2024 Recap: The Most Important 3D Software Releases Of 2024

Whether major product releases are a success, a failure, or, most likely, somewhere in between, they offer valuable insights into an industry's current state and future prospects. As the year draws to a close and holiday season excitement grows, it's the perfect time to look back on what 2024 has brought to digital artists and game developers across the board and to spotlight the releases that have resonated most with our readers.

If you missed the first part of our 80 Level Digest, where we review the best 3D artworks of 2024, please check it out here. Now, let's dive into the key 3D modeling, texturing, and rendering software releases that have shaped this year:

Blender 4.2 & Blender 4.3

As productive as ever, the Blender Foundation has shipped two major versions of the beloved 3D software in 2024, each packed with a vast array of new and exciting features. From Eevee Next and Extensions to a completely rewritten Grease Pencil, Light Linking for Eevee, huge updates to Geometry Nodes, and much more, all of this happened in just this year alone. Don't forget to check out Project Gold technical showcase, the culmination of Blender's stylized rendering capabilities so far, complete with project files to help you achieve this look.

Autodesk Maya & 3ds Max 2025

Although less experimental, we can't overlook the updates Autodesk's industry-standard 3D modeling software has seen across its core toolsets. Continuing to prioritize workflow efficiency and quality-of-life features, this year, Maya and 3ds Max received OpenPBR support, enhanced USD integration, a new boolean algorithm, the introduction of a new ML Deformer, and cloud-based processing for complex retopology.

ZBrush For iPad

While there are many 3D sculpting software options available today, the launch of the iPad version of ZBrush is undoubtedly a significant milestone. 80 Level had the opportunity to speak with ZBrush's Product Development Manager, Paul Gaboury, who shared insights into the app's development, which offers nearly all the desktop version's features, with regular updates bridging the gap.

Maxon One Spring & Winter 2024 Release

On this note, let's move to Maxon One product suite with new features in Cinema 4D, Redshift, ZBrush, and Red Giant, a new template engine and intuitive interface for quickly creating intricate motion graphics. While holiday-themed content from the Winter 2024 release may feel more relevant now, earlier this year, Cinema 4D introduced a new particle system, and Redshift was updated with non-photorealistic rendering, laying the base to further elevate artistic creativity.

Adobe Substance 3D

This year, the Substance 3D ecosystem has seen some big updates that streamlined artist workflows, offering more flexibility and exploring new trends, promoting interoperability and AI-driven functionality. Starting with Substance 3D Sampler and Substance 3D Stager, Adobe has teased the first integration of its AI image creation tool Firefly, able to generate background from 3D objects and create custom 3D models with text prompts.

As Substance 3D Designer's highlight this year was the addition of numerous new nodes, Substance 3D Painter received some other key features, including a new text workflow, native Illustrator support, powerful new filters, and enhanced USD support. Also, this year brought us primitives in Substance 3D Modeler, a new type of object that enables a non-destructive workflow and allows you to use boolean and blending operations to create complex geometry.

In 2024, Adobe's Substance 3D ecosystem was also expanded with the launch of Substance 3D Viewer, a new desktop app that integrates 3D content into traditional design workflows:

Houdini 20.5

SideFX released the much-anticipated Houdini 20.5, a major update to its flagship procedural 3D software, bringing plenty of new workflows, features, and enhancements, including the innovative MPM solver for solid mechanics, Copernicus for image processing, and advanced rigging and animation tools. If you missed it, we highly recommend checking out SideFX's series of detailed presentations that provide an in-depth look at Houdini 20.5.

Marvelous Designer 2024

Marvelous Designer, the industry-leading 3D clothing design software, also received several noteworthy features that significantly accelerate your creative process. Highlights include multiple wind controllers, video capture, soft body simulation, and the innovative EveryWear, which automatically optimizes garments created in CLO and Marvelous Designer, adjusting them to fit the avatar's body, along with rigging, texture baking, and LoD generation.

Marmoset Toolbag 5

This year has brought us the next generation of Toolbag, great improving art production in 3D baking, texturing, and rendering. With highly anticipated features like UDIM workflow support, interactive baking, hybrid rendering, and a bevel shader, this release is truly a game-changer for 3D artists in every discipline.

Unity 6

Next, in the world of game engines, we can't ignore the arrival of Unity 6, nearly a decade after its last major release. This version not only promises significant stability improvements, faster rendering, powerful lighting options, end-to-end multiplayer workflows, dynamic AI capabilities, and better support for mobile web runtimes but also provides an extensive library of learning resources to help users take full advantage of its new features. This collection will be updated regularly, so be sure to bookmark it and check back occasionally for new content.

Unreal Engine 5.4 & Unreal Engine 5.5

With major enhancements to animation workflows, rendering, ICVFX, mobile game development, and experimental features like Nanite Tesselation and MegaLights, this year brought us two significant Unreal Engine 5 releases, offering developers even more powerful tools and creative freedom. Be sure to check out Epic's recaps and stay tuned for the exciting new content 2025 will bring:

Godot 4.3

2024 marked one of the most significant releases for Godot Engine, introducing a wealth of new nodes and features, interactive music support, a redesigned visual editor, enhanced 2D tools, and much more. Looking ahead, we can expect other highly requested features such as interactive in-game editing, collision detection ray for object repositioning, Ubershader implementation, and more. But for now, let's take a look at some cool projects created with Godot this year:

Last but certainly not least, we've put together a list of the tools our readers found most valuable this year. Explore these options and use them to boost your creative projects:

TraceGenius Pro by Russel Studios

This add-on is designed for logo modeling, animations, 3D printing, and pretty much anything else that requires image-based 3D modeling. It offers an extremely easy approach to 2D image-to-3D workflow worth checking out if you've struggled with other methods before.

Lattice Modifier by Harry Heath

Just like in Blender or Maya, you can create a Lattice in Unity and apply a modifier to your model, and by adjusting the points of the Lattice, you can easily deform your mesh. Lattices can be keyframed and manipulated using the animation timeline, and they can also be controlled via scripts for advanced effects and interactivity.

Mio3 UV by Mio3io

This Maya-inspired comprehensive UV editing add-on is designed to streamline the UV unwrapping process and enhance the experience with features specifically tailored for character modeling. Mio3 UV is regularly updated with new features, so grab it for free and make unwrapping more enjoyable.

Retopo Planes by Nodes Interactive

If you're looking for a user-friendly and high-performance method for retopologizing Marvelous Designer's meshes, check out this tool that automates the process with Blender's Geometry Nodes. With a flexible UI, auto-adjusting pattern density, and built-in snapping for precision, you can efficiently retopologize clothes, regardless of the polycount.

Woolly by Rahul Parihar

Let's not forget about Wolly, a procedural knitting shader for Blender that allows you to instantly turn your 3D models into cozy needle-felt plushies, which seem to have been widely appreciated by the community. The 2.0 free update has just arrived, bringing amazing hair systems, curve modifiers, new materials, and models.

While it's impossible to cover everything the digital art and game development worlds have experienced this year, we hope this article helped you reflect on the major trends and events of the year and maybe even discover something new you missed and want to try in your work. What product release stood out to you this year? Which tool was your personal 2024 highlight?

We know for a fact that 2025 is set to bring plenty of powerful and creative tools worth keeping an eye on, and we can't wait to cover them for you. Stay tuned and join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.