Blender 4.3 Released: Check Out These Standout Features By Mario Hawat on November 19, 2024 3D News The third release in Blender's groundbreaking 4.x series has arrived, marking another significant milestone in Blender's evolution. Blender 4.3 brings one of the most ambitious overhauls we've seen, completely reimagining Grease Pencil while introducing substantial improvements across the board. This release not only consolidates the innovative strides made in 4.0 but pushes Blender's capabilities even further with refined workflows and enhanced performance.Here's a look at the key features (and then some) that stood out to us in this newest release, but it's highly recommended to check out the release notes and the release overview for a full picture of all the awesome new features available now at our fingertips!1. Grease Pencil: Reimagined & RebornThe undoubted star of this release is the complete rewrite of Grease Pencil. This fundamental reimagining removes longstanding limitations while introducing a more robust architecture, setting the stage for future expansion. The results show in both performance and usability, marking a new chapter for Blender's 2D animation toolbox. While this initial release was focused on feature parity, many improvements found their way in, as is tradition with Blender's development.A New ArchitectureThe rewrite delivers substantial improvements across the board: Multi-threaded operations for significantly improved performance File sizes reduced by 2.5x to 3.4x Layer groups for enhanced organization and control Brush management through intuitive asset libraries Direct stroke drawing without buffer limitations Enhanced eraser tool with precise stroke cutting Built for the FutureWhile maintaining compatibility with existing files, the new architecture sets the foundation for expanded capabilities: Complete Geometry Nodes integration Comprehensive brush asset system with over 130 default brushes Streamlined file management for better project organization Brush RevolutionThe brush system has been completely overhauled with a focus on production efficiency, and Grease Pencil brushes are now a part of Blender's brush asset library.2. Geometry Nodes: For Each Element & MoreGeometry Nodes continues its evolution with powerful new features that expand its procedural capabilities. The addition of the For Each Element zone opens up new possibilities for complex geometry manipulation, while Grease Pencil integration bridges the gap between 2D and 3D workflows.For Each Element ZoneUsing this zone is great for many use-cases that were impossible or very complex beforeA significant addition to the procedural toolkit: Evaluate nodes for every point, face, or edge independently Join results into new geometries or attributes Enhanced control over procedural operations Optimized performance for complex operations This feature is particularly valuable for creating detailed procedural effects, and unlocks the possibility of creating more efficient and much more advanced solvers and constraint handling for physics calculations, among other things.GizmosAnother long awaited feature made its debut in this release, Gizmos! They allow the controlling of Geometry Nodes values visually within the viewport, without having to go through the node output or even the modifier stack.Grease Pencil IntegrationThe integration with Grease Pencil marks a revolutionary step forward for hybrid workflows:https://x.com/_pepeland_/status/1856311786896490809 Direct access to layers, curves, and control points Seamless conversion between Grease Pencil and curve data types Preserved attributes and materials during conversion Enhanced debugging capabilities with new naming system 3. Rendering & Shading EnhancementsThe rendering pipeline continues to evolve with material and shading improvements, especially in metallics and volume scattering.New Metallic BSDFA dedicated node for metallic materials that bridges artistic control and physical accuracy: F82 Tint Conductor Fresnel approximation Full Conductor Fresnel with IOR and Extinction coefficients Improved accuracy for real-world metal materials Seamless compatibility between Cycles and EEVEE Oren-Nayar Diffuse RoughnessThe Oren-Nayar BSDF (used for Diffuse BSDF with non-zero roughness) now is energy-preserving and accounts for multiscattering.The Principled BSDF now has a Diffuse Roughness input, which acts like the Roughness input on the Diffuse BSDFNew Volume Scattering Phase FunctionsThe Volume Scattering node now supports more phase functions in addition to Henyey-Greenstein, which make it much more versatile and better suited for more tasks.Blender 4.2 with Henyey-GreensteinBlender 4.3 with Fournier-ForandBlender 4.2 with Henyey-GreensteinBlender 4.3 with Mie Rayleigh for atmospheric scattering Fournier-Forand for underwater scattering Draine for interstellar scattering 4. Sculpt Mode: Performance & PowerThe sculpting system receives a substantial overhaul focused on performance optimization and tool refinement, as this post on the developer blog outlines.Major Performance GainsSignificant optimizations across all sculpting operations: 5x faster entry into sculpt mode (11 seconds to 1.9 seconds on 16M face meshes) 8x faster brush evaluation for mesh sculpting Optimized viewport performance Enhanced multi-threaded operations Enhanced Brush ManagementIntegration with Blender's new asset system brings improved organization and accessibility: 130+ default brush assets in the Essentials library Consistent thumbnail design for improved recognition Streamlined brush customization and sharing New Sculpting ToolsThe brush toolset has been expanded and overhauled: Painting Tools: Hard/Soft variants for Paint, Erase, and Blend operations General Sculpting: New brushes including Grab 2D, Grab Silhouette, and more Cloth Sculpting: The cloth sculpting brushes have been overhauled into various brushes But wait: there's more...Multipass Realtime Viewport Compositing in EEVEE:https://developer.blender.org/docs/release_notes/4.3/videos/multiPassViewportCompositingExample.mp4New Unwrapping Method "Minimum Stretch":Ability to move editor areas to any other area by dragging:Revamped color Picker:Check out the official 4.3 overview over on the Blender.org website, where Pablo Vazquez and the team showcase what the latest Blender has to offer. Now, time to download Blender 4.3 and put all of these new features to the test. Happy Blending!Links