Blender 4.3 for Windows on ARM released

Contents

The free 3D software Blender has been released in version 4.3 and is thus once again at the beginning of a release cycle. Accordingly, the developers have again integrated many experimental functions, for example for scattering light in fog and water or for reflecting metallic surfaces. In addition, Blender now runs on Windows laptops with an Arm chipset. Blender 4.3 is now available for Windows, macOS and Linux and as source code for download.

Windows on ARM and Vulkan support

A special build for Windows on ARM is now available for testing. If you want to use the Vulkan graphics interface not only for rendering, but also for the overall display, you can now select the experimental Vulkan backend in the new "Display Graphics" subpanel in the system tab settings.

However, the backend is mainly available for testing, as users must be prepared for poorer performance and display errors. Even the automatic refinement of surfaces can then no longer be calculated by the graphics card.

Under Linux, ray tracing acceleration can now also be used with AMD cards via the HIP-RT ray tracing library, which, according to initial benchmarks, is expected to increase performance by between 20 and 30 percent.

New hardware requirements

Under macOS, support for GPUs from AMD and Intel in the Metal backend has been removed. Hardware-accelerated rendering in Blender 4.3 under macOS now only works with Apple Silicon. Support for graphics cards with Vega chips from AMD has been removed from the HIP backend of Cycles. Users of Nvidia GPUs must now use at least driver version 495.89 across all platforms.

More flexibility when scattering light

When rendering volumetric effects such as fog or smoke, Blender previously only calculated the scattering of light rays using the "Henyey-Greenstein" method. In version 4.3, further methods have now been added, each covering special areas. "Rayleigh" is recommended for atmospheric scattering, "Fournier-Forand" for underwater scenes, "Draine" for scattering in the interstellar medium and "Mie" for clouds and fog.

In 3D computer graphics, attempts are made to simulate the propagation of light in a physically correct way, but every now and then you still want to be able to intervene and leave the path of realism. One tool for this is "Light & Shadow Linking". This allows the influence of a light source to be limited to groups of objects. The standard example is a 3D figure that is illuminated from behind to emphasize it in the image. In Blender 4.3, you can now use the same functions for light linking in both Eevee and Cycles.

Realistic-looking textiles and metals

Graphic designers like to create irregularities from procedural noise, for example for rust or clouds. The new "Gabor Texture" is particularly suitable for creating random, interwoven bands, which is especially useful for textiles.

The "Bidirectional Scattering Distribution Function" (BSDF) in Blender determines how a surface interacts with light. For the realistic representation of metals, there is now the "Metallic BSDF", which exposes settings that were previously difficult or impossible to access.

A special feature of metals is that they color reflections differently depending on the angle of entry. The "Metallic BSDF" function can control this effect using two methods. With "F82 Tint", the main color and the edge color can be defined directly. With "Physical Conductor", the effect is controlled via two parameters per color channel. This is initially more complicated, but promises more precise and, above all, more realistic results.

Geometry nodes: One for all

Blender 4.3 comes with a geometry node that processes all elements of a geometry in one go: It is called "For Each Element". Previously, this was already possible in principle, but the solution was not very intuitive.

Grease pencil: paint and animate in 2D

The geometry nodes can now also handle the 2D painting and animation system "Grease Pencil" integrated in Blender. It interprets the brush strokes as curves. Many of the nodes that can edit curves now also work with grease pencil strokes. However, the conversion offered between curves and grease pencil strokes does not yet work completely loss-free.

Output: First bake, then pack

The output of geometry nodes can be saved so that it does not have to be recalculated again and again if nothing changes. This process is called baking and the rendered data is saved in separate files. Blender 4.saves them directly in the .blend file if desired. This makes it easier to share.

Gizmos for geometry nodes

Geometry nodes are ideal for building your own tools and helpers. In order to be able to use these as conveniently as possible, they can be customized in future using widgets (handles in the viewport) with the mouse. For example, a procedurally generated tree can be made larger or smaller using arrow symbols.

Unique names for objects

A special feature of Blender is that no two objects can have the same name. For example, if you name an object "Cube" and there is already one with this name, Blender has automatically named the new object "Cube.001".

Sometimes, however, you want the new object to be explicitly given the name "Cube". To do this, you previously had to rename the old object to "Cube Old", for example, so that "Cube.001" could then be called "Cube".

Blender 4.3 makes the last step easier. If the user renames an object and the new name is a substring of the old name (from "Cube.001" to "Cube"), then this object is given priority. If there is already a "Cube" object, this is renamed to "Cube.001".

Warnings, information, debugging

Geometry nodes are integrated into the Blender modifier stack. In Blender 4.3, you can now output errors, warnings and general information at this point.

To make debugging easier, you can now name geometry within geometry nodes. Previously, this was done implicitly by looping through the names of objects and collections. Now you can also assign a name to completely procedurally generated geometry and thus make it recognizable in the spreadsheet editor.

3D brush: virtual clay

Sculpting involves working on 3D objects like virtual clay. Until now, the 3D brushes for this were located in the tool shelf. Blender 4.3 converts them into assets and sorts them accordingly in the asset shelf at the bottom of the screen. Brushes that you have created yourself can be shared more easily with other users as assets.

White balance

Color management for rendering and display in the viewport now supports white balance: The white point can be defined via color temperature and tint, just like in photo editing. Such a white balance is now also possible in the Compositor via the new "White Point" mode of the "Color Balance" node.

Minimal distortion

If you want to place a two-dimensional image as a texture on a three-dimensional object, this is only possible with distortions. Blender offers a range of automatic features to minimize them. The new "Minimum Stretch" method approaches the optimum result iteratively and can be used both manually via the unwrap menu and automatically during live unwrap. (mki)