Blender 5.0 introduces a built‑in ACES 2.0 view transform, available in both standard and high dynamic range (HDR) variants. This is integrated via OpenColorIO (OCIO) and provides a direct alternative to Filmic and AgX transforms. It includes heuristics to better match display and view names, enhancing compatibility between Blender’s interface and standard ACES workflows. This is especially helpful for freelancers and smaller studios that do not use a full ACES OCIO configuration.
HDR and Wide-Gamut Support and Export Features
The release also brings built‑in support for Rec.2100‑PQ and Rec.2100‑HLG display transforms, enabling accurate HDR grading workflows. For wide‑gamut previews and output, artists can now choose Display P3 or fall back to sRGB for broader compatibility. Export formats including PNG, TIFF, WebP, and JPEG can now be rendered in P3 or Rec.2020, though HDR image file export is not currently possible. Exported stills thus benefit from wide‑gamut range, and video export in HDR is supported.
To activate HDR and wide-gamut modes, proper hardware and system conditions must be met. On macOS this includes Apple Silicon hardware; on Windows users must enable HDR and use the Vulkan backend; Linux requires Wayland + Vulkan.
Workflow Enhancements
Updates to Blender’s colour workflow include a revamped colour picker with both Linear RGB and Perceptual RGB sliders, allowing artists to work directly in scene-linear or sRGB spaces. Shader brush and palette colours are stored in scene-linear but can be edited in sRGB, facilitating consistency in compositing and node workflows. Additionally, a new “Convert to Display” compositor node simplifies converting scene-driven colour into output display space.
Render and Baking Improvements
Blender 5.0 delivers broader render improvements beyond colour. The Voronoi texture node now runs substantially faster due to a new hashing algorithm, although its results differ from previous versions. The ‘Z’ render pass has been renamed to ‘Depth’ for clarity. Multires baking workflows see enhancements: support for n-gon faces, better subdivision level and UV interpolation handling, the ability to target selected-active images, and support for vector displacement baking from Multires.
Why This Matters for Artists
The inclusion of a built-in ACES 2.0 view transform, HDR/wide-gamut display support, and direct export capabilities marks a practical evolution for Blender. These features streamline HDR and colour-accurate workflows within Blender’s environment, reducing reliance on external OCIO configurations. Colour picker enhancements and a “Convert to Display” node support artist control and output consistency. However, hardware compatibility and proper pipeline testing remain essential. And, when you want to work in big poroductions with Belnder, ACES colorspaces are a standard these days. So, it is going towards making Beldner a high-end-tool.
