Modules Roadmap – June 2020

As part of the Blender 2.90 roadmap, every module had their upcoming roadmap updated. These topics represent big target planning that help artists, contributors and module members to be on the same page.

The following is the current planning as of June 2020. For the latest plans check the individual modules’ pages.


Animation & Rigging

Performance, Visual Keying

Data, Assets & IO

Performance, Alembic, USD, Assets, Overrides

EEVEE & Viewport

Vulkan, Feature Film Requirements, Viewport Compositor, Virtual Reality, Motion Blur, Depth of Field

Grease Pencil

Line Art, SVG Import, SVG Export, Image Tracing, Blocking 3D

Modeling

Fast Highpoly Mesh Editing, Tools Polishing, Precision Modeling, UV for Game & Environment, Open Subdiv

Nodes & Physics

Particles, OpenVDB, Volume, Hair

Python API

No Planned Changes

Render & Cycles

Performance, Polishing, Many Lights, Embree, OIDN, Point Cloud, Baking

Sculpt, Paint & Texture

Sculpt Vertex Paint, Multires, Brush Management, Cloth Brush

User Interface

Nodes, Statistics, Report & Warnings, Modifiers, Property Search

VFX & Video

45 comments
  1. What happend to DOF – depth of field?
    In 2.91 and 2.92 it still old crappy DOF :(

  2. Need edit mesh (or edit poly) modifier. Without editing mesh after modifiers Blender is like half 3d model software.

  3. Whatever happened to Ptex?

  4. A better visualization for curves, seeing curves through objects like an X-ray, causes visual pollution, leaving you totally lost, you will always click the wrong one …
    Please change that !!!

  5. And on the Maya side, they added a rivet tool in modelling for 2020…. (cricket sounds, neon buzzing).

    The speed at which Blender develops is mind blowing. Where I work at Real by Fake, as CG supervisor, I called that we dump Maya and transition to Blender. I can’t touch Maya anymore, and I’ve been using it since 96. Blender is the future. Can’t wait for the all nodes version. It’s a direct attack on Houdini.

  6. At the Bottom of any Blender 3D timeline there should be some Hardware Requirements Timeline as well and as far as Older Mobile/Laptop Processor Hardware and integrated Graphics is concerned and some indication of what may or may not be easily back-ported(If ever) into earlier pre-2.8 versions of Blender.

    I’m having success with an Ivy Bridge core i7 3632QM based HP ProBook 4040s under Linux Mint 19.3 with running Blender 2.82a and CPU based Cycles rendering and the Blender OpenGL Viewport UI not crashing in Linux Mint 19.3 like the very same laptop will do when booted into Windows 7(Now EOL) and using(Attempting to use) Blender 2.8/later.

    But really I’d like a CPU/APU hardware support matrix that shows CPU’s with integrated graphics and what Integrated Graphics generations will support Blender Cycles on the integrated GPU and that rendering support level. And maybe some Apple A series Silicon hardware support as well as that support begins to get plumbed in.

    And really Intel’s Ivy Bridge was the first Intel integrated graphics to support OpenCL, albeit with some better OpenCL feature level support under Linux than Windows 7. But Blender 3D has never recognized that Intel Ivy Bridge generation graphics as being GPU Cycles rendering capable so I’m using the CPU cycles rendering by default there.

    I do own a newer laptop that’s has a Ryzen 5 3550H/Vega 8 integrated graphics and also has an RX 560X discrete mobile GPU. So that’s got all the latest DX12/Vulkan API support as well as OpenGL and OpenCL support( For GPU Cycles rendering). But I’m in need of more hardware compatibility information for what versions of Blender I will be forced to use on my 3 older laptops, Sandy Bridge(2 Laptops), and Arrandale/Westmere(1 Laptop), Intel core i series laptops!

    I guess that It’s Blender 2.79b for the Sandy Bridge/earlier laptop hardware and that’s the best that can be hoped for there. And I can say this that the Apple’s WWDC 2020 Autodesk Maya Viewport editor Demonstration of a 6 million polygon scene on that Apple A12Z processor impressed me. But really Apple’s In-House A series silicon is not going to support OpenCL on the CPU cores and hopefully there will be more Blender Vulkan support and the Metal support will come from Apple and Apple did announce that it will be assisting the Blender foundation there as was explicitly announced at Apple’s WWDC 2020 event.

    I’m very curious in seeing just how much that Apple’s Metal API may have elements of AMD’s Mantel project influence inside of Metal as Vulkan is really the Industry Standard with a direct DNA family tree that derives from AMD’s Mantel(Now Vulkan), with improvements/additions ongoing in Vulkan. And AMD is the main supplier of Apple’s discrete mobile and desktop GPUs so Apple had to have been influenced there with its Metal API development process.

    But really looking at the Wikipedia Blender 3D history and that feature/support matrix it’s missing some OpenCL information and really needs a generational and more specific hardware support matrix for Intel’s and AMD’s CPU/Integrated Graphics in addition to AMD’s and Nvidia’s, and soon Intel’s, discrete desktop GPU offerings.

  7. great features are coming BUT is there any plan for IES-Lights for EEVEE???

  8. Maybe customize Q stacks to specific tasks: Animation, Rigging, Modeling, Shading, Compositing, etc.

    Q Subcategory folders?

    Maybe consider, as with other “features” the ability to turn them on or off via the Customization menus in preferences. For those who may not prefer them / like them.

  9. I’d like to see the ability to add more to the Q menu.

    Example: The Math Functions, Knots, Geodesics.

    Perhaps something addon developers can consider.

    It’s one thing to add them under the modifier.

    Still another to specify them on the Q menu (or perhaps elsewhere)

    Having to drill down each time is more effort than having it two clicks away.

    Thanx

  10. In case any Blender devs read this, have you considered using light probe data for Cycles renders for potential speed optimisations?

    Imagine setting up for example an IrradianceVolume, baking indirect light, as you would with Eevee, and then when rendering with Cycles, enabling an option in Sampling -> Advanced, like ‘Use Light Probes’, using the IrradianceVolume to perform lookups of any diffuse rays that extend further than a certain distance from an object without intersection.

    So rays are only used for short distances for accuracy, and the IrradianceVolume is used for long distances where accuracy doesn’t matter so much? Could offer a potential speedup for large scenes by reducing the amount of raytracing actually required, but achieve almost identical results.

  11. I can’t wait for refit base to be added to multires. Apply base’s behavior makes it basically unusable.

  12. Could you add a rule based materials assignments in the tasks ?

    No more fake user, no more object limited materials, just a ascii descriptions that can procedurally assign materials and be override as many time as needed.

    • This! +1000!

      Hopefully with the efforts Tangent and AMD is putting into USD we can do it from there.

  13. Why the fuck did you guys change the layout of the modifers? are you crazy or what?
    bring back the old layout & stop destroying the software that we all loved, we get it you want to cater to the studios for money & support but doesn’t give you the right to ruin years of users workflow just because you felt the need for it……….& from what i have seen you gave the task for some new developer with no expereince at least ask community modelers about these changes before actually apprvoing them, for fuck sake you guys are ruining Blender for us.

    • Wow-wow-wow! Chillax bro. The new modifiers are awesome when you have a huge modifier stack. What does it ruin, can you be more constructive? I used both old v and the new one and the new one is better, faster and more comfortable in every way imaginable.

      • just give us the damn old layout i don’t have to explain to everyone each time, the old was more practical & fast the new one just a long list of scrolling & too much clicking.

    • The new layout is way better, they just have to put the apply and delete buttons back.

      • No, it’s not…adding few modifiers then having to dig int the subpanels then closing everything to go back to other is a big waste of time..i just added a mirror, solidify then a bevel and all the sub-panels opened made it really bad to check other settings.

  14. Hi guys!.
    Is Fracture Modifier contemplated somewhere in this roadmap?, Maybe for 2.83?, Thank you very much!.

  15. no python changes planned?
    It would be good to integrate tensorflow graphics and/or pytorch3d.
    https://github.com/tensorflow/graphics
    https://github.com/facebookresearch/pytorch3d

  16. It seems the sculpt layers & multi-layers texture painting are not on the roadmap of 2.9 series which is a shame since they were promised in blender conference but the VSE & Composite which are not essential were pushed by the lobbying mob & have won….Ton again didn’t deliver his promises to the people.

  17. what does storyboard mean exactly? Maybe a previz animatic tool?

  18. Please prioritize “blob brush” and “boolean eraser” for grease pencil! It’s become the best hand drawn animation tool, but can’t be used for production/ink&paint because these two tools are lacking

  19. What is “Visual Keying” in Animation module means?

  20. Wow! A product roadmap that is as nice to look at as it is to anticipate. Bravo! ;-)

  21. Always exciting to see future plans of Blender!

    A question though, I can’t seem to find information on this anywhere. What is “Visual Keying” for Animation? Is this perhaps… being able to visualize keyframes and manipulating them in the viewport, i.e. editable 3D motion paths? Is this FINALLY here?? =D

    • Also, what is meant by “Storyboarding” under “VFX&Video”? That’s also potentially exciting for production.

  22. Blender 2.92 is going to be one beast of a software!!! Hope they add detachable windows at some point tho

    • This already exists when holding down SHIFT when dragging a window corner ;3

  23. Please work in the snapshot tool for sculpr, is too useful

  24. What does ”nodes” in user interface means?

    • everything nodes
      *compositor editor
      *shader editor
      *modifiers
      *especially the new “node based particle system” etc

    • It means the user interface team will work on the user interface for the new particle nodes, and improve the node editing UX in Blender in general. We are still working out the specifics designs for that.

  25. Animation & Rigging is basically empty at least improve the workflow & user experience, Blender is really bad in that part & is not as friendly as it should be…things need to be more clear more simplified & easy to use so we don’t have to fight the software so some improvements to Auto-keying,graph editor, channels curves…etc would make 10x better.

  26. 2.91 is just around the corner and so the VSE… could we say empowerment? :D
    AWESOME NEWS, DEVS! Thank you!

  27. I am so ready for UV for game and environment, about time ! Absolutely cannot wait !

  28. Please bring back baking AO to vertext colors, it’s missing from 2.79 and is very important for game development. It sucks having to return to 2.79 for this function. :(

  29. Please work on a more consistent Caustics effects and physics also Cycles is the best realistic rendering engine that needs your attention.

  30. EEVEE with vulkan….🤯🤯 is simply jaw drow and with mixed UI performance modules …..I can’t wait for it

    • EEVEE won’t benefit much of Vulkan performance. But this is important for future-compatibility since OpenGL is getting deprecated.

      • I don’t think so. EEVEE will greatly benefit from vulkan’s performance, this will also unlock more capabilities such as precompiled shaders in EEVEE, lower cpu usage.

        Blender can then even create a voxel based global illumination system that will greatly benefit a lot for real time use cases like what we’ve seen in cryengine’s SVOGI, godot’s SDFGI and unreal’s lumen. so don’t you think vulkan is not going to help improve EEVEE.

      • Can we have raytracing in Eevee without Vulkan? ;)

  31. These timelines are really useful for me. Thanks.

  32. Thanks a lot I really love these visual timelines!

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