We are just a few weeks away from the release of Blender 4.2 LTS. A major upgrade with loads of new features and improvements that require testing.
It is impossible for developers to cover all use cases that need to be tested, this is where the power of the community comes in. Let’s put it to the test!
What to Test
While Blender 4.2 LTS brings updates in pretty much every corner, some of the main ones are:
- EEVEE – Known as project “EEVEE Next”, a new render engine replaces the old one and needs as much testing as possible. Open your old files and check that they render properly. Read the migration process for details.
- Cycles – Ray Portals, Thin Film Interference, updates to shaders, denoising, sampling, and more. Open your old scenes and check if they still render the same.
- GPU-accelerated Compositor – A new performance setting allows you to use the GPU to compute the compositing. Find it under the Performance panel in Render properties. In most cases it should render faster and look fairly similar (although not 100% the same).
- Python API – Try out the new methods, commands, and see if the documentation about breaking changes regarding statically typed IDProperties, EEVEE, and others is clear.
Plus plenty of new features such as the introduction of Extensions, per-collection export, sculpt polyline tools, re-visited Shade Auto Smooth workflow, and so much more.
Hardware Requirements
Hardware requirements have changed as well, on Windows and Linux a CPU with SSE4.2 is now required. This is supported since AMD Bulldozer (2011) and Intel Nehalem (2008).
Make sure to check the full list of compatibility changes (for Blender 4.2 LTS and future releases).
How to Test
Testing can be pretty straight forward:
- Download the latest Blender 4.2 LTS Beta
- Open your old scenes (backup first just in case)
- Check that everything looks and works fine
- Found a bug? Report it. Within Blender go to Help → Report a Bug.
Read more about writing good bug reports.
You can also try out the usual demo files.
For feedback on the features and changes, check the individual threads under Feature & Design Feedback on the forums.
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l love you guys and also love blender,pray you guys get what your goal was for creating it and am planing on donating because this tool is one that one could hope to be free but you guys have given chance to all creaters and artists in the world to develop our talents
1 view from many cameras in seperate vindows
2 full functionaly sketch style like a sketchup for architecture
There have been many changes in the shortcuts from version 4.1, and there is no comprehensive article or resource summarizing these changes. I wish the shortcuts hadn’t changed so much.
I had to download the legacy addon pack to get the addons I used before, like LoopTools and F2. It was a hassle to disable all the new addons I didn’t recognize or use.
I wish we could choose the addons we want to install from the beginning, just like in version 4.1.
Adding shadow catcher to EEVEE next would be a really great touch with the new
Global illumination for VFX
1. I want to draw polyline inputting dimensions like CAD.
2. I also want in edit mode offset edge slide only on one direction as an option with both side option.
3. New add camera shortcut
4. Modifiers could be used in group, sub group and all the child group in each layer.
5. SketchUp 100% import export maintaining all the textures, components and layers.
https://rightclickselect.com
I want snapping to work on background scene also while I working in current scene.
https://rightclickselect.com
Should be highlighted more often on blender.org
likewise for the extension platform when it becomes available.
We agree that Beta releases should be promoted more prominently, that’s what we are trying now by making this blog post and also announcing it on social media and blender.org homepage. Let’s hope it helps! Otherwise we can try again in 4 months.
Create an official extension for Blender that automatically sets up the asset library and statistics at https://rightclickselect.com
A lot of artists are switching over to Plasticity because of its ease of use and flexibility. One of the main reasons is perhaps hard surface modeling.
What’re your thoughts on this and will the same features (Plasticity) be introduced in blender anytime soon?
Ali, I bought Plasticity so I can address your question. Plasticity is by no means a replacement for Blender. Ask the developer and he will eagerly tell you this. It doesn’t –and will never–have a renderer or animation or any tools to properly add rich materials. There will never be simulations. Plasticity is a nice companion to Blender as it adds NURBS modeling features that standard DCCs like Blender, c4d, maya, max do not have.
I’d say that CAD tools are probably out of scope for Blender.
Surface Psycho is looking very promising for native NURBs.
If Blender had a way of combining Grease Pencil views onto Technical Drawing Sheets (with View scales) then it would attract a mass of new users – and then hopefully more funding. This link is VERY close, I’m sure the Blender Devs could get it working with some minor tweaks. https://studio.blender.org/blog/automatic-model-sheets/
Why wil in Blender 4.3 this be removed?
Support for AMD and Intel GPUs through the Metal backend on macOS has been removed.
Basically most of the recent features were disabled already because they are super slow, since Apple hasn’t worked on supporting those in old hardware.
Quoting one of the developers:
Read more on DevTalk.
If you need support for that hardware the best you can do is dual-boot Linux (or Windows even) to extend the lifetime of your hardware as long as possible. Anyways Blender 4.2 is an LTS release meaning rendering using AMD and Intel GPUs will have support until 2026.
Ok I understand at some point you must look into the future :)
I’m really missing Blender Today, Pablo :(
Do you already know how/what will be done in the future on youtube?
Could it be possible to make a video about 4.2 LTS? Many big changes!
I enjoyed the extensions platform video and it really got me up-to-date!