The long-awaited version of Blender 2.80 finally comes to us, since as we had mentioned repeatedly here on the blog this new version was planned for these dates, but there was no exact one, so its release was only on hold.
Well, the people who are in charge of developing Blender are pleased to announce the launch of the free 3D modeling package Blender 2.80, which It has become one of the most important releases in the history of the project. Since it adds many new features and also goes on to fix a handful of bugs.
What's new in Blender 2.80?
With the arrival of this new version of Blender, aOne of the main novelties that stand out is the user interface that has been drastically redesigned, which has become more familiar to users who have experience with other graphics packages.
A new dark theme and familiar panels with a modern icon set have been proposed instead of text descriptions.
The changes also affected mouse / tablet working methods and hotkeys.
Templates and workspace concepts are proposed (tabs), which allow you to quickly start working on a required task or switch between various tasks (for example, sculptural modeling, drawing textures, or following movements) and give you the opportunity to adapt the interface to your preferences.
A completely rewritten Viewport mode was also implemented, which allows you to display a 3D scene in a way that is optimized for various tasks and integrated with the workflow.
In addition, a new workbench rendering engine has been proposed, optimized for modern graphics cards and allows working with an active preview when manipulating with stage design, modeling and sculptural modeling.
The Workbench Engine supports overlays, allowing you to change the visibility of items and manage their overlap.
Overlays are now also supported when previewing render results with Eevee and Cycles renders, allowing you to edit the scene with full shading.
The smoke and fire simulation preview, which is close to rendering results using physically correct rendering, has been modified.
Eevee enhancements
Based on the Eevee engine, a new rendering mode, LookDev, has been prepared, which allows testing of Extended Brightness Ranges (HDRI) without changing light source settings.
LookDev mode too can be used to preview the Cycles rendering engine.
Also Eevee received a new render, which supports physically correct rendering in real time and use only GPU (OpenGL) for rendering. Eevee can be used both for final rendering and in the Viewport window to create assets in real time.
Eevee supports materials created using shader nodes common to the Cycles engine, allowing Eevee to render existing scenes without separate settings, even in real time.
For creators of computer games resources, a Principled BSDF shader is offered, compatible with the shader models of many game engines.
In Blender 2.80 we can find a new interactive toolbar and a gizmo to 3D Viewport and the Unwrap Editor (UV), as well as a new contextual toolbar, which includes tools previously only called via keyboard shortcuts.
Gizmos have been added to various elements, including light sources, camera, and background composition, to adjust shape and attributes.
Finally also highlights a two-dimensional drawing and animation system, the Grease Pencil, which allows you to create 2D sketches and then use them in a 3D environment as three-dimensional objects (a 3D model is formed based on several flat sketches from different angles).
If you want to know more about this launch as well as the download of this new version you can consult the following link.