions
  • Fix error using actions with multiple scenes
  • Fix object color channels can now be animated separately without zeroing out the other channels
  • Fix error using uninitialized variables for rendering
  • Game-Engine - Multi UV mesh's materials not backwards compatible
  • Fix Game-Engine crashing when on material conversions
  • converting multi-uv layers
  • 2D-Filter produces render error
  • 2D-Filter causes mouselook script drifting effect
  • Rigid Body:
  • Fix motion paths calculation being incorrect for rigid bodies
  • Allow rigidbody collision groups to be animated
  • Planes with Rigid Body always keep distance to colliding objects
  • Rigid objects not resetting original properly after running a simulation.
  • Fix inconsistency with world rebuilding with the start frame
  • Text Editor:
  • Fix Fix text editor bug: ctrl+F is not configurable
  • freeze when turning on syntax highlight
  • Fix crash when overwriting ascii character with multibyte character
  • Python:
  • Fix Python console bug: "autocomplete" doesn't advance cursor properly when completion includes UTF8 characters
  • foreach_get crash for any non existant attribute
  • mesh.verts.foreach_set not working with normals
  • Fix for python exception getting the ID from an operator button
  • Other:
  • Fix freeing all bakes in particle mode
  • Fix file with packed images crashes on load
  • Fix image alpha version patch with library linked files
  • Collada export crash with armature
  • Fix X3D import error loading UV's
  • Fix X3D import for images
  • Rigify fixes

New in Blender 2.66 (Feb 21, 2013)

  • Dynamic Topology Sculpting:
  • Dynamic topology is a new sculpting mode that subdivides the mesh as needed, whereas regular sculpting only affects the shape of a mesh. This makes it possible to sculpt complex shapes out of a simple mesh, rather than just adding details onto a modeled base mesh.
  • Rigid Body Simulation:
  • The Bullet physics library has now been integrated into the editor and animation system, which makes rigid body simulations available also outside of the game engine. This results in a much simpler workflow and gives more control over the simulation.
  • UI and Usability:
  • Support for MacBook "Retina" Displays was added, proper DPI scaling in all editors, new high-res icons and transparent tool and property regions. User Preferences and Startup File have been split up, new ways to recover sessions were added and copy & paste of objects inside the 3D View is supported now.
  • Cycles Rendering:
  • Initial support for hair rendering was added, multiple importance sampling for lamps, preview rendering is available inside the properties editor, new closures and optimizations for OSL, non-progressive integrator was improved and support for packed, generated and movie textures was added.
  • Image Transparency:
  • The image pipeline has be refactored to handle transparency in images better and compatible to standards. There are two alpha types for images that are useful for different purposes, and we now try to automatically do the right conversions and operations.
  • Mesh Modeling:
  • The Bevel tool supports bevelling individual vertices in addition to edges now, with one or more segments.
  • Modifiers:
  • The new Mesh Cache modifier can apply animation from external files onto a mesh, with support for the MDD and PC2 file formats. A new UV Warp modifier can rotate, scale and translate UV maps on a mesh using objects or bones. The Laplacian smooth modifier now supports shape enhancement, rather than smoothing this will exaggerate the shape of the mesh.
  • Particle Fluid Dynamics:
  • A new SPH particle fluid solver was added, designed for more physically accurate results.
  • Game Engine:
  • The character physics type received a number of new options, profiling and debug information has been cleaned up, and simple shadow maps can now take clipped alpha transparency into account.
  • For python scripting two new features were added: library .blend files can now be load asynchronously to keep the game engine from freezing, and joystick events can now be handled from python without logic bricks.
  • Collada:
  • Collada import and export was improved for animation: shape keys are now supported, and the armature modifier has been made more stable, respecting axis orientation and scene scaling.
  • More Features:
  • New features include vertex color baking, more efficient ambient occlusion baking for multires meshes, edge based UV stitching, more control over mapping texture brushes for texture painting, gradient tools for weight painting, and a translate node for the compositor.
  • Addons:
  • Added MilkShape 3D format support and EDL Video Import.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • In addition to the new features, over 250 bugs that existed in previous releases have been fixed.

New in Blender 2.65a (Dec 21, 2012)

  • cycles environment texture not showing image sequence options properly.
  • Fluid Simulations Speed factor animated wrong result
  • IK solver stretch was less stable after a code refactor
  • cycles OSL now autodetects the presence of emission and transparent closures to enable multiple importance sampling and transparent shadows.
  • cycles CPU image textures were offset wrong by half a pixel compared to OpenGL/CUDA/OSL rendering.
  • Right click on 'confirm reload' crashes
  • Scaling normals with Alt (maintains shell thickness) producing wrong result.
  • Fix related to #33480: blender-internal volume rendering, the camera inside volume wasn't accurate
  • when transforming, tapping shift twice and holding did not enable precision mode.
  • rotate around selection doesn't work when .blend saved in sculpt mode
  • Mask points are add offset for the mouse when adding on viewer node with aspect != 1
  • Bezier Curve Tilt in transform panel does not work beyond 360 degrees
  • Blender Crash when selecting "Point select mode" in Particle Mode with and 0 hairs object
  • vertex paint subtract mode was broken, always resulting in black.
  • Shift+Numpad 2/4/8 shortcuts for zoom in image and clip editor don't work in Windows, Use Ctrl+Numpad
  • GPU mipmap generation is not working on some ATI cards
  • Bevel wire edges would crash
  • Dynamic Paint modifier surfaces not copied
  • Knife cut-through code to connect across a face didn't stop after it found one.
  • End Caps on a curve array with subsurf crashes blender when entering Edit Mode
  • Building proxies will remove strip animation
  • Checker de-select by default gives uneven selection on a circle
  • Vertex colors added to meshes with no faces whenver exiting/entering editmode
  • The Screw Tool in Edit Mode isn't calculating the correct angle step divisions per turn
  • Motion blur with shutter time > 1 did result in the correct evaluation of some modifiers because it set the subframe to values > 1.
  • Add subframe support for shape keys.
  • Point density texture was using an current frame value that was never set.
  • Game-Engine did not convert objects with rotation modes other than Euler XYZ correctly
  • Manipulator showing incorrect local axes in armature pose mode.
  • Masking keyframes disappear from dope sheet when using undo.
  • Unreported Fixes:
  • Fix Game-Player still not using fast GPU mipmap generation
  • Fix issue where image stamp data's strings could be short enough not to fit the entire ID name length.
  • Fix Moving panels in a buttons-region around was calling menu code reading NULL pointer
  • Fix for default startup file having compositor background scale set very small
  • Fix timer events getting handled, after stopping a timer.
  • Fixes for ctrl+click on panel header
  • Cloth pre-roll had a wrong tooltip and low limit of 200 frames.
  • Fix for pose-bones and edit-bones ignoring active element pivot mode
  • Fix for bevel using the wrong property name when shift was held
  • Fix square color picker drawing the 'cursor' incorrectly
  • Other Changes:
  • 3D View: Add back a key to access view-cursor (Alt+Home)
  • Cycles: make "Open Shading Language" a boolean toggle, the other option "GPU Compatible" was confusing.

New in Blender 2.65 (Dec 11, 2012)

  • BUG FIXES:
  • 3D View:
  • Fix #32837: DDS images flipped in viewport compared to render
  • Fix #32837: DDS type textures assagined to mesh are flipped in viewport
  • Fix #33051: view selected bug - focus goes to the mirrored side of the model
  • Fix #33114: crash with render frame update script and GLSL
  • Fix #33282: missing GLSL update assigning a lamp texture
  • Fix #33291: when using boundbox drawtype for a large number of duplicated objects, enabling Wire draw on the parent would draw full resolution wires for all the instances which can be very slow
  • Fix #33304: missing 3D view redraw while moving camera markers
  • Fix #33376: non-square DDS textures were mapped wrong in the viewport / game engine
  • Fix #33371: freezing in material draw mode
  • Fix #33394: Skin modifier doesn't show generated skin mesh in EditMode with Texured Solid draw option
  • Animation:
  • Fix #32754: Clear Motion paths button not available on Motion paths panel
  • Fix #32017: unlimited recursion issue for material updates
  • Fix #30974: Quick cache breaks insert keyframe
  • Fix [32970 #[32970: Insert/Replace Keyframe on Image Sequence Offset field does not update the entered value
  • Fix #33043: Changing the name of a keying set does not change group name
  • Fix #33123: lamp nodes drivers not working, now uses same hacks as material to work around dependency graph limitations
  • Fix #29110: Animated Transforms to Deltas behaves oddly when applied more than once
  • Fix #33154: Toggle/Enable/Disable channel settings operators in DopeSheet/Action Editor Channel menus were not working properly
  • Fix #33286: when keyframing object scale, noise fmodifier scale would show as animated in the UI
  • Fix #33378: Grease pencil dopesheet fails on a few operations
  • Fix #33412: Jump to next frame broken in grease pencil mode allow arrow keys while in grease pencil session, otherwise you can't change frames.
  • Armatures:
  • Fix #32964: IK constraint had a "Target" option, which actually is an internal flag that shouldn't have been exposed in the user interface
  • Fix #33074: Crash when flipping names of bones
  • Fix #33176: deactivating both position and rotation target from iTaSC IK solver crashes.
  • Audio:
  • Fix #32096: Background music stops when playing 3D sounds
  • Fix #31561: Audio only coming from Front Left in layout and bge
  • Collada:
  • Fix #33168: collada export added incorrect -material postfix to material names
  • Fix #33421: collada import of a mesh with loose edges did not draw the edges in the viewport
  • Curves:
  • Fix #33268: Crash when delete all or segment from curve with SplineIK
  • File I/O:
  • Fix #32824: Color management configuration check was missed on file link/append
  • Fix #32496: link in an object, delete it, and relink again its materials are lost
  • Fix #33143: Exporter crash since 2.64
  • Fix #33226: File loading issue (endian switching issue)
  • Game Engine:
  • Fix #33025: Character physics object won't stop moving with simple motion actuator
  • Fix #33090: Segfault/Crash with Empty and Motion Actuator, Keyboard Sensor
  • Fix #30262: bgl.glClipPlane don't work on Nvidia cards
  • Image / UV Editing:
  • Fix #32858: Image appears too dark in Image Editor
  • Fix #32852: Unwrapping ignores seams in very simple case
  • Fix #27585: Texture buttons - "Add New Image" - crashes on changing X or Y resolution
  • Fix #33010: image editor - scope handles resize does change width and position.x along with the scopes height
  • Fix #33055: uv mapping did not use the right image from the material to do aspect ratio correction when cycles was enabled
  • Fix #33159: Histogram frequently blank
  • Fix #33265: editing uv vertex coordinates in panel could move hidden uv's
  • Fix #33266: Transforming with Y axis constraint didn't apply aspect ratio correct
  • Fix #33296: uv editing did unnecessary outliner redraw, giving slowdown
  • Fix #31598: Messed up Smart UVs if face areas were too close to zero
  • Fix #33332: UV follow active quads rewrite the script to use bmesh connectivity info
  • Fix for YCCK and CNYK jpeg images loading into blender
  • Mesh Editing:
  • Fix #32829: Crash when making linked Mesh with UV Map local
  • Fix #32864: Convex Hull fails in some cases
  • Fix #32960: Convex hull operator crashes when 'make holes' is
  • Fix #32979: proportional edit connected was too slow with many vertices on some meshes
  • Fix #33094: Even edge slide on multiple loops destroys geometry
  • Fix #33142: Ctrl LMB higher selection mode in edit mode sometimes selects extra elements
  • Fix #33179: Can't delete centered edge loop if x-mirror is activated
  • Fix #33277: vertex merge would merge UVs by default
  • Fix #33305: Bevel tool crashes Blender if the number of segments exceeds 28
  • Fix #33285: loop cut is not supposed to cut through triangles/ngons, but it still happened when the loop would go all the way around the mesh with just one triangle/ngon inbetween to close the loop
  • Fix #33316: mesh edge short path select was wrong on large/small objects.
  • Fix #33391: Bridge two Edgeloops fails in simple case
  • Fix #33400: Knife tool cursor offset
  • Modifiers:
  • Fix #32887: ParticleInstance crash with hidden particle system + children
  • Fix #25801: Shrinkwrap Offset problems with Project mode
  • Fix #30100: boolean intersect crashes blender
  • Fix #33001: Crash on applying Boolean difference modifier
  • Fix #33045: Boolean modifier crash with mirrored objects
  • Fix #33041: Boolean difference sometimes produces meshes with holes
  • Fix #32398: Mirror modifier with "Merge" enabled producing pairs of faces sharing the same set of vertices
  • Fix #33217: mirror modifier edges missing in wireframe mode
  • Fix #33029: Applying modifier leaks memory
  • Nodes / Compositor:
  • Fix #32856: Crash in compositor due to deprecated node socket flag in old files
  • Fix #32896: No compositor tree update with image input color space change
  • Fix #32905: Crash with Levels node when no input is connected
  • Fix #32705: Esc a value change doesn't recalc compositor
  • Fix #32931: Crop node resets values to 0
  • Fix #28927: Z-Transp disables Material Pass Index
  • Fix #32955: Compositer "Crop" node option "Crop Image Size" doesn't really crop the input image
  • Fix #32835: Reroute node on shading nodes connection gives wrong renders
  • Fix #32982: Segault when trying to show a node material
  • Fix #33087: power Math node clipping negative numbers
  • Fix #33161: Blender crashes when opening an exr in compositor
  • Fix #33204: Blur node ignores Gamma setting
  • Fix #33368: Crash with multilayer exr node
  • Fix #33372: Materials linked in node setups did not output alpha values unless the parent material also had alpha enabled
  • Fix #33402: Compositor crashes when drag-dropping multilayer exr
  • Fix problem with Render Layers node and hidden sockets
  • Objects:
  • Fix #32219: Inconsistent influence of Units Scale on new objects
  • Fix #32925: Center cursor (shift+C) crashing blender after duplicating bone in armature edit mode
  • Fix #32884: select by group not working when active object in more than one group
  • Fix #31842: Proportional Editing Significant Glitch, Object Mode
  • Fix #32987: "Set origin to cursor" tool failed for parented/rotated objects
  • Fix #32191: Changing layer broken for objects shared by multiple scenes
  • Fix #33147: Material cannot be replaced by another
  • Fix #33156: Ctrl+L Link modifiers produce copies with identical names
  • Fix #33241: can't exit edit mode when object gets hidden via animation
  • Fix #33442: object added with wrong size when units scale was set
  • Physics:
  • Fix #32677: Cloth Pinning Does Not Obey Weight Map
  • Fix #32920: cloth physics with collision exploding in some cases, due to uninitialized memory usage.
  • Fix #31017: Particles not generated on Grid Distribution
  • Fix #26712: Particle group instance 'Use Count' value gets reset on file-load
  • Fix #33092: Fluid sim would stop or crash with node editor
  • Fix #32939: Fluid sim reversed on X and Y with animated Control object
  • Fix #29186: Object contribute to fluid sim animation start earlier than keyframe
  • Fix #33279: crash in particle brush cut tool when cutting hairs that go outside the view
  • Fix #33387: Smoke: Animating Smoke Type from Flow to None crashes blender
  • Fix #33411: crash baking smoke with FFT high resolution.
  • Fix #31084: Dynamic Paint Blender File Crashes Blender
  • Python:
  • Fix #32973: crash adding python property with update=None parameter passed
  • Fix #30087: operator_context is different for popup and submenu's
  • Fix #31661: Custom properties do no respect min/max values
  • Fix #33108: Running save_as_mainfile breaks relative texture paths
  • Fix #33000: bmesh.ops.create_* either crash blender or do nothing
  • Fix #30505: bpy.context.copy() gives error running in the properties editor with cycles as render engine
  • Fix ##30858: UI losing buttons due to threading issues in python context
  • Fix ##33205: Bmesh "from_object" gives "no usable mesh data"
  • Fix #33281: script goes into not responding
  • Fix #33345: Crash when using bpy.ops.sculpt.brush_stroke
  • Render:
  • Fix #32865: Usercounts for World Textures not decremented after preview render
  • Fix #32891: Bake to Texture didn't use color management flag properly
  • Fix #32846: Dupligroup messes up particle instancing on rendering
  • Fix #27504: Particle systems that duplicate group instances were setting the wrong layer to the instanced objects
  • Fix #30378: Full Sample Antialiasing render gave fireflies with halos - especially on edges of polygons
  • Fix #32930: texture colors in material nodes (blender internal) are brighter than normal
  • Fix #32867: normal map baking issue with flat shaded faces since bmesh
  • Fix #27834: AAO color bleeding failure case with raytraced shadows
  • Fix #32617: Text object render error
  • Fix #32975: grouped material node preview not cleared before render
  • Fix #32981: clear image texture when re-bakeing had become broken in 2.64a
  • Fix #33040: baking selected to active could miss at pixels at the edge of faces when there was a tiny mismatch between low and high poly models
  • Fix #32907: failure rendering a complex node setup, hitting fixed max number of closures limit
  • Fix missing display buffer and mipmaps invalidation in cases only few of selected objects failed to bake
  • Fix color management-less texture rendering
  • Fix texture baking when color management is disabled
  • In texture buttons, changing the preview could crash
  • Render: Cycles:
  • Fix #31806: cycles crash rendering a particular node setup with multiple mix/add shader nodes.
  • Fix #32800: Cycles viewport incredible slow with high number of tiles
  • Fix #32819: Crash when starting CUDA kernel compilation if UI translation is not "Default"
  • Fix #32846: dupli group + particle instances gets messed up in Cycles viewport rendering
  • Fix #32913: missing cycles viewport update when toggling visibility in outliner with V and R shortcut keys
  • Fix #32912: cycles crash with dead particles
  • Fix #32937: cycles missing update when changing scene simplify settings
  • Fix #30801: cycles rendering issue with missing particle instances in a dupligroup.as still having two cores do work, because main thread works as well
  • Fix #33082: dupliverted metaball showing wrong in cycles render and metaball edit mode
  • Fix #33131: more useful cycles behavior for layers that are both marked excluded and as mask layer
  • Fix #33135: cycles object info random number not working anymore
  • Fix #33183: cycles bump mapping was not executed with only an AO node in a material
  • Fix #33243: cycles CUDA going missing sometimes
  • Fix #32796: cycles did not support image auto refresh option
  • Fix #33256: cycles Z pass for orthographic camera was not right
  • Fix #33257: cycles camera clipping did not work through transparent objects
  • Fix #33267: cycles math node power gave different results for CPU and GPU
  • Fix #33152: cycles SVM crash with certain shader nodes setups where closures would appear multiple times after flattening the mix/add shader part of the graph into a tree structure
  • Fix #33292: cycles material draw mode selection not working on some cards, now skip glsl for picking as was already done for other GLSL drawing
  • Fix #33328: cycles not rendering dupliframes
  • Fix #33364: cycles tile rendering artifacts
  • Fix #33405: preview render getting stuck in a particular .blend file
  • Fix #33454: cycles wasn't hiding the original object used for dupliverts or duplifaces like blender internal
  • Fix AUTO wasn't working for Equisolid Fisheye lens Now one no longer needs to match the sensor dimensions with the render dimensions manually.
  • Fix cycles issue when NaN is used for RGB ramp, can access array out of bounds then
  • Fix cycles viewport render getting stuck with driven/animated nodes
  • Sequencer:
  • Fix #32941: Sequencer Preview shows texture which is apart of the window
  • Fix #33253: VSE preview doesn't display compositor
  • Fix #33252: VSE preview displays wrong color spac
  • Fix #33293: strip - separate images [Y] dialog "image duration" missing
  • Fix #33295: Shifted movie strip when rendering under 100% resolution for strip with complex transform
  • Fix #33422: Change Path/Files problem - selected strip directory doesn't work
  • Fix for crash in the sequencer if the video file fails to load
  • Fix crash when copying scene with sequencer's animation using Link Objects or Link Object Data methods
  • Sculpting / Painting:
  • Fix #32522: Object's diffuse color not showing in Sculpt Mode
  • Fix #32943: sculpt mode draw crash with VBO and flat shaded, hidden faces
  • Fix #33002: Wrong vertex color when painting
  • Fix #33037: Soften brush can't handle seams in texture paint
  • Fix #33116: Blender Crashes when saving inside Sculpt Mode with with GLSL and textured view enabled
  • Fix #33419: incorrect color with projection painting in cases strength != 1.0
  • Text Editor:
  • Fix #33121: crashing when srolling down in text editor due to bad UTF8 symbol
  • Fix #32996: Delete/Backspace Key pressed two times in text Editor gives [square]
  • Fix #32474: Windows systems: text editor, text object, doesn't allow to input the standard set of ALT+key characters
  • Fix #33180: text editor line height issue
  • Fix #33398: Missed undo push when script execution failed
  • User Interface:
  • Fix #32780: Maya keymap selection issues
  • Fix #32641: Keymap editor allowed to set any event for "key modifier"
  • Fix #32932: Can't see the Speaker properties when using Cycles
  • Fix #31527: Using "outliner data operation" on vertexgroup suggested it should work, but this is not supported yet
  • Fix #32938: The Splash Screen doesn't show up correctly
  • Fix #32962: Menu buttons: the text label in a button was clipped on right too soon
  • Fix #28298: Header/footer scroll resets itself upon many actions
  • Fix #24343: scrollbar hidden after switching properties editor tabs (r51626)
  • Fix #28734: mouse doubleclick doesn't work, seems like singleclick eats events and doubleclick never happens
  • Fix #32823: flymode is resetting values that have to be set preventing mouse wheel from working
  • Fix #24016: copy/paste fail if you keep the modifier key holding
  • Fix #33004: Screen-cast stops if change made to vert number of new mesh circle
  • Fix #33019: Grease Pencil draw - started with button from Toolbar - failed
  • Fix #30479: Exclamation mark '!' doesn't input with AZERTY keyboard mapping For the french keyboard setting (AZERTY) on Windows
  • Fix #29056: NDOF motion events not configurable in user preferences.
  • Fix #31482: menu with scrollers when window is too small
  • Fix #33032: Input sequence leads to being stuck in brush mode
  • Fix #30910: Problems: Add Shortcut(s) for "Ctrl Tab" menu
  • Fix #33038: TIMER events could get keymodifier set
  • Fix #24030: Greasepencil mode 'hold d' was also inserting drivers (hotkey D) on mouse over
  • Fix #31310: Thumbnails not generating with non Latin characters
  • Fix #33085: Render Border cannot be set if Lock Camera to View is on
  • Fix #32806: NDOF Settings don't effect 3D mouse (Space Navigator / Explorer)
  • Fix #29072: Color pickers don't close properly when moving the mouse away
  • Fix #33124: vertex color picker dont respect user preferences picker type
  • Fix #33169: Interface destroyed after Text Object Edit
  • Fix #33192: Opening Blender breaks drag-and-drop support on the KDE desktop
  • Fix #33223: Instant Crash on Window minimize - intel driver workaround
  • Fix #33227: custom keymap syncing didn't work well always when adding/removing properties from operator
  • Fix #33389: Curve points restricted to 0..1 range
  • Fix soft shadow under user interface menus not drawing correctly
  • Other:
  • Fix #32851: Mouse click coordinates when adding and selecting mask vertices on undistorted footage are off
  • Fix #26891: deselecting global undo disables Move To Layer
  • Fix #33166: Wrong profile name in config.ocio causes crash
  • Fix #33250: animation player shortcut keys not working on OS X
  • Fux #33185: Retina Macbook trackpad pan is recognised as mouse wheel up/down
  • Fix #33310: unnecessary redraw of outliner when editing materials and textures
  • Fix #33326: outliner numpad minus collapse followed by numpad plus expand did not work
  • Fix #33423: a few operators still allowed changing current frame during animation render, like cursor set in the graph editor
  • Fix #33431: error setting custom property to value "None"
  • Fix camera tracking update problem for principal points
  • Fix View Selection operator in clip editor when pixel aspect != 1
  • Fix copying markers to other scenes not working with 10 or more scenes.
  • ADDONS:
  • Compositing:
  • Film Response addon from Mango project added.
  • Generates the corresponding look up table from a specific film response to the active RGB curves compositor node - r3991
  • Import / Export:
  • PDB importer/exporter received improvements and fixes.
  • The panel was removed from the importer and is now a separate addon (installation)
  • PDB importer/exporter: NURBS, Mesh and Meta (new) balls can now be chosen as atoms
  • Fix: PDB-Export: wrong export of atom positions in dupliverts structures - r3853
  • Fix: PDB-Export: wrong element name for Si, Ag was used instead
  • UV:
  • UV-Texture to Vertex Colors baking addon added.
  • Updated for BMesh, support added for multiple textures, layer replacement and transparency (also see documentation)
  • MESH MODELING:
  • Bevel:
  • The bevel tool now includes rounding. Also, the new algorithm is much better at keeping the bevel widths even across the whole model, so the old Even option has been removed. The old Distance option has also been removed: the bevel amount is now always in Blender units, and is the amount that an edge moves along each of its two faces. Only edges with exactly two adjacent faces will be beveled. As with the pre-2.65 bevel, the new one is an interactive tool that you use by selecting the desired edges to bevel and then typing CtrlB. Then move the mouse to change the bevel amount, and use WheelUp Template-MWUP.png and WheelDown Template-MWD.png to increase or decrease the number of segments used for rounding.
  • Symmetrize:
  • The symmetrize operation makes the input mesh elements symmetrical, copying the topology, vertex positions, UV's, from one side to the other. The edges and faces that cross the plane of symmetry are split and connected together as needed to enforce symmetry.
  • Usage:
  • The symmetrize operator is only available in edit mode. It is accessible from the Mesh menu in the 3D View's header and from the Specials menu (W). Select a group of vertices, edges, and/or faces and run the operator. The operator has a "Direction" property that controls the plane of symmetry and whether to flip from positive to negative or negative to positive. This example shows the effect of changing the direction property. The original input mesh is at left. In the middle, it was symmetrized from negative X to positive X. At right, it was symmetrized from positive X to negative X.
  • Miscellaneous Improvements:
  • Holding Alt while scaling normals maintains shell thickness (maintains flat areas better).
  • CtrlRMB Template-RMB.png in face select mode now selects the shortest path from the previous active face (matching edge behavior).
  • Select Similar tool now has options to select more/less then the active (as well as equal)
  • So you can select faces with a greater area than the active face for example.
  • Rip-Fill The rip tool now has an option to fill in the gap created by the rip AltV
  • The new Laplacian Smooth modifier is available as a tool in the W key menu.
  • CYCLES:
  • Open Shading Language:
  • Users can now create their own nodes using the Open Shading Language (OSL). Note that these nodes will only work for CPU rendering, there is no support for running OSL code on the GPU. To enable it, select Open Shading Language as shading system in the render settings.
  • Motion Blur:
  • Cycles now supports motion blur rendering for camera and object motion. Previously it was only possible as a post processing effect in compositing, where it is not possible to get fully accurate results and required manual setup of rendering layers. Native motion blur handles transparency, many overlapping objects, and moving light sources. Motion blur from deforming objects is not supported yet.
  • A shutter setting controls the time between frames over which motion blur is computed. Shutter time 1.0 blurs over the length of one frame, 2.0 over the length of two frames, from the previous to the next, lower values give less blur.
  • Shading:
  • Per-BSDF normal input and new Bump node. Each BSDF node now has a Normal input, which can be used to set a custom normal for the BSDF, for example if you want to have only bump on one of the layers in a multilayer material. The Bump node can be used to generate a normal from a scalar value, the same as what happens when you connect a scalar value to the displacement output.
  • Normal Map node added. The normal maps used are compatible with those baked by Blender Internal
  • Anisotropic BSDF shader added, along with a tangent node to specify a tangent direction from generated coordinates or a UV map
  • From Dupli option for texture nodes. This gets the Generated and UV coordinates from the duplicator of instance instead of the object itself. This was used in e.g. Big Buck Bunny for texturing instanced feathers with a UV map on the bird
  • Ambient Occlusion node added, controlling the amount of AO a surface receives, rather than having just a global factor in the world
  • Refraction BSDF node added, for only the refraction component of the existing Glass BSDF
  • Fisheye Lens:
  • Fisheye render was supported since the 2.64 release. But we now have important improvements to facilitate its use.
  • Fulldome displays can now directly benefit from a fixed Fisheye Equidistant lens. To render a perfect fulldome fisheye set field of view to 180°
  • Sensor size is calculated automatically to match the aspect ratio of the render size. (r52498)
  • The viewport preview allows you to correctly see the final image
  • User Interaction:
  • Added back a Progressive Refine method for F12 render. Instead of rendering each tile until it is finished, it refines the whole image progressively. This renders somewhat slower, but time can be saved by manually stopping the render when the noise is low enough
  • Border rendering is now also possible outside of the camera view in the 3D viewport. The new shortcut key to set the border is Ctrl + B and to clear the border it is Ctrl + ⇧ Shift + B. The previous shortcut key ⇧ Shift + B still works in camera view, however is already used for zoom to border outside of it
  • The number of tiles was replaced with tile size, which gives better control over GPU performance. For CPU rendering a tile size like 32x32 or 64x64 should be fine for practically any scene. For GPU rendering bigger tile sizes should be used for optimal performance. The ideal value can be found out by testing, but 256x256 or 512x512 are good starting values.
  • Added memory usage report, which shows device memory used by Cycles.
  • Optimizations:
  • Don't compile shaders and load images that are not used by any mesh/lamp/world
  • Persistent Images option to keep images loaded on the device, saved time initializing next rendering
  • MODIFIERS:
  • Laplacian Smooth Modifier:
  • The Laplacian Smooth modifier allows you to reduce noise on a mesh's surface with minimal changes to its shape. This is useful for objects that have been reconstructed from the real world, containing undesirable noise. A mesh smoothing tool removes noise while still preserving desirable geometry as well as the shape of the original model.
  • The Laplacian Smooth modifier is based on a curvature flow Laplace Beltrami operator in a diffusion equation. Full documentation and example .blend files are on the Laplacian Smooth manual page.
  • Decimate Modifier:
  • Edge-Collapse method has support for using a vertex group to control what parts of the mesh are reduced.
  • The decimator was rewritten, and now preserves UV's and vertex colors. There are now 3 different simplification modes to choose from:
  • Edge Collapse - Typical method used to simplify meshes that was used in the original modifier.
  • UnSubdivide - Reduce detail on grid-heavy meshes (without giving uneven geometry).
  • Planar - Reduces detail on forms comprised of mainly flat surfaces.
  • Triangulate Modifier:
  • Added Triangulate modifier that ensures consistent triangulation. It is especially useful for bump map baking where a consistent triangulation should be enforced when baking/exporting/importing, to avoid artifacts caused by a different triangulation of the mesh by that which was used for baking by internal/external tools. Artifacts are caused by different interpolation of tangent space than the one used during baking. Barycentric interpolation, which is used here, is different for different triangulations of a quad, just like gouraud shading is different for different triangulations. (r52379)
  • Workflow:
  • The triangulation scheme (currently, beauty option on the modifier, but there will be others in the future, such as 1,2,3 - 2,3,4 vertex connection schemes) should remain consistent during these two procedures. Beauty option stands for splitting quads along the shortest diagonal on the modifier, while off will do the opposite.
  • To ensure correct tangent space interpolation, we need to add a triangulate modifier to ensure the same triangulation in two stages of the pipeline:
  • Prior to baking, to the object being baked to
  • Prior to exporting or rendering, to ensure the triangulation will remain consistent.
  • If the model is animated, triangulation modifier should go before the armature modifier
  • Other Modifiers:
  • Mesh Deform Modifier: binding is now accelerated with a BVH tree, can make it much faster for complex meshes
  • Shrinkwrap Modifier: project mode now has a distance limit
  • Remesh Modifier: improved performance when used in smooth or blocks mode
  • FIRE & SMOKE SIMULATION:
  • Fire Simulation:
  • A new flow type has been added to the Smoke Simulator. You can now chose between Fire, Smoke and Smoke & Fire. You can see the fire inside the 3D view preview and the Voxel Data Texture for the Blender Internal has been updated to support the new fire simulator.
  • Adaptive Domain:
  • The Domain resolution and size adapts now to only cover areas where smoke exists, so that the domain can be calculated as small as possible at a time. You can also add additional simulation cells around the original domain area if needed.
  • Animating the Domains location is supported now: When you move the domain object during simulation you only move the smoke "boundaries", Smoke itself remains still. This way you can limit the simulated area to stay around moving emitters etc.
  • Interaction with Force Fields:
  • To enable the interaction with other physic simulations, a new fore field type has been added: "Smoke Flow". It applies the smoke simulation air flow velocity as a force. To use it you need to add a "Smoke Flow" force field and select the domain object for it.
  • Colored Smoke:
  • You can now select a custom smoke color for flows and for smoke emitted from fire in the Smoke settings. To render smoke with custom colors enable "Reflection Color" inside the texture settings.
  • Collision Objects:
  • Animated collision objects do no longer block smoke, instead smoke gets transferred velocity from moving collision objects (Video Example)
  • Collision objects now cause vorticity when passing through smoke
  • More Features:
  • The Domain is now rotatable. This means you no longer need to align your simulation to the x, y or z axis but you can freely rotate the domain to match the target area.
  • Added support for Smoke emission from a mesh surface and volume - without particles.
  • Added a new option for volume textures when "Generated" coordinates are used: "Map to Bounds". This maps texture coordinates to the mesh bounding box allowing you to render adaptive domain content. It also solves issues with domains scaled in edit mode.
  • The simulation now uses the scene gravity setting, so you can change gravity direction if required.
  • MORE FEATURES:
  • Weight Painting:
  • Vertex group weights can now be transferred from one object to another, even if they have a different topology. This can be useful for transferring weights between meshes of different resolutions or shapes. The Transfer Weights tool will look for the nearest face or vertex and find the corresponding weight on the other mesh. Weights can be overwritten or added together. The latter can be used as a tool to paint weights from nearby mesh shapes.
  • Weight painting now also has a "Limit Weights" tool to restrict the number of vertex groups per vertex, for exporting to game engines that have a fixed limit. (r51217)
  • Animation:
  • Auto Keying: when enabled, a recording icon will be shown during transform to avoid accidentally inserting keys
  • Filtering option for graph editor to show only drivers with errors, for debugging broken drivers without looking through all objects
  • Follow Path Constraint: "Animation Path" operator added which adds an F-Curve with options for the start and end frame
  • Limit Distance Constraint: now supports owner and target space settings. It's advised to use the same space for owner and target, otherwise the comparisons are meaningless
  • Parenting and unparenting armatures will now try to avoid adding duplicate modifiers and remove unneeded ones
  • Jump to Keyframe: position current frame in the middle of select frames, new shortcut is CtrlG
  • Camera Tracking:
  • Two new options were added to the camera solver: Allow Fallback and Success Threshold. These options enable a simpler bundle reconstruction algorithm which is not as accurate as default one, but which allows to have a reconstruction in cases where the default solver fails.
  • Usually it's not needed to use this fallback reconstruction because it could easily lead to cases when object solver will suddenly flip an object. To prevent this the fallback algorithm is disabled by default. However, in some cases it could be really tricky to have an accurate track, which will lead to lots of frames failing to reconstruct. In this case enabling the fallback algorithm could help.
  • Success Threshold defines an error threshold which is still considered a successful solution for the default algorithm. The default value is 0.001 but it actually depend on the particular scene (scene scale, number of tracks and so on), so likely it needs to be tweaked to work best in each case.
  • Curves:
  • Added Map Taper option which if enabled maps affect of taper object on actually beveled part of curve (previously the effect of taper would have been clamped by the start/end bevel factor). Here's an illustration of the new option in action
  • Lattices:
  • Added "Flip" tool which flips the lattice coordinates without inverting the normals of lattice deformed meshes. Shortcut is CtrlF
  • Antialiased Viewport:
  • In the User Preferences, under System, the Multisample option can be used to enable antialiased drawing in the viewport (if you graphics card supports it). It will be activated after saving as default and restarting Blender.
  • Compositing:
  • Map Range node added: this maps a value from a given range to another range
  • Pixelate node added: this can be added in front of a Scale node to get a pixelated scale
  • Game Engine:
  • Profiling information was improved with a cleaner layout and better naming (r51777)
  • Collision mask support added: each object now has a collision mask and a collision group. Object A and object B collide if object A's groups is in object B's mask and object B's group is in object A's mask. In other words, the group defines what the object is (collision wise) and the group defines what the object can collide with
  • Character physics controller can now be accessed through the python
  • Scene gravity can now be accessed through python
  • Mesh.tranform and Mesh.transform_uv utility functions for faster transformation of vertex and uv coordinates
  • Video texture depth buffers access
  • Rendering:
  • Materials now have a local light group option for rendering. When a material is linked in and has a light group override, this can now use a local group in the scene file, by replacing the linked light group with a local group that has the same name. A use case might be controlling the specular highlight on linked character's eyes per scene
  • Camera: bring Title Safe display up to date, making it a Safe Areas option that shows both title safe and action safe areas following more modern standards
  • DPX file format reading was much improved: files can now be loaded and saved in different bit depths and colors spaces, along with various bug fixes.
  • Tools:
  • Operator Reset button was removed, it's now available as Restore Defaults in the presets menu for operators with presets
  • Grease Pencil: dynamic sketch option added which makes it possible to created animated curves from grease pencil drawing
  • 3D Quad view can now do View All and View Selected for all views at once, with Ctrl↖ Home and CtrlNumpad del shortcuts
  • Circle select added for metaball edit mode
  • UV editing: support for connected proportional editing. When this is enabled, only UVs on the same island will be proportionally moved
  • Axis colors are now themeable, for improved readability when using different color schemes

New in Blender 2.64 (Oct 4, 2012)

  • VFX:
  • Mask Editor
  • Masks can now be created in the image and movie clip editor. They can be used in compositing to define areas of influence for nodes, block out unwanted objects, or help with green screen keying among other things. A mask datablock was added, consisting of splines that can be drawn and edited with the usual tools. Feathering can be controlled per spline point. Animation of these masks is possible with standard keyframing, but also by following motion tracks.
  • Motion Tracker:
  • Motion tracking was significantly improved by adding planar tracking, and unifying the existing trackers into one Hybrid tracker with finer control. A dopesheet view for markers was added in addition to the curves view. Tripod solving is now supported, for the case where the camera only rotates without moving.
  • Green Screen Keying:
  • Two new compositing nodes have been developed which are aimed at making green screen keying easier. There is now a new keying node conveniently combining various features from existing nodes along with a new keying algorithm, to makes setup much faster. There is also a keying screen node which produces a gradiented plate to deal with uneven colors of green screens.
  • Rendering:
  • Compositing Nodes:
  • A completely new compositing nodes backend was implemented. This new tiled based compositor gives quicker feedback while editing and uses less memory to support working with high resolutions. New nodes are Switch, Reroute, Bokeh Blur and Image, Box Mask, Ellipse Mask and Color Correction.
  • Color Management:
  • OpenColorIO is now integrated into Blender, along with a redesign of the color management system. Previously Blender only supported radiometrically linear sRGB / BT.REC.709 chromaticities. Now many more are supported with finer control over which color transformations should be used for display, applied on renders, and used for loading and saving image files in different color spaces.
  • Cycles Rendering:
  • Cycles now includes a new non-progressive integrator with finer control over sampling, tiled rendering with support for save buffers, considerably faster BVH building and multithreaded image loading, and motion vector and UV render passes. New nodes are light falloff, object info, particle info and brick texture, and image texture nodes can now do blended box mapping and handle image sequences. There is also support for fisheye camera rendering, along with various other new options.
  • Sequencer:
  • Various speed improvements were implemented in the sequencer, mostly related to caching and multithreading for effect strips. These changes make color grading more interactive. Improved options for comparing the current frame to a reference frame are also available.
  • Modeling
  • Mesh Tools:
  • Bevel and inset now are modal operator with mouse control, a wire frame tool was added to turn edges into wireframe tubes, and vertex/edge/face sorting tools were improved.
  • Sculpting:
  • Sculpting has received some major improvements such has masking to control which areas of the mesh are influenced by sculpting, new brush map modes to control how textures are projected onto the model, and an input stroke averaging option to make brush strokes smoother.
  • Skin Modifier:
  • The Skin modifier takes a skeleton made up of vertices and edges as input and generates a polygon skin as output, consisting mostly of quads aligned along the edges. The output is mostly quads, although some triangles will appear around intersections.
  • Bsurfaces v1.5:
  • surfaces v1.5 brings several updates to the interactive modeling and retopology plugin. Updates include building surfaces, extruding, and bridging selections using freehand strokes; editing strokes as bezier splines; keeping strokes after building the surface to modify and/or reuse them; and interactively modifying all settings available in real-time.
  • Other:
  • Game Engine:
  • Lamps and shadows were improved with support for variance shadow maps, shadow color, sun lamp shadows and lamp textures. Non-power of two textures and compressed textures will now load faster and use less memory. A new Character physics type was added, designed for player controlled characters for which a full dynamics simulation would give unwanted behavior.
  • Collada:
  • The Collada exporter has been improved for better support of export to game engines, with more fine grained options to control which data is exported.
  • Small Features:
  • Apart from the major improvements in different areas, there were lots of smaller changes such as improvements in the node editor, smoke simulation, user interface, and new tools for curves and meshes.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • Lots of new features were added in this release, but it also includes lots of fixes for bugs that existed in previous releases.

New in Blender 2.63 (Apr 27, 2012)

  • BMesh:
  • BMesh is the new Blender mesh system with full support for N-sided polygons instead of only triangles and quads.
  • In particular there is a new Dissolve tool to remove vertices, edges and faces without making holes in the mesh, a new Inset tool to inset faces, and a much improved Knife tool which takes advantage of N-gons to generate clear cuts. Tools such as subdivide and loop cut will also generate clean topology because faces no longer have to be triangulated.
  • Sculpt Hiding:
  • Portions of the mesh can now be hidden in sculpt mode to improve performance and sculpt parts of the mesh that would otherwise be difficult to access.
  • More Features:
  • Other new features include a Movie Clip option for the Sequencer, a compositing node to output multiple files or multilayer EXR files, new tools for linking and detaching nodes, more particle rotation options, and Linux support for drag n' drop from external applications.
  • Cycles Render:
  • Among the features added in this release are support for a panoramic camera, mirror ball environment textures, and float precision textures.
  • Also new are render layer mask layers, a shadow render pass, ambient occlusion, and viewport display of background images and render layers.
  • Motion Tracker:
  • Motion tracking got a few smaller improvements, mostly related to 2D stabilization and a few smaller tools.
  • Addons:
  • Various options were added to imports and exporters, an Atomic Blender PDB exporter was added, and Renderfarm.fi now supports Cycles.
  • BUG FIXES:
  • 3D View:
  • fix #30455: orthographic grid alignment jumps/shifts when zooming - r44739
  • fix #30508: there being no way to pause fly mode when using keyboard for navigation - r44779
  • fix #30643: crasher on entering edit mode with VBOs enabled - r45280
  • fix #30719: align view to selected has unexpected results on further view change - r45262
  • fix #30842: blender's Measurement Units set to Metric, makes some Precision Flaws - r45499
  • fix #30917: solid + glsl + textured solid in texture paint mode did not show textured solid as it should, was using glsl instead - r45575, r45578
  • fix: corrected normals for flat-shaded non-VBO sculpt drawing - r44283, r44294
  • fix: textured-mode drawing in editmode - r44685
  • fix: update the sculpt menu to use the correct path to the unified paint settings - r44159
  • Animation:
  • fix #30097: current frame indicator on motion paths drawn incorrectly - r44737
  • fix #30438: x=zero not accepted for a bone tail - r45103
  • fix #30716: clamp to constraint locks up blender after a while - r45263
  • fix #30709: renaming a bone renames all drivers' targets using a bone of that name, regardless of the armature - r45291
  • fix #30495: framerate goes crazy after changing sync mode from "frame dropping" to "no sync" while playing anim - r44979
  • fix: alt+A animation playback not starting with the scene start frame - r44747
  • Armatures:
  • fix #31008: IK armature resize goes ugly (Pose mode resize) - r45818
  • fix #30937: Pose UI hack needed to be undone, alternate fix is needed - r45876
  • Collada:
  • fix #29082: skeletal animation collada import for , and transform types - r44221
  • fix #27022: collada export: add bone parenting of objects - r44231
  • fix #30230: crash after importing collada file - r44251
  • fix #29621: collada import of joints crashes blender - r44636
  • fix #30440: collada import: no faces/uv after bmesh merge - r44683
  • fix #27629: collada import does wrong transformations - r44935
  • fix #29246: collada armature animation doesn't correctly import - r45085
  • fix: collada export - fix no polylist after bmesh-merge - r44418
  • fix: collada export - bone parenting is actually against the tail - r44419
  • Files:
  • fix #30839: blender crashes while open/close a scene and deletes .blend-file - r45506
  • Game Engine:
  • fix #30484: frame rate increases very high after game engine start with record animation enabled - r45408
  • fix #29449: record Animation runs 1000+ fps on Mac OSX 10.6.8 64bit - r45408
  • fix #30515: Sensor physics mode missing UI for use_actor option - r45656
  • fix #30555: crash in Replace Mesh when physics shape is triangle mesh and new mesh has no collision faces - r45657
  • Image & Video:
  • fix #30384: multilayer exr files not saving compressed correctly - r44580
  • fix #30436: externally editing unsaved images fails - r44687
  • fix #30467: image editor scope display wrong opacity values - r44734
  • fix: replacing a generated image with a file, the image would stay generated - r44139
  • fix: OpenEXR half float save function resulting in dark images saved - r44654
  • Mesh Editing:
  • fix #25649: image editor paint icon missing until enter weight paint - r44192
  • fix #30266: issue with weight painting - colors are black and grey and you can't draw weights - r44272
  • fix #30281: left/right vertex weights flipped - r44299
  • fix #30290: shape keys not working as expected propagating unwanted changes to other keys
  • fix #30293: converting text to mesh crashes blender - r44433
  • fix #30361: edge length will not be diplayed properly with clipping borders -r44515
  • fix #30375: loop select should not become a redo history item - r44482
  • fix #30435: torus batch building used different logic of how it's adding to scene layers than C-defined primitives - r44749
  • fix #30489: loop cut by typing numbers is limited to 32 - r44741
  • fix #30814: absolute Shape Keys not working in 2.6 - r45409
  • fix #30848: edge Selection fails when both verts are outside the viewport - r45498
  • Modifiers:
  • fix #30351: solidify modifier high quality normals fails - r44469
  • fix #30395: boolean modifier - degenerated triangles from bmesh + difference - r44548
  • fix #30496: bugs and crashes about "make links modifiers" function - r44834
  • fix #30561: modifiers with use_apply_on_spline = True do not work on curve with shapekeys - r44921
  • fix #30531: mirror modifier with vertex groups did not add both the left and right groups to merged vertices, only one - r45001
  • fix #30398: mesh objects with curve modifiers render in thier 'rest' position, not thier 'pose' position - r45345
  • fix: UI error - some curve settings were in the path panel and were greyed out when 'Path Animation' was disabled, but were infact used for the curve deform modifier - r44512
  • fix #30406: hooks ignore automatic handles setting in curves - r44836
  • fix #30647: error in wire drawing of subsurf when draw all edges is enabled - r45171
  • fix #30966: remesh modifier crash mentioned in comments of bug - r45669
  • Motion Tracking:
  • fix #30485: TRANSFORM / STABILIZE 2D: First row / column blackness - r44743
  • fix: crash when re-tracking track used for rotation stabilization - r44183
  • fix: Camera tracing search area was always centered to marker's position when tracking - r44295
  • Various fixes of 2d stabilization and autoscale factor calculation - r44788
  • fix: Disabling color channels for float images in clip editor now works fine - r45462
  • Nodes:
  • fix #30405: combine HSVA node not working correct with fixed color instead of socket connected as input - r44589.
  • fix #30627: delete node with reconnect (ctrl-x) is broken - r45089
  • fix #30804 nodetree.links.new() incorrectly disconnected or allowed to connect multiple links to a socket when the arguments were passed in order (input socket, output socket) instead of (output socket, input socket) - r45426
  • Objects:
  • fix #30231: drag and droping parenting from outliner giving unnecessary loop error - r44311
  • fix #30306: crash duplicating object with action actuator but no animation data - r44381
  • fix #30337: missed set origin for metaball - r44453
  • fix #30419: median wrongly setting lattice vertex weights - r44599
  • fix #30614: some display settings are uneeded for non-geometry/material object types, and armature have no boundbox - r45084
  • fix #31072: Making texture single user was modifying textures of original material - r45887
  • Physics:
  • fix #30098: particle rotation wrong / explode modifier - r44977
  • fix #30298: fluid simulation from older files not working when loaded into 2.62 - r44377
  • fix #30413: dynamic paint crash with texture slots with no texture assigned - r44592
  • fix #30464: confusing lack of label for fluid "use" - r44735
  • fix #30445: particle simulation, rekey crashes blender - r45026
  • fix #30456: transforming object with a hair particle system, on a frame after the cache end frame would reset to the previous state on confirm - r44995
  • fix #30954: fluid obstacle checkbox has no effect - r45655, r45832
  • fix #30219: obstacle Simulation of Steering Actuator does not work with added objects - r45837
  • fix #30298: fluid-system does not work when speed is set to 0 - r45853
  • Python:
  • fix #30201: bpy_extras.image_utils.load_image always returns placeholder - r44138
  • fix #30402: user-scripts modules dir missing from sys.path - r45251
  • fix #30454: perspective_matrix not update in real time with bpy.ops.view3d.zoom - r44647
  • fix #30589: RNA function descriptions not showing in python console on autocomplete - r45019
  • fix #30729: custom property add/remove wasnt doing an undo push - r45277
  • fix #30336: couldn't playback from python without having played back via logic bricks once - r44417
  • fix #30326: calling e.g. bpy.ops.object.proxy_make(object = 'Lamp') would not pick the right object - r44387
  • fix #30865: crash when browsing last operators in outliner (or by Python API) - r45482
  • fix #30904: MovieClip.objects.new() segfault when no name is passed - r45528
  • fix #30906: dict(prop) crashes if prop is a PropertyGroup with nested PropertyGroup - r45534
  • fix #31036: image.gl_load() consistently segfault at gluBuild2DMipmaps - r45814
  • Render:
  • fix #30415: motion blur option still had an effect on external engines / cycles - r44587
  • fix #30416: python render_stats handler now also gets called when the saved file message is printed - r44588
  • fix #30421: panorama option in camera properties always disabled - r44606
  • fix #30512: external render saved render result after reporting error - r44830
  • fix #30449: sampled motion blur not working with softbody - r44994
  • fix #30173: render not working when initialized on frame 1 - r44225
  • fix #30420: metaball shading inverted in raytraced reflection - r45029
  • fix #30882: using an image sequence in the displace modifier did not update properly in animation rendering - r45508
  • fix #30876, #30932: crash in material preview render after undo or file load, due to old material copies hanging around in the preview database - r45598
  • Render: Cycles:
  • fix #30272: preview render not updating when changing particle emission from with instanced objects - r44300
  • fix #30246: rendering multiple render layers with CUDA were not working - r44385
  • fix #30140: multi GPU rendering with one device supporting full shading and the other not can't work correct, disabled - r44386
  • fix #30439: node group conversion crash with certain node setups - r44669
  • fix #30472: 3d view objects not rendered - r44820
  • fix #30603: incorrect ray differentials when rendering with panorama camera, causing bump map issues - r45035
  • fix #30551: passes combining did not always give identical result combined with antialiasing/defocus - r45246
  • fix #30769: showing wrong image from active face in the uv editor, with multiple material slots - r45347
  • fix #30710: wrong render time after pause/unpause in viewport - r45401
  • fix #30835: cycles doesn't work with AMD Juniper GPU, compiller throws errors - r45490
  • fix #30896: mask layer not working for objects without material assigned - r45535
  • fix #30929: cycles rendering of object with scale 0 on some axis did not work correct with instancing - r45592
  • fix #30376: cycles ignores camera override from sequencer - r45611
  • fix #30955: render issue with lights that have shadow casting disabled - r45664
  • fix #30966: cycles nan mesh vertices got set to (0, 0, 0), now remove them instead - r45678
  • fix #31065: cycles render crash with large node groups - r45891
  • fix rendering a material that mixes a transparent and glass BSDF would give a different result with/without using light passes - r45028
  • Sequencer:
  • fix #30229, #30196: build proxy from meta and image strips used resolution used for display, not set by building job which leads to unusable proxies - r44177
  • fix #30254: no red warning border on metastrips with Extend (E) - r44455
  • fix #30196: proxies not visible in sequencer preview window until restart - r44358
  • fix #30315: temporary proxy files are not erased and old proxys are not updated if the proxy is built more then once (windows) - r44363, r44545
  • fix #28159: sequencer strip crop values on proxy not scene render size - r44946
  • fix #29758: sequencer image offset error with render percentage - r29758
  • fix #30499: video sequencer crashes when moving around within a sequence - r45055
  • fix #30491: not updating scene strip length in video sequencer when changing length of scene - r45192
  • Transform:
  • fix #30197: snapping: align rotation button for volumes does not make sense - r44429
  • fix #30373: which part to snap in volume snapping is removed - r44798
  • fix #30594: uv editor transform tools did not show help/pivot line to indicate transform center as it did in 2.49 - r44993
  • User Interface:
  • fix #30616: inconsistency with delete and backspace of resetting values - r45063
  • fix #30623: user-defined render presets bug lead to blender crash on path with non-ascii characters - r45073
  • fix #30575: text gets wrongly clipped when using accented letters - r45080
  • fix #30653: wrong image in image editor after loading new .blend file - r45161
  • fix #30430: can only alt+scroll image buffer slot once - r45168
  • fix #30708: pressing escape in the color picker popup did not reset to the previous color - r45293
  • fix #30770: missing node editor redraw when changing active material by clicking on face in edit mode - r45340
  • fix #30776: image editor pan not using continuous grab if enabled - r45346
  • fix #28279: shift+S used twice in maya keyconfig - r45373
  • fix #30323: graph view in the movie clip editor does not stay open - r44384
  • fix #30760: edit text property: backspace was messing up with utf8 text - r45479
  • fix #30925: successful import of keyconfig dependant on current object context - r45594
  • fix #30858: UI losing buttons at some random moment after using Blender for a while - r45609
  • fix #30948: add scene > copy settings did not copy settings like units, audio, game data, and tool settings - r45646
  • fix #30958: right click menu and add shortcut for importers/exporters doesn't work - r45683
  • fix #30977: error loading modal keymaps from keyconfiguration presets - r45715
  • fix #30570: UI issue editing modal keymaps below operators using them - r45717
  • fix #30998: copy to selected in properties editor not working for bones - r45775
  • fix #31064: save confirmation stops showing - r45870

New in Blender 2.62 (Feb 16, 2012)

  • NEW FEATURES:
  • UV Tools:
  • Many new UV editing tools were added: an advanced interactive stitch tool, to align and join together UV islands. A subdivision surface aware UV unwrapping to reduce stretching. Seam marking in the UV editor, and a tool to compute seams for islands. Sculpting tools to grab UVs and relax or pinch unwraps.
  • Cycles Render Engine:
  • A number of new features were added, including render layers and passes, multi GPU rendering and selection of GPU device, improved sampling for complex environment maps, border rendering, BVH caching for faster rendering of camera fly-throughs, and new shading nodes for color correction and a checkerboard texture node.
  • Remesh Modifier:
  • The Remesh modifier is a tool for generating new mesh topology based on an input surface. The output follows the surface curvature of the input, but its topology is a uniform distribution of quads. It can generate smoothed output or tag sharp features to better capture corners.
  • Boolean Modifier:
  • The boolean modifier now uses the Carve library, which should give much improved results. This library is more stable and faster, resolving old well-known limitations of our previous library. The general workflow and options available in the user interface are unchanged, usually the modifier will simply run faster and produces a better output mesh. However there also some changes in behavior.
  • Game Engine:
  • The game engine user interface was polished, editing text objects in the user interface and through the python API has been made easier, full screen and antialiased rendering has been improved, along with various other changes.
  • Motion Tracker:
  • Object tracking support has been added, so that not only camera animation can be reconstructed from footage, but also the animation or transformation of objects in the scene. This comes along with many improvements to the tracking user interface and tools.
  • Collada:
  • A Second Life compatibility option was added for exporting armatures, along with a number of other fixes related to transformations and armatures. There is also a new development team that will try to improve the Collada integration further in following releases.
  • More Features:
  • improved bump map quality in the viewport, various new dynamic paint options, international text copy and paste and editing in the text editor, longer names and file paths, drag and drop parenting in the outliner, and many more changes.
  • Python:
  • Matrices and vectors math classes were improved in various ways. Column-major access was changed to more standard row-major access and easier access for rows, columns, translation was added. Vectors now can have arbitrary size, and matrices are now pretty printed in the console.
  • Addons:
  • Network render now has support for version control systems, render engines, point cache baking jobs, and a new web interface was added, along with a number of other improvements. There were also features added to After Effects export, X3D export Atomic Blender PDB import, MHX import, UV layout export, and screencast keys.
  • BUG FIXES:
  • Animation:
  • fix #27898, #29461: bone with constraints not snapping to cursor correctly - r43450
  • fix #28468: NLA, can't enter tweak mode on multiple objects at the same time - r43596
  • fix #29629: uv animation stops working if edit mode entered - r43086
  • fix #29822: driver target field doesn't update on bone rename - r43594
  • fix #29869: NLA editor resets extrapolation mode when editing strips - r43597
  • fix #29879: ctrl+B border select with handles in the graph editor not selecting the right keys/handles. - r43360
  • fix #29940: stretch to constraint breaks scaling in transform constraint. - r43578
  • fix #30019: copy rotation constraint with vertex group jittering when the object Y axis is colinear with the vertex group normal. - r43777
  • fix #30051: constraint space conversion bug with disabled inherit scale property on bone. - r43840
  • fix #29484: visual keying giving wrong results for bones with property local location disabled. - r43813
  • fix #29947: a crash in duplicating bones in armature edit mode. - r43881
  • fix #29104: keyframing motion blur samples did not work, these are now non-animateable. - r43827
  • fix: wrong follow track constraint icon - r43102
  • fix: wrong pose bone drawing in weight paint and wireframe draw mode - r43347
  • fix: circle-select in pose mode disregarded layer visibility, selecting invisible bones - r43660
  • Audio, Image & Video:
  • fix #26943: h264 lossless output missing - r43353
  • fix #29388: problem reading certain compressed movie files, now work with new "free run no gaps" time code type - r42641
  • fix #29615: crash in undo after toggling float buffer in image paint mode - r42638
  • fix #29671: issues reading certain .mts video files - r43122
  • fix #29676: alpha over node not working correct with emitting associated alpha images with zero alpha - r42814
  • fix #29683: OpenEXR output compression settings not working - r42848
  • fix #29684: video output presets and quicktime problems since last release - r42850
  • fix #29694: quicktime export was not showing or respecting RGBA option even though some movie formats support alpha. - r43335
  • fix #29707: sequencer presets corrupt audio scene settings - r42923
  • fix #29796: poor screencast quality with AVI codecs - r43180
  • fix #29824: error writing frame if 3D scene starts after first frame of animation and output is h264 - r43349
  • fix #29828: reloading background movie clip crashes Blender - r43224
  • fix #29905: extend transform a sequencer meta strip did not update the position and length of the meta strip properly. - r43457
  • fix #30064: image editor undo crash after renaming image. - r43874
  • fix: movie cache limiter not working with limits >= 4GB - r43791
  • fix: sound mixdown could use outdated animation cache, now it is updated automatically - r42678
  • fix: toggling premultiply or color management not updating packed images - r43290
  • fix: improved ffmpeg error handling and syncing with export options, added QTRLE - r43964
  • Curves:
  • fix #29577: curve duplication operator redo not working correct - r42637
  • fix #30030: Tapered and beveled text won't update in realtime - r43779
  • Game Engine:
  • fix #18883: softbody objects were being hit by ghost objects. - r43905
  • fix #21947: softbody object not using objects size. - r43899
  • fix #25834: no color of text objects in game engine when combined with textured objects - r43105
  • fix #26893: corruption of debug/fps text when using animated/tile uv mode - r43105
  • fix #29031: crash importing BGL in the game engine - r42838
  • fix #29486: 2D filters make scene disappear when wire material is used - r42696
  • fix #29911: crash reading BL_ActionActuator.channelNames on non-armature object - r43626
  • fix #29133: render to texture not working in the game engine. - r43884
  • fix #29381: memory leak in creating navigation meshes. - r43842
  • fix: game engine font object relative path and packed fonts not working - r43151
  • fix: duplicating an object in the game engine did not set the right action actuator - r43588
  • Meshes:
  • fix #29599: mesh side of active tool silently not working for edges and faces, now gives warning - r42581
  • fix #29620: missing refresh with topology mirror after mesh editing - r42660
  • fix #29603: weight paint mode could be accessed on proxy objects - r42584
  • fix #29686: weight painting was not disabled on locked vertex groups - r43000
  • fix #29794: can't hide faces in weight paint mode - r43279
  • fix #29832: weight painting with x-mirror and auto normalize fails for center bones - r43342
  • fix #29835: a crashing joining meshes - r43235
  • fix #30047: multires baking crash while mesh is in sculpt mode. - r43823
  • fix #30062: entering paint modes did not refresh the 3d view header - r43917
  • fix #30073: problem with proportional edit shortcut key in metaball edit mode. - r43903
  • fix: creating a UV sphere with a large radius gave duplicated values. - r43983
  • Modifiers:
  • fix #29543: hook modified combined falloff and vertex group influence not working - r42639
  • fix #29556: shrinkwrap generates spikes if vertices fall exactly on the edge - r43056
  • fix #29600: hook assign and remove not working with redo correctly - r42582
  • fix #29636: vertex group modifiers apply not working - r42769
  • fix #29957: texture generated mapping works as global with cloth modifier - r43732
  • fix #30031: build modifier crashes when applied to bezier object - r43782
  • fix #30037: curve modifier wrong results with negative axes, and incorrect bounds with vertex groups. - r43802
  • fix #30094: problem with subdivision surface modifier and copy location from vertex group. - r43951
  • fix: solidify modifier getting wrong UV/color/.. data on rim faces - r43230
  • fix: ocean modifier icon missing in outliner - r43622
  • fix: crash in weight vertex group modifiers with empty vertex groups - r43600
  • Motion Tracking:
  • fix #29688: movie clip timecode not used in tracking - r42898
  • fix #29729: crash when camera solving with a disabled marker - r42992
  • fix #30020: movie clip editor crash when changing panel size - r43763
  • fix #29970: crash trying to track disabled marker - r43646
  • fix #29975: track preview color channels not filtering correctly - r43661
  • fix #30021: crash rotating tracker markers - r43764
  • fix: incorrect behavior of 2d stabilization preview in clip editor when proxied resolution is used - r43399
  • Nodes:
  • fix #29801: various compositing nodes not working correct after translate, e.g. separate HSVA node. - r43178
  • fix #29806: world nodes not available in animation editor - r43197
  • fix #29827: crash with translate node and blur - r43259
  • fix #29887: Alt+G in a node group results in crash - r43381
  • fix #30018: can't tab out of empty node group - r43762
  • fix: issues with toggle buttons in node headers - r42705
  • Objects:
  • fix #29640: make duplicates real keep hierarchy and parent properties not working for multiple objects - r42677
  • fix #29735: crash when snapping cursor to camera - r43021
  • fix #30017: make dupli-face operator not working without active mesh object - r43752
  • fix: adding metaballs and lamps in local mode was broken. - r43351
  • fix: link/append not working well in edit mode, now disabled - r42604
  • Physics:
  • fix #29696: crash on exit of edit mode after deleting contents of fluid domain - r42942
  • fix #29793: cloth and softbody simulation exploding when skipping frames - r43234
  • fix #29965: a memory corruption in particle systems - r43659
  • fix #29265: hair particle rotations weren't calculated properly for particle locations along a path - r44044
  • fix #29530: entering particle mode on baked key particles with empty cache could crash - r44045
  • fix #29737: can't edit particle hair if particle count is 0 - r44046
  • fix: explode modifier created invalid faces if "unborn", "alive" or "dead" setting were unchecked - r44063
  • fix: dynamic paint brush not painting particles hidden by display percentage setting - r43745
  • fix: dynamic paint smudge and brush velocity settings didn't work for image sequence surfaces unless any paint effect was enabled. - r43029
  • fix: dynamic paint substep update failed when brush was parent to a canvas vertex - r43669
  • fix: dynamic paint wave "open borders" option didn't work for image sequence format - r43669
  • fix: dynamic paint, if multiple displace/wave surfaces were used simultaneously, displace was applied using wrong normal. - r43429
  • fix: possible dynamic paint crash when changing surface format to image sequence - r43669
  • fix: editing baked cache for softbody and cloth now updates in 3d view properly - r43357
  • fix: incorrect subframe result for physics point cache, noticeable with motion blur - r42663
  • Python:
  • fix #27589: crash defining operating while drawing UI, disallowed now - r43502
  • fix #28733, #29885: missing scene in context in python in callbacks and after file load. - r43772
  • fix #29631: frame is lost from driver namespace after reload - r42658
  • fix #29635: attempts to import the site module are met with a TypeError exception - r42657
  • fix #29734: crash calling bpy.ops.file.direrectory_new() - r43022
  • fix #29864: crash running blender in background mode with non-default key configuration. - r43322
  • fix #29878: running bpy.ops.render.opengl() from console not starting new line or printing output. - r43358
  • fix #29889: simple deform missing lock x/y axis option - r43380
  • fix #29892: properties of objects in nested custom collections stop being animatable once an object get added to an unrelated custom collection. - r43692
  • fix #29987: scene.frame_set method doesn't take in account camera change done via markers - r43701
  • fix #30025: a crash when using python to load a .blend and .obj file - r43786
  • fix #29666: bpy.types had duplicate operator entries. - r43835
  • fix #29910: crash reading KX_SoundActuator.sound - r43948
  • fix #30045: mesh.uv_textures.new() not returning correct layer when a layer with the requested name already exists. - r43828
  • fix #30060: operator self.report printed twice in nested operator. - r43875
  • fix #30099: wrong path printed for bpy.data.shape_keys - r43958
  • fix: possible memory leak when creating a vector using Vector.Range. - r43834
  • fix: Object.to_mesh was losing materials when there were more than 16 - r42704
  • fix: matrix * vector multiplication not working correct for non-square matrices - r42793
  • fix: assigning enum properties non-string types did not throw error - r42977
  • fix: crash when calling bpy.ops.render.render('INVOKE_DEFAULT') from the python console. - r43403
  • fix: mathutils matrix/vector access crash when matrix size changes - r42873
  • fix: is_orthogonal check for matrices not working correct - r43733
  • fix: creation of non-square matrices using uninitialized memory - r42720
  • fix: false positive comparing some API data members - r43352
  • Render:
  • fix #25775: crash using border render from external render engines - r42764
  • fix #27120: bake glitch when image used for baking is also used as input, show warning now - r43554
  • fix #29687: normal baking from multires gives distorted results - r42979
  • fix #29708: crash in cross dissolve sequencer strip - r42975
  • fix #29723: wrong IOR for raytraced refraction after reflection inside mesh. - r43187
  • fix #29836: stress not working as input for displacement texture. - r43302
  • fix #29922: invalid pixels due to bump map in degenerate case. - r43509
  • fix #29960: fields option should not be used for external engine rendering. - r43728
  • fix #29999: hide image and alpha outputs in render layer node when combined pass is disabled - r43761
  • fix #30015: keyframing render resolution not working correct, disabled now - r43748
  • fix #30026: errors rendering material with ambient zero and AO/env/indirect light. - r43778
  • fix #29921: render rasterization error with camera parallel to face. - r43861
  • fix: crash rendering scene strips without a scene linked to them. - r43849
  • fix: opengl render in quadview wasn't using camera. - r43373
  • fix: OpenGL render save ignored alpha settings - r43410
  • fix: material vertex color light option not using alpha - r43030
  • Render: Cycles:
  • fix #29653:fix wrong cycles depth of field distance when rendering with a scaled camera - r42731
  • fix #29695: cycles particle emitter not being properly hidden. - r43085
  • fix #29715: cycles and glsl normal node not working correct. - r42947
  • fix #29740: missing cycles viewport update with animated node socket values. - r43084
  • fix #29755: cycles crash with array modifier that can produce material indices that are out of bounds. - r43076
  • fix #29803: cycles image texture node refresh issue with image editor. - r43325
  • fix #29848: cycles not respecting dupli group visible layers - r43292
  • fix #29860: cycles musgrave scale input not working correct. - r43327
  • fix #29935: missing cycles update/crash when removing world datablock form scene. - r43604
  • fix #30009: cycles translucent BSDF direct lighting not working correct. - r43775
  • fix #30034: bug in multiple importance sampling + transparency, would give slightly wrong lighting behind transparent objects. - r43792
  • fix #30049: cycles noise texture producing nan values with some texture coordinates. - r43966
  • fix #30089: crash with cycles viewport rendering while in text edit mode. - r43968
  • fix: cycles camera dof object with non-uniform scale gave incorrect distance. - r42983
  • fix: cycles nested groups nodes and empty groups were not doing correct type conversions - r42707
  • Sequencer:
  • fix #27847: sequencer scene strip rendering crash after certain operations - r42674
  • fix #29743: sequence editor wipe effect giving wrong result - r43200
  • fix #29692: sequencer scene rendering with color management disabled giving wrong colors - r42948
  • fix #29764: crash with border rendering scene strip in sequencer - r43130
  • fix #27953, #30052: sequencer extend tool not working correct with meta strips. - r43864, r43954
  • fix #30028: sequencer crash when pasting a strip with a missing datablock. - r43819, r43870
  • fix crash adding movie strips that were not a supported format - r44035
  • fix #30136: adding sequencer plugin strip failed - r44039
  • Transform:
  • fix #29611: crash scaling one vertex with snapping enabled - r42879
  • fix #29626: warp transform tool stuck at certain angle values - r42659
  • fix #29873: transform with individual origins not working in edge select mode. - r43355
  • User Interface:
  • fix #25581: no pressure sensitivity in sculpt mode with some tablets on X11 - r43489
  • fix #28011: popup menus with scaled down user interface show wrong text - r43794
  • fix #28978: disabled mode switching in panning in 2d - r43218
  • fix #29233: Windows accessibility feature "sticky keys" for disabled people not working - r42644
  • fix #29494: problem loading translation after restart -
  • fix #29494: problem loading translations on start with some locales - r42830, r42878
  • fix #29537: file save crash when target path not found - r42583
  • fix #29568: adding or removing scenes not working correct with undo/redo - r43203
  • fix #29652: operator redo region can't be expanded when editor too small - r42843
  • fix #29655: keyboard shortcuts missing from text editor text menu - r42730
  • fix #29670: color picker draw issues with RGB values out of soft range - r42798
  • fix #29761: texture painting with interpolation ignores texture use alpha setting - r43088
  • fix #29762: columns in long enum property menu's were in the wrong order. - r43456
  • fix #29884: splash screen displaying revision number cut off - r43738
  • fix #29895: fast alt-mousewheel toggling of menu buttons also changes time - r43723
  • fix #29946: recover auto save now filters .blend files and sorts by data by default - r43670
  • fix #29958: search menu keeps hiding first character(s) after long input - r43724
  • fix #24767, #27129: knife tool operator redo not working correct. - r43797
  • fix #27213: editing color ramp "Pos:" number value did not update the ramp properly. - r43851
  • fix #28296: crash with opening file selector from operator redo properties. - r43838
  • fix #29056: keymapping NDOF motion events not working correct. - r43850
  • fix #29433: particle drawing issue with circle/axis/cross display and size/vel/num/health enabled. - r43815
  • fix #30043: typing ctrl+Z in text field added a square. - r43862
  • fix #30076: scrolling properties editor scrollbar when mouse is over list widget - r43962
  • fix #30110: outliner view: restriction icons not updating when toggling from groups view - r44059
  • fix #30122: tweak mouse event values were not loaded from keymap files - r44037
  • fix #30151: allow negative frames option not affecting arrow key shortcuts - r44055
  • fix #30152: crash with drag and drop of images onto a mesh - r44052
  • fix: missing refresh inserting keyframes on visibility/selectivity/renderability in outliner - r44069
  • fix: collada export missing mesh name in exported files. - r43845
  • fix: non-power-of-two-textures were incorrectly disabled on modern ATI graphics cards on Mac. - r43885
  • fix: theme alpha value for button triangles was ignored - r43350
  • fix: file browser typing enter on an empty path would ask to create a new directory. - r43767
  • fix: X11 showing brief flash of random data when starting blender on some systems - r42880
  • fix: crash with with (among others) Russian translation and some buttons - r42825
  • fix: jobs progress display in taskbar incorrectly flashing on/off with multiple jobs active. - r43257
  • fix: zoom camera 1:1 and center camera view operators can now run from menu - r43411
  • MORE FEATURES:
  • Animation:
  • Follow path constraint with a cyclic curve can now loop - r43005
  • Change how translated unconnected child bones with no inherit rotation are positioned. Now, disabling inherit rotation/scale will no longer move the bone, only affecting its rotation/scale. - r43450
  • Bake action tool is now available in menus, previously was only available when searching. - r43985
  • Note that blenders ffmpeg-ff1v ( FFmpeg Video Codec #1 ) codec supports transparency now , which makes a player that support it mandatory for external watching ( based on ffmpeg >= 0.10 )
  • Export: ffmpeg h264.mov is now compatible with OSX Finder Quickview and Quicktime-Players ( 7.x and X )
  • Bump and Derivative Maps:
  • 16 bit float textures. This feature allows users to load 16 bit per component textures for display in the 3D view when working with float images. This feature is mostly notable when working with the new bump map painting capabilities of blender. To enable the feature, check 16 Bit Float Textures under User Preferences -> System (on by default).
  • Bicubic bump map filtering in the viewport, for improved bump quality. To use, "best quality" must be set as method for bump mapping under texture options, and the graphics card must support OpenGL 3.0 or later. The filtering helps on close ups of bump mapped surfaces. - r42647
  • Derivatives maps now are automatically scaled based on object size - r42648
  • Color Management:
  • Color Unpremultiply option for images and render settings. For premultiplied alpha images, this makes any color space conversion for the image or render output work on color without alpha multiplied in. This is typically useful to avoid fringing when the image was or will be composited over a light background. If the image will be composited over a black background on the other hand, leaving this option off will give correct results. - r43004
  • Accelerated sRGB linear conversion using lookup table, this can speed up loading of images in the compositor and simple renders quite a bit. - r43222
  • Dithering now uses the Floyd-Steinberg algorithm. Previously it would simply randomize each pixel slightly, adding noise, now that should be reduced. - r43222
  • Dynamic Paint:
  • Added "Project" option also for "Volume + Proximity" brush type. - r43525
  • Added per surface options "influence scale" and "radius scale" for tweaking brush settings individually for each surface. - r43429
  • Added option to completely disable drying, useful for indefinitely spreading paint.
  • Improved paint mixing algorithm.
  • "Paint effects" now work in relative mesh space instead of global. This means that effect speed remains same for identical shapes regardless of their size.
  • Improved spread effect algorithm, to avoid artifacts and stopping spreading too early.
  • Improved dripping algorithm to work better with transparent paint.
  • Added a new "color dry" setting. It can be used to define wetness level when paint colors start to shift to surface "background". Lower values can be useful to prevent spreading paint from becoming transparent as it dries, while higher (default) values give better results in general.
  • Editing:
  • Removing snap points now support removing points other than the last added, Alt+A can be used to select the point. - r42882
  • Weight painting Vgroup option restored to paint only vertices already in the group, remove unused All Faces option - r43397
  • Weight preview option for weight editing modifiers, to show the weights generated by the modifier in weight paint mode - r43610
  • Improved computation of sculpting center and normal - r42683
  • Added option to fill caps of beveled curves. Works if bevel object is set only - r43852
  • International Text Editing:
  • Text editor can now edit UTF-8 text - r43427
  • UTF-8 copy & paste support on X11 and Windows - r43273, r43424
  • Longer Names and File Paths:
  • Increase file path length limit from 239 to 1023 - r43582
  • Increase datablock and other names length limit to 63 - r43283
  • Nodes:
  • Double edged mask compositing node added to combine an inner and outer mask into a single feathered mask. - r43265
  • Removed buttons in node headers for hiding unused sockets and for hiding the (non-socket) option buttons. These operators can still be accessed from the properties panel, and in the Node menu in the node editor. - r42708
  • Automatically hide unused node sockets in collapsed nodes. - r42726
  • Outliner:
  • Drag and drop parenting object in outliner - r43601
  • Border select tool in outliner - r43504
  • Physics:
  • Fluid simulation speed control option is back, which means the speed option can be animated to slow down or speed up time. - r43593
  • Fluid simulation cache reading now has an offset option, to display baked fluid simulation at a different time. - r43822
  • Cloth: velocity damping option added. This helps avoid "cloth wobbling" problems with animated characters with cloth. - r43627
  • Baked editing: make particle edit mode more usable for softbodies and cloth - r43588
  • Fluid particles can now take advantage of multiple processing cores (multithreading). For simulations dominated by SPH calculations (i.e. lots of particles but few collision mesh faces), this results in almost a 4x speed-up on a 4-core machine. If needed, the number of threads can be limited by setting the OMP_NUM_THREADS=n environment variable. - r43069
  • SPH fluid particles are more stable and symmetrical now. Previously, the limit on the number of neighbouring particles was too low; this resulted in a bias towards one direction. For simulations that used an adaptive time step, the stability improvements also result in a speed-up, as shown below. - r43068
  • Render:
  • Quicktime: add more codecs (Animation, Uncompressed, PNG, ..) - r42897, r42900
  • OpenGL render now uses antialiasing samples setting - r43325
  • World textures support for equirectangular mapping - r42742
  • User Interface:
  • Running operators now uses last used settings, added reset button to set defaults. - r43308
  • Number button copy/paste support for units and python expressions - r43574
  • When splitting editor using right click menu, Tab key can be used to switch the direction - r42744
  • Search match color in outliner can now be themed - r43599
  • 3D mouse support for USB Spaceball5000 and 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse Pro - r43706, r43518
  • Quick jump to scroll area with middle mouse clicking on scroll area - r43404, r43420

New in Blender 2.62 RC1 (Feb 9, 2012)

  • NEW FEATURES:
  • Animation:
  • Follow path constraint with a cyclic curve can now loop - r43005
  • Change how translated unconnected child bones with no inherit rotation are positioned. Now, disabling inherit rotation/scale will no longer move the bone, only affecting its rotation/scale. - r43450
  • Boolean Modifier:
  • The boolean modifier now uses the Carve library, which should give much improved results. This library is more stable and faster, resolving old well-known limitations of our previous library. - r43428
  • Note that behavior was changed for some objects. For example with flat objects, like a plane-sphere intersection, it now gives a plane with circular hole instead of a plane with hemisphere.
  • Bump and Derivative Maps:
  • Bicubic bump map filtering in the viewport, for improved bump quality. To use, "best quality" must be enabled for bump mapping, and the graphics card must support OpenGL 3.0 or later. - r42647
  • Derivatives maps now are automatically scaled based on object size - r42648
  • Color Management:
  • Color Unpremultiply option for images and render settings. For premultiplied alpha images, this makes any color space conversion for the image or render output work on color without alpha multiplied in. This is typically useful to avoid fringing when the image was or will be composited over a light background. If the image will be composited over a black background on the other hand, leaving this option off will give correct results. - r43004
  • Accelerated sRGB linear conversion using lookup table, this can speed up loading of images in the compositor and simple renders quite a bit. - r43222
  • Dithering now uses the Floyd-Steinberg algorithm. Previously it would simply randomize each pixel slightly, adding noise, now that should be reduced. - r43222
  • Dynamic Paint:
  • Added "Project" option also for "Volume + Proximity" brush type. - r43525
  • Added per surface options "influence scale" and "radius scale" for tweaking brush settings individually for each surface. - r43429
  • Added option to completely disable drying, useful for indefinitely spreading paint.
  • Improved paint mixing algorithm.
  • "Paint effects" now work in relative mesh space instead of global. This means that effect speed remains same for identical shapes regardless of their size.
  • Improved spread effect algorithm, to avoid artifacts and stopping spreading too early.
  • Improved dripping algorithm to work better with transparent paint.
  • Added a new "color dry" setting. It can be used to define wetness level when paint colors start to shift to surface "background". Lower values can be useful to prevent spreading paint from becoming transparent as it dries, while higher (default) values give better results in general.
  • Editing:
  • Removing snap points now support removing points other than the last added, Alt+A can be used to select the point. - r42882
  • Weight painting Vgroup option restored to paint only vertices already in the group, remove unused All Faces option - r43397
  • Weight preview option for weight editing modifiers, to show the weights generated by the modifier in weight paint mode - r43610
  • Improved computation of sculpting center and normal - r42683
  • Added option to fill caps of beveled curves. Works if bevel object is set only - r43852
  • International Text Editing:
  • Text editor can now edit UTF-8 text - r43427
  • UTF-8 copy & paste support on X11 and Windows - r43273, r43424
  • Longer Names and File Paths:
  • Increase file path length limit from 239 to 1023 - r43582
  • Increase datablock and other names length limit to 63 - r43283
  • Nodes:
  • Double edged mask compositing node added to combine an inner and outer mask into a single feathered mask. - r43265
  • Removed buttons in node headers for hiding unused sockets and for hiding the (non-socket) option buttons. These operators can still be accessed from the properties panel, and in the Node menu in the node editor. - r42708
  • Automatically hide unused node sockets in collapsed nodes. - r42726
  • Outliner:
  • Drag and drop parenting object in outliner - r43601
  • Border select tool in outliner - r43504
  • Physics:
  • Fluid simulation speed control option is back, which means the speed option can be animated to slow down or speed up time. - r43593
  • Cloth: velocity damping option added. This helps avoid "cloth wobbling" problems with animated characters with cloth. - r43627
  • Baked editing: make particle edit mode more usable for softbodies and cloth - r43588
  • Fluid particles correctness and symmetry fixes - r43068
  • Multithreading support for fluid particles - r43069
  • Remesh Modifier:
  • A remesh modifier was added to create a new mesh topology matching the original shape, with evenly shaped quads. - r43010
  • The algorithm is based on the paper "Dual Contouring of Hermite Data", and the implementation was contributed to Blender by Dr. Tao Ju.
  • Render:
  • Quicktime: add more codecs (Animation, Uncompressed, PNG, ..) - r42897, r42900
  • OpenGL render now uses antialiasing samples setting - r43325
  • World textures support for equirectangular mapping - r42742
  • User Interface:
  • Running operators now uses last used settings, added reset button to set defaults. - r43308
  • Number button copy/paste support for units and python expressions - r43574
  • When splitting editor using right click menu, Tab key can be used to switch the direction - r42744
  • Search match color in outliner can now be themed - r43599
  • 3D mouse support for USB Spaceball5000 and 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse Pro - r43706, r43518
  • Quick jump to scroll area with middle mouse clicking on scroll area - r43404, r43420
  • BUG FIXES:
  • Animation:
  • fix #27898, #29461: bone with constraints not snapping to cursor correctly - r43450
  • fix #28468: NLA, can't enter tweak mode on multiple objects at the same time - r43596
  • fix #29629: uv animation stops working if edit mode entered - r43086
  • fix #29822: driver target field doesn't update on bone rename - r43594
  • fix #29869: NLA editor resets extrapolation mode when editing strips - r43597
  • fix #29879: ctrl+B border select with handles in the graph editor not selecting the right keys/handles. - r43360
  • fix #29940: stretch to constraint breaks scaling in transform constraint. - r43578
  • fix #30019: copy rotation constraint with vertex group jittering when the object Y axis is colinear with the vertex group normal. - r43777
  • fix: wrong follow track constraint icon - r43102
  • fix: wrong pose bone drawing in weight paint and wireframe draw mode - r43347
  • fix: circle-select in pose mode disregarded layer visibility, selecting invisible bones - r43660
  • Audio, Image & Video:
  • fix #26943: h264 lossless output missing - r43353
  • fix #29388: problem reading certain compressed movie files, now work with new "free run no gaps" time code type - r42641
  • fix #29615: crash in undo after toggling float buffer in image paint mode - r42638
  • fix #29671: issues reading certain .mts video files - r43122
  • fix #29676: alpha over node not working correct with emitting associated alpha images with zero alpha - r42814
  • fix #29683: OpenEXR output compression settings not working - r42848
  • fix #29684: video output presets and quicktime problems since last release - r42850
  • fix #29694: quicktime export was not showing or respecting RGBA option even though some movie formats support alpha. - r43335
  • fix #29707: sequencer presets corrupt audio scene settings - r42923
  • fix #29796: poor screencast quality with AVI codecs - r43180
  • fix #29824: error writing frame if 3D scene starts after first frame of animation and output is h264 - r43349
  • fix #29828: reloading background movie clip crashes Blender - r43224
  • fix #29905: extend transform a sequencer meta strip did not update the position and length of the meta strip properly. - r43457
  • fix: movie cache limiter not working with limits >= 4GB - r43791
  • fix: sound mixdown could use outdated animation cache, now it is updated automatically - r42678
  • fix: toggling premultiply or color management not updating packed images - r43290
  • Curves:
  • fix #29577: curve duplication operator redo not working correct - r42637
  • fix #30030: Tapered and beveled text won't update in realtime - r43779
  • Game Engine:
  • fix #25834: no color of text objects in game engine when combined with textured objects - r43105
  • fix #26893: corruption of debug/fps text when using animated/tile uv mode - r43105
  • fix #29031: crash importing BGL in the game engine - r42838
  • fix #29486: 2D filters make scene disappear when wire material is used - r42696
  • fix #29911: crash reading BL_ActionActuator.channelNames on non-armature object - r43626
  • fix: game engine font object relative path and packed fonts not working - r43151
  • fix: duplicating an object in the game engine did not set the right action actuator - r43588
  • Meshes:
  • fix #29599: mesh side of active tool silently not working for edges and faces, now gives warning - r42581
  • fix #29620: missing refresh with topology mirror after mesh editing - r42660
  • fix #29603: weight paint mode could be accessed on proxy objects - r42584
  • fix #29686: weight painting was not disabled on locked vertex groups - r43000
  • fix #29794: can't hide faces in weight paint mode - r43279
  • fix #29832: weight painting with x-mirror and auto normalize fails for center bones - r43342
  • fix #29835: a crashing joining meshes - r43235
  • Modifiers:
  • fix #29543: hook modified combined falloff and vertex group influence not working - r42639
  • fix #29556: shrinkwrap generates spikes if vertices fall exactly on the edge - r43056
  • fix #29600: hook assign and remove not working with redo correctly - r42582
  • fix #29636: vertex group modifiers apply not working - r42769
  • fix #29957: texture generated mapping works as global with cloth modifier - r43732
  • fix #30031: build modifier crashes when applied to bezier object - r43782
  • fix: solidify modifier getting wrong UV/color/.. data on rim faces - r43230
  • fix: ocean modifier icon missing in outliner - r43622
  • fix: crash in weight vertex group modifiers with empty vertex groups - r43600
  • Motion Tracking:
  • fix #29688: movie clip timecode not used in tracking - r42898
  • fix #29729: crash when camera solving with a disabled marker - r42992
  • fix #30020: movie clip editor crash when changing panel size - r43763
  • fix #29970: crash trying to track disabled marker - r43646
  • fix #29975: track preview color channels not filtering correctly - r43661
  • fix #30021: crash rotating tracker markers - r43764
  • fix: incorrect behavior of 2d stabilization preview in clip editor when proxied resolution is used - r43399
  • Nodes:
  • fix #29801: various compositing nodes not working correct after translate, e.g. separate HSVA node. - r43178
  • fix #29806: world nodes not available in animation editor - r43197
  • fix #29827: crash with translate node and blur - r43259
  • fix #29887: Alt+G in a node group results in crash - r43381
  • fix #30018: can't tab out of empty node group - r43762
  • fix: issues with toggle buttons in node headers - r42705
  • Objects:
  • fix #29640: make duplicates real keep hierarchy and parent properties not working for multiple objects - r42677
  • fix #29735: crash when snapping cursor to camera - r43021
  • fix #30017: make dupli-face operator not working without active mesh object - r43752
  • fix: adding metaballs and lamps in local mode was broken. - r43351
  • fix: link/append not working well in edit mode, now disabled - r42604
  • Physics:
  • fix #29696: crash on exit of edit mode after deleting contents of fluid domain - r42942
  • fix #29793: cloth and softbody simulation exploding when skipping frames - r43234
  • fix #29965: a memory corruption in particle systems - r43659
  • fix: dynamic paint brush not painting particles hidden by display percentage setting - r43745
  • fix: dynamic paint smudge and brush velocity settings didn't work for image sequence surfaces unless any paint effect was enabled. - r43029
  • fix: dynamic paint substep update failed when brush was parent to a canvas vertex - r43669
  • fix: dynamic paint wave "open borders" option didn't work for image sequence format - r43669
  • fix: dynamic paint, if multiple displace/wave surfaces were used simultaneously, displace was applied using wrong normal. - r43429
  • fix: possible dynamic paint crash when changing surface format to image sequence - r43669
  • fix: editing baked cache for softbody and cloth now updates in 3d view properly - r43357
  • fix: incorrect subframe result for physics point cache, noticeable with motion blur - r42663
  • Python:
  • fix #27589: crash defining operating while drawing UI, disallowed now - r43502
  • fix #28733, #29885: missing scene in context in python in callbacks and after file load. - r43772
  • fix #29631: frame is lost from driver namespace after reload - r42658
  • fix #29635: attempts to import the site module are met with a TypeError exception - r42657
  • fix #29734: crash calling bpy.ops.file.direrectory_new() - r43022
  • fix #29864: crash running blender in background mode with non-default key configuration. - r43322
  • fix #29878: running bpy.ops.render.opengl() from console not starting new line or printing output. - r43358
  • fix #29889: simple deform missing lock x/y axis option - r43380
  • fix #29892: properties of objects in nested custom collections stop being animatable once an object get added to an unrelated custom collection. - r43692
  • fix #29987: scene.frame_set method doesn't take in account camera change done via markers - r43701
  • fix #30025: a crash when using python to load a .blend and .obj file - r43786
  • fix: Object.to_mesh was losing materials when there were more than 16 - r42704
  • fix: matrix * vector multiplication not working correct for non-square matrices - r42793
  • fix: assigning enum properties non-string types did not throw error - r42977
  • fix: crash when calling bpy.ops.render.render('INVOKE_DEFAULT') from the python console. - r43403
  • fix: mathutils matrix/vector access crash when matrix size changes - r42873
  • fix: is_orthogonal check for matrices not working correct - r43733
  • fix: creation of non-square matrices using uninitialized memory - r42720
  • fix: false positive comparing some API data members - r43352
  • Render:
  • fix #25775: crash using border render from external render engines - r42764
  • fix #27120: bake glitch when image used for baking is also used as input, show warning now - r43554
  • fix #29687: normal baking from multires gives distorted results - r42979
  • fix #29708: crash in cross dissolve sequencer strip - r42975
  • fix #29723: wrong IOR for raytraced refraction after reflection inside mesh. - r43187
  • fix #29836: stress not working as input for displacement texture. - r43302
  • fix #29922: invalid pixels due to bump map in degenerate case. - r43509
  • fix #29960: fields option should not be used for external engine rendering. - r43728
  • fix #29999: hide image and alpha outputs in render layer node when combined pass is disabled - r43761
  • fix #30015: keyframing render resolution not working correct, disabled now - r43748
  • fix #30026: errors rendering material with ambient zero and AO/env/indirect light. - r43778
  • fix: opengl render in quadview wasn't using camera. - r43373
  • fix: OpenGL render save ignored alpha settings - r43410
  • fix: material vertex color light option not using alpha - r43030
  • Render: Cycles:
  • fix #29653: fix wrong cycles depth of field distance when rendering with a scaled camera - r42731
  • fix #29695: cycles particle emitter not being properly hidden. - r43085
  • fix #29715: cycles and glsl normal node not working correct. - r42947
  • fix #29740: missing cycles viewport update with animated node socket values. - r43084
  • fix #29755: cycles crash with array modifier that can produce material indices that are out of bounds. - r43076
  • fix #29803: cycles image texture node refresh issue with image editor. - r43325
  • fix #29848: cycles not respecting dupli group visible layers - r43292
  • fix #29860: cycles musgrave scale input not working correct. - r43327
  • fix #29935: missing cycles update/crash when removing world datablock form scene. - r43604
  • fix #30009: cycles translucent BSDF direct lighting not working correct. - r43775
  • fix #30034: bug in multiple importance sampling + transparency, would give slightly wrong lighting behind transparent objects. - r43792
  • fix: cycles camera dof object with non-uniform scale gave incorrect distance. - r42983
  • fix: cycles nested groups nodes and empty groups were not doing correct type conversions - r42707
  • Sequencer:
  • fix #27847: sequencer scene strip rendering crash after certain operations - r42674
  • fix #29743: sequence editor wipe effect giving wrong result - r43200
  • fix #29692: sequencer scene rendering with color management disabled giving wrong colors - r42948
  • fix #29764: crash with border rendering scene strip in sequencer - r43130
  • Transform:
  • fix #29611: crash scaling one vertex with snapping enabled - r42879
  • fix #29626: warp transform tool stuck at certain angle values - r42659
  • fix #29873: transform with individual origins not working in edge select mode. - r43355
  • User Interface:
  • fix #25581: no pressure sensitivity in sculpt mode with some tablets on X11 - r43489
  • fix #28011: popup menus with scaled down user interface show wrong text - r43794
  • fix #28978: disabled mode switching in panning in 2d - r43218
  • fix #29233: Windows accessibility feature "sticky keys" for disabled people not working - r42644
  • fix #29494: problem loading translation after restart -
  • fix #29494: problem loading translations on start with some locales - r42830, r42878
  • fix #29537: file save crash when target path not found - r42583
  • fix #29568: adding or removing scenes not working correct with undo/redo - r43203
  • fix #29652: operator redo region can't be expanded when editor too small - r42843
  • fix #29655: keyboard shortcuts missing from text editor text menu - r42730
  • fix #29670: color picker draw issues with RGB values out of soft range - r42798
  • fix #29761: texture painting with interpolation ignores texture use alpha setting - r43088
  • fix #29762: columns in long enum property menu's were in the wrong order. - r43456
  • fix #29884: splash screen displaying revision number cut off - r43738
  • fix #29895: fast alt-mousewheel toggling of menu buttons also changes time - r43723
  • fix #29946: recover auto save now filters .blend files and sorts by data by default - r43670
  • fix #29958: search menu keeps hiding first character(s) after long input - r43724
  • fix: theme alpha value for button triangles was ignored - r43350
  • fix: file browser typing enter on an empty path would ask to create a new directory. - r43767
  • fix: X11 showing brief flash of random data when starting blender on some systems - r42880
  • fix: crash with with (among others) Russian translation and some buttons - r42825
  • fix: jobs progress display in taskbar incorrectly flashing on/off with multiple jobs active. - r43257
  • fix: zoom camera 1:1 and center camera view operators can now run from menu - r43411

New in Blender 2.61 RC1 (Dec 8, 2011)

  • NEW FEATURES:
  • Motion Tracking:
  • Motion tracking support has been added, to reconstruct camera and object animation from real footage, and composite 3d rendered object into movie clips.
  • A new Movie Clip editor for loading clips, tracking points and reconstructing motion was added. Constraints can apply this reconstructed motion into the scene, and compositing nodes are available for (un)distorting rendered animations or real footage.
  • Cycles Render Engine:
  • Cycles is a new render engine that is available next to Blender Internal. It is a raytracing based render engine with support for interactive rendering, a new shading node system, new texture workflow and GPU acceleration.
  • It is still in development, and more production features are planned to be added, this is the first preview release.
  • Dynamic Paint:
  • Dynamic paint is a new modifier and physics system that can turn objects into paint canvases and brushes, creating each vertex colors, image sequences or displacement.
  • Ocean Simulation:
  • Ocean simulation tools take the form of a modifier, to simulate and generate a deforming ocean surface, and associated texture, used to render the simulation data.
  • Python:
  • The Render Engine API has been extended for closer integration, a mechanism to detect changes in scenes was and persistent callbacks were added, along with various other changes.
  • Addons:
  • A new addon was added to export animation data to Adobe After Effects. The camera and placeholders for all of the objects you select can be exported and used to link After Effects' filters or layers basing on your scene created in Blender.
  • CHANGES:
  • 3D Mouse:
  • 3D mouse device support color wheel and cube UI controls (e.g. color pickers) - r41508. Tilting the ndof device up and down and rolling it left and right will move the 'color cursor' in screen x and y, and twisting the ndof device will rotate the cursor around the colour wheel (hue).
  • 3D mouse axis invert preferences for turntable navigation and zooming - r41831
  • Animation:
  • Remove the non-functional Time Offset option. - r41573
  • Animation Hacks panel renamed to Relations Extras - r41573
  • Add Dependency Relations operator to print the dependency graph to the console, useful for debugging and understanding the relations. - r41522
  • Marker editing - r41497
  • Python drivers: 'frame' can now be used to get the current frame - r41943
  • Camera Sensor:
  • Camera sensor size is now configurable, to match real cameras. - r41524
  • Support of variable size sensor width and height.
  • Presets for most common cameras, and new presets can be defined by the user.
  • Option to control which dimension (vertical or horizontal) along which field of view angle fits.
  • File Paths:
  • Editing library absolute/relative paths in the outliner or through python is now more reliable - r41235
  • Making library datablocks local now remaps file paths to the local .blend file - r41329
  • Default point cache file paths are now in either the temporary folder if the file is not saved yet, and relative to the .blend file if it is - r41909
  • Point cache paths from linked library now support - r42009
  • Point cache directories now use cache_ prefix by default - r42053
  • Internationalization:
  • Improved, though not complete, editing of text with special characters in user interface text fields and 3D text objects. - r41129, r41133, r41144, r41146, r41147, r41181, r41182
  • Translation: add Indonesion language - r41275
  • Translation: upgrade Italian and Russian to nearly done status - r41692
  • Modeling:
  • Disable x-mirror option when proportional edit is enabled. This option isn't supported because it behaves strangely in many cases. - r41550
  • Mirror modifier now works in vertex select + weight paint mode, and has option to mirror all vertex groups. - r41431
  • Make duplicates real: options to parent to the original duplicator and preserve internal parent hierarchies - r41602
  • Multires baking speed was improved - r41778
  • 3D Cursor settings split off from View panel in 3D view - r41575
  • Mesh loop cut number of cuts can now be modified using numpad plus/minus and numeric input - r42037
  • UV (Texture) Layer renamed to UV Map in the user interface - r42098
  • Nodes:
  • Node inputs that are angles were not in the correct units, now they are internally radians and degrees in the user interface - r41807
  • Saving 2.61 files with earlier Blender versions and reopening them in a newer version will not work correct, always save with the same or a newer version.
  • Change various default values for compositing node inputs - r41385, r41520
  • Muting nodes is now also supported for shader and texture nodes - r42019
  • Other:
  • World mist intensity options reorganized to make the user interface more clear - r41462
  • Operator to delete objects from all scenes, shortcut shift+delete - r41851
  • Align active camera to selected operator, to frame all selected, renderable objects - r41813
  • Text editor with tabs as spaces enabled now jumps indentation spaces as if they were tabs - r41839
  • Border select operators in all editors now includes an Extend property, to extend or replace the selection - r41930
  • Theme options to show panel header background and mute icon colors - r41992
  • Changes to drawing of editor splitting, region expand and UI embossing - r41992, r41993
  • More useful error messages for failed image loading - r41306
  • Saving images in the image editor now shows image format settings, and various changes to show only settings when they apply for the chosen format - r42041, r42045 , r42116, r42118
  • BUG FIXES:
  • 3D viewport:
  • fix #29162: grease pencil did not decrement user count on adding new datablock to replace an existing one - r41552
  • fix #29203: camera can still move in viewport even when transforms locked - r41749
  • fix #29004: wrong hotkey hints in 3D View > View menu - r41264
  • fix: interaction preset was using orbit rather than turntable 3d view preference, different from factory defaults. - r41126
  • fix #29275: vertex/edge/face selection buttons showing squashed in header - r41889
  • fix #29288: armature draw type wire combined with manipulator draw issue - r41907
  • fix #29255: disable rendering with transparency in edit mode - r42158
  • fix #29348: slow drawing of mesh with multiple materials and subsurf modifier - r42034
  • Animation:
  • fix: armatures in wire draw mode not displaying in solid mode. - r41113
  • fix #28967: crash in adding a new pose to the pose library - r41171, r41175
  • fix #29006: delta keying sets not working correctly on operator redo - r41272
  • fix #29015: improve error message presented when trying to paste keyframe without f-curves selected - r41304
  • fix #29122: curve radius not keyable from the the 3d editor transform panel - r41494
  • fix #29212: select before/after current frame deselects all channels in graph editor - r41765
  • fix #28976: crash when moving keys in dopesheet editor - r41128
  • fix: default f-curve handle types and theme settings for handle colors were incorrect - r41691
  • fix #29125: motion paths could be set to invalid start/end, and did not show good warning messages - r41764
  • fix #29293: NLA Strip modifiers got lost on save/reload - r41920
  • Audio & Video:
  • fix: sequencer HD audio tracks within metastrips were not properly upgraded from 2.49 files, resulting in broken tracks. - r41116
  • fix: 7.1 audio not working correct - r41132
  • fix: color management issues generating proxies for float images - r41256
  • fix #28949: rendering video to flash not working - r41244
  • fix #29076: 16bit tiff save not working - r41483
  • fix #29062, #29120: issue saving images with relative paths - r41328
  • fix: improvement for reading broken movie files - r41647
  • fix #29202: fix a crash in decoding of YUV video in sequencer - r41854
  • fix #29190: effect strip start and end frame should not be editable - r41934
  • fix #29295: incorrect alpha channel loading from video - r42012, r42017
  • fix: seeking problem with RAW DV video - r42012
  • Constraints:
  • fix #29210: ChildOf constraint set inverse not working reliable - r41747
  • fix #29048: iTaSC solver crash on certain compilers/platforms, due to memory alignment issues. - r41781
  • fix #29041: parenting problem with tree IK for iTaSC and iksolver, where it would use the wrong bone as parent on branching. - r41784
  • fix #29113: follow path constraint subframes calculated incorrectly for motion blur - r41491
  • fix #29064: spline IK and auto IK on the same bone could crash - r41612
  • fix #29264: remove unneeded convert option from maintain volume constraint interface - r41871
  • fix #29100: issue with "set inverse" on child constraint - r42056
  • Curves:
  • fix #29101: 2d bezier still allowed editing tilt, and wrong shortcut was shown in toolbar - r41439
  • fix #29005: changing curve datablock did not respect curve dimension setting - r41501
  • fix: wrong shortcut for Curve > Control Point > Tilt - r42156
  • Files:
  • fix #28772: file paths not remapped after making library datablock local - r41292
  • fix #29098: file browser can't handle extra periods in file name - r41400
  • fix: crash running blender in background mode on Windows - r41387
  • fix #29232: background render with file not found rendered default scene - r41898
  • fix #28993: crash opening quit.blend - r41885
  • Game Engine:
  • fix #29024: logic bricks did not have unique names - r41528
  • fix #28865: object display bounds and game engine collision bounds are now separate properties to avoid confusion - r41529
  • fix #29138: changing game engine physics type from soft body to other physics types did not work correct - r41540
  • fix: action actuator ping-pong was not consistent with previous behavior - r41239
  • fix: setting frame on action actuator playing in reverse did not work correct - r41239
  • fix #28948: wrong default game engine backface culling when there is no material - r41273
  • fix #28753: game engine mouse raycast not working correct at certain angles - r41131
  • fix #28979: action actuator not working correct with animation from old file - r41134
  • fix: wrong copy of game properties between linked objects - r42039
  • fix: incorrect action actuator behavior with pulse mode (on the sensor) and continuous enabled - r42108
  • fix: slow video texture rescaling, using non-power-of-two textures - r42137
  • 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 - r41837
  • fix: workaround for half transparent windows when running blender-softwaregl with compiz - r41856
  • Modeling:
  • fix #28942: minimize stretch in UV editor has no continuous grab - r41136
  • fix #29174: vertex normals temporarily incorrect after deleting a face - r41604
  • fix #29141: mesh fill / beautify fill produced incorrect results in edge selection mode - r41539
  • fix #29051: set origin from geometry using bounds did not work - r41519
  • fix #28936: UV unwrap issue with meshes with inconsistent normals - r41895
  • fix #29253: 3D manipulator "active element" not supported for curves - r41853
  • fix: crash using vertex paint fill - r41719
  • fix #29063: missing painting error message when opengl offscreen buffer could not be created - r41326
  • fix: weight painting incorrect redistribution of weights with locked vertex groups - r41711
  • fix #29337: crash duplicating shape keys with long names - r42029
  • fix #29384: mesh without faces and modifier crashes when switching to sculpt mode - r42124
  • fix #29361: uv unwrap > project from view not enabled in header menu - r42059
  • fix #29367: vertex parent regression, objects not staying in place when parenting - r42090
  • Modifiers:
  • fix #29044: apply mirror modifier crash related to vertex groups - r41310
  • fix #29124: crash with mirror and solidify modifier - r41445
  • fix #29214: build modifier calculates wrong fraction of elements to use - r41734
  • fix: crash multires baking in sculpt mode when sculpt mode is active and sculpt level is 0 - r41777
  • fix #29240: multires baking now uses preview subdivision level in sculpt mode - r41806
  • fix #29205: crash using edge split modifier with certain mesh configurations - r41720
  • fix #28515: dupliframes start/end animation not working correct - r41511
  • fix #28935: material display error using VBO's, textured solid and a modifier - r41496
  • fix #29366: multires crash with meshes that had verts/edges not connected to any face - r42131
  • Nodes:
  • fix: crash nodes loading old files with changed node sockets - r41735
  • fix #29139: confusing user interface for editing group node names - r41523
  • fix: missing node editor update when assigning/removing materials on objects. - r41152
  • fix #29046: the factor buffer input was not used correctly in curve nodes - r41592
  • fix #28980: crash with certain invalid node sockets in old files - r41145
  • fix #28938: compositing nodes used in render even if use nodes is disabled - r41139
  • fix #29055: vector node socket default values can't be edited - r41451
  • fix #29165: issue navigating node add menu with keyboard arrows - r41852
  • fix: clicking on overlapping nodes in the node editor would pass event to the wrong button - r42075
  • fix #2938: wrong event clipping in open node groups - r42121
  • fix: crash when node group datablock was missing - r42020
  • fix #28934: missing GLSL/icon update when changing materials used in nodes - r42088
  • Physics:
  • fix #29147: particle rotation mode did load from some files correctly - r41518
  • fix #29310: secondary point caches for cloth did not get steps set to correct default, was 10 when supposed to be 1 - r42142
  • Rendering:
  • fix: crash in texture nodes, when no derivatives were available - r41418
  • fix #29084: material/texture nodes threading crash - r41419
  • fix #29207: cancelling volume precache at high resolution was too slow - r41759
  • fix: rendering objects with negative scale could have wrong normals - r41247
  • fix #29243: crash unlinking texture datablock from material node in texture properties - r41915
  • fix #29160: material node "Texture" didn't use default texture coordinates when nothing was connected to the socket - r41916
  • fix #29093: world zenith up and down texture influence were not working correct - r41918
  • User Interface:
  • fix #28902: rendering and visibility icons in modifier panel move between clicks - r41137
  • fix: missing updates when changing smoke flow settings. - r41151
  • fix #28998: sequence rendering now displays overall animation progress in the progress bar - r41503
  • fix: incorrect undo pushes when changing user preferences - r41662
  • fix #29155: inconsistency with numpad zero and delete hotkeys in color and histogram menus - r41527
  • fix: user interface region embossing was drawn misaligned - r41535
  • fix: Mac trackpad scrolling did not work in text editor - r41284
  • fix #28937: text editor incorrect selection with mouse over scrollbar - r41138
  • fix #29198: incorrect user interface text alignment with international fonts - r41663
  • fix #29229: some outliner right click menu items not working - r41899, r41900
  • fix #29371: crash deleting objects in outliner - r42141
  • fix #29242: keyboard shortcuts for menus not displayed - r41832
  • fix #29306: Alt+N, enter in image editor cancelled rather than confirmed operation - r42125
  • fix #29018: multi-column menus not showing bottom-most elements when scrolling - r41976
  • fix #29333: modal keymap saving not working - r42033
  • fix: missing umlauts and accents on capital letters - r42092

New in Blender 2.60a (Oct 25, 2011)

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

New in Blender 2.60 RC (Oct 6, 2011)

  • Prominent features:
  • 3D Audio
  • Animation system
  • Collada
  • Game engine animation
  • Motion capture addon
  • Recast & Detour
  • Internationalization and Localization
  • Texture Face properties
  • Weight painting tools
  • Vertex group modifiers
  • Sequencer proxy support
  • Python callbacks
  • Sequencer
  • Support for proxy building again (missing feature from Blender 2.49). Additionally to the way, Blender 2.49 worked, you can select several strips at once and make Blender build proxies in the background. - r39749
  • Timecode support: to fix seeking issues with files, that have:
  • Varying frame rates
  • Very large GOP lengths
  • Are broken inbetween
  • Use different time code tracks
  • The proxy builder can now also build timecode indices, which are used (optionally) for seeking. For the first time, it is possible, to do frame exact seeking on all file types. - r39749
  • Support for different video-streams in one video file (can be selected in sequencer, other parts of blender can also use it, but UI has to be added accordingly) - r39749
  • Additions:
  • Change sequence operator (C key) in sequence editor, to modify the filepath or effect inputs/type on existing strips - r39323
  • Clear offsets operator (Alt+O) in sequence editor, to reset the start/end frames around the strip data - r39379
  • Solidify modifier with vertex group option to set the thickness of zero weighted vertices - r39385
  • Muting nodes with only inputs or outputs is now supported (for example file output node) - r39437
  • Lamp "Cast Buffer Shadows" option now works with GLSL in the viewport and game engine - r39683
  • Applying armature object transform now transforms bone roll too - r39706
  • Game engine post drawing callbacks are now done per viewport instead of per scene. This is handy for things like having a different HUD for each player in a splitscreen game. To figure out what viewport you're drawing too, check the scene's active_camera. - r39729
  • Outliner right click -> rename - r39867
  • Outliner implementation of Toggle visibility/rendarability/selectability on right click on Groups - r39867
  • Python API:
  • bpy.types as a module for convenient imports, for example: from bpy.types import Menu - r39324
  • Object.matrix_parent_inverse, inverse of object's parent matrix at time of parenting - r39424
  • Optional argument for bpy_extra.io_utils.unique_name() to specify separator string - r39406
  • Improved environment map texture scripting, to make exporting easier: - r39760
  • Add a "is_valid" RNA property to envmaps. True if the map is ready for use, False if it needs rendering.
  • Add a "clear" RNA function to envmaps. Deletes any envmap image data.
  • Add a "save" RNA function to envmaps. Writes the envmap to disc with a configurable layout. (Defaults to the current hard-coded layout.)
  • Updates bpy.ops.texture.envmap_save with configurable layout support as above.
  • render callback info - r39821
  • Example on how to use the callback:
  • def statscall(context): print("Thanks for calling!")
  • bpy.app.handlers.render_stats.append(statscall)
  • bpy.ops.render.render(animation=False, write_still=True)
  • Merge this with later commit:
  • Remove support for deprecated Vector() * Matrix(), eventually this will be added back as row_vector_multiplication bu to avoid confusion for a bit just disable it altogether so script authors get an error on use and update their scripts - r39445
  • Game Engine:
  • Adding two new functions to bge.render to allow users to change the anisotropic filtering level used by textures: - 39818
  • setAnisotropicFiltering(level)
  • getAnisotropicFiltering()
  • Fixes:
  • Add object operators rotation value too sensitive when dragging - r39318
  • Missing updates with multiple node editors open - r39346
  • Running bpy.ops.render.render('INVOKE_DEFAULT') would crash blender - r39362
  • Bad shadows in game engine in stereo mode - r39380
  • Selecting more than one object in the outliner with shift + left mouse button not working - r39386
  • Problem editing keymaps when filter is enabled - r39387
  • Checkbox in menu items fail for boolean arrays. - r39388
  • Separate By Material failed when some mesh material slots are unassigned - r39393
  • Append file browser will ask to create new directory inside a .blend - r39404
  • Deactivating keymap items did not save properly - r39409
  • Editing texture did not update compositing nodes using that texture - r39415
  • Texture properties didn't show correct texture datablock chooser with two nested material nodes - r39416
  • Trivers on modifier properties were missing updates - r39419
  • On windows, the console would incorrectly show on startup until saving default settings - r39420
  • Ability to unwrap all selected mesh objects was missing - r39422
  • On windows, a window lost focus when switching from full screen with Alt+F11 - r39423
  • Crash drawing curve using follow path and bevel object - r39440
  • Pose mode armature selection outline was not being drawn for non-active, selected armature - r39447
  • Front/Back togles should not disable when curve is 2D and bevel object is used - r39442
  • Snap target option missing in uv editor - r39460
  • Ability to select other objects from edit mode was missing (ctrl + right mouse) - r39475
  • Proxy object was not showing pose mode as available in 3d view header mode menu - r39489
  • Changing smoke border collision type did not reset cache - r39490
  • UV unwrap in sync selection mode unwrapped all faces irrespective of selection - r39494
  • Blender 2.59 not starting on OS X with old ndof driver - r39495
  • Cloth pin option should not be animatable - r39496
  • fix: Joystick sensor axis number was limited to 2, when it should be 8 - r39509
  • Particle object rotation wrong when rendering - r39515
  • Missing and unnecessary undo stack pushes with various operators and buttons - r39526, r39529, r39532, r39533
  • Bump mapping in texture was using wrong image resolution - r39530
  • Crash loading a file from a script and executing user modules in the newly loaded file - r39567
  • Selecting output node in compositor did unnecessary re-compositing if the output was already active - r39582
  • Incorrect loading 2.4x multires meshes with multiple materials - r39647
  • Particles with all elements of a group zero would crash - r39648
  • fix: Renaming bones could crash or not update 3d view locked bone names - r39657
  • Selecting locked bones in UI did not work in edit mode - r39657
  • Crash deleting group name in particles render panel - r39659
  • Crash setting active render layer to None - r39660
  • Image bit depth or quality could not be set from image save - r39663
  • STL import could result in duplicated objects - r39673
  • Node delete with reconnect now works in a few more cases - r39684
  • Particle billboard rendering problem with 3x3 split - r39688
  • File browser on windows was missing A: and B: drivers - r39695
  • fix: File browser converting operator arguments to the file selector wasn't making paths absolute - r39703
  • Border select for curve or metaball did not update selection statistics in info header - r39709
  • Sculpting object with rotation transform was not working correct - r39712
  • Crash running a python script in a non-utf8 blend path - r39714
  • Python API GameObject.linVelocityMin was returning linVelocityMax - r39723
  • Problem using procedural textures as bump map with antialiasing - r39725
  • Changed new text block shortcut key to Ctrl+N to avoid conflicts typing special characters with Alt+N - r39738
  • Lock camera to view option in 3d view did not work with 3D mouse - r39739
  • Clouds texture with high depth rendering artifacts- r39741
  • OpenGL render option disables border clipping - r39757
  • Controllers names appear incorrectly with a python query - r39767
  • mesh drawing with VBO's enabled highlights wrong faces with mirror modifier - r39777
  • Outline menu item clicking incorrectly passed through - r39780
  • bpy.ops.nla.bake can't bake from frame 0 - r39789
  • game engine 3D sound was not working on non-mono sounds, now is mixed down automatically - r39796
  • when user prefs -> editing -> align to == "view" newly inserted objects do not show the applied rotation in the tools panel - r39804
  • smooth faces flash momentarily when extruded using "extrude and move on normals" tool (E key) - r39805
  • Image with Stampinfo does not get saved correctly with alpha - r39814
  • Crash when trying to make empty display as image - r39866
  • Key Visual transform and Parenting not working - r39871
  • Crash while deleting objects in outliner too fast - r39875
  • Insert Hook wrong index - r39878
  • COLLADA imports messed up UVs - r39899

New in Blender 2.59 (Aug 13, 2011)

  • 3D Mouse support "NDOF":
  • Blender is now built with support for 3D Connexion devices, for more natural control during view navigation and fly mode - r38908
  • Custom Keymaps:
  • User edited keymaps now no longer override the builtin keymaps entirely, but rather save only the difference and reapply those changes. This means they can stay better in sync when the builtin keymaps change.
  • Keymaps in blender are now separated so Addons can properly define their own keymaps without them conflicting with user keymaps
  • Ivy Generator (Addon):
  • This tools adds the ability to "grow" curves over an existing mesh with the option of adding leaves and adjusting many parameters for the final result - r2200
  • Sapling (Addon)
  • This tree generator creates completely parametrically generated trees from curves - r2119
  • Grease Scatter (Addon)
  • Grease scatter was used for sintel to place objects around the ally, using grease pencil lines as a guide as to where to scatter objects - r2125
  • Node editor enhancements:
  • Several enhancements are done related to the node editor/compositor.
  • Material passes: Materials have pass-index. This pass-index can be used in the compositor to create mattes. It works the same as object passes.
  • Node insert: Nodes that have no connections can be inserted on a noodle. Just move the node over the noodle and release when the noodle turns brown.
  • Delete with reconnect: It is possible to delete a node that is connected in the tree, without loosing the connections. The node is deleted, but the links are reconnected as if the node were muted. Select a node and press CTRL-X.
  • Noodle curves: Some users like straight noodles, other like curved, in the user preferences the level of the curvation can be changed.
  • Node properties: The UI of the side panel and on the node can now be different. See the Color balance node in the side panel.
  • Additions:
  • Material passes (like object passes), (See commit log for details) - r38090
  • New option for multires modifier: Subdivide UVs - r38783
  • Improved bleed option when baking for seamless edges on UV bounds - r38654
  • Node: Add delete with reconnect feature - r38344
  • Node: Curvature is now a setting - r39015
  • Node: On dragging a non-connected node on a noodle, it will insert it - r38609
  • UV Straighten tool - r38598
  • Object Align: high quality option for perfect alighment
  • Python API:
  • Object.closest_point_on_mesh() function - r38449
  • bpy.path.basename because "//" prefix breaks os.path.basename - r38528
  • Vector.length_squared to use instead of vec.dot(vec) - r39300
  • Fixes:
  • Tools/Editors:
  • fix #27849 3D manipulator widget lost on mesh in edge mode - r38085
  • fix #27915 Relax Pose crashes blender on bone with ChildOf constraint in linked rig - r38257
  • fix #27883 object actions did not get duplicated on full scene copy - r38150
  • fix #27902 autokey bones with individual origins transform not working - r38229
  • fix #27891 IK stretch gives inaccurate results. Tweaked translation segment convergence weight a bit to match angles better at typical scales - r38232
  • fix #27866 Curve handle snaps/locks when it shouldn't - r38256
  • fix #28003 Unable to delete vgroup - r38471
  • fix #27927 Border select tool fails to select nodes in Node Editor using tweak mode - r38475
  • fix #28052 PET: Shift-O cycling skips "random falloff" - r38595
  • fix #28079 UV propertional editing was incorrectly influenced by the mesh X mirror option - r38699
  • fix #28066 Unchecking 'self project' messes up 'Snap to Vertex' - r38752
  • fix #28095 Select Pattern don't select all the bone in edit mode & some style changes - r38779
  • fix #27719 custom RNA properties fail to update drivers - r38793
  • fix #28117 Diffuse reflection IPO curve not imported correctly from 2.49b files - r38827
  • fix #28178 make single user copy of object data doesn't work - r39117
  • fix #27819 Unwrap Menu (U) -> Lightmap Pack throws Python Exception - r38212
  • fix #28197 Undoing Grease pencil removes last 2 strokes - r39235
  • fix #28186 textboxes properties not animatable - r39214
  • fix for crash undoing grease pencil session - r39237
  • allow bone transforms again for proxy'ed bones - r38071
  • corrected View Selected operator for image editor so now it works fine for images with different X and Y aspect ratio - r38559
  • Object Align now correctly computes a global bounding box for all objects - r38510
  • Sculpt/Painting:
  • fix #28096 Custom gradient for weight painting in mask mode not working properly - r38785
  • fix #28112 Vertex paint crash - r38890
  • fix #28061 Texture (paint) bleeding on edges - r38893
  • fix #28121 Linked Library objects or object->data should not allow to go to sculptmode - r38855
  • Modifiers:
  • fix #27839 UV 'Project from view' ignores camera lens shift - r38052
  • fix #27861 bevel angle limit at 90deg wasn't working well on cube - r38110
  • fix #27921 optimal display with 2 subsurf modifiers fails - r38298
  • fix #27930 many modifiers crashed when used on a lattice with a vertex group - r38300
  • fix part of #27858 crash trying to apply subsurf modifier as shape key - r38115
  • fix part of #26811 absolute shape keys should not show influence value in list - r38188
  • fix: uv project panorama mode was scaled 2x too high - r38054
  • fix: uv project scaled camera objects would incorrectly effect the result - r38054
  • Physics:
  • fix #27347 Particle x-axis mirror editing not working as expected - r38102
  • fix #27579 Particle cache problem with multiple systems - r38105
  • fix #27182 particle/collision kill interacting strangely - r38106
  • fix #27855 crash on enabling high resolution smoke - r38119
  • fix #27876 particles instancing a whole group didn't take group offset into account - r38141
  • fix #26962 softbody collision doesn't respect subsurf+displace modifiers - r38235
  • fix #27683 Blender hangs when baking a particle system when a driver is present - r38265
  • fix #26873 Animated displacement modifier on an object doesn't work with hair particle objects - r38285
  • fix #27289 Hair: Render Option - Object does not point objects to end of "hair path" - r38287
  • fix #27293 Group Instance of particle system is rendered wrong - r38292
  • fix #27398 Particle systems with animated groups render incorrectly in viewport - r38293
  • fix #26712 Particle group instance 'Use Count' value gets reset on file-load - r38413
  • fix #27307 Blender crashes when loading a new scene while baking fluid dynamics - r38408
  • fix: particle cache should only be cleared on the exact first integer frame, not in the case of a subframe between the first and second frame - r38463
  • fix: Effector calculations were not thread safe - r38663
  • fix: loading a file that had particles using a dupligroup from a liblinked file without the library file being present crashed - r38883
  • Display/Viewport:
  • fix #27862 OpenGL render animation don't respect .png RGB option - r38109
  • fix #27810 bones drawn blue in 2.49 file, was still checking stride bone, flag for drawing even though that feature is no longer in 2.5 - r38112
  • fix #27826 bone envelope head/tail radius not dynamically updated in viewport - r38114
  • fix #27897 mesh with negative scale disappears while sculpting, clipping planes were wrong in that case - r38236
  • fix #28037 Camera missing orange selection lines
  • fix #28206 Motion Paths shown in 3DView even when Only Render option is enabled - r39259
  • fix part of #27944 color managment discrepancy in GLSL materials with nodes - r38790
  • Sequencer (Video Editor):
  • fix #27846 time extend / E key not work in sequence editor - r38113
  • fix #27848 sequencer strip hard cut looses soft trim on second strip - r38122
  • fix #27880 sequencer separate images operator lost strip properties like blend mode, opacity, etc - r38145
  • fix #27879 sequencer didn't draw overlapping strips well, selected were drawn under unselected, and active strips red border color for active strips was not clear enough - r38151
  • fix #28018 Sequence Swap Data Operator does not work - r38500
  • fix #28160 Pressing Y on an image sequence to seperate the images takes them out of their meta strips
  • fix: add strips not checking for overlap by default - r38775
  • Collada:
  • fix #27854 Collada import doesn't handle UVW mapping - r38169
  • option to export only the selection - r38079
  • Rendering:
  • fix #27777 vertex color disabled when in a reused node material - r38128
  • fix #27873 nan pixels in render with degenerate faces - r38139
  • fix #27888 Render artifacts in 2.58.1 - r38258
  • fix #27761 Deleting a material output of many causes no output
  • fix #28034 0.0 Alpha transparency with Raytrace Mirror doesn't render - r38576
  • fix #27910 baking ambient occlusion, do not consider closer object - r38599
  • fix #28201 blender crashes when "mpeg" selected for animation rendering - r39243
  • fix for crash of multires baker when baking from sculpt mode - r38439
  • fix bug with multires baking to float buffers - r38555
  • Compositing:
  • fix #27875 different texture nodes result after decompose/compose - r38140
  • fix: bokeh blur in the blur node is wronlgy calculated - r38347
  • Game Engine:
  • fix #27348 blenderplayer showing a different viewport size in 2.57b - r38501
  • fix #28026 Copy Game Property broken - r38635
  • fix #23874 Custom projection matrix doesn't work in custom viewport - r38696
  • Python:
  • fix #27863 converting curve spline type from python crashes - r38111
  • fix #27922 using preset_paths() with an absolute path returns twice the same thing raise an error when an invalid subdir is passed to preset_paths() - r38543
  • fix #28035 point density texture doesn't bake - r38700
  • fix #28111 material.pop breaks mt->mat_nr - r38879
  • fix #28196 assigning RNA arrays such as face UV's would fail in some cases - r39233
  • fix #28191 error when enabling an addon newer then the blender version - r39212
  • fix for bpy.path.abspath(), if a path was passed it would get the last directory cut off - r38504
  • fix for crash when setting layers or saving when there is no active scene - r38077
  • fix for scripts with python 3.3 - r38294
  • fix for crash/assert on running dir() on a non collection property - r38850
  • bgl.Buffer: supports slicing again - r38447
  • bgl.Buffer: fix for crash with negative index access not being clamped - r38447
  • corrected matrix, vector multiplication order (was wrong!) - r38674
  • rna function calls with optional parameters were not giving correct default values for arrays - r38735
  • allow pose bone matrix to be set - r38193
  • Interface:
  • fix #27900 file browser filter, sort, .. parameters were not saved. This is useful if you have a screen setup with a file browser editor - r38233
  • fix #26704 activating a texture node inside material nodes did not show that texture in the texture properties - r38370
  • fix #28005 Python Add-Ons are constantly reloaded if twice in the path - r38468
  • fix #28098 Continuous Grab does not work for movement of the "Backdrop" in the Node Editor - r38761
  • fix #27951 armature edit mode transform panel shows "nothing selected" even when something is selected - r38356
  • fix #28172 Cannot restore Add-ons tab in user preferences after a failed attempt to install an add-on - r39117
  • fix #28213 Imperial unit for 0.001 inches inconsistently displayed as mils and thous - r39297
  • fix: icon scaling with the DPI setting - r39066
  • fix: python error in image sampling panel drawing when there is no texture slot available - r38371
  • fix: icon listview where the icons would only wrap once - r38743
  • include menu ID's in tooltips when python tips are enabled - r38723
  • System:
  • fix #27850 keyboards with a comma instead of a dot on the numpad now get converted to a dot when typing into number buttons, for easier number entry - r38080
  • fix #27865 weird mouse warping with continuous grab on OS X - r38129
  • fix #27877 writing .avi files > 4 GB not working on windows - r38142
  • fix #28109 Old issue with OSX Cocoa code: shift+scrollwheel should send a 'horizontal wheel' event to Blender - r38848
  • fix #28102 Typing 'C:' into the file selector's directory asks to make a new directory - r39046
  • fix #28087 Opening files in the text editor ignores the last newline '\n' - r38722
  • fix "Problem with clock" at 18:39:00, the overflow of the clock was causing crash in the game engine in Linux - r38495
  • fix Modifier key sticks after Alt-tab on Win32 - r38826
  • Blender Addons:
  • Import/Export:
  • DirectX
  • Export fix for relative paths - r2084
  • fix for direct-x exporting vertex groups which had indicies out of the objects defgroup range - r2177
  • Make Human (MHX)
  • Importer Support for rigify - r2090
  • Added switch for ignoring Limit rotation and distance constraints - r2206
  • Quake MAP Export
  • fix 27860 Quake MAP export error for 2.58.1 - r2093
  • fix 27949 r2121 Quake MAP exports incomplete brush data from 2.58.1 - r2160
  • added options: scale, snap to whole value, face thickness, default brush - r2160
  • X3D
  • fix issue #1 27896 Names exported as "MA_Black".001 - r2108
  • fix issue #2 27896: zero length rotation axis exported - r2188
  • fix issue #3 27896: exporting dupli objects failed - r2189
  • fix 27833 X3D export incorrectly uses collision node - r2150
  • fix export non existing IndexedTriangleSet.creaseAngle - r2194
  • fix for exporting empty scene - r2220
  • OBJ
  • fix exporting dupli objects - r2197
  • fix 28146 OBJ export fails when mesh has no material - r2211
  • 3DS
  • fix 28150 transformation matrix not exported - r2214
  • Lightwave
  • fix 27916 Crash adding EdgeSplit/Bevel modifier to imported lwo mesh - r2135
  • FBX
  • fix 27964 2.58 FBX Export can result in missing data and lost animation(s) - r2140
  • fix 28029 Exporting linked groups to FBX to load on Unity3D - r2141
  • fix error where armature connections were written out twice - r2205
  • added option not to export 'Default Take' - r2212
  • Add XNA compatibility mode - r2205
  • Option to export XNA compatible armature rotations - r2205
  • Option not to export mesh edges - r2205
  • Always export armatures as 'Limb' type - r2205
  • Other:
  • Netrender
  • fix 27796 Netrendering "path:" failing - r2167
  • Save As Runtime
  • Skip expoting python libs on OSX since its already included - r2091
  • fix 27995 phyton32.dll caused "Appcrash" => Runtime crashes - r2191

New in Blender 2.58 (Jun 23, 2011)

  • Features:
  • Improvements to the point density texture, support for tweaking the falloff with a custom curve new falloff types based on the age or velocity of particles - R36399
  • New Warp modifier, can be used in a similar way to a Hook but with an adjustable source - R36414
  • Added support for sculpting on constructive modifiers - R36485
  • Image support for Empty Objects - R36577
  • Camera composition guides: center, thirds, golden rule, harmonious triangle - R36590, R36696
  • View controls can now apply to the camera view (locked camera view) - r36690
  • mousewheel zoom now zooms camera area when the camera is locked and in ortho view - R36783
  • Now HDR textures can be used to displace - R36714
  • New adjustment layer tracks in the sequencer - R36716
  • Additional bake modes: specular color, specular intensity, mirror color, mirror intensity, alpha (transparency), emission (glow) - R36738
  • Added option to baked named "Bake From Multires" which is avaliable for normals baking and displacement baking. - R37225
  • Support for update callbacks in python-defined RNA properties - R37260
  • Compositor math node round second value now changes the step to round by - R37292
  • Snap option not to project onto the edit-mesh - #25598, R37591
  • Operators which only define a directory are now treated as directory only selectors (no files) - R37552
  • Added support for baking object movement to the "Bake Action" operator - 37500
  • Added anisotropic filtering in viewport and Game Engine - R37521
  • Game Engine: Allow to change the damping of the camera actuator - #27425, R37455
  • Quick Explode operator: Sets up a particle system and an explode modifier. - R37431
  • Fluid Sim: Enable the possibility to remove the "air bubble" around submerged collision object. This feature is enabled as standard for new files. - R37441
  • Added support for tangent bump shading - R37644
  • Fixes Rendering:
  • World starfield generation would hang - #27174, R36349
  • General error in coderivative for orthogonal camera. Culprit was new bump failing on orthogonal cameras - #27492, R36987
  • Stamp text would not display some lower lines - #27221, R36390
  • Renderslot missing - #27285, R36503
  • Fix memory leak caused by re-making mipmaps - R36569
  • fix for DDS textures in DXT1n format - patch #21590: R36541,R36546
  • Support for rendering local view camera has been added back - R36384
  • Fixed: Volume Material Density Inaccuracy - #27438, 37227
  • Displacement mapping did not do linear interpolation between pixels, causing render artefacts. - #27081, R37342
  • Fixed: Scene's render.filepath gets cropped to 159 characters - #27607, 37363
  • Fix for: Full Sample AA (FSA) was failing in cases - #27519, R37433
  • Fix: bug with bump mapping + reflection texture coordinates + nodes. - #27540, R37453
  • Fix: When adding renderlayer nodes in a composite, without having own scene render, the renderlayer nodes were not tagged as changed, causing compositing to give previous result. - #27692, R37669
  • Compositor/Nodes:
  • Fix: RGB color node supports to set alpha too but never put alpha in the output - #27305, R36598
  • Fix: color key hue flipping error (composite node) - #27510, R37051
  • Fix: socket connection issue with node groups not working right - #27511, R37054
  • Fix: group nodes with a linked datablock that was missing would crash - #27309, R37106
  • Fix: Scaling in compositor down to 1 pixel size crashed Gaussian blur. - #27601, R37318
  • Fix for compositor round math node not working correctly - R37292
  • Node editor: collapsed node did not allow sizing it using the right hand side grab thingamabobs. - #27105, R37409
  • Display/Viewport:
  • GLSL color management + vertex color was not working right - #26697, R36443
  • GLSL diffuse/specular was not clamping negative values - #26807, R36444
  • Missing 3d view updates when editing GLSL material nodes - #27098, R36439
  • Fix: GLSL filter uniform variable not set for group instance. - #27635, R37446
  • Fix: reflection texture coordinates + nodes not working right in GLSL - #27703, R37655
  • Fix: crash drawing zero length motion paths - R37671
  • Tools:
  • Crash fix when removing IK constraints - #26920, R36473
  • Skeleton Sketching - Unclear UI for converting sketches into bones - #25886, R37006
  • Empty proxy did not maintain draw type and size - R36449
  • Creating a new UV layer in edit mode failed to copy previous one - #27176, R36350
  • When The FONT object is blank, the dimensions are calculated wrong - #27346, R36579
  • "Make single user Material+Tex" does not work for textures - #27443, R36822
  • Missing Live LSCM Update after Aligning of pinned vertices - #27198, R36376
  • Copy Mirrored UV Coords missing the reverse option - #27199, R36379
  • UV unwrap was stretching - #27164, R36348
  • Create new shapekey on lattice was always adding the mixed shape - #27485, R36906
  • adding shape keys now creates shapes from base mesh instead of from the current shape mix - R36692
  • Fix for difficulty selecting bones with boneshapes enabled and some bones made un-selectable - #27194, R36367
  • Extrude Repeat Mesh does not have options - #27224, R36397
  • Translation constraint was broken - #27333, R36806
  • Transforming with the center point directly on the view location would fail when constraining the axis - #27057, R36378
  • Bezier control points move incorrectly - #27217, R36573
  • fcurve/boolean evaluation, values below zero are no longer evaluated to true - R36903
  • converting grease pencil now works in the camera view - R36765
  • loopcut now follows "Release confirms" user preference - R36491
  • Flymode moving the camera or its root-parent is now a preference- #27459, R36824
  • Fix: Linked object (camera) should not be able to set position by using camera to view operator - #27557, R37091
  • Fix: vertex groups could have duplicate names set - #27554, R37199
  • Fix Mirror Shapekey and Mirror vertex Group not working for Lattice. - #27572, R37239
  • Fix for incorrect edge slide snapping - R37294
  • Fix vertex group copy to selected when some objects had no vertex groups R37302
  • Fix P key for setting playback range is clamped to > 0. - #27586, R37315
  • Fixed: Box select of mesh object disabled or translated due to curve object - #27615, R37327
  • Ending localview was not updating layers correctly - #27136, R37370
  • Fix: non-active object in weight paint mode does not free memory. - #27594, R37448
  • Fix: Script error for UVs->Copy Mirrored UV coords - #27707, R37685
  • Sculpt/Painting:
  • Going into sculpt mode could crash - #27271, R36464
  • Texture paint face selection mask did not work on multires - #27230, R36432
  • face mask selection in texture paint mode was broken since 2.4x - R36440
  • Fix: Sculpt data is lost after editing base mesh - #27539, R37087
  • Fix Color picker fails with a very small brush - #27559, R37242
  • Fix projection painting on float images, added color correction and improved speed. - R37276
  • Fix for float projection painting, now updating correctly. - R37276
  • Select vertex groups under the cursor in weight paint mode was missing from 2.4x- #27479, R36891
  • Fix: the radial control would fail, in sculpt mode, to set size if object-space sizing was enabled - R36975
  • Fix: Sculpt and Paint undo steps kept hanging in the sculpt/paint modes. - #27573, R37473
  • Modifiers:
  • Crash fix for edge split with certain topologies - #27266, R36455
  • Wave modifier falloff was incorrect compared with 2.4x - #27186, R36361
  • boolean intersects would give invalid results with no intersection - #27392, R37005
  • Armature multimodifier was not working in edit mode - #27480, R36913
  • Fix: vertex parenting not working with constructive modifiers. - #27654, R37503
  • Physics/Simulation:
  • Fix: particle Instance modifier does not work correctly with Hair Dynamics. - #27461, R37116
  • Keyed physics did not work properly if the first key was not the keyed particle system itself - R37430
  • Subframes cause dampened particles to behave differently - #27294, R36504
  • Fix: crash with point density texture when using particle age/velocity fallof for object vertices - #27241, R37103
  • One particle could be generated twice at vertex - #27131, R36701
  • Fix: Hair Combing intersects emitter when combed fast - #26939, R37693
  • Library System:
  • Make Proxy ignored group offset - #26727, R36375, R36456
  • Appending armatures with custom bone shapes brings no custom objects into scene.. impossible to edit - #27437, R36810
  • Append objects with linked materials disappeared after save when linking in files to an unsaved blend file, make all library paths absolute - #27405, R36735
  • Used light groups did not get linked in with materials automatically - #27465, R36914
  • Appending could crash with preview enabled - #27158, R36757
  • Fix f-curve generator modifier file read missed endian switch - #27541, R37073
  • Python Scripting:
  • Support for adding copies of existing drivers to other animdata blocks via PyAPI/RNA - R36342
  • Support for dynamic items in bpy.props.EnumProperty(), the items keyword argument can optionally be a function rather then a list - R36928
  • Loading data with bpy.data.libraries.load(), now swaps out the strings in the list to load with the actual datablocks - R36869
  • Fix WindowManager.invoke_search_popup() crashes blender and does not work - #27324, R36548
  • 3 problems: crash and enum "REGION" not found in ('VERTS') - #27035, R36741,R36743
  • screenshot operator can now be executed directly, python can screenshot with: bpy.ops.screen.screenshot(filepath="some_image.png") - R36770
  • Fixed: Python interactive console incorrect autocompleation - #27495, R37358
  • Fix: Python: crash assigning a 'set' to an array - #27681, R37575
  • Fix: Python memory leak converting ID Property groups to dictionaries - R37581
  • Fix: Memory leaks when creating popup window - #26621, R37589
  • Game Engine:
  • Crash when physics constraint is defined on non-active objects - #26775, R37026
  • Fix for broken embedded game engine viewport when not using letterboxing - R36964
  • No material rendered differently in View3D compared to the game engine - #27414, R36723
  • fix for Object Color in BGE - patch #27133, R36543
  • Python API: PhysicsConstraints ID was cast to an int on 64bit systems - #26753, R36970
  • Fix: audaspace not playing files in blenderplayer - #27562, R37110
  • Fix: Replace mesh for gfx in "Edit Object" actuator acted illogically + other booleans that are flipped - #27556, R37117
  • Python Controller, Clear "Script" when setting Script Controller mode to "Module" - R37427
  • Support for anti-aliasing and embedding for blenderplayer on windows - R36470
  • Sequencer (Video Editor):
  • Crash fix for large M4V - #27353, R36717
  • Strobe setting did not work with effect strip - #27422, R36734
  • Some settings of adjustment layers were not functional - #27421, R36734
  • Sequencer strips.elements was broken when strip was trimmed - R36909
  • Fix: effect sequence strips could have negative lengths, crashing with animated opacity #27568, R37172
  • Fix: Weird results when animating opacity on (color) strip - #27553, R37090
  • Fix sequencer effect transform resulting in overlapping strips - R37299
  • Fix: Transforming sequencer effects strips crashes - #27671, 37550
  • Fix: Add effect strip ignore channel argument - #27700, R37654
  • Interface:
  • 2D view panning and zooming is now fully keymappable - #27181, R36643
  • Shaded checkbox is not working - #27160, R36465
  • Menus disappear particle edit mode wireframe draw - #27257, R36441
  • Added missing seed button for halo materials - #27243, R36430
  • Text editor "Find" does not locate words - #27319, R36539
  • Tooltip text renders incorrectly - #27218, R36463
  • *Invalid Path* in all "operator presets" dropdowns - #27148, R36448
  • Global Pivot Option was not functional - #27268, R36462
  • Manipulator in particle mode does not work - #27142, R36703
  • Crash on image editor after loading exr images - #27478, R36895
  • Crashes with some high-res image thumbnail generation skip generating thumbs for images over 100mb - #27203, R36433
  • StringProperty with sub_type of FILE_PATH not updated correctly from icon - #26618, R36827
  • Fix menus getting closed too quick when moving mouse not exactly towards them, noticeable for the vertex groups or material slot utility menus - R36769
  • view/camera/set active object as camera sometimes "disabled" in gui (grayed out) - #27193, R36366
  • uvedit mesh selection sync did not handle click / shift+click for switching selection modes in the header - #27165, R36436
  • uiItemsFullEnumO: operator missing srna - #27304, R36508
  • Texture preview fails when path to custom brush icon is set - #26590, R36345
  • Fix direction properties not showing the right direction editing widget - R36771
  • improved image sequence usability by displaying the requested frame even if it cannot load - R36413
  • Image Editor toolbox menu has been removed (was an experiment and not in any other space) - R36435
  • Undo history added back, hotkey alt+ctrl+z (alt+apple+z for mac) - R37185
  • Popup menus now scroll when they dont fit in the screen - R37185
  • Interface DPI now scaled the entire UI - R37185
  • Avoid accidentally hideing headers (such as the file menu), when the header takes up the entire space - R37203
  • Fix: Manual save kills actual .blend file if disk space is low - #27410, R37098
  • Fix: export key configuration gave error when trying to export properties from an unknown (e.g. removed) operator. - #27490, R37075
  • Fix: texture node editor header was still showing texture datablock selector even if there is no active texture slot or node, now it's disabled in that case. - #27550, R37078
  • Fix: resetting default values on buttons: shortcut key changed from numpad 0 to delete, fix missing undo push - R37043
  • Fix for crash opening the file selector twice with multiple windows open - R37232
  • Fix keymap items created in python being added with the python operator names instead of the internal names. R37249
  • Fix for small button values displaying as zero - R37286, R37289
  • Fixed: Operator redo: F6 menu did not work for macros yet - #26886, R37339
  • Fixed: Turning off all OpenGL lamps gives strange behavior - #27627, R37373
  • Theme color fix for button type "Value slider". On text editing mode, the selected part of the text was invisible. - #27138, R37407
  • Fix: Color sliders greater then 1.0 dont show their ratios correctly - #27673, R37543
  • Fix: texture space panel was missing for curve & metaballs - #27660, R37592
  • Crash when closing new render window with render error message showing in the main window - #27522, R37022
  • Collada:
  • Fix: light quadratic attenuation exported wrong - #27463, R37454
  • Fix: crash on collada import if input_set is missing - #27474, R37658
  • Transparency texture import support - R37662
  • Fix: instance_node import incorrectly handled - #26821, R37663
  • Fix: Collada incorrect names/ids on import - #26912, R37664
  • System:
  • Fix crash with load/save on Mac, on files that close & open a window when loading them - #26728, R36840
  • Pasting long text crashes blender (Windows) - #27359, R36645
  • Command window was not opening (Windows) - #26981, R36426
  • Zoom not working after startup (Windows) - #26938, R36426
  • Fix crash when opening in Windows, non-latin char in path - #26715, R36507
  • Fixed scrolling lists with the mousewheel for some X11 windowmanagers - R36573
  • Various operators were missing with some non-english system languages Could not import key configuration with systemwide install - #27143, R36460
  • Fix: windows uninstaller could remove files unrelated to blender when installing to a folder that already existed. - #27481, R37074
  • Fix: Python/Windows issue: "import uuid" results in an error popup

New in Blender 2.57a (Apr 22, 2011)

  • Essential Fixes:
  • sculpting partial redraw glitch #26932, r36161
  • crash on entering 3D text editmode (OSX only) #26930, r36179
  • crash on loading 2.4x files #26904, r36148
  • loading file with packed audio crashes #26990, r36213
  • loading large blend files speed-up r36241, r36244
  • Rendering:
  • black dots with raytrace reflections & bump mapped dupli-objects #26902, r36165
  • render crash when tangents are used with modifiers that remove orco coordinates #26933, r36170
  • incorrect errors for panorama & orthographic camera combination #26906, r36184
  • no output from texture node group #27034, r36251
  • crash setting voxel data to negative resolution #27083, r36256
  • crash when loading invalid voxel data and resource leak - never closing files #27084, r36257
  • wrong sequencer alpha gradient #25713, r36197
  • Interface:
  • top bar 'Add -> Mesh -> UV Sphere + Enter' - crashed #27058, r36242
  • buttons with centered text truncating the first characters when there wasn't enough space #26937, r36174
  • single grease pencil points drawing very large in the image editor, r36154
  • incorrect relative path used when opening audio #26949, r36209
  • unpacking sounds with a long ID name #27015, r36214
  • ambiguous operator names in the search popup #26977, r36221
  • crash copying datablocks with ID Property arrays #26967, r36229
  • console is not hidden when start blender #26884, r36243
  • outliner objects showed "active" or "selected" in confusing ways #27026, r36248
  • freedesktop icons, incorrect install location and copying SVG #27086, r36260, r36261
  • sunsky presets used deprecated property names #27094, r36268.
  • non-functional user preference for clamping texture #26955, r36186
  • smooth tangent iteration field in curve panel not responding #26989, r36198
  • text editor indentation correction when when line contained ',' or ':' in a string, r36187
  • text editor copy/paste breaks formatting of script #27014, r36236
  • Tools:
  • "make fur" gave errors with multiple selected objects. r36250
  • mesh editmode de-selecting edge loops #26931, r36159
  • dupli-extrude-cursor added wrong location when nothing selected #27016, r36216
  • mesh rip tool access from menu fail #26936, r36226
  • crash copying mesh, armature, lattice and metaball datablocks while in editmode #27096, r36263, r36264
  • explode modifier - apply as shape impossible #27075, r36249
  • add object, localview and undo error #27044, r36245
  • buffer overflow with string lengths for operators that took ID names, r36219
  • Compositing:
  • 'Hue Correct' composite node saturates #26945, r36201
  • 'Displace Node' composite node crashes Blender when connected to Z-Buffer #26896, r36202
  • lens distortion composite node delivered RGBA out with alpha zero #26901, r36212
  • timeline camera switch failed with compositor renderlayers #26900, r36217
  • rendering non active scenes from the compositor used wrong frame, r36218
  • modified nodes inside edited groups not updating the view #27018, r36227
  • Python:
  • bpy.context.object.collision access crash #26995, r36204
  • crash running the transform operator from python #27011, r36215
  • button input could do incorrect unit system replacements of valid python expressions r36199, r36206
  • bpy.utils.blend_paths(True) crash #27072, r36246
  • Game engine:
  • blenderplayer wasn't finding bundled python #26951, r36208
  • game engine radar sensor broken #26795, r36234
  • Animation:
  • apply scale to armature offset bone children #27006, r36211, r36233
  • action/NLA editor issues with animation data context #25960, r36222
  • particle group object viewport and render scale mismatch #27008, r36224
  • action editor header doesn't update when entering tweakmode on NLA strips #25960, r36225
  • bugs when linking particles/collision/softbody modifiers #27038, r36228
  • separate armature would also separate active, unselected bone r36232
  • available keying set fails in armature pose mode #27090, r36258
  • b-bone doesn't resize correctly with numeric input #27095, r36270
  • Additions:
  • API for exporters to write paths with different absolute/relative options. r36155
  • image and compositor now show the color under the cursor as well as HSV and luminance. r36239

New in Blender 2.57 (Apr 14, 2011)

  • 1000s of fixes and feature updates since the 2.5 beta versions were published.

New in Blender 2.56 Beta (Dec 31, 2010)

  • Big improvements - This software has been used extensively in production of the Durian open movie project "Sintel".
  • Feature complete - Although some of the 2.5 targets have been postponed, such as multi-window support showing multiple scenes, a full RNA data level dependency graph, or radial menus.
  • Exciting improvements in Sculpting - Faster, much more stable and better brushes.
  • Missing/Incomplete Features - Although really most of it is there, not all functionality from 2.4x has been restored yet. Some functionality may work in a different way. Some features are still slower to use than before.
  • Bugs - We've fixed a lot lately, but there are still quite a few bugs. For this second beta around 200 bugs were fixed.
  • Changes - If you're used to the old Blenders, Blender 2.5 may seem quite different at first. Be prepared to read a bit about this, how to reconfigure things, and learn to use the new built-in 2.5 search functionality!

New in Blender 2.53 Beta (Jul 23, 2010)

  • Updated GUI:
  • Blender 2.5 has a new GUI layout, with updated graphic design and a new icon set. The GUI layout has been re-designed to be clearer, better organised and easier to navigate, and is fully customisable with Python scripting. Other improvements include a new file browser, customisable tool shelf and more.
  • Add-ons:
  • In Blender 2.53 we've implemented a new method for extending Blender with Python Scripts. These now are being distributed and stored as 'Add-ons" which you can choose to enable or disable each individually. This helps to keep the interface clean and well organized.
  • Data access:
  • Now all internal data in a .blend scene file, from individual vertices, to inter-object relations, to composite node UI positions, is fully accessible with a consistent system. This enables UI controls, Python Scripting API, the animation system and more, to access and edit all scene data consistently, while providing richer interaction and feedback such as contextual help, in-place keyframing and driver expression editing, and real world units of measurement.
  • Tool system:
  • An "Operator" is the new generalized definition of a tool in Blender. This ranges from file load/save, UI layout management to adding and editing objects and its data. Because the Operator is generic, it can be called uniformly by hotkeys, menus, buttons, or via Python. Operators can be searched, chained (macros) and can provide interactive editing with real-time updates.
  • Sculpt and Multi-resolution:
  • Sculpt mode in Blender has been optimized, increasing drawing and editing performance significantly, and reducing memory usage to support more detailed models. New tools have been added and existing ones improved. Multiresolution meshes have also been rewritten, now available as a modifier to integrate better with the animation system, and preserving displacements when editing the mesh topology.
  • Sculpt Brush and Stroke Upgrade:
  • In Blender 2.53 Beta the brush and stroke system has been significantly improved, both in usability as in quality.
  • Paint Brushes:
  • Blender's method of accessing brushes for painting tasks has been updated and streamlined. Brushes store all paint-related settings, such as size, strength, tool type, textures and influence curve, and can be switched between in the brush list box or with shortcut keys. As well as the preset brushes included with Blender, you can also save your own, and assign your own shortcut keys to them.
  • Solidify Modifier:
  • Blender 2.5 now includes a Solidify modifier, used to non-destructively add thickness to thin meshes (similar to 'shell' modifiers in other applications). Solidify allows you to model a simple thin mesh surface, and have a solid thickness automatically extruded by the modifier.
  • F-Curves, Actions, NLA:
  • One of the 2.5 specs is "make everything animatable". The implications of this didn't make it easy to just port things over, so a couple of important redesigns were needed: Individual properties are animated with F-curves, grouped into actions, and can be instanced and layered and mixed non-destructively in the NLA editor. Effects such as noise and enveloping can be added to animation curves and NLA clips with F-curve modifiers.
  • Spline IK:
  • Spline IK is a constraint which aligns a chain of bones along a curve. It is particularly well suited for rigging flexible body parts such as tails, tentacles, and spines, as well as inorganic items such as ropes. Read more...
  • Animation Editors
  • The animation editors have had a complete refresh in Blender 2.5 with a new graph editor, supporting multiple objects and F-curves simultaneously, a scene-wide dopesheet, a redesigned Non-Linear Animation editor and new functionality for shape animation, driver, expressions and keying sets.
  • Smoke Simulation:
  • Blender 2.5 includes a new fluid-based smoke simulation engine. Alongside this is capability to scale up a low-resolution sim, maintaining detail with wavelet turbulence. Smoke can be generated by input particle motion, and can be affected by colliding obstacles and force fields. The smoke data is output as voxels, which can be rendered as a volume.
  • Particles:
  • Particle systems have had a refresh, now taking advantage of fully interactive animation playback and editing. New additions include particle path editing with brush tools, a new point caching system, new boids physics and hair dynamics using cloth simulation.
  • Volume Rendering:
  • Blender 2.5 includes a volume material, intended for rendering particles and gases such as smoke, clouds, and fire. All procedural textures are supported as data sources, as well as two new textures for rendering voxels (such as smoke sims) and point clouds. Various shading options are available from wispy mist-like volumes, to physically based scattering and self-shadowing.
  • Ray tracing optimization:
  • As part of the google summer of code, the ray trace acceleration system has had a complete overhaul, making it significantly more efficient and with support for new features such as instancing. Now multiple BVH based acceleration structures are available, in artists' terms, rendering some scenes up to 10x faster!
  • Color management:
  • Blender 2.5 includes a first version of Color Management. Currently this is limited to ensuring Linear Workflow during the render pipeline - gamma corrected inputs are linearized before rendering, the renderer and compositor work in linear RGB color space, and is gamma corrected back to sRGB color space for display in the image editor.
  • Other rendering features:
  • Additional rendering features in 2.5 alpha 0 include improve bump mapping and image texture filtering, an initial version of deep shadow maps, and color management (integrated linear workflow).

New in Blender 2.49b (Feb 2, 2010)

  • Updates:
  • Update for new OpenAL windows library.
  • Update Japanese translation.
  • Upgrade extern/xvidcore to version 1.22. This fixes Xvid crashing on linux 64 bit.
  • Updated Blender/Python API and GameEngine docs.
  • Python Script Pack and Example Files.
  • Various Bugs:
  • SoftBody, vertex groups were not notified on deletion & fixes for Mass and Spring Painting
  • Softbody, non mesh objects missing initializers [bug #18982]
  • Self Shadow Vertex Colors, improved blur method to give more even results.
  • Converting nurbs to a mesh ignored smoothing for Alt+C and from python.
  • Object Active to Other, Fix python error when running in local view.
  • Ancient resource leak where checkPackedFile would open a file and never close it.
  • Fix for uninitialized memory use with X11 keyboard and tablet events.
  • Fix for building with CLang (LLVM)
  • Render Bugs:
  • Using LightGroups override for material doesn't work for preview renders.
  • Render Stamp, error in setting the alpha value when drawing text into a char buffer.
  • Lumma Matte, Fix in low value setting.
  • Originally checked against the wrong channel (chroma) instead of the luminence channel. Changed default value for high value to 1.0 from 0.0
  • Baking selected to active with nearby dupliframes objects crashes blender [bug #19029]
  • Fix for high energy sunlamps, turning specular black [bug #18837]
  • Game Engine Bugs:
  • Saving runtime on Windows didn't work with python2.6
  • Let IPO's animate the ref value for KX_BlenderMaterial's
  • Game Engine Python Bugs:
  • Converting a mesh from a python argument was broken but happened to work in some cases.
  • Memory leak fix for action.channelNames.
  • Was writing to freed memory when freeing a python object in some cases.
  • Removing GameLogic.EvalExpression(), was unstable.
  • Crash fix when casting a ray to the same location as the object.
  • Fixed KX_PolyProxy returning improper VertexIndex with mixed triangles and quads with using .getVertexIndex() and .v1, .v2, etc. [bug #19254]
  • Fixed obj.sendMessage() with 4 arguments crashing blender [bug #18963]
  • Game Engine Bullet Bugs:
  • Crash fix when a parent compound object didn't have a physics controller.
  • Fix for the torque actuator x -& y-axis not working.
  • Sequencer Bugs
  • IPO curve-deletion resulted in non-working effect
  • easy retiming only allowed enlarging of strips, now shrinking is also possible (easy retiming: use the right display handle of input strip and shrink or enlarge, will make the speed of the strip exactly fit the effect strip's length)
  • frames after end-of-display of input strips can now be accessed.
  • frame blending can now be done on more than two frames, enabling really fine grained motion blur if you speed up a sequence with high factors (bigger than two).
  • Scene-Strip rendering with compositor scenes failed, if they had no camera attached.
  • Fixed hdd-audio for sample formats other than 16 bit (8 bit eg).
  • Import/Export Bugs:
  • FBX Export, Incorrect formatting that broke some converters.
  • BVH Motion Capture Import, Did not support single rigid body objects. [bug #18949]
  • OBJ Import, fix for importing of transparent faces from .mtl files - ZTrans now is set for them as well. (improves import from SketchUp)
  • Collada export, Empty material slot would raise a python error.
  • Collada import, fixes for increased Sketchup interoperability and more.
  • Quake MAP Export, empty nodes were not exported, also noticed files were invalid if there were no meshes or surfaces.
  • Quake MAP Export, had support for single triangular brush unnecessarily disabled.
  • Quake MD2 Export, Fix for vertex normals [patch #19206]
  • Python API
  • Mathutils (quat_a*quat_b) was broken, returned (quat_a*quat_a) instead.
  • Support for editing properties IpoCurve.driverBone and IpoCurve.driverBone2 and modifies IpoCurve.driverChannel to allow OB_ROT_DIFF.
  • Documentation corrections.
  • Support for rendering background scenes different from the active scene.
  • scene.render.render() now behaves the same in interactive and background mode
  • scene.render.saveRenderedImage() now works correctly in background mode
  • Armature active bone can be set.
  • New:
  • 16bit SGI image loading
  • When BLENDER_FORCE_SWAPBUFFERS env variable is defined, a function is enabled that fixes some menu drawing issues with Mesa3D DRI drivers for Intel and Radeon cards.
  • Python API - Particles
  • Draw As variable and dict
  • Strand render toggle
  • Object, psys variable in duplicate
  • Material, Strand render variables
  • Texture, Use colorbands
  • Lamp, Spot buffer type selection
  • Game Engine Physics support for reinstancePhysics mesh from Python and the dynamic actuator.
  • ReplaceMesh Actuator option to replace the physics mesh and display mesh + python api options.
  • Mouse focus sensor "pulse" option to pulse TRUE when the object under the mouse changes.
  • EDL importer for the sequencer. supports...
  • audio, video edits
  • fades, wipes, speed changes (video only)
  • importing from multiple reels

New in Blender 2.49 (Jun 1, 2009)

  • Video Texture:
  • The Game Engine now supports multiple streams of video textures for interactive playback in environments. You can use video files (also from URLs), image files, video captures, memory buffer, camera render or a mix of that.
  • Texture Nodes:
  • Next to Compositing and Materials, Blender Textures now support Node editing. You can use it to create advanced procedural textures, including fractal based systems. And even better, a Texture Nodetree can even become a Brush for painting.
  • Real-time Dome rendering:
  • This feature allows artists to visualize their interactive projects within an immersive dome environment. Blender supports Fulldome, Truncated domes (front and rear), Planetariums and domes with spherical mirrors.
  • Projection Painting:
  • Painting in the 3D view has been improved to support projection painting which allows you to paint directly onto your model without having to worry about UV mapping or seams.
  • Game Engine speed-up:
  • Significant speedup has been achieved in several areas;
  • - Scene Graph optimizes static objects
  • - View Frustum culling
  • - Occlusion culling
  • - Faster Bullet physics initializing
  • Overall improvement is significant, a complex game like YoFrankie runs 3x faster now.
  • Etch-a-ton armature sketching:
  • Etch-a-ton is a development snapshot for sketching techniques applied to rigging. It can be used both for creating chains of deformation bones through various subdivision techniques or through retargetting templates.
  • Bullet Physics:
  • The Bullet library upgrade in this release includes brand new generic 6dof constraint with run-time configurable limits, motors and springs to allow for physics-based vehicles, forklift, robots and ragdolls.
  • Boolean improvements:
  • In 2.49 you can put a Boolean Modifier on any level in the stack, allowing you to intersect deformed or subdivided models too. You can also insert multiple Booleans in one stack now.
  • JPEG2000 support:
  • Blender now supports the new high quality JPEG format. It has much better compression, supports Alpha layers, and HDR color up to 16 bits per channel. JPEG2000 support is available in Blender everywhere, including Sequencer, Compositor and UV texture editor.
  • Game Engine Modifier support:
  • Support for non-time dependent modifiers in the GE: no need to apply the modifiers before running the game! Works for physics shape too.
  • Python Script extensions:
  • New scripts have been added, tools such as Landscape or Bolt generators, and the importer/exporters had several updates and fixes.
  • Improved Game Logic and Python API:
  • Improve stability, documentation and completeness for the python API.
  • Attribute access
  • GameObject properties of any type.
  • OpenGL and Geometry modules
  • New logic and the rendering functions
  • Better error feedback

New in Blender 2.47 Final (Oct 3, 2008)

  • New tools and improvement have been made to the Snapping tools.
  • Better Game Engine logic.
  • Revised alpha blending in the Game Engine.
  • PyConstraints and PyDrivers are not executed unless scriptlinks are enabled (for improved security)
  • Fixed an incorrect transformation for particle group visualization.
  • Fixed negative value in the Gamma node with negative input.
  • Tangent shading (which only affects specular) made bump mapping not work for diffuse.
  • Fixed Mesh Deform Modifier not working on extruded curves.
  • Fixed crash converting old particle system from a linked file.
  • Object instancing didn't restore matrices correct for Environment Map, this could give object rendering in the wrong position.
  • Compositor nodes with use nodes disabled didn't properly redraw the node window on changes.
  • Blender would crash if the user cancel the hair softbody bake.
  • The Disable Tex option didn't disable textures for the Texface material option.
  • Fixed data browse for image painting, which didn't work.
  • Action Editor Border Select Channels no longer selects bones.
  • Fix bug in X-Mirror for armatures. When a bone in a mirrored chain wasn't named propertly, it would leave the head or tail in an invalid state.
  • Fixed baking AO with greater then 16 samples.
  • Fixed "Col" option for particle systems does not work correctly with Mat IPOs
  • Fixed Particle mirror could fail on some faces.
  • Bevel tool was hanging on certain geometry where the edge to be beveled was shared by two faces that had more than one edge in common and caller was not checking return status of Bmesh eulers.
  • Fixed Game Engine corrupts Pose data
  • When your home directory is full, saving defaults would fail without raising an error.
  • Fixed crash on grab/move on axis when nothing selected.
  • Update-automatically option in IPO Editor now updates objects using the active IPO-block as their ObAction when transforming keyframes.
  • Shift+H would hide unselected objects on unseen layers.
  • Color picker didn't always redraw rgb/hsv/hex values.
  • Vertex parenting didn't work correct with multiple unconnected curves.
  • Fixed crash in fluid bake with large amount of small fluid objects.
  • Outliner doesn't update when changing parent in Transform Properties