For those who don’t know the tool: Nature Generator is a procedural asset library add-on that lives inside Blender via the Asset Browser and an N-panel, sold on Superhive Market, so you can kitbash nature without leaving your DCC.

The whole point is staying in your scene

Nature Generator builds natural assets directly inside Blender. Rocks, terrains, plants, water, and other environment bits all come in as editable, generated assets rather than fixed meshes. You drag an asset into the scene, the side panel recognizes it, and the controls you need show up without a detour to another app. The comparison to Quixel Megascans is obvious, being fully procedural and customizable.

The minimum version requirement is Blender 4.1 or higher. Hardware requirements call for a modern GPU from NVIDIA, AMD, or Apple Silicon. There is an optional texture options folder with 1K, 2K, and 4K texture resolutions. By default, the add-on uses low resolution preview textures, and the guidance recommends keeping the texture folder on a fast local SSD because it affects performance.

Installation stays simple. You drag and drop the zip into Blender, click OK, and the library sets up inside the Asset Browser. The Nature Gen panel appears in the side panel and opens with the N key. From there, drag and drop assets into the scene and start tweaking.

Geometry controls that reward restraint

Every asset follows a similar structure: shader settings and geometry settings, with slightly unique controls per asset. Geometry includes a resolution section, and most assets support a low-poly option. Viewport and render resolution can be controlled separately, and resolution can be subdivided or voxelized depending on the asset.

The documentation also includes the most honest feature statement possible: resolution can go infinitely high, and every asset can crash Blender if you push it too far. That makes the control powerful, but it also makes self-control part of the user interface.

Base shapes come from primitive forms you can alter in edit mode. Some assets follow the structure of a mesh and react to topology. Some are planes. Some are driven by curves. Displacement settings include multiple texture and noise displacement controls, with patterns such as noise breakup, stratification lines, and crack patterns. Many categories expose basic settings and an advanced subcategory for deeper tuning.

At around the moment you start dialing prcoedural detail like it is free, that crash warning stops reading like documentation and starts reading like prophecy.

Custom shaping can use a gradient with its own displacement, falloff, location, and scale settings, with viewport gizmos available when the modifier is selected. Alternatively, a custom curve object can influence the terrain, with a radius setting and a distance based falloff where farther from the curve means weaker influence. A secondary custom shape can be added, such as one curve for valleys and another for mountains.

Scatter was rebuilt to be more direct

The latest update changes how the scattering system works. If you have an older version, the update workflow shown is to download the new version from Blender Market and drag and drop it into the scene so it overrides the old version.

The new scatter setup aims to be simpler with fewer settings. The key change is the import flow. You import the specific assets you want to scatter, then assign them into the scatter collection. After importing, you can toggle an exclude option so the collection does not sit visibly in the scene, while still being used by the scattering system.

Core scatter behavior remains familiar. You can adjust density, and you can still use slope based scattering, altitude based scattering, and noise based scattering. Scatter zones remain part of the tool, controlled by empties with viewport gizmos so you can define a local area for scattering.

The update also introduces threshold softness controls across settings. The stated purpose is scaling down scattered assets toward the edges of masks. That creates a smoother falloff where a hard cutoff would look like a stamp.

Draw where the scatter goes

A major addition in the update is a scatter curve or grease pencil option. You can assign a curve or a Grease Pencil object and use it to decide where scattering appears and where it does not.

The workflow shown is straightforward: create a blank Grease Pencil object, draw directly on the surface, then select that drawing as the scatter guide. The same idea works with a curve object. You get controls for draw radius and radius softness, and the falloff scales down scattered assets toward the edges. There is also a noise option to distort the shape and avoid a too clean, too perfect outline.

Remove the draw object, and scattering returns to the default behavior. That makes the feature easy to test and easy to abandon if a shot changes direction.

Viewport survival mode, now with choices

Scatter can get heavy. The update adds a display mode control in the instance settings. You can display instances as originals, as boxes, or as wire box. Instance scale stays, but the update adds a secondary scale and a secondary scale probability. That lets a minority of instances become much larger than the rest, adding variation without requiring a second scatter layer. Rotation controls remain.

There is also a new wind animation option for scattered assets. Wind time is a value you animate, with an example workflow of adding a driver expression using hashtag frame and optionally dividing to slow it down. The update explains why this stays manual: using a scene time node inside node trees made performance drop sharply, including an example of frame rate dropping to around seven. Removing the time node restored smooth playback. With many scattered objects each carrying the scatter system, the update keeps wind time explicit to protect performance.

Terrains, water, and the new step look

Terrain and mountain assets use a separate X and Y resolution, because resolution on those axes influences the shape and form of erosion. Terrain maps include a random seed, and terrain can generate from noise or be influenced by a custom shape.

Noise displacement includes control over influence on X, Y, and Z, plus a noise seed and standard noise settings. Texture displacement adds rock detail. Erosion settings apply erosion from a selected height, with placement, falloff, and an option that can add mountains and inverted valleys. Boundary falloff can flatten edges.

Water effects add a cube with a procedural water shader. Controls include height and depth, and rivers can be created by combining a water effect value with custom curve shaping that pushes terrain down so water appears in selected areas. Water shader settings appear in the shader tab, including animated noise controls to create the illusion of moving water with separate speed controls on X and Y.

The update adds terrain presets, including a forest preset and a canyon preset. The forest preset uses the scattering system, and trees can default to box display for performance on lower-end systems, with the option to switch back to originals. The update also adds a terrain steps feature on some presets, described as a stepping effect. Controls include the number of steps, detail, strength, and blur, with noise-based selection and influence. Terrain steps can be found in erosion settings, in noise settings, and when drawing along a custom curve.

Trees arrive, and snow gets more physical

The update adds tree assets. Tree shaders follow the same structure as flowers, including leaf color controls and translucency. Leaves can be pushed toward an autumn look by changing colors. There is also a setting for a leaf mask, and leaf shapes are generated procedurally, with controls for scale and mask threshold.

Scatter categories shown include plants such as flowers, wheats, grass, ground cover, shrubs, plus rocks, snow, and trees. Scattered rocks are procedurally generated and have their own settings such as resolution, shape distortion, size ratio, and a seed.

Snow scattering gets a notable twist. Importing a snow object can be recognized and turned into a volume style approach for creating snow on objects rather than only shader based snow. Snow settings sit in the geometry tab, including resolution and displacement settings. Particle detail adds small particles with alpha textures, intended to improve realism for close-ups. The tool also notes that foamy snow detail may require higher transparency bounces.

Materials, uniqueness, and the new override option

Materials are shared by default. The tool includes Make Material Unique to create a new copy of a material for the selected object, and Revert to return to defaults. The update also adds a use custom material feature for the new scatter effect. The workflow shown duplicates a material and assigns it as an override for the scattered assets, so you can make unique changes without affecting the original material used elsewhere.

Scatter effects can stack, and the update shows renaming modifier labels to organize multiple scatter effects. This is the part where it starts feeling less like an asset pack and more like a small ecosystem.

Pricing and what is actually specified

Pricing is specified on the product page. A Personal License costs $99. A Commercial License costs $169. A Studio License costs $259.

https://superhivemarket.com/products/the-nature-generator?ref=586

The post Nature Generator update brings procedural nature to Blender first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: UVPackmaster by Łukasz Czyż (glukoz) is a GPU-accelerated UV packing plugin for Blender. It automates the tedious job of fitting UV islands efficiently, using CUDA or Vulkan acceleration, and is widely used in texturing workflows for VFX, games, and real-time assets.

Dynamic tiles, dynamic thinking

The newly released UVPackmaster 4 marks a structural overhaul of the popular UV packing add-on. Developer Łukasz Czyż rebuilt the engine to allow features that the 3.x architecture could not support. The first visible result is Dynamic Tiles, a system that automatically calculates the number of UV tiles (UDIMs) needed during packing, rather than forcing users to assign them manually.

Texel density tiers for texture discipline

Another key addition is improved texel-density management. Users can now define per-island density before packing, and introduce texel-density tiers (groups of islands linked by shared scale rules). This enables consistent texture resolution across materials without iterative rescaling.

Group layout for atlas workflows

A new Group Layout Mode enhances control over texture atlas creation. It lets users manage UV groups directly during packing, particularly useful for environment assets or game-ready atlases. Interface refinements also include the option to reposition UVPackmaster panels freely within Blender’s UI.

A re-engineered core

The 4.0 release refactors the underlying codebase for long-term extensibility. According to official statements, UVPackmaster 3 will continue to receive maintenance updates until at least 2027, but will not receive any new features. The redesigned engine introduces better multi-platform stability across Windows, Linux and macOS, including Apple Silicon.

Still a GPU workhorse

As before, UVPackmaster can use either CUDA or Vulkan for acceleration, allowing both NVIDIA and AMD GPUs (and Macs) to benefit. The packer continues to support multi-threaded CPU fallback, UDIM workflows, per-group packing and heuristic search algorithms to improve UV fill efficiency.

Licensing and support

UVPackmaster 4 is priced at US $53 for a single-user licence, with higher-tier studio options available. It supports Blender 2.83 and later on 64-bit systems. As always, we recommend testing new software releases in controlled conditions before full adoption of the pipeline.

The post UVPackmaster 4 unwraps a smarter way to pack first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: IDA BEST RETOPO TOOLS by Dmitriy Ismailov is a collection of Python-based add-ons for Blender 4.5 and higher. Built around the Vulkan branch of Blender, these tools provide fast, modular retopology functions inspired by Maya’s Quad Draw system. If your daily routine involves cleaning up dense ZBrush or photogrammetry meshes, these scripts might fit neatly between standard Blender tools and full-blown commercial retopo suites like RetopoFlow or TopoGun.

The News: Vulkan Retopo, the DIY Way

Ismailov’s toolset, IDA BEST RETOPO TOOLS, is a hand-built collection of modular Python add-ons that rethink Blender’s retopology workflow. The author’s motivation was simple: most existing Blender retopo add-ons rely on legacy Python operators originally derived from early tools such as PolyQuilt. While functional, these older scripts become memory-heavy when dealing with multi-million-poly meshes.

The new suite instead uses Blender’s Vulkan rendering backend, introduced experimentally in Blender 4.5, to speed up viewport updates and reduce lag when editing complex models. Each function is distributed as a separate .py add-on rather than a monolithic package, allowing artists to install only the tools they need.

Modular and Explicit Installation

Every Python file in the pack acts as an independent add-on. Users must install them one by one via Install from Disk rather than adding a full folder. After installation, the tools appear in Blender’s N-panel. This modularity allows per-tool debugging and selective updates, at the cost of some setup time.

The Core: Quad-Based Interaction

The heart of the toolkit is a Quad Brush system designed to emulate Maya’s Quad Draw behaviour. With hotkeys such as Ctrl, Shift, and mouse drags, users can place vertices, generate quads, or extrude retopology strokes directly on high-poly geometry. The operator runs in modal mode, reacting to viewport input until manually switched off. Performance considerations are explicitly addressed: undo operations can be unstable when combining reverse and smooth functions, and the author warns users not to press Ctrl Z during some modal interactions. These caveats underline the project’s in-progress nature and its focus on function over polish.

Visual Feedback and Vulkan-Specific Display

The set includes a visual overlay module for highlighting non-manifold geometry and isolated vertices, updating in real time with camera movement. The overlay only works in Vulkan builds and disables itself automatically when switching tools to avoid frame rate drops on heavy meshes. This approach mirrors professional viewport isolation found in Maya or Modo, though it still lacks per-object wireframe isolation. The author notes plans to refine this behaviour later.

Geometry Creation and Snapping

One of the notable features is dynamic snapping to face normals. The Project Along operator reprojects newly created quads onto underlying high-poly geometry, fixing floating polygons common in manual retopo. The process can be triggered manually or bound to custom hotkeys using the PAMenu Editor, a fork of Blender’s abandoned Pie Menu Editor project now maintained by the community.

Additional Operators and Controls

All parameters, including vertex display thickness and overlay colours, can be modified in the N-panel. Several secondary tools extend the base functionality:

The Selection Circle generates loops or cuts across multiple separate objects, aiding hard-surface retopology such as armour pieces or layered clothing.
Smooth Iteration acts as an incremental vertex smoother applied via hotkey S.
Cylinder and Stroke Tools create curved or circular retopo patches with adjustable density using mouse scroll input.
The Flip Normals Script fixes inverted faces, particularly common in imported high-poly ZBrush meshes.

Practical Notes and Warnings

The developer stresses that these tools are designed exclusively for Blender 4.5+ Vulkan builds. Functionality may partially work in earlier versions, but the visualisation layer will not. Users are encouraged to assign custom hotkyes via PAMenu Editor or Blender’s Keymap Preferences for efficient access. Undo behaviour remains limited in modal tools, and certain combinations (Reverse + Smooth) can trigger state loss. The author calls these “known quirks” of the early build.

A Maya-Style Workflow Inside Blender

Functionally, the set delivers a familiar workflow to artists used to Maya’s Quad Draw: click to place vertices, drag to fill quads, Shift to smooth, W to toggle wireframes, and F to flip normals. The result is a more tactile retopology experience than standard Blender’s tools, which still rely on traditional transform operators.

While not as integrated as dedicated commercial solutions, IDA BEST RETOPO TOOLS brings much of the same speed and clarity to Blender’s open ecosystem.

Development Outlook

Ismailov notes that future versions will expand with features akin to Petiq, a now-abandoned Blender retopology tool. The project’s direction remains open and community-driven, with feedback encouraged via Gumroad comments. Given that these tools touch low-level input and viewport operations, users are advised to test them on non-production builds first. Stability, especially under Vulkan, may vary between Blender nightly versions.

Bottom Line

IDA BEST RETOPO TOOLS is not a polished consumer product but a working production hack, a coder-artist’s attempt to make Blender’s retopology as immediate and predictable as Maya’s. For retoop specialists handling multi-million-poly meshes, it is a surprisingly competent and fast addition to the toolkit, as long as you are comfortable installing Python scripts manually and living with occasional visual oddities. Always test such innovations thoroughly before relying on them in live production.

The post Quad Draw Comes to Blender first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Substance Painter 11.1, released on 18 November 2025, marks a technical milestone: the long-expected switch from OpenGL to Vulkan on Windows and Linux. The change brings the viewport renderer, texture computations, and baking to Vulkan, aligning all platforms with the Metal backend introduced earlier on macOS.

According to Adobe, Vulkan should improve viewport performance and shorten baking times. GPU raytracing now uses Vulkan-based compute, replacing both OptiX and DXR. This unifies GPU-based baking across AMD, NVIDIA, and Linux systems. However, users should verify GPU compatibility, as the new API may change hardware support requirements.

New Ribbon path tool

The central addition in Substance Painter 11.1 is the Ribbon tool, a new member of the path tool family. It repeats or stretches a texture seamlessly along any 3D surface, with precise control over start and end segments and options for sharp or curved corners. The Ribbon can lay down clean gradients, trim details, or even deform text along a path, useful for stitching, labeling, or placing ornaments around complex geometry. Adobe describes it as a “cleaner tool for more precise drawing with paths.”

Ribbon paths are compatible with symmetry, dynamic strokes, and come with blending modes for overlapping alpha, height, and normal channels. Artists can adjust size and opacity per vertex, decoupled from stylus pressure, giving finer control over variation along a stroke. Two new presets, Custom Ribbon Grayscale and Custom Ribbon Material, are provided to demonstrate advanced uses, such as multi-channel path strokes with dynamic ends and corners.

75 new presets and categories

Painter 11.1 adds 75 new Ribbon presets, grouped into new categories accessible from shortcut buttons in the Properties window. These include:

• Apparel: stitches, zippers, and fabric tears
• Basic: lines, gradients, and dynamic custom ribbons
• Grunge: surface cracks
• Hard Surface: panels, grips, welds, and mechanical seams
• Organic: bandages and wrappings
• Paint: brush-based gradients
• Text: text-along-path templates

Typing “ribbon”, “paint”, or “path” in the Assets window filters the relevant content. Switching presets no longer deselects the active path, streamlining iteration.

Symmetry for fill layers and effects

Symmetry now applies to fill layers and fill effects using 3D projection. Both mirror and radial symmetry are supported, activated via the contextual toolbar or the Properties window. Fill layers gain a new flip input resource option to mirror text or logos while keeping them legible on both sides. The symmetry UI has been reworked with dedicated sliders for each axis and a smaller radial display.

Physical displacement size

Displacement in Painter can now be defined using real-world units. Users can choose between Normalised, Scene-based, or Physical size (cm) units. This makes it easier to align displaced geometry across DCCs or game engines that expect physically accurate height values.

Vulkan raytracing and performance updates

Beyond rendering, the Vulkan backend modernises Substance Painter 11.1’s baking system. Raytracing via Vulkan replaces previous DXR/OptiX-based implementations, bringing GPU baking to AMD GPUs and Linux systems for the first time. Adobe notes faster render times, particularly at high resolutions. Performance has also improved when working with very large or elongated triangles, resolving earlier issues with low-poly meshes used for tiling texture creation. Shader compilation is faster, and the default brush shape has been updated for better roundness and hardness behaviour.

Smaller but useful updates

Substance resources in tools and fills now include a Resolution Override group. This allows changing the generation resolution (Auto, Texture Set, or Custom) with an optional scaling factor—useful for optimising quality or performance. The Substance Engine has been updated to version 9.2.5, and export presets now correctly handle grayscale mesh maps.

Fixes and known issues

Crashes during project loading and path snapping have been addressed, along with several interface glitches in the Path panel and tool properties. However, Adobe lists known issues with the new Ribbon system, including UV tile performance drops, tangent loops at corners, and instability with very long text paths. HDR colour conversion under ACES on Linux still clamps values, and the right-click menu remains undersized on HD displays.

Practical note

As always, production artists should test the Vulkan backend and new path workflows in controlled environments before using them in active projects. Hardware behaviour, especially for GPU-based raytracing, may vary depending on drivers and GPU vendor support.

Summary

Painter 11.1 is less a feature flourish than a structural overhaul. Vulkan unifies the graphics layer across all platforms, the Ribbon tool introduces precision path workflows, and displacement gains measurable units.
Together, these mark a shift toward more predictable, platform-agnostic performance in Adobe’s texturing flagship.

The post Ribbon Rules: Substance Painter 11.1 goes Vulkan first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Mike Kuhn.

A tasting of the dynamics and geometrys side (of) effects

This release is not about the number of features, but about finishing what was started, achieving true production readiness, robustness, performance, and ease of use. It’s a version focused on quality of life. Feature sets like MPM simulations and Karma have matured like a good wine. The machine learning tools respect the artist’s skill set and have left their state of play are actual usefull in production.

Even though SideFX remains modest in its official statements, Houdini 21 is a massive release. For the feature-hungry among us, the highlights include a fully matured APEX; a refined and clever animation and rigging framework; a simulating Copernicus (think Substance on Dope), and in the VFX realm, the production-ready MPM Solver. On top of that, we’re seeing machine learning tools popping up in all the right places (AI for people who don’t expect a Pixar film from a single click), faster and expanded rendering with Karma, and a healthy dose of quality-of-life improvements.

Since our editorial cat can only count to 300, we can’t tell you the exact number of new or improved features, but we’re impressed nonetheless. And soon, you will be too. To avoid overwhelming both writer and reader, we’re breaking this article into a mini-series. We’ll start with VFX & Geometry, followed by Solaris & Karma, Copernicus & Terrain, and the massive Animation & Rigging tools.

MPM

One of the most exciting additions in H20.5 was without question the MPM Solver. The MaterialPointMethod truly allows you to simulate a wide range of different materials. From water, snow, and sand to honey, metal, and concrete, all within a single Solver setup. The geometry is simply substituted by points or particles, which are then simulated. The different materials interact physically accurate and constraint-free, purely based on their assigned parameters.

The initial release was already impressive, but it left users standing somewhat in the simulated rain when asking: “How do I get a proper mesh with UVs?” That exact issue has now been beautifully solved in H21. Any MPM simulation, whether rigid body or fluid, can now be meshed (as polygons or SDF volumes), including UVs, color, and other attributes, using no more than two nodes.

A nice and usefull addition to this workflow is the MPM Debris node, which generates new points along fracture lines as sources for smoke, dirt, or secondary debris effects. So let’s take a look at meshing hard and fluid or granular surfaces across a few setups and scenarios and wrap things up with a creamed cookies drink while watching the official and very excellent MPM demo.

Surfacing MPM Simulations

Testing time! For this test setup, we’ll have a clay ball smash into a vase model, paying close attention to UV transfer and the generation of smaller fragments through the Debris Source. The easiest way to start an MPM simulation is by typing “MPM Configure” into the node search. This gives you a complete set of starter nodes right away. (Under MPM Configure, you’ll also find plenty of additional example setups for study or creative repurposing.) By the way, the MPM container on the far right controls the overall resolution of the entire simulation.

We replace the default sphere with our own model and can now assign materials directly inside the mpmSource node and tweak them to our liking. It’s genuinely fun. Feels a bit like a mini-game. Since a concrete material would be more realistic but also quite boring as a vase material, we went with Chunky Snow instead. The environment comes in via an Object Merge directly into the mpmCollider Sop, ready to go. Our clay ball, the antagonist of this little simulation, isn’t a collider per definition but another mpmSource ready to be smashed, merged with the vase and given its own material behavior, Chunk Soil.

To make sure the particles can actually see and “love” each other, we need to enable Particle-Level Collision in the solver. The new Auto Sleep feature helps keep the vase passive until the collision happens, preventing it from collapsing at frame one and saving quite a bit of compute time.

Since the clay ball will be meshed as a fluid and granular surface and the vase as a rigid object, we first separate the MPM particles using a Blast node, filtering them by their respective source names.

For surfacing the vase, we use the mpmPostFracture node, which takes the rest-geometry and the MPM particles as input. This node essentially breaks the geometry apart “end to start,” so it needs to be fed the final frame of the simulation. After that, we choose either Voronoi or Boolean Cut as the fracture method. The latter can generate interior details, subtle irregularities on the inner faces of the fracture, that weren’t visible before, and it’s also faster to compute. We can further control the number of pieces as well as define the minimum fragment size at which new pieces should be generated.

The final node in the chain is mpmDeformPieces, which transfers the newly generated fracture geometry onto the MPM particles and just like that, the vase shards, physically convinced they’re made of snow, go flying through the scene, complete with perfectly intact UVs. For more of a muddy mess, we could have generated a liquid or granular surface instead, but we’ll save that for the clay ball. The result from the Debris Source, which lets you precisely define when and where particles based on fracture are emitted, is then passed into a POP network, including collisions from the vase and background).

Time to get serious:

Continuos Emissions & Surface Tension

With this new option, you can quickly fill containers, simulate expanding materials, or layer different materials on top of each other. The option is located in the mpmource node and spreads new particles apart using positive pressure.

Let’s take our vase and let a thick, viscous something ooze out of it. A good chance to show how simple MPM can be: if we want things to float inside the fluid, they just need a lower density. A few cubes are generated and assigned a jelly material. Two geometries, two MPM Sources, merged and fed into the solver. That’s all it takes. Just as easily, you can mix different fluids within the same setup. And for a bit more drama, we can dive into the solver and add a POP Wind node with some turbulence.

Surface tension allows for realistic effects such as droplets, tendrils, and flowing water. H21 introduces two new ways to control surface tension for both liquid and viscous materials inside the MPM Solver. The Point Based method offers higher accuracy and stability, making it ideal for small and detailed simulations. The Grid Based method, on the other hand, is optimized for performance and handles millions of particles more efficiently, which makes it better suited for large-scale scenes. External forces and friction can be increased if objects keep moving when they shouldn’t. Otherwise, you might end up with a scene straight out of Terminator 2.

To achieve high levels of detail without an unnecessarily large number of simulation points, the new, more precise collision detection allows you to use the fracture edges of a simulation as the source for a targeted secondary simulation. The attribute Jp (Plastic Compression/Stretching) is key here. It can be used to isolate the fractured areas and feed them into a Surfacing node set to VDB mode. This resulting volume can then serve as the source for the second simulation. And don’t forget to use the main simulation result as a collider.

And finally to top it off, the official demo. A detailed breakdown of that beautiful cookie shot.

Machine Learning in Dynamics

You won’t find any generative AI native in Houdini, but rather a growing collection of smart, locally running models, often trained by yourself, designed to simplify or speed up time-consuming tasks.

Surfacing Flip, Vellum & Particle Simulations

Alongside Neural Point Surfacing for MPM, the new Neural Point Surface and proven Particle Fluid Surface nodes now bring neural meshing to FLIP, Vellum, and POP simulations as well. Until now a bunch of points are trying to reconstruct the surface of a material. With neural meshing, you can now achieve much sharper, more detailed surfaces across a both high and low frequencies. The result: surfaces that are no longer uniformly fuzzy, but crisp, structured, and temporally stable. As before, you can train your own models, but even the included presets already produce finer details. And thankfully, the whole thing is GPU-accelerated.

Volume Upres

The core problem behind volume up-resing: for efficiency, artists often create and approve low-resolution simulations. But once the voxeldensity is increased, the overall shape of the sim tends to change. With the new tools, a low-res simulation can now be upscaled while preserving its exact shape. This not only keeps previously approved versions intact, but also allows for far more iterations. A model that’s been trained on a specific motion or behavior can now upscale multiple variations of it.

The Billowy Smoke recipe (or shelf tool) comes with a pretrained up-res model already integrated. Let’s start by looking at a comparison between the low-res input simulation and the 3× up-res result.

Details are nicely added, while the overall shape is preserved impressively well. Caching took a bit of time, but it’s still far faster than running a full high-res simulation. The real idea, however, is that we can now reuse this up-res model for all our future Billowy Smoke setups and honestly, we probably should. So, let’s quickly modify the setup and see if we can break the upscaler.

This time, the solver runs at a voxel size of 0.05, using the 2× upscaler. The 3× model didn’t really add more detail, just extra waiting time. For a bit more fun, a Gas Wind with random direction and a collision shape were added. That collision shape, as it turns out, gives the upscaler a bit of trouble as seen below.

But when comparing the up-res result to a true high-res sim, it’s clear that the system is really good at preserving the base form. Doubling the voxel size in the high-res sim, on the other hand, changes the overall shape and eats up a ton of time but stays artifact-free. Or, if you really want perfection, you could just train a model specifically for this type of collision.

If you want to train your own model, this Equinox Hive talk walks you through every detail:

Zibra AI VDB compression

With this plugin you can save up to 99 percent of storage space when caching VDB simulations, which makes it perfectly suited for use in real-time engines such as Unreal Engine 5. The Zibra toolset, distributed via SideFX Labs, provides three dedicated nodes.

The first, zibravdb_compress, writes and exports .zibravdb files for use in Unreal and similar environments. The second, zibravdb_decompress, brings those files back into Houdini. And finally, zibravdb_filecache acts as a modified File Cache node that automatically handles compression, loading, and decompression for further use inside Houdini. Before diving in, you’ll need to download the model and obtain a license, potentially a free personal one if your revenue is below 100 K USD. The license management can be accessed directly from any of the three nodes.

For a quick benchmark, I used the Fireball Recipe and cached one regular VDB sequence alongside two Zibra versions with different quality settings. The original VDB sequence weighed 294 MB. The Zibra compression at a quality setting of 0.2 came in at only 5 MB, roughly 98 percent smaller. At a quality setting of 0.9, the result visually matched the original VDB almost perfectly while staying at just 36 MB, around 88 percent less.
That insane low file size at 0.2 naturally comes at the cost of lost detail, as visible in the comparison graph below. Still, the results are impressive and they open up the possibility for bringing volumetric simulations into real-time pipelines far more efficiently than before.

Pyro Shelve Tool Presets

Another way to get artists up to speed faster are production-ready presets, not just educational examples, but tools meant to be customized for your very real projects. Each of them comes with a ready-to-use Solaris network, fully set up for rendering straight out of the box. Even better, the Help section now includes a short guide and exploanation of important Nodes for every preset.

SideFX strikes a noticeably new tone here, aiming to flatten the learning curve rather than overwhelming newcomers with endless options (which, to be fair, they still do from time to time). These guides can be found under Documentation → What’s New → Pyro. In this section, we’ll take a closer look at three fundamentally different presets, each showcasing its own approach and creative use case.

Stylized Flame

With the refined Copernicus toolset, entirely new worlds open up: stylized fire based on a classic Pyro simulation, right inside Houdini. And if needed, even live-rendered in Solaris.

To put the claim of “easy adaptability” to the test, we took the Pyro Fireball preset and gave it a Toon-style makeover. Adding the VDB field “Flame” inside the solver’s output was all it took to make it work. The output from the Cop node, by the way, can be merged directly into the scene for further Houdini style editing.

Ground Explosion B

This shelf tool sets up a sparse pyro simulation featuring a large-scale explosion, smoke trails, and a shockwave. For more control and efficiency, it’s actually made up of two separate simulations, layered on top of each other and interacting through their velocity fields.

Candle Flame

A candle flame might not be the most exciting thing visually, but it’s one of those Pyro results you end up needing again and again. What makes this preset interesting, though, is the procedurally modeled candle that comes with it. Exploring that setup is almost more fun than the Pyro sim itself.

Thruster FX

In true H21 fashion and in the spirit of overall efficiency boosts, the new Thruster FX tool makes its debut: a setup designed to create engine and propulsion emissions with ease. It’s not just a new node, but rather a complete Recipe, a preconfigured network of nodes that some might, in hushed tones, simply call “presets.”

With a cheerful click on Thruster Exhaust in the Pyro Shelf Tools (or via Configure Thruster in the Tab menu), you’ll get a fully adaptable node tree, including a ready-to-render Solaris network. The effect itself isn’t a simulation but a cleverly layered, art-directable procedural system built around VOP Nodes. Multiple pyrothrusterexhaust nodes are stacked in layers, each responsible for different components like sparks, fire, and plasma. All working together to form a surprisingly easy to use thruster system.

So, what does it actually look like? And can it really be used straight out of the box, as promised? The short answer: pretty much, yes. The rendering comes surprisingly close to the viewport preview. To get it running, only a few connections inside the included Solaris network needed to be adjusted. For our small test scene, we did a bit of kitbashing inside Solaris, then added some glow and polish in Fusion.

Let’s take a closer look at the node, both from the outside and under the hood. The node expects a primitive as input, and a simple circle usually does the trick. It outputs both particles and a volume containing density and temperature fields. In the General tab, you can control speed, length, and the overall shape via a spline ramp. The Exhaust section handles the color ramp and lets you tweak the underlying noise pattern, which has a strong impact on the overall form. Under the hood, the node generates a VDB from Polygon, then modifies the result with a Volume VOP and a Volume Adjust Fog node.

As part of the ongoing effort to simplify things and lower the learning curve, SideFX has also released a good and detailed tutorial mini series: sidefx.com/tutorials/how-to-create-thruster-fx

Car Destruction FX

So that we can also crash the rigs built with the Car Rig SOP introduced in H20.5, Houdini 21 brings us the new Car Destruction Tools, led by the mighty RBD Car Fracture SOP, supported by the RBD Car Transform SOP. The first one takes care of fracturing and constraint creation, automatically handling the typical materials you’d expect in a vehicle: glass, metal, wood, and rubber. The RBD Car Transform SOP, similar to Transform Pieces, ensures that all pre-fractured parts are efficiently transformed based on the simulation points. You’re not limited to cars, by the way. Anything that follows the same basic logic can be blown apart. From motorcycles to helicopters, it all breaks just fine.

Destruction-hungry artists will find a detailed yet easy-to-follow example scene in the SideFX Content Library, the same visuals you might recognize from the keynote: sidefx.com/carbd-dual-car-collision/. A fitting go-through video can be found here:

Geometry, Viewport and other tasty QoL

Coming from its deep VFX roots, Houdini has taken quite a journey to establish its own distinct style of procedural modeling. With H21, that journey continues, extending existing nodes and adding a few genuinely useful new ones along the way. This time, even the viewport got some well-deserved love, now powered by Vulkan and capable of loading Gaussian Splats directly.

Sculpting in Time

The Sculpt SOP, introduced in H20.5 and (surprisingly) quite useful, now gets a genuinely groundbreaking new feature called Shot Sculpting allowing time-based, keyframe-free sculpting. Originally intended as a correction tool for character animation, the node turns out to be just as handy for VFX and motion design work.

Temporal control is handled through the Shot Sculpt panel, which at first glance looks a lot like an NLE timeline and, in principle, works much the same way. Sculpting can be organized into layers that can be offset in time, faded in and out (complete with easing), muted, or adjusted in opacity. Alternatively, you can use mask_track to paint time-based attributes, which can then be passed downstream and used in other nodes, for an obvious example, as masks.

Otherwise, the same rules apply as for the regular Sculpt SOP, whose updates we’ll take a look at next. In line with the new Shot Sculpting feature, the mask system has been reworked. Masks can still be painted manually, but can now also be loaded from an upstream float attribute, saved permanently, and blurred or sharpened as needed.

There are also new brushes. My personal highlight, the Elastic Grab brush:

Of course, the complexity and depth of ZBrush remain unmatched, but for many tasks, artists can now comfortably stay right inside Houdini.

Geometry Masks

There are also updates when it comes to masking. Several well-known nodes now include a Mask parameter, allowing the effect to be restricted to a painted or procedurally generated mask. Among them: Peak SOP, Soft Peak SOP, Inflate SOP, Flatten SOP, and Point Jitter SOP.

UV Flatten from Points

The latest addition to Houdini’s already powerful UV toolset could just as well be called “UV from Voronoi” since that’s exactly what it’s based on. The node distributes random or precisely placed points across the surface and uses them to calculate clean, non-overlapping UVs. It’s primarily designed for complex, high-resolution meshes, where traditional unwrapping tends to get messy fast.

Vulkan Viewport

Now enabled by default, the new Vulkan 3D viewport offers noticeably improved lighting, Ambient Occlusion, shading and ray tracing with built-in denoising, and a more accurate texture display though performance can take a hit if you push it too far. New worklights including a fully adjustable Dome Light, Physical Sky, and Three-Point Light setup now serve as the default viewport lighting.

Looking toward the future, the viewport can now display Gaussian Splats directly. Since splats are essentially just point clouds, and Houdini is fundamentally point-based, this opens up a rather promising combination. The .ply file can simply be loaded via a File SOP and passed into a Bake Splat SOP for further processing. From there, you can treat and manipulate the splats just like any other geometry using the usual SOP tools. More on rendering those Splats in the upcoming section on Solaris & Karma.

Curve Tools

The new Extract Contours SOP can generate object outlines from a camera’s perspective either directly as edges or as an edge group. Quite handy for toon-style effects.

The well-known Curve SOP now allows you to interactively split points into branches (with unique vertex numbers) or fuse them back together.

Unsubdivide

If things ever get a bit too much, this node can reconstruct a low-res input geometry based on Catmull-Clark.

Conclusion after some bottles of VFX

Even though the stated (and achieved) goal of H21 was mainly polishing existing systems and adding plenty of quality-of-life improvements, it still manages to sneak in a massive load of new features along the way. And we’ve only scratched the surface here. Deep dives on Copernicus, Solaris, Karma, Rigging, and Animation are already in the works.

What’s also refreshing is the ongoing effort to flatten the learning curve through better documentation, tons of in-house tutorials, and solid example files in the Content Library. Many things have become easier or let’s say, more accessible, without losing depth, at least for those who want to go there. As always, most nodes can still be cracked open and modified at their core. Nice one, SideFX.

The post Houdini 21: Like good wine (Part1, VFX & Geo) first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Manuel Kotulla.

SideFX has released a feature crawl for Houdini 21, and if you blink, you’ll miss roughly a dozen new features. The SIGGRAPH 2025 sneak peek video runs down over 300 updates, upgrades and experimental toys, making Houdini 21 the biggest “dot one” in SideFX’s history. From rigging to viewport, the list reads like a wishlist for every CG department plus some surprises.

Houdini 21: KineFX, Animation, and Otto, so Drag, Drop, and Deform

Animators get new auto-rig modules for limbs, feet, hands, necks, scapulae, and ulnae, plus a version 3.0 spine rig with squash and stretch, and an updated Electra rig with twist joints, reverse foot, bendable IK/FK, and a proper clavicle.

Houdini 21 brings procedural graph fusion for rapid rig generation, a drag-and-drop viewport rig builder, and a rigging environment that’s now APEX-driven and designed for actual animators, not just TDs.

There’s also Otto: a fully rigged, production-ready human with muscle and tissue simulation out-of-the-box. Ragdoll and constraint upgrades include soft/hard tethers, LookAt and Static types, offset controls, mirrored keyframes, and improved full-body IK posing. Motion Mixer (beta) is in, with tracks, non-linear animation mixing, and full APEX support. ML-driven skin deformation and neural point surfacing round out the “futuristic but real” vibe.

Otis and CFX: Muscles with (Machine) Learning

The Otis solver is SideFX’s new GPU-accelerated organic tissue simulation engine, delivering FEM-grade accuracy, real-time APEX animation, muscle/fat collision, and muscle constraint nodes. It’s set up to transfer muscle rigs and bone geometry between characters, and includes ML-deform tools for both default and user-trained anatomical datasets.

Houdini’s CFX arsenal adds real-time painting and sculpting upgrades: new elastic, plow, and planar brushes, adaptive quad remeshing, interactive edge-flow, and in-node sculpt mask management. Mesh overlap, subdivision, and group support have all improved. Muscle system upgrades include tension control, automatic multiple tension lines, deintersecting SOPs, and procedural activation.

Simulation and Modeling: Pyro, Particles, and Point Clouds

MPM simulation (think granular materials) adds debris emission, surface tension, and deterministic particle-grid flows. Pyro gets real-time, ML-powered upres and a new sparse solver for smoke and fire, callable from SOPs and COPs.

Modelers get support for complex topology operations, UV/UDIM management, string-based selection, updated paint workflows, and procedural terrain via the Dryad biome toolkit (now with full integration to Solaris and Unreal). Neural Point Surfacing provides AI-driven realism for fluid and mesh point clouds.

Rendering, Vulkan, Copernicus: For the Eyes and the GPU

Karma XPU and CPU renderers see speed boosts, subdivision support, improved path tracing, Intel OIDN 2.2.1 denoising, deep output support, and robust motion blur. The Vulkan viewport is officially “production-ready,” with full OpenGL parity, ray-traced AO, physical sky, multithreaded updates, no forced far clipping, and automated VRAM management. Copernicus (the in-house image-processing framework) brings real-time USD rendering, noise types, handle binding, and compositor enhancements.

Pipeline, Engine, and Labs: More Glue, Fewer Bottlenecks

PDG gets ML training nodes for style transfer and denoising, ROP/GLTF export, Preflight tools, and faster pipeline execution. Houdini Engine now supports Unreal 5.5/5.6, Unity 6.0/6.1, and Maya/3ds Max 2026, with Python nanobind GPU, speedier shared memory, and snappier startup. The UI is cleaned up with streamlined multiparm controls, hotkey binding, recipe subnets, live simulation toggling, and autocomplete.

Labs tools gain the new Dryad biome system, ZibraVDB integration, a computer-vision toolkit for synthetic data generation, improved Unreal VAT workflows, and even Perforce integration for those who enjoy version control with their chaos.

The Full Houdini 21 Feature List (per the sneak peek video and forum transcript)

KineFX and APEX-driven animation

Production-ready for riggers and animators, additional auto-rig components (limb, hand, foot, neck, scapula, ulna), spine rig v3.0 with squash & stretch, enhanced reverse foot, viewport drag‑and‑drop rig builder, rapid facial rig creation, procedural auto‑rig via graph fusion, updated Electra rig (twist joints, reverse foot, clavicle, bendable IK/FK), Otto human rig v1.0, APEX graph and scripting enhancements, fast in-place APEX cooking of SOP verbs, nodes for converting KineFX to packed folders.

Ragdoll and constraints

Streamlined configuration, animatable ragdoll parameters (stiffness, damping, length), multi-constraint system, soft/hard tethers, Parent/Static/LookAt types, offset control, mirrored keyframes, full-body IK posing, animation layer inheritance in APEX, hotkeys for selection, unified baking workflow, IK/FK switching.

Animation tools and Graph Editor

Ripple tool, enhanced control sets, pick-walking with heuristics, hide controls on scrub, animatable control feedback, direct skin manipulation, upcoming GPU skin/blend shape deformation, customizable 3D handles, new FFmpeg audio, Scene Add Prop node supports deformation, animation transfer via APEX, up to 6× faster panning, new Animation Catalog (pose library), Motion Mixer (beta), APEX motion mixing, ML-driven skin deformation, neural point surfacing, AMD® NeuronNet backend, hand motion tracking, joint-based retargeting, glTF importer for skinned assets, UX polish throughout.

CFX: Organic Tissue Simulation (Otis)

GPU-accelerated organic solver, FEM-level quality, robust muscle/fat collision, muscle/tissue config nodes, new mesh generation, Otto’s anatomy, ML Deform with user recipes, real-time APEX animation, Armature Deform, Organic Deformer, muscle deintersect, flex SOP with activation, tension line automation, UI for muscle properties, procedural tension activation, new sculpt brushes, adaptive remeshing, mask tools, contour extraction, unsubdivide, faster Paint SOP, UDIM/alpha paint, bidirectional Ray SOP, curves can branch/cut/join, edge-flow controls, string attribute groups, poly extrude upgrades, overlap resolution.

Rendering and XPU

Optimized XPU shader compilation, volumetric light in XPU, uniform volume rendering, opacity/background holdout, shadow linking, blending up to 16 MtIX Standard Surfaces, string primvars, MIS compensation, hardware selection, Gaussian splats support.

Generators and integration

2D shape generator, hex grid generator, attribute visualization, updated AliceVision/RizomUV/Exoside integration, point-cloud exporter, Unreal plugin with PCG, spline round-trip Houdini/Unreal, Unreal plugin VAT import, computer-vision tools, Perforce integration.

Vulkan viewport

Production-ready, OpenGL parity, raytraced AO, area lights, denoising, dome/sky/headlight, instanced USD lights, OpenPBR shaders, multithreaded, free camera, preserves clipping planes, texture cache resizing.

All these features come from the SideFX sneak peek – some items were not legible in the video, so verify with SideFX documentation after the release before betting the farm.

The post Houdini 21 : Otto, Otis, Copernicus and 300+ New Features. No, Really first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Unigine has released SDK version 2.20, and if you think “Gaussian Splatting” sounds messy, you’re right—but it’s also the latest tool for high-fidelity point-cloud rendering, now available for simulation and engineering users. But Unigine 2.20 doesn’t stop there: the update delivers a raft of rendering, workflow, performance, and VR/XR enhancements, all thoroughly documented in Unigine’s official release notes and developer log.

Gaussian Splatting: For the Brave and the Enterprise

Users of the Engineering and Sim SDKs (that’s the not-free tiers) can now import and render .ply point cloud data as 3D Gaussian splats—an experimental plugin that comes with its own sample scene and setup tools. If your idea of fun is high-density reality capture, now you can splat with the best. Blender, Unreal, Unity, and V-Ray have all jumped on this bus; Unigine keeps pace for serious enterprise workflows.

Visual UI Toolkit: Drag, Drop, Repeat

Tired of gluing together UI code in the dark? Unigine 2.20 introduces a visual UI Designer and Runtime Editor: assemble widgets in a WYSIWYG environment, snap to grid, undo your mistakes, all with live preview and JSON-based layouts. The new UI system is fully scriptable, supports runtime debugging, and bundles a widget set that covers everything from buttons and sliders to tables and containers. No more hunting for missing pixels.

Rendering Pipeline: Smoother, Sharper, Faster

On the rendering front, Unigine 2.20 brings Vulkan-based DLSS support and updates AMD FSR upscaling to 3.1.3 on both Windows and Linux. Octahedral impostors (think: sharper distant billboards), improved voxel probes for subsurface and scattering, new global illumination controls, and sharper image effects all land in this release. The Agility SDK integration lets developers access the latest DX12 features even on Windows 10—if you still have to.

Multithreaded Shadows and Lighting: Shadows in a Hurry

DirectX 12 users will see multithreaded shadow rendering—up to 3x CPU performance gain in dense lighting scenarios. Shadows, projectors, and omni lights all move to mesh-based rendering for smarter culling and throughput. If you spend your day staring at scene graph bottlenecks, it’s time to reboot.

Performance and Memory: The Never-Ending Quest

Mesh compression now brings smaller binary clusters, with load/save times improved by up to 20%. The memory allocator has been rebuilt for lower VRAM spikes, and terrain clutter/grass intersection is now ten times faster. RAM/VRAM footprints shrink across particles, billboards, and visualizers. Startup and global resource loading are also noticeably speedier.

VR/XR: Real-World, Real-Time, Ready

XR users get eye-tracking, dynamic foveated rendering, and mixed-reality passthrough for Meta Quest 3 and Varjo XR-3. Hand tracking, per-eye camera offsets, better HMD emulation, and adaptive exposure mean VR workflows aren’t left in the 2020s. The input system, device compatibility, and sample scenes all see updates. Passthrough mode for MR is finally stable enough for the show floor (your mileage may vary).

Editor, API, and Scripting: Fixes, Tweaks, and More Power

Unigine Editor gets a search overhaul, property panel speedup (5x faster), shadow baking that no longer tests your patience (up to 17x), improved window layout persistence, and better graph tools. The C# component workflow now supports interfaces, abstract classes, named access, and external libraries—good news for pipeline maintainers. Expect dozens of bug fixes, small usability upgrades, and a more stable scripting environment overall.

Terrain, Samples, Docs, and the Rest

Sandworm (terrain tool) gets memory and speed improvements, SpiderVision picks up line rendering, and the IG module adds CIGI packet support. C++ and C# sample code is now up-to-date on GitHub. Documentation, VR/MR/hand-tracking guides, API migration notes, and new video HowTos round out the update.

Platform and Pricing

Unigine 2.20 runs on Windows 10+ and Linux 4.19+, 64-bit only. The Community (Free) SDK remains free for non-commercial or sub-$100K projects; Community Pro costs $1,500/year. Engineering and Sim SDK pricing is available on request.

All innovations should be tested in non-critical environments before rolling into production—bleeding edge, after all, is still called bleeding for a reason. UNIGINE Devlog: 2.20 Release

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The post Unigine 2.20: Now with More Splat and a Whole Lot Else first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Blender, the famously open-source 3D application, has landed on Android tablets—just not with any official fanfare, and certainly not with production-ready stability. Developer epai recently released an unofficial port of Blender for Android, with tests running on hardware like the Xiaomi Pad 7 and Samsung tablets. While it boots and basic modeling is possible, feature completeness is a distant dream.

Rendering: Black Holes for Material Spheres

According to epai’s technical logs on the Blender devtalk forum, this Android port boots and can handle simple modeling and animation tasks. However, material previews in the shading workspace are visually broken: only small portions of the preview sphere are lit, while the rest are black. The root cause is incomplete support for OpenGL ES—specifically, textures for probes such as probeHdr, probeDepth, and probeCubes do not display as intended.

This is not a trivial bug. As Sergey, a Blender core developer, points out in the same thread, OpenGL ES is not fully supported by Blender’s rendering engine. The upcoming Vulkan backend, currently in beta for Blender 4.3, is likely the only realistic path toward better compatibility and future mobile support.

Still a Hobby Project

The port remains a one-person, experimental project. There is no official support or endorsement from the Blender Foundation. Current releases are not linked on blender.org, and users looking for APKs or source code must hunt through developer forums for the latest builds. epai has stated his intention to improve input handling (touch, keyboard shortcuts), but stable releases or user support are not available.

Input: Stylus, Touch, and Basic Shortcuts

Early builds can register touch input and basic shortcuts, and epai notes limited success with modeling and simple animation creation on Android devices. Advanced input—such as pressure-sensitive stylus support or multi-touch gestures—is not mentioned in any available logs. If you like your 3D work with an extra side of beta-testing, you’ll feel at home here.

Blender on android test
byu/notrealadnan inblender

Hardware: Can Android Keep Up?

Anecdotal commentary from the r/blender Reddit thread suggests that today’s Android tablets are “almost as fast and way more efficient” than the laptops Blender ran on fifteen years ago. While this points to decent baseline performance, it says nothing about stability, feature parity, or support for complex production scenes. No benchmarks, stress tests, or comparative statistics are available.

Vulkan or Bust

The consensus, both from epai and Blender’s own developers, is clear: don’t expect reliable rendering or full feature support until Blender’s Vulkan backend is both finished and well-supported on Android devices. Vulkan is actively being developed for Blender 4.3+, but Android drivers and device support remain variable and unpredictable.

Download If You Dare

Anyone brave enough to test this Android port should expect instability, major rendering bugs, and missing features. As always, experimental builds must be thoroughly tested before risking them on live productions.

The post Blender on Android: Ported, Not Polished Yet first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Open 3D Foundation has published O3DE 25.05.0 (June 17 2025), a release loaded with technical fixes, renderer overhauls, and infrastructure updates tailored for production-ready pipelines.

1. Atom renderer & multi‑GPU overhaul

Atom receives a major upgrade. Vulkan and Metal pipelines now use sub‑passes, cutting bandwidth by around 40 percent, while specialization constants reduce shader variant bloat. Multi‑GPU support graduates to “mature” status: the refactored RHI multi‑device objects now allow mask handling, CopyPass, and timestamp calibration across devices. A new GeometryView class optimizes memory by de‑duplicating draw packets and items. Vertex‑color support has been added to BasePBR, StandardPBR, and EnhancedPBR materials. Under-the-hood improvements span Vulkan memory allocator, HDR RHI via CVAR, improved DX12/descriptors, and deferred removal of static Atom libraries.

2. TrackView rewritten & Script Canvas stability

TrackView underwent a full rewrite led by Tech‑Round. Now described as “fully operational,” key fixes include corrected example Python scripts and smoother editing.

Script Canvas sees dozens of stability patches: editor‑close crashes, variable‑rename sync, slot updates, graph deactivation fixes, promotions, and invalid‑file load issues.

3. ROS 2 Sim Interfaces Gem & robotics assets

O3DE adds a SimulationInterfaces Gem conforming to ROS 2 simulation standards via Open Robotics, Nvidia, and Robotec.ai. Enhancements include LiDAR segmentation, PID controller revamp, spawner notifications, clock and joint fixes, and restructured asset Gems. For example, WarehouseAssets optimized meshes; legacy ProteusRobot, RosRobotSample, and WarehouseSample were folded into ROS2RobotSamples.

A new Georeferencing Gem and simplified templates ship with updated Panda Franka assets.

4. Platform-specific fixes & Android improvements

Linux receives Python fixes for Shader Management Console and ROS 2 Python conflicts, plus a patch addressing editor hangs when loading levels. Android builds drop APK compression to avoid PAK softlocks, fix AWS SDK 1.11.288 symbols, update build scripts to use Gradle and Android SDK, and address iOS AWS Core non‑public API usage. A fix for mismatched PAL platform names addresses Linux CMake generation errors.

5. AR/VR/XR pipeline improvements

OpenXR integration now uses automated 3rd‑party packaging—no manual Meta Quest SDK install needed. OpenXRVk Gem moves to OpenXR 1.1.41 from 1.0.22. Mobile shaders deliver a 40 percent boost in performance.

6. Documentation hub moves to Hugo modules

O3DE’s API docs now use Hugo’s module system, enabling lightweight contribution workflows. SIG‑docs updated to reflect this change.

7. Core, Networking, Asset, Pass, Validation refinements

Asset Processor now analyzes new and updated assets and dependencies. Mesh visibility flags are restored after level load. Legacy asset tables have been removed to reduce RAM.
Networking sees fixes for player spawn on client-refresh during server load, AWS cloud service Gems moved to a separate repo, multiplayer component autogen compile errors addressed, and improved IP validation.
MovieSystem has been refactored to allow extraction into a Gem.
Multiple fixes span RHI, Vulkan, DX12, pass tree UI, occlusion, light culling, ray tracing, JSON serialization, and PipelineStateCache threading.

8. Known issues & upcoming changes

Current known issues include incompatibility with Clang 19 and higher (use Clang 18 on Linux), or revert via CMake config. Lua Editor breakpoints only work when the script tab is focused, and newly created projects may emit console warnings.

Major upcoming breaking changes are expected in 25.10 (October 2025). Material-shader functions will include a new MaterialParameters struct, affecting custom shader code. Ray‑tracing RHI descriptors will migrate to declarative style.

Production advice: O3DE 25.05 offers deep technical improvements across rendering, automation, robotics, mobile, and documentation. However, these changes are extensive—real‑world pipelines should undergo targeted QA. Known issues (Clang, Lua, project templates) should be validated during integration. Map upcoming shader and RHI changes to your roadmap accordingly.

Sources

Release date & binaries // O3DE Release Notes overview
Deep changelog with technical breakdowns // O3DE 25.05.0 Release Notes

The post O3DE 25.05 delivers deep technical refinements: Atom, ROS 2, XR, MGPU and more first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Blender is taking a bold leap forward by integrating the modern Vulkan graphics API as the successor to its classic OpenGL backend. With the experimental phase first appearing in Blender 4.3 and further developments in Blender 4.4, the initiative is laser-focused on achieving production readiness for this transformative technology. While initial efforts concentrated on matching feature parity rather than performance gains, the project is now rapidly evolving, and the Blender team needs enthusiastic testers to provide invaluable feedback.

From Experimental Beginnings to a Feature-Filled Future

The Vulkan backend was introduced experimentally to render both Blender’s user interface and the real-time EEVEE engine. Key iterations have been released via Blender 4.3 and Blender 4.4, providing a glimpse into the future of rendering capabilities. Despite the technical improvements, the backend remains in an experimental state, making it vital for users to evaluate stability, functionality, and platform-specific performance. Detailed testing feedback is essential in streamlining issues and enhancing the tool’s usability, simplicity, and stability—qualities every production artist values. Testing this build gives you the chance to become one of the proactive individuals actively shaping Blender and the wider VFX community. For more details, visit the original article on 80.lv.

Supported and Unsupported Platforms

This table shows the platforms that would work. Platforms that are unsupported don’t have Vulkan 1.2 support or have issues in the drivers that require a lot of work to work around.

Devices	Windows	Linux
NVIDIA
GTX 700 – GTX 800	NVIDIA 500+	Unsupported
GTX 900 – GTX 1000	NVIDIA 500+	NVIDIA 550+
RTX 2000 – RTX 5000	NVIDIA 500+	NVIDIA 550+
AMD
HD 7000 – HD 8000	Unsupported	Mesa
R 200, R 300	Unsupported	Mesa
RX 400 – RX 600	AMD Official/latest	AMD Official/latest, Mesa
RX Vega	AMD Official/latest	AMD Official/latest, Mesa
RX 5000 – RX 9000	AMD Official/latest	AMD Official/latest, Mesa
Intel
Intel 6-10th gen iGPU	Unsupported	Mesa
Intel 11th gen iGPU and above	Intel Official/latest	Mesa
Intel Arc	Intel Official/latest	Mesa
Qualcomm
Adreno X1-85 GPU	Qualcomm Official	Not tested

This table illustrates that the current testing builds are primarily aimed at Windows and Linux users. macOS and any other platforms are not supported at this time, so testers on those systems should proceed with caution.

How to Get Involved and Make a Difference

The testing phase is not just a technical exercise—it’s a call to arms for every professional who wants to leave a mark on the future of digital production. By enabling the Vulkan backend in the Blender 4.5 alpha builds and reporting issues related to stability, feature functionality, and platform-specific behavior, you are directly contributing to a project that could redefine our creative workflows. Participating in this initiative means becoming one of the people actively making Blender and the VFX world better, ensuring that future releases offer robust and reliable performance for demanding production environments.

Looking Ahead

With plans to achieve production readiness within the year, this initiative underscores Blender’s commitment to staying at the technological forefront of the 3D creation landscape. The focus remains firmly on empowering professionals with advanced features while maintaining the ease-of-use and stability that are crucial in high-pressure production settings. As you embark on testing this experimental backend, remember that this innovation should always be carefully verified before incorporating it into critical production workflows. For the latest updates and downloads, please refer to the Blender development portal.

With experimental features, a dash of humor, and a community-driven spirit, Blender’s move to Vulkan is a collaborative journey—one where every test report helps pave the way towards a smoother, more efficient future in digital content creation. Happy testing, and may your renders be ever flawless!

Join the Effort here: Devblog Blender

The post Blender’s Vulkan Venture: Community Call to Arms first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.