Blender 3.0 Is Here!!!!

Blender has released is 3.0 update, pushing its application new heights – and its still free!

To think that Blender 2.0 was first released in August 2000. Its taken 21 years for Blender to finally reach its next major milestone, Blender 3.0. From reading the introductory material on the updates I’m very excited to see how it performs.

Blender has had some major funding in the last few years so it makes sense for them to power ahead and brings us a fully polished 3.0 version. The extra influx of money has inspired some brand new features in the design tool. So, Long-time Blender fans and noobs like myself will find a lot to love about the new Blender.

So let’s dive into the new update and see what Blender 3.0 has to offer.

Whats new in Blender 3.0?

Blender 3.0 has some massive new features under the hood. Some, I now use every day, and some not so much. But I am going to highlight my favourite parts for your valued entertainment. As I continue to grow my Blender experience, I will no doubt (eventually) touch on all of these new updates.

CyclesX

The new update brings completely enhanced changes to the cycles to the render engine. This updated engine is completely compatible with the previous Cycles and will improve performance on both CPUs and GPUs.

Cycles X – GPU kernels and scheduling have been rewritten for better performance, with rendering between 2x and 8x faster in real-world scenes. Ultimately smashing previous render times, not more long wait periods in between renders. Unfortunately, the ten-minute coffee break might be a thing of the past during these periods.

I do a lot of rendering for my 3d models on Etsy and this website. so the updates render times are welcomed improvement over 2.93. I can now actually render my 10+ images in a fraction of the time, Which means I can get back to work instead.

Blender 3.0 Viewport Rendering

Viewport rendering is significantly more responsive due to new scheduling and display algorithms. The screenshot above showcases the difference between Blender 3.0 and Blender 2.93. Now this will be insane, I’m finding the 2.93 viewports render to be unusable when moving around. Granted my machine may not be able to handle it but it will now allow me to use it, which is nice.

Blender 3.0 is great for lighting scenes, as it allows updates to the scene to be previewed quicker, which leads to making further updates faster. I am even finding that I am using the final F12 render less because I can now view my designs faster in the 3.0 render viewport.

Asset Browser

The new asset browser allows you to quickly drag and drop assets, temples, textures and colours into your scenes quickly. This is perfect for animation and rigging scenes and is great for repetitive tasks that would take longer to change. Dragging and dropping features onto your scene is quicker than editing on the fly. Saving ultimately on the animation time needed for production. Materials, Objects, and World data blocks are supported as part of the first milestone, with more planned to come on the next releases.

Some notable highlights :

• Super fast render times – 2 to 8 Times faster.
• Improved shadows, ray-tracing and subsurfaces scattering
• Improvements to modelling tools in edit mode.
• Enhanced VR Tools
• Improvements to grease pencil.
• 100 new Nodes
• New Modifiers
• Optimized UI.
• Updates to rigging, posing and other aniations tools.
• Posing Library
• Drag and drop assets from the asset library.

Release Notes

To check out the full list of Blender 3.0 updates, you can visit their release notes by clicking here.

How I have have been Using Blender 3.0

So you might be wondering how I have been using Blender 3.0. What I have found use full and what I haven’t. Most of my work so far with 3.0 has been cosplay prop modelling. If you have been following my Instagram you know that later on this year I will be pursuing character modelling. so some of the 3.0 updates won’t apply to me until I actually take on that challenge. But neither the less, here are the ones I have found useful.

As stated before I do a lot of rendering for my 3d models. The updated render times allow me to produce the same work quicker than 2.93. Allowing me to work more and/or do other tasks alongside the render creations without my laptop freezing up.

I am finding the 3.0 viewport render to be more useable when moving around over 2.93. Being able to see my models in ‘real time’ through the viewport render, allows me to make quick changes before the final render. it happens much faster now, which means more time for modelling and fewer coffee breaks.

My kettle will be thankful for that.

Conclusion

That’s That. Blender 3.0 is here and I am delighted it is. The new cycles-X feature has really sped up the render times and is a feature I use multiple times a day to render my model images. Some of the modifications I have not used yet, but with time I will surely get to, once I improve my skills and experience the software more. Character creation in Blender is next on my list, so I will be able to delve more into Blender when that rolls around.

As far as free and open-source software goes, Blender 3.0, is really hitting it big with its latest update. I would encourage creators to use the new and updated version for their projects.

Blender is available to download for free from the Blender website. You can download it for Linux, Windows, and macOS.

Have you used Blender3.0?

Are you enjoying it?

What else should they add?

Leave a comment below so we can discuss.

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