Whats coming with Blender 5.0

[peq42]

Blender 4.5 LTS just released, but 5.0 is just around the corner, and its looking exciting!

1. Support for Massive Geometry: Blender 5.0 will handle extremely large models with millions of vertices more efficiently. This is a major upgrade for artists working with detailed 3D scans, simulations, or extensive game assets.

2. Grease Pencil Motion Blur: The Grease Pencil feature, which allows for 2D drawing in a 3D space, will now support motion blur in renders. This enhancement will provide a more cinematic and fluid look to hybrid 2D/3D animations.

3. Improved User Interface (UI): The UI will see several refinements, including better drag-and-drop functionality, especially for shape keys, improved outliner behavior and feedback, and unified widget styles across the interface. These changes aim to make Blender feel more intuitive and approachable, particularly for new users.

4. Better Interaction with the Video Sequencer: A small but useful change is that when users press Shift + A to add a strip in the Video Sequencer, the strip will now appear precisely where the mouse cursor is, reducing accidental misplacements.

5. UV Sync Selection Improvements: There are indications that the long-standing request for fixing or improving UV Sync Selection will be addressed in this version.

6. Edit Mode Symmetry: More operators will support Edit Mode symmetry, which previously had partial implementation and was not very practical.

7. Subsurface Scattering Improvements: Blender 5.0 will feature a more accurate random walk subsurface scattering with multiple bounces. This enhancement will reduce darkening artifacts but may increase render time.

8. Volume Rendering with NanoVDB: Smoke and fire simulations will be rendered using NanoVDB, which significantly reduces memory usage at the expense of some performance. Cubic interpolation will utilize stochastic sampling when possible to improve performance, introducing a small amount of noise but maintaining a close-to-linear interpolation quality.

9. Faster Voronoi Texture Node: The Voronoi texture node has been optimized with a faster hashing algorithm, making it several times faster. This change will alter the resulting pattern compared to previous versions. The performance boost is most noticeable in CPU-based rendering paths, such as Cycles CPU, OSL, and when the Voronoi texture is used in Texture, Geometry nodes, or the CPU Compositor.

 

Expected Release Timeline:

• • Beta begins: October 1, 2025
  • Release Candidate: November 5, 2025
  • Final release: November 11, 2025

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