Blender 4.5 Beta introduces a welcome pile of improvements to the Geometry Nodes system. First up: files can now be dragged directly into the node editor to generate import nodes on the fly. Import node support expands with CSV, STL, Text, VDB, OBJ, and PLY – enough formats to make your IO manager blush.

A new Format String node handles pattern-based sequence loading, while new entries like Camera Info, Bit Math, and Field Stat boost analytical capabilities. The Match String node comes with options to match, start with, end with, or just contain a string.

Workflow usability gets a solid bump, too: node panels, boolean inputs, improved search, switch menus, viewer shortcuts, and better default handles now ship as standard. If that weren’t enough, performance also steps up – vertex-to-edge interpolation now runs about 1.7× faster, with face-to-vertex seeing a full 7× speed-up.

Collada Counting Its Days

This is the last hurrah for Collada in Blender. The import/export system is officially deprecated and will be removed in Blender 5.0. If your pipeline still relies on .dae, now’s the time to prep a contingency plan. Intel-based Macs get similar news: Blender 4.5 will be the final release supporting them.

Scene Output Gets Smarter

USD: Importing More, Exporting Better

USD import now supports animated camera properties, skeleton rest poses, and a slew of new primitives like Plane, Capsule_1, Cylinder_1, and DomeLight_1. USD export adds MaterialX support using OpenPBR (from Principled BSDF), and Blender Texts now export as meshes. Additionally, UsdPrimvarReader nodes now support attributes from UsdPreviewSurface, reducing translation surprises across applications.

glTF Gets Practical

The glTF pipeline receives a notable round of improvements: you can now import full scenes as collections, preserve unused materials and images, export vertex colors and viewport-compatible materials, and use Ambient Occlusion nodes as base color channels. If you rely on glTF in your game or real-time pipeline, 4.5 may reduce the number of post-import cleanup passes.

FBX: Now with C++ Power

The FBX importer moves to C++, offering a significant performance boost ranging from 3× to 15×. New features include ASCII FBX support, improved material and shader import (including animated diffuse color into the node tree), layered animation import, and reduced duplication of images. Also worth noting: there’s now a bone orientation option to avoid skeleton twists that look like a chiropractic emergency.

Codec and Color Updates

Video export adds Apple ProRes support, OpenEXR exports can now target ACES2065-1, and compression/bit-depth metadata is preserved correctly. That’s one less manual fix in finishing.

Reality Check

These features are in beta and might shift, break, or disappear before the July 9, 2025 release. As always: test before deploying in production environments. Just because a node exists doesn’t mean it won’t crash your scene before lunch.

And if you can’t wait for Blender 5.0: Have a look where it is at….

The post Blender 4.5 Beta: Nodes Get Nifty, Collada Gets the Boot first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.