2.80 Release Plan

The following release schedule was agreed on at the Homestretch workshop:

  • Mid May: finish remaining features and polish user interface (list of tasks on developer.blender.org). These are relatively simple changes to the design, or additions to really complete the new functionality.
  • First week of June: developers focuses on updating user manual in their areas of expertise.
  • Mid June: fix all high priority bugs. Other bugs may be fixed as well, but bugs marked as high priority are the ones that we consider to block the final release.
  • July: 2.80 release

The core development team will focus fully on the priorities for 2.80 in the coming months. Patches will have to wait, and we encourage developers working on new features to get them in a fully polished state so that they can go into the next release.

After 2.80 we will follow a fixed release schedule. That means 2.81 would be released 3 months later. There are many great patches under development or almost ready to be included (for example UDIM), but which would delay the 2.80 release too much.

67 comments
  1. The above statement says July. When exactly will version 2.8 be released? I’m looking forward.

  2. Blender!! Blender!! Blender!! Blender!! …

  3. Hey Blender team great job and dedication on making 2.8 as great as can be. I love using 2.79 the past 8 months now n can’t wait to dive in 2.8 on full release next month. :) I’m hyped!!!!!

  4. Something like quad draw would be great

  5. I recently downloaded Blender I love it! I look forward to all your updates as I learn more about the functions and features of the tool. So far so good!

  6. Please elaborate the toolbar above the 3d viewport. Don’t just place icons. Have them for details with it. For example write shading and give its drop down menu unlike just drop down menu with icons.

  7. Wouldnt you need an actual animator, like Hjalti on the Animation Module team?

  8. I hope it goes as planed.

  9. The amount of work the team has done to Blender is honestly astonishing, but there is one feature that seems to have not been considered much… object-based motion blur! Blender’s EEVEE is a rendering engine finally capable of letting animators produce near photorealistic animated videos, but without object-based motion blur it’s significantly limited in what can be done with objects moving at high speeds. It seems strange that this feature doesn’t seem to be much of a priority considering software like Source Filmmaker already has it, even though at the cost of not being real-time. It’d be great for offline rendering!

  10. Why is it not called blender 3? You’ve already changed the name from blender 3D to just blender.

  11. You guys are amazing! Fun times ahead :)

    As much as I appreciate all the effort put into the new user interface & EEVEE, I’m still a little bit sad about the now missing possibilities of interactive content creation (R.I.P. BGE). In my opinion, Blender – with an easily accessible interactive mode – has the potential to be a highly attractive tool for another user group: Engineers and Scientists with the need for proper visualization of a lot real-time data.

    So – If there are any news/plans on the interactive mode, I’d appreciate a hint. Can’t wait to hear news about it.

    Keep up the good work!

  12. Great news! You’re doing a praiseworthy job. Blender 2.8 will be a landmark release that will shake up the 3D industry.

    At the moment my only desperate wish for 2.8 is at least some way of organizing Quick Favorites. It’s an unordered mess right now.

  13. Great! Adaptive sampling in Cycles would also be a welcome addition

  14. There is a chance to see some simple tool like LOFT or EXTRUDE ALONG A PATH like FOLLOW ME in Sketchup?

    Another important feature that is still missing is a valid construction widget for objects and primitives.

    A new primitive has to be imported in the scene defining its position and size on the fly,just clilcking and moving the mouse. Now instead the objects are simply inserted, forcing the user to click, edit and change them only to set the initial state of the model.
    This problem is particular critical for curve objects where a strange object like a mustache appears in the scene and must be completely edit again from scratch.

    The modelling part in Bender is still too weak.

    • >The modelling part in Bender is still too weak.
      Actually quite opposite. Blender has the most efficient mesh modeling tools I’ve ever seen. I used 3ds Max and Maya before, and I like Blender more.

      As for spline modeling… Yes, it still lacks very basic tools and concepts. Blender needs adequate spline creation tools. Instead of creating some basic premade shape and changing it (as it is now), I want to choose the spline tool and “draw” a spline by simply clicking and draging the cursor, like in each and every other 3D software that I saw, or like in vector apps (Inkscape, Illustrator, etc.).

      • where suggestions can be provided? Are this changes planned?

      • Yeah I totally agree that that would be helpful. Especially with sculpting when you compare it to something like Z brush

  15. Great work – I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! :-)

  16. Beyond exciting. 2.8 has been a bucking Broncho but also the best ride ever.
    Every update has surprised me with small changes that inspire the way things should be done.

    Please don’t get rid of the VSE. I love it so much. I was saddened to see it not an available tab.
    Also alt + F3 screencast. I was gonna utilize that for a contest but its gone from 2.8. No biggie.
    I did like that feature.

    The improvements to the bevel modifier was a dream come true for 2.8 and a perfect way to begin this new era. Mad kudos to the devs. I am always excited when I see Brecht at the institute. Keep up the epic.

    • The video sequencer is no longer in the default list of workspaces, but rather it’s available immediately from the splash screen and when using File > New or Ctrl+N. We think it deserves to be its own application template for users that want to use just that part, while it’s still easy to add a Video Editing workspace from the (+) button next to the workspace tabs.

      We are definitely not removing it.

  17. Thanks for all the hard work, blender is looking gooood! ;-)

  18. Does the new version have Maya mode of operation?

  19. u guys made blender fun again for modeling , rendering and 2d, only missing is other parts rigging/animation,texturing..etc, i used blender in the past and was frustrated with it that i had to leave unfortunately , but all that changed and i came to love it with this new upgrade, u have done a tremendous job, which you’ll bear it’s fruit from now on..if you guys can tackle other areas i mentioned the same way, i can tell you, not only me will be joyful and pleased but so many people who had my past views..and we will enter a new era togather….lets make blender great again :)

  20. And when Blender 2.80 is out, all the devs can take a moment to walk on stage, take a bow, and earn a much deserved hearty round of applause for their amazing unrelenting efforts. You are our heroes and your devotion to making Blender utterly perfect is deeply appreciated.

    For about 5 minutes anyway, then we crack the whip on you all again and send you back to work on adding a Substance Painter style texture painting mode! Chop chop get to work! ;)

  21. Nice)

    >In the beginning the release was planned for Octomber 2018 and now in July 2019 it’s only 10 months of delay.

    Obviously, there is no delay, it was wrong first date.
    Devs says the release will take several months, but I would like to wish for a half year.
    So possible delay will actually start in jan 2020.

  22. Does it still lack support for .3ds import? If so, is it planned for implementation in the future?

  23. I’m being a bit selfish here by asking this but I find documentation for the Python User-Interface creation to be a bit lacking. Since you guys are making updates to the user manual I thought I might chime in.

    I could just be a total noob and not know what I’m doing but it’s difficult to see what each of the layouts is supposed to do if there are no visual results of the code.

  24. Congrats! It’s great to see such a huge effort resulting in a moment worth celebrating. The release schedule is still several months sooner I’d dare to hope for.

  25. could we get some nice retopo/modeling tools? like quad draw or multi-cut, the knife tool is a bit weird to use and it’s best to turn it non-modal and combine it with loop cut which also has many annoying steps, like it always starts from the center of the mesh and u have many click to just confirm the cut when it should be just one click….etc…….that’s all what i am asking, no big features or anything. thanks

  26. Great News but Blender 2.80 development took much longer time than it was supposed to.
    It’s been said that Blender 2.80-stable would be out in early 2019, not in the middle of 2019. I have followed entire development of Blender 2.8 on developer.blender.org and on github page. You don’t have to add new features and tools in the beta phase of development, or you’re reach the stable release in 2050. Adding new things may cause new bugs and issues in this phase I think. I hope the stable release will be out in July.

    • In the beginning the release was planned for Octomber 2018 and now in July 2019 it’s only 10 months of delay :)

  27. Nice, make blender 2.8 the most powerful and stable blender ever

  28. Great work you guys….
    I’m amazed at how much blender has grown from the first versions I tried back in 2000…
    Not sure I would use anything else now….

    Keep up the awesome work and thank you

  29. Great news!
    Few notes and wishes, would be nice to have:
    1) Fracture modifier with Voronoi
    2) After Effects object and camera data exporter/importer
    3) Differentiate shapes or colors for curve points and handles
    Thanks!

  30. I need to LANPR!

    • The LANPR dev applied for GSOC this year as well, so if everything goes well we might be seeing a proper integration pretty soon!

    • We all do but that sounds like. 2.81

  31. awesome news, really excited for 2.80 to be final….i know no more big features now until later versions, but would love to see what’s planned for the UDIMs, new sculpting branch, Asset manager, everything nodes,Animation 2020..etc, not to rush or anything, just to get double excited , good luck ;)

  32. Looking forward to the full release!

    Will there be new devs added, with the fund reaching 30k (as mentioned in the last blog post)?

  33. Awesome:-)

    I know this is not the place for feature requests, but this is such a silly little thing: Any chance of shortcuts for the ‘select’ and ‘mesh’ menus when in edit mode? As in the buttons at the top left. You can add them to the quick favourites, but as far as I can tell you can’t add shortcuts. The rest have shortcuts by default, e.g. ctrl-v for the vertex menu, u for the UV menu, and they can be changed, albeit that’s a bit of a mess. But for some reason those menus are missing them! (It’s useful for semi-frequently used stuff: Often enough you don’t want to move the mouse to the top-left, but not so often you remember the shortcut)

    • It’s possible to add shortcuts for those menus manually in the keymap editor, the Python tooltips show you the name of the menu and you can look at how other menu shortcuts do it.

      Still this should be made easier from the right click menu.

      • Thanks for the answer – see what you mean, but that’s such a pain I’ll stick to the quick favourites for now. Too many computers to update;-)

        (I only noticed this because of wanting to get to ‘select boundary loop’ so often, for sharp edges after a bevel, and now keep that in the quick favourites)

  34. For us addon developers when is the code freeze for the api?

    • It should be in mid May when we have all the features in place.

  35. This 2.80 project has drug out longer than I could have ever imagined. And yet, I remember when it was only an idea in Ton’s mind.

  36. i am happy you guys have reached this final stage, blender is growing no doubt but still need more work on so many areas, like rigging ,animation,VSE, undo system, primitve objects creation with persisting history…etc those are bit left in the dark , this is the most anticipated version yet ,and hopefully these parts will be the focus since now the UI/UX, core engines, Depandancy graph..etc are upgraded and out of the way….lets put the focus on the bigger and real problems that are halting blender from greatness.

  37. No RTX in EEVEE, that’s not fair!
    All other “features” like “new icons” – are bullshit in case of EEVEE with RTX!

    • +1

    • AFAIK the real time raytracing will not be added to Blender unless Nvidia changes the license for it. While the RTX core drivers (meaning, faster Cycles renders) are compatible with GPL license, the Optix AI supersampling (therefore, realtime raytracing like in the video games, and real time denoising for Cycles) are not. This means that they cannot be bundled with Blender. I know that there is work being done on integrating the Intel denoising and a Blender own AI denoising, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for real time raytracing for Eevee.

      • There’s two different things here. Hardware accelerated raytracing on NVIDIA cards is not available in OpenGL. For that we need to add Vulkan support in Blender, and we discussed a roadmap for getting there at the workshop. There is no licensing issue here.

        Denoising is a separate thing, and here we indeed can’t ship NVIDIA’s denoiser due to license incompatibility. The Intel denoiser is an alternative, and regardless it’s still useful to have raytracing without the NVIDIA denoiser.

        • I’m guessing Vulcan will be necessary to keep support for MacOS anyways, with the OpenGL deprecation…

        • thank you for the quick reply Brecht, really comforting to know that you guys are aware about these issue and willing to adresse them, i wish you guys the best.

        • Vulcan support in Blender. OMG. Additional GPU accelerated Raytraced Reflections an Shadows for EEVEE and potential further optimisations possible to Cycles.
          This will make Blender a beast. It already is.

          • Please give some additional love for baking.
            Cycles and EEVEE allow now full and perfect PBR bake workflows and would will bring the DCC award in combination with UDIM s and glTF.

    • -1
      A polished user experience is more important than sloppy made cool sounding features for 5 percent of the users.

    • RTX only came out after Eevee was halfway through development.. And most users won’t even have an RTX graphics card yet, so it’s hardly urgent. This is a major update with huge improvements for all users, show a little appreciation eh? :P

  38. My creative freedom courtesy of your time and effort. Much gratitude. Thank you.

  39. Thank you for this great job!

  40. any discussion about the topbar/tool panel..etc ,many of us think they were poorly designed and should be adressed, hopefully we won’t wait for another 10 years to get it fixed.
    also any news about the new projects or they are push for beyond 2.80/ 2.81 final to be considered… i would love to see improvements in modeling /uving tools, i feel those are left behind and no more getting any love or update like what other softwares have done.

    • The list of tasks linked in the post are the only features and UI changes that we are still planning to do for 2.80. There are some changes to the topbar planned, mockups for that are coming. Bigger new features will be for 2.81.

    • I agree about the toolbar.. it look like toy store… i wish it will be simple and clean..

    • It won’t be 10 years for UI updates. The UI code has been improved and mostly rewritten. Changes now do not require extensive core rewrites. I am not involved in the development, but based on patch notes this is what it looks like.

  41. Niceee!

  42. Excellent News :)

    • I am anxious and happy about the arrival of the new blender version. Tks!!!

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