release of a free 3D modeling package , which includes more than 1250 fixes and improvements, prepared in three months from the date of release . The main attention in preparing the new version was focused on optimizing performance - speeding up undo, sketch pencil and rendering preview. Support for adaptive sampling has been added to the Cycles engine. Added new sculpting tools Cloth Brush and Face Sets. Implemented noise reduction system with support for NVIDIA RTX accelerators. Provided initial support for virtual reality based on the OpenXR standard and the ability to import OpenVDB files.
Blender 2.83 is marked as the first LTS (Long Term Support) release in the history of the project, which can be considered as a stable base, updates with major bug fixes for which will be during two years. Corrective releases will be named 2.83.1, 2.83.2, and so on. similar practice continue in the next branches. For example, after Blender 2.83, the development of the Blender 2.9x branch began, within which it is planned to publish four releases - 2.90, 2.91, 2.92 and 2.93. Release 2.93, like 2.83, will become LTS. Release 2021 is planned for 3.0, marking the transition to a new continuous release numbering scheme.
in Blender 2.83:
- Added support for importing and rendering files using the new object "". OpenVDB files can be generated by Blender from the gas, smoke, fire, and liquid simulation system cache, or streamed from external applications such as Houdini. The OpenVDB format was proposed by the DreamWorks Animatio studio and allows you to efficiently store and manipulate sparse volumetric data sampled in XNUMXD meshes.
- initial support for virtual reality, limited for now by the ability to inspect XNUMXD scenes using VR helmets directly from Blender (only in view mode, changing content is not supported yet). Support is based on the implementation of the standard , which defines a universal API for creating virtual and augmented reality applications, as well as a set of layers for interacting with equipment that abstracts the features of specific devices. Any platform that supports OpenXR can be used with Blender, such as Windows Mixed Reality and Oculus Rift on Windows and on Linux (SteamVR is not yet supported as it does not implement OpenXR).
- The Cycles engine implements the ability to apply the OptiX noise reduction mechanism in during preview, as well as during the final rendering. OptiX implementation is open sourced by NVIDIA, uses machine learning techniques, is faster than previously available noise reduction methods, and supports hardware acceleration on cards .
- A new "Cloth Brush" sculpting tool has been added that uses physics simulation techniques to create realistic creases in clothing and automatically generate natural-looking curves.
In the brush settings, the properties of simulation of mass and damping are implemented, additional sliders to limit the influence of simulation, seven brush deformation modes with radial and flat falloff types.
In addition, in the sculpting tools a new "Clay Thumb" brush that mimics the deformation of clay with your fingers and accumulates material during impact. Added "Smooth Brush", also available in the Mesh Filter, which removes surfaces while maintaining the volume of the object. The "Layer Brush" has been completely redesigned, adding a height preview of the layer pointed to by the cursor, including improved support for masks, and getting rid of artifacts when changing one area multiple times. The Mesh Filter has a new Sharpen mode that compresses edges, automatically smoothing flat surfaces.
A new system "Face Sets" is proposed to control the visibility of individual parts of a polygonal mesh (mesh) in the modeling and drawing modes. Face Sets is suitable for brush-focused modes, automatically hides parts of a surface, and gives you more control when working with polygon meshes of complex shapes and overlapping surfaces.
- Completely implementation of a sketch pencil (Grease Pencil), which allows you to create sketches for 2D animation.
The toolkit is much faster and better integrated with Blender. When manipulating objects in Grease Pencil, the familiar workflow is now applied, which is also used when working with meshes in Blender. Edge colors are not limited to one material and each point can have its own color. A new rendering engine has been added, providing the ability to combine . Effect modifiers have been redesigned to improve quality, performance and flexibility. The Quick Strokes mode automatically smoothes lines to prevent kinks and sharp corners. Approximately twice the performance of working with files that include a large number of strokes, as well as accelerated anti-aliasing when drawing quickly. - To the Eevee rendering engine, which supports physically based real-time rendering and uses only the GPU (OpenGL) for rendering, support for 10 additional passes for compositing. The update of the lighting cache implementation allowed us to get rid of artifacts on the seams and the effect of stretching the fabric. Added the ability to apply high-quality normals to get rid of inadequate texture rendering due to problems with low-resolution normals on dense polygonal meshes.
In the footage preview mode, HDRI background blur level adjustment has been simplified. When processing hair geometry, support for blending with alpha hash, transparency mode, and shadow blending modes is provided. - Expanded capabilities of the built-in video editor (Video Sequencer). A disk cache implementation is proposed that allows storing cached frames not in RAM, but on disk. The strips provide support for opacity and the ability to preview audio. Added a new panel for correcting the last operation.
- Support for adaptive sampling has been added to the Cycles render engine, allowing for automatic sample reduction in low noise areas. As a result, it is possible to achieve an increase in rendering speed and a more uniform distribution of noise.
- implementation of shader nodes. The Wave Texture node has new modes for choosing the direction of wave movement, the ability to control phase shift and increase the detail of noisy textures. Improvements have been made to the "White Noise Texture", "Math", and "Vector Math" nodes. Added settings to simplify the rotation and folding of vectors, added the ability to color output in the white noise generator.
- The collection management plugin adds support for scene collections and a new QCD (Quick Content Display) screen that allows you to configure up to 20 collections in the form of slots available for quick viewing through the widget.
- Expanded and updated many modifiers, including
Corrective Smooth, Ocean, Remesh, Solidify, Surface Deform and Warp. - Made a large portion of performance optimizations. Improved performance of undo operations in the "Object" and "Pose" modes.
In the sculpting mode, a deferred update of the Viewport was implemented, which made it possible to speed up navigation through polygonal meshes with a large number of cells. A new collision resolution mechanism has made it possible to perform tissue simulation up to 5 times faster. The simulation of liquids and gases in Effector objects has been noticeably accelerated. Reduced loading time for particle and mesh files in fluid and gas simulation systems. - The 3D Viewport has improved operations for selecting a large number of small objects and a redesigned color management system (compositing is now performed in a linear color space).
- Added the ability to export Metaballs in USD (Universal Scene Description) format as computed polygonal meshes.
Improved glTF (GL Transmission Format) export and import. - The file manager has a quick file search mode (Ctrl+F), added support for file attributes and hidden files.
Source: opennet.ru