The Blender Foundation unveiled recently the launch of the new version Blender 3.0, version in which a large number of changes and improvements have been introduced, including new interface elements, improvements in the rendering engine, among other things.
For those who are unfamiliar with Blender, you should know that this is a free 3D modeling package suitable for a variety of 3D modeling related tasks, 3D graphics, game development, simulation, rendering, compositing, motion tracking, sculpting, animation creation, and video editing.
Main news in Blender 3.0
In this new version the user interface has been updated and a new skin has been proposed in which the interface elements have become more contrasting and menus and panels now have rounded corners. The appearance of different widgets has been unified, Besides that the implementation was improved from thumbnail preview and scaling.
It is also highlighted that a new editor has been added: the Asset Browser, which simplifies working with various additional objects, materials, and environment blocks. Provides the ability to define item libraries, group items in catalogs, and attach metadata such as descriptions and tags for easy searching. You can attach arbitrary thumbnails to items.
The rendering engine Cycles has been redesigned with significant improvements In GPU rendering performance, it is stated that thanks to new code executed on GPU side and change in scheduler, compared to previous version, the rendering speed of typical scenes has been increased from 2 to 8 times.
Additionally, support has been added for hardware computation acceleration using NVIDIA CUDA and OptiX technologies. New AMD HIP backend added for AMD GPUs (Heterogeneous Interface for Portability), offering a C ++ runtime and C ++ dialect to create portable single-code applications for AMD GPUs and NVIDIA GPUs (AMD HIP is currently only available for Windows and cards discrete RDNA / RDNA2, and for Linux and older AMD graphics cards will appear in Blender 3.1 release).
Also the quality and responsiveness of the interactive viewport rendering were significantly improved, even with blending mode enabled. Shift is especially useful when adjusting lighting. Separate presets added for viewport and sampling. Improved responsive sampling. Added the ability to set the time limit for scene rendering or rendering until a specific number of samples is reached.
Library Intel OpenImageDenoise has been updated to version 1.4, which made it possible to increase the level of detail after removing noise in the viewport and during final rendering. A new pre-filter setting has been added to the pass filter to control noise reduction using auxiliary and normal albedo.
Added mode Shadow Terminator to remove artifacts on the edge of light and shadow, which are typical of models with a large polygon mesh pitch. In addition, a new implementation of the Shadowhunter is proposed, which supports bounced light and backlighting, as well as settings to control the coverage of real and synthetic objects. Improved the quality of colored shadows and accurate reflections when mixing 3D with real frames.
The rendering engine Eevee, performs 2-3 times faster when editing very large meshes. Implemented "Wavelength" and "Attribute" nodes to define custom mesh attributes. Full support is provided for attributes generated by geometry nodes.
The geometric object management interface has been extended based on nodes (Geometry Nodes), in which the method of determining groups of nodes has been redesigned and a new attribute system has been proposed. About 100 new nodes were added to interact with curves, text data, and object instances.
Video Sequencer adds support for working with images and video tracks, preview thumbnails and convert tracks directly in the preview area, similar to how it is implemented in the 3D viewport. In addition, the video editor provides the ability to link arbitrary colors to the tracks and added the overwrite mode by placing one track on top of another.
It is also highlighted that scene inspection capabilities have been expanded using virtual reality headsets, including the ability to view controllers and navigation via teleportation through the scene or flight over the scene. Added support for Varjo VR-3 and XR-3 3D helmets.
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