15. July 2025
Blender 4.5 Features & Release
Hey, Blender fans! 🎨
Blender 4.5 is here, and it’s a big one! Released on July 15, 2025, this version is a Long-Term Support (LTS) release, which means it will receive updates and fixes for the next two years. This makes it a perfect choice for long-term projects and studio pipelines.
This release is packed with major upgrades, quality-of-life improvements, and significant performance boosts. Here are some of the standout features:
- Full Vulkan Support: After years of development, the Vulkan backend is now fully supported, offering a modern and powerful alternative to OpenGL.
- Geometry Nodes on Steroids: You can now import a wide range of file formats like OBJ, STL, and VDB directly into Geometry Nodes, opening up new procedural workflows.
- Faster EEVEE & Viewport: Startup times and texture loading are noticeably faster thanks to multi-threaded shader compilation.
- Grease Pencil Glow Up: Grease Pencil now integrates with the Compositor through a dedicated render pass and features new anti-aliasing methods for incredibly smooth lines.
- Compositor Meets Procedural Textures: All the procedural texture nodes you know from the shader editor are now available in the compositor.
Table of Contents
- Release Information
- Vulkan Backend
- Geometry Nodes
- EEVEE & Viewport
- Compositor
- Grease Pencil
- Modeling & UV
- Sculpting
- User Interface
- Cycles Rendering Improvements
- Core & Pipeline
Blender 4.5 is a Long-Term Support (LTS) release, ensuring stability and maintenance until July 2027. It aligns with the VFX Reference Platform 2025, making it easier to integrate into professional studio pipelines.
| Stage | Date |
|---|
| Official Release | July 15, 2025 |
| Feature | Details |
|---|
| Full Support | The Vulkan backend is now on par with OpenGL, providing a modern graphics API for Blender. It is not yet enabled by default but can be switched on in the Preferences. |
| Performance | Works closely with hardware manufacturers to ensure the best possible performance. Keeping graphics drivers up-to-date is recommended. |
| Feature | Details |
|---|
| File Import Nodes | Import data directly from various file formats, including CSV, PLY, VDB, STL, OBJ, and TXT. You can also drag and drop files onto the editor. |
| Custom Normals | The new Set Mesh Normal node allows for editing custom mesh normals. |
| Node Tools Panels | Custom node tools are now easier to organize with support for collapsible UI panels. |
| New Nodes | A host of new nodes have been added, such as Camera Info, Instance Bounds, Match String, Bit Math, and more. |
| Grease Pencil Nodes | Added dedicated nodes for Grease Pencil, including Set Color, Set Depth, and Set Softness. |
| Feature | Details |
|---|
| Faster Performance | Enjoy faster startup times and texture loading due to multi-threaded shader compilation, which is now on by default. |
| Shadow Terminator Bias | A new per-object setting helps eliminate self-shadowing artifacts on low-poly models, a feature now shared with Cycles. |
| Reverse-Z | A new algorithm has been introduced to reduce depth buffer artifacts, improving visual precision. |
| Feature | Details |
|---|
| Procedural Textures | A wide range of procedural texture nodes (Noise, Voronoi, Wave, Magic, etc.) are now available in the Compositor. |
| Unified Nodes | Many common nodes are now shared with the Shader and Geometry Node editors, such as Vector Math and Mix Vector. |
| New Utility Nodes | New nodes like Image Info, Relative to Pixel, and Image Coordinates have been added for more powerful workflows. |
| Feature | Details |
|---|
| Compositor Integration | A new render pass allows you to output Grease Pencil strokes and fills to a separate layer for post-processing effects. |
| Supersampling (SSAA) | A new anti-aliasing method provides higher quality, smoother lines in final renders. |
| Geometry Node Tools | Grease Pencil now supports the creation of custom Geometry Nodes tools. |
| Animated SVG Export | You can now export your Grease Pencil animations to the SVG format. |
| Feature | Details |
|---|
| Improved Grid Fill | The Grid Fill operator can now replace existing messy geometry, not just fill holes. |
| UVs Everywhere | UVs are now visible in all object modes (Object, Sculpt, Paint) in the Image Editor, not just Edit Mode. |
| New Curves Operators | Several new operators have been added for working with curves. |
| Feature | Details |
|---|
| Manifold Trim Solver | A new, much faster solver for Trim tools that works best on manifold (watertight) meshes. |
| Color Randomization | Painting in Sculpt, Vertex, and Texture paint modes now supports randomization of hue, saturation, and value. |
| Improved Performance | The Clay Strips brush is faster, and overall brush performance has been improved. |
| Feature | Details |
|---|
| Easy Node Framing | Simply select nodes and press F to create a frame, or drag nodes out while pressing F to unframe them. |
| Customizable Properties | Hide unused tabs in the Properties Editor to create a cleaner, more focused workspace. |
| Asset Browser Previews | A new tool allows you to quickly capture a preview for your asset directly from the screen, without needing a full render. |
| Improved Browsers | The Asset and File Browsers now wrap long labels and feature a new Horizontal List view to see more at a glance. |
| Feature | Details |
|---|
| Improved Bump Correction | The Bump node gets a new Filter Width input for better quality. |
| Adaptive Subdivision | Experimental improvements have been made to the adaptive subdivision feature. |
| OSL Custom Cameras | Cycles now supports custom camera models using the Open Shading Language (OSL). |
| Feature | Details |
|---|
| Point Cloud Object | A new object type for efficiently representing large numbers of points, ideal for 3D scans and particle simulations. |
| VFX Platform 2025 | All libraries are aligned with the VFX Reference Platform 2025 for seamless studio integration. |
| Faster Dependency Graph | The dependency graph is up to 18% faster in scenes with many data-blocks. |
Download Blender 4.5 LTS and start creating with all these awesome new improvements! 👉 Blender 4.5 LTS Release.
Btw check out my Ultimate Blender Performance Guide!
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