The Blender Foundation has launched Blender 4.2, the latest in its open-source 3D software series for VFX, animation, game development, and visualization. This release introduces 'Eevee Next', a major update to Blender’s real-time render engine. Animator Remington 'SouthernShotty' provides an overview of the essential updates in Eevee Next. This highly anticipated overhaul enhances Blender’s real-time renderer, focusing on enhancing quality and stability.
Key changes include new sculpting tools, GPU-accelerated compositing, and the Extensions platform, Dive into Top 5 features of Blender as following:
1. Blender 4.2 introduces Eevee Next, a significant upgrade to Blender’s real-time render engine. It enhances visual quality and stability with new features like screen-space ray tracing for Global Illumination, real-time displacement, viewport motion blur, and support for unlimited lights. Improvements also include better rendering of shadows, world volumes, and depth of field. Note that scenes created in older versions of Blender will require conversion due to structural changes in Eevee.
2. Cycles in Blender 4.2 introduces Ray Portal BSDF, enhancing production rendering with capabilities for creating non-physically based effects, such as portals and architectural visualizations. Users can control light ray direction and tint after passage, with support for AOVs to refine reflections and refractions. Additionally, geometry can now be trimmed along lines, polylines, and selections, streamlining polygonal shape adjustments during sculpting.
3. Blender’s digital sculpting tools in version 4.2 include eight new additions, expanding on Trim, Face Set, Mask, and Hide functionalities with Line and Polyline tools. These tools, previously limited to Box and Lasso selections, now offer quick polygonal shape cutting capabilities. Additionally, Trim tools benefit from improved solver options and a new iterative mesh visibility adjustment feature. Blender's built-in compositor sees significant speed enhancements in this release, with GPU acceleration enabled by default and a considerably faster CPU backend.
4. Blender 4.2 significantly speeds up its built-in Compositor with GPU acceleration now standard for final renders, replacing its previous experimental status. The CPU backend has also been revamped, resulting in much faster performance, often several times quicker than before. Both backends are designed to deliver nearly identical results, though some options have been streamlined and non-destructive changes may no longer be supported. These updates necessitate checking the release notes for compatibility details. Additionally, Blender introduces the new Blender Extensions library, offering a community-approved repository of free, open-source software extensions.
5. In Blender 4.2, a new Extensions Platform has been introduced, offering an official online library of approved add-ons for the software (Launched in beta in May). Add-ons listed must be free, open-source, and GPL-compliant, though they can interface with commercial plugins. They must also specify internet or file system access requirements. Add-ons undergo a public review process for inclusion, with over 170 available currently and more in line for approval. Users can manage installations and updates directly within Blender's Preferences under the new Extensions section, replacing the old Add-ons section.
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