19. November 2024
Blender 4.3 Features & Release
Hey, Blender fans! 🎨
Blender 4.3 was officially released on November 19, 2024, bringing a wave of significant updates and performance enhancements across the board. This release is packed with improvements, particularly for Grease Pencil, Sculpting, and Geometry Nodes, alongside notable advancements in EEVEE, Cycles, and the User Interface. Whether you’re animating, modeling, or rendering, there are some exciting new features to explore that will streamline your workflows and expand your creative possibilities.
Table of Contents
- Release Schedule
- Grease Pencil: Reimagined & Reborn
- Sculpt, Paint, Texture: Performance & Assets
- Geometry Nodes: For Each Element & More
- EEVEE & Viewport Enhancements
- Cycles Rendering Improvements
- Modeling & UVs
- Compositor
- User Interface
- Import & Export
- Animation & Rigging
- Core
- Video Sequencer
You can feel a little lost when learning new features so this resource has compiled it all for you and sumarized it.
| Phase | Stage | Description | Date | Branch |
|---|
| Bcon1 | Alpha | New features and changes | June 5, 2024 | main |
| Bcon3 | Beta | Bug fixing only | October 2, 2024 | blender-v4.3-release |
| Bcon4 | Release Candidate | Prepare release | November 13, 2024 | blender-v4.3-release |
| Bcon5 | Release | Official release | November 19, 2024 | blender-v4.3-release |
| Feature | Details | Commit/ Pull Request |
|---|
| Complete Rewrite (Grease Pencil 3) | A fundamental overhaul of the Grease Pencil toolset, aiming for improved performance and deeper integration with other Blender systems, such as Geometry Nodes. This lays a solid foundation for future development, particularly for 2D animation and storyboarding. | - |
| Performance Gains | Multi-threaded operations significantly improve performance, especially for heavy scenes. File sizes are also reduced by 2.5x to 3.4x. | - |
| Layer Groups | New layer grouping functionality for better organization and easier management of visibility. | - |
| Geometry Nodes Integration | Grease Pencil objects can now be directly manipulated by Geometry Nodes, with support for layers, curves, and custom attributes. This enables procedural workflows for 2D animation and illustration. | - |
| Conversion Nodes | New nodes to convert Grease Pencil data to regular curves and back, preserving attributes and materials. | - |
| Brush Management as Assets | Grease Pencil brushes are now managed as assets, making them easily shareable and reusable across projects through the Asset Browser. | - |
| Enhanced Eraser Tool | The eraser tool can now cleanly cut through strokes anywhere by creating new points, instead of just removing existing vertices. | - |
| New Fill Gradient Tool | A new Fill Gradient tool can be used to adjust fill gradients in the active material layer. | - |
| Simplified Stroke Thickness | Screen-space stroke thickness has been removed, but the same effect can be recreated using Geometry Nodes. | - |
| Forward Compatibility Only | Grease Pencil v3 files saved in Blender 4.3 are not backward compatible with Blender 4.2 or earlier; however, older files import fine into 4.3. | - |
| Feature | Details | Commit/ Pull Request |
|---|
| Brush Asset System | Brushes are now assets, allowing easy saving, sharing, and reuse across projects via the Asset Browser. This includes a large number of default brush assets in the Essentials library. | - |
| Performance Overhaul | Major refactor under the hood to improve sculpting performance. Entering sculpt mode is up to 5x faster, and brush evaluation is approximately 8x faster for mesh sculpting. | - |
| Brush Asset Shelf | The main types of tools are found in the toolbar, with all brush presets available in a new Asset Shelf in the 3D Viewport when in Sculpt Mode. | - |
| Improved Built-in Brushes | Settings for all built-in brushes have been tweaked based on user feedback for a more polished out-of-the-box sculpting experience. | - |
| New Sculpting Tools | Expanded brush toolset with new general sculpting brushes (e.g., Grab 2D, Grab Silhouette) and overhauled cloth sculpting brushes. | - |
| Polyline Gesture Enhancements | Lasso tools now feature optional stroke stabilization, and a polyline gesture can be finished with a double-click. | - |
| Sculpt Mask in Node Tools | The sculpt mask is now accessible within node tools. | - |
| Mask from Boundary Operator | New operator to modify mask values based on mesh or face set islands. | - |
| Voxel Size Operator | The Voxel Size operator now works in relative mode by default. | - |
| Texture Preview in Lists | Users can now preview textures directly in the texture list by hovering over them in the UV editing space and Shader editor. | - |
| Feature | Details | Commit/ Pull Request |
|---|
| For Each Element Zone | A new loop zone allowing operations on each element (vertex, edge, face, etc.) of a geometry, simplifying repetitive processes and significantly improving calculation speed compared to the Repeat Zone. | 6e5e01e630 (For Each Element zone) |
| Gizmos for Node Groups | Ability to add gizmos to node groups, allowing direct manipulation of node tree inputs in the 3D viewport for a more intuitive and hands-on experience. | - |
| Grease Pencil Support | Geometry Nodes now work seamlessly with Grease Pencil data, treating it as layers, curves, and custom attributes. Many existing curve nodes are updated to work implicitly with Grease Pencil data. | - |
| Set Geometry Name Node | A new node to assign names to geometries, improving organization and debugging in the Spreadsheet editor. Names are automatically initialized and propagated through most nodes. | dc8e9678e1 (Set Geometry Name) |
| Custom Warnings | Node groups can now have custom warnings, allowing creators to notify users of potential issues with input combinations. | - |
| Packed Bakes | Bakes can now be packed. | - |
| New Utility Nodes | Introduction of Hash Value, Integer Math, and Matrix Determinant nodes. The Value to String node now supports integer conversion without floating-point issues. | 294994e4b9 (Hash Value), bf04513dec (Integer Math), 22d78c5a8e (Matrix Determinant) |
| Improved Node Timings | Node timings are now more accurate. | - |
| Simulation Zone Updates | The “Skip” checkbox in the Simulation Zone is now hidden. | - |
| Node Insertion with Link-Drag-Search | Improved convenience when inserting nodes by dragging to search and connecting them directly to noodles. | 83fa562043 |
| Feature | Details | Commit/ Pull Request |
|---|
| Light Linking | EEVEE now supports light linking, allowing lights to affect only specific objects and providing more artistic control over lighting effects, achieving feature parity with Cycles. | - |
| Shadow Linking | Shadow linking is also supported, giving control over which objects cast shadows from a specific light. | - |
| Multi-pass Compositing Support | Basic multi-pass compositing in the viewport now works in EEVEE. This enables more advanced compositing workflows. | - |
| Vulkan Backend (Experimental) | Experimental support for Vulkan to render the user interface, available on Windows and Linux with AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA GPUs. It offers potential for multi-threading, lower CPU overhead, and direct GPU memory control. | - |
| Improved Motion Blur | Noticeably less ghosting in 4.3’s motion blur compared to 4.0, leading to more accurate motion trails for fast-moving objects. | - |
| Enhanced Shadow Handling | Shadows are better handled in EEVEE Next, and light color approximation is improved. | - |
| Global Illumination (Ambient Occlusion) | Global Illumination is a new setting for ambient occlusion, with distance and thickness controls. | - |
| Feature | Details | Commit/ Pull Request |
|---|
| Metallic BSDF Node | A new dedicated node for metallic materials, offering both an artist-friendly F82 Tint Conductor Fresnel approximation and a physically accurate Full Conductor Fresnel mode using IOR and Extinction coefficients. Seamless compatibility between Cycles and EEVEE. | - |
| Volume Scattering Phase Functions | Cycles volumes now include new Phase Function options, enabling more accurate replication of common environments like clouds, atmosphere, underwater, and space dust. This includes the Fournier-Forand function for underwater haze and Henyey-Greenstein for atmospheric scattering. | - |
| Diffuse Roughness Input | The Principled BSDF now includes a Diffuse Roughness input, allowing users to transition from the Lambertian diffuse algorithm to the more physically accurate Oren-Nayar algorithm. This results in slightly brighter and more saturated results for highly rough diffuse surfaces. | - |
| Oren-Nayar BSDF Enhancements | The Oren-Nayar BSDF is now energy-preserving and accounts for multi-scattering, matching OpenPBR standards. | - |
| Hardware Accelerated Ray-tracing on Linux | Support for hardware accelerated ray-tracing using HIP-RT on AMD GPUs on Linux. | - |
| Panoramic Camera Projection | The panoramic camera now supports central cylindrical projection, useful for projecting renders onto large curved screens. | - |
| Minimum Driver Requirements (NVIDIA) | Increased minimum driver version requirement for NVIDIA GPUs to 495.89 due to updating to OptiX 7.4. | 4f5b6b114d |
| Gabor Noise Texture | A new Gabor Noise texture node creates controllable random bands and can also generate omnidirectional noise. | - |
| Metal Backend Changes (macOS) | Support for AMD and Intel GPUs through the Metal backend of Cycles has been removed on macOS. | c8340cf754 |
| Vega Support Removal (AMD HIP) | Support for Vega in Cycles AMD HIP backend has been removed. | c2f93e0f68 |
| Feature | Details | Commit/ Pull Request |
|---|
| Bevel Modifier with Custom Attributes | The Bevel modifier can now use any edge attribute as a bevel weight, allowing for multiple modifiers with different custom weights and non-destructive control via Geometry Nodes. | - |
| Minimum Stretch (SLIM) UV Unwrapping | A new UV unwrapping algorithm based on the SLIM algorithm, designed to improve area stretching for tricky surfaces or when fewer seams are desired. | - |
| Copy Material to Selected | When mesh material slots are assigned to the object (allowing instances to have different materials), the “Copy Material to Selected” command now preserves this object relationship. | - |
| Subdivision Surface Sharpening | Helps in sharpening subdivision surfaces for complex hard-surface objects. | - |
| Feature | Details | Commit/ Pull Request |
|---|
| GPU Compositor Cryptomatte Metadata | The GPU compositor now supports Cryptomatte metadata, necessary for exchanging Cryptomatte through EXRs using the File Output node. | - |
| New White Point Conversion Mode | The Color Balance node gains a new White Point conversion mode for seamless conversion between different temperatures or tints. | - |
| File Output: Save As Render Option | A new global “Save As Render” option has been added to the File Output node to specify whether color management should be applied to the output. | - |
| Auto Render Removed | The “Auto Render” option has been removed from the Compositor as real-time viewport compositing provides similar functionality. | - |
| Multi-pass Compositing for EEVEE | Now supports multi-pass compositing for EEVEE. | - |
| Feature | Details | Commit/ Pull Request |
|---|
| SVG Icons | All icons in the UI are now rendered as SVGs, ensuring crispness at any UI scale. | - |
| Increased Resolution Scale | The maximum resolution scale has been increased to 6x for properties and 3x for interactive elements. | - |
| Editor Area Highlighting | The active editor is now indicated by edge highlighting rather than a tinted header, improving accessibility. | - |
| Enhanced Area Docking/Splitting | Splitting editors by dragging from any corner now initiates a docking operation, allowing more flexible arrangement of windows. Holding Ctrl while dragging swaps editors. | - |
| Improved Color Picker | The color picker UI is now more compact, and its performance has been greatly improved. | - |
| Node Editor Improvements | Node groups can have a default node width, and hovering over panels on nodes now shows their description as a tooltip. String sockets can use placeholders for wider input fields. Inserting nodes with link-drag-search is more convenient. | e842966c5e (node width), c0179a1b78 (panel descriptions), a6d5652043 (string placeholders), 83fa565ec2 (link-drag-search) |
| File Browser Enhancements | Forward and backward mouse buttons now navigate the file browser. Files not found are no longer automatically removed from the Recent Files list but can be cleared manually. | - |
| Tooltip Previews | Tooltips now show previews of images, movies, and fonts when hovering over assets. | - |
| Dialog Improvements | Dialogs now show a move cursor when draggable, and large and small confirmation dialogs have improved layouts. Panels are now supported in dialog popups. | - |
| Timeline/NLA Padding | Added padding to the bottom of the Video Sequencer Editor (VSE) and NLA editors for the Adjust Last Operation panel. Horizontal scrollbars are hidden when there isn’t enough room. | - |
| Control Point Size (Custom Curve Properties) | Control points in custom curve properties are now larger. | - |
| Auto-Keying Button Color | The Auto-Keying button is now colored red when active. | - |
| Window Titles | Windows with a single editor now have descriptive titles. | - |
| Feature | Details | Commit |
|---|
| USD - Point Cloud Export | The Universal Scene Description (USD) format now supports exporting point clouds. | - |
| USD - Material Purposes | Material purposes can be assigned on import. | - |
| USD - Improved Asset Path Handling | Handling of asset paths has been improved. | - |
| USD - Efficient Animated Attribute Export | Exporting animated attributes is now more efficient. | - |
| glTF - Fixes & Enhancements | A significant number of fixes and enhancements, including associating UDIM material names with tile numbers, using matrices as custom attributes, and exporting joint leafs at the tail of leaf bones. Draco mesh compression is supported for importing. | - |
| Feature | Details | Commit / Pull Request |
|---|
| Action Selectors | Action selectors are now shown for data-blocks in the Properties editor, allowing selection of actions for Mesh (Shape Keys), Material, World, Scene, Camera, Light, and other data-block types. | f917b60036, 383c3c8253 |
| Bone Eyedropper | Properties where a bone can be chosen now have an eyedropper button, allowing easy selection of bones from the 3D Viewport or Outliner. | - |
| Motion Paths Colors | New theme entry to drive the color of motion path lines before/after the current frame. | - |
| Keyframing Updates | When inserting keys, all other keys are now deselected, preventing accidental transformations when working quickly in the Dope Sheet and Graph Editor. | - |
| Rigify Improvements | Rigify generates a full FK and IK rig for characters and allows for easy alignment of bones with the mesh. | - |
| Feature | Details | Commit / Pull Request |
|---|
| Force Rename Elements | It is now possible to force rename elements. | - |
| Copy Material to Selected Link Type | “Copy Material to Selected” now sets the Link type of the selected objects to match those of the active object when material slots are assigned to the object. | - |
| Windows on ARM (Experimental) | An experimental new build for Windows on ARM processors is available. | - |
| VFX Reference Platform 2024 Alignment | All Blender releases this year align with the VFX Reference Platform 2024, simplifying integration in studio pipelines. | - |
| Feature | Details | Commit / Pull Request |
|---|
| Performance Improvements | Performance and workflow improvements, including the option to connect and disconnect strips, and support for snapping in the preview area. | - |
| Custom & Platform-Specific Cursors | Strip handle grabber mouse icons are now custom and platform-specific for better aesthetics and usability. | - |
| Padding for Adjust Last Operation | A bit of padding was added to the bottom of the VSE to make room for the Adjust Last Operation panel. | - |
| Horizontal Scrollbar Hiding | The timeline (and similar editors) hide scrollbars when sized very short. | - |
Download Blender 4.3 and start creating with all these awesome new improvements! 👉 Blender 4.3 Release.
If you struggle with complex scenes check out my Ultimate Blender Performance Guide!
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