Archive notice: This article was originally published on 20 February 2020. It has been translated from German and lightly edited for clarity while preserving its historical context.
Pipeline and scene architecture
The Blender Foundation identified ten core development projects for Blender in 2020. Library Overrides were intended to replace the proxy system and support character posing plus multiple instances. Scene Editing targeted undo and duplication in Object Mode, while the Asset Manager would organise models, materials, rigs, scripts and node groups.
Geometry, simulation and playback
Multires development focused on non-destructive sculpting across subdivision levels. Particle Nodes aimed to establish a node-based particle system. Planned volume support covered OpenVDB and procedural volume rendering, while a new Hair object type was designed around nodes and modifiers. Animation Playback work concentrated on interactive editing and caching, and Highpoly Mesh Editing targeted performance comparable with Blender 2.7x.
Interchange and secondary work
Alembic and USD work covered import, export and render integration. Other active areas included Vulkan, VR and AR, LANPR, Grease Pencil, custom keymaps, retopology, compositing, sculpting, texture painting, Cycles and EEVEE. These were plans rather than guarantees of delivery in the stated year.
Studios should verify the final implementation and file compatibility in the Blender version they intend to deploy before changing production pipelines.
Further information: Read the 2020 development roadmap.
