2025 Recap: The Most Important 3D Software Releases Of The Year

Welcome back to our annual 80 Level digest, where we look back on the year behind us and highlight what resonated most with our readers. If you missed our previous recaps, be sure to check out the best 3D artworks and 3D animations of 2025.

DCC software releases don't always turn into instant hits, but they offer a snapshot of where the industry stands, and, more importantly, where it's headed. With the holidays approaching and a new year on the horizon, let's take a closer look at what 2025 delivered for 3D artists and game developers.

Scroll down to revisit the key 3D modeling, texturing, and rendering software releases of the passing year:

Blender 4.4, Blender 4.5 & Blender 5.0

Keeping up with all the latest Blender releases is just as challenging for us as it is for you, artists, and it would be unfair not to kick things off with Blender, as the Blender Foundation delivered not one, but three major releases this year. From full Vulkan support to ACES color management, redesigned Geometry Nodes, Compositor, UV editing, new storyboarding tools, and much more, all of this happened in just this year alone. And there's more: Blender is finally going mobile, launching first on the iPad Pro with Apple Pencil support, with Android and other tablets to follow.

Known for its animated shorts, Blender Studio surprised us this year with DOGWALK, a Godot-powered mini game, and Storm, a high-quality, fully animation-ready character rig:

ZBrush & ZBrush For iPad

ZBrush saw several notable updates this year, such as retopology tools, and there's more to come next year, including a completely new interface! Apparently, the design will be largely unified between the desktop and iPad versions.

Since its launch last year, ZBrush for iPad has seen steady improvements, with highlights including ZModeler and, more recently, photogrammetry, which lets users turn real-world captures into editable 3D meshes.

Autodesk Maya & 3ds Max 2026

Autodesk's industry-leading 3D software didn't undergo major changes this year, but received notable updates to core functionality. Also, Maya rolled out MotionMaker, an AI-driven system for generating animations for biped and quadruped characters, while Bifrost introduced Bifrost Liquids and initial rigid body dynamics simulations.

Maxon One Spring & Winter 2025 Release

Maxon One product suite absolutely deserves attention, with updates spanning Cinema 4D, Redshift, ZBrush, and Red Giant. Cinema 4D, in particular, received the most notable updates, including new spline tools, advanced distribution options, and enhanced simulation features for dynamic motion graphics.

Adobe Substance 3D

Now, let's take a look at the Substance 3D ecosystem. Following the launch of the Substance 3D Assets library for all subscribers, the Substance 3D team collaborated with artists on Signature Collections, featuring projects by Matthias Schmidt, Niki Marinov, and Anna Koroleva.

For Substance 3D Painter, this year brought a new auto-update workflow, Filled Path and Ribbon tools, real-world displacement, and Creative Cloud plug-in support to help automate and personalize workflows. 2025 marked the launch of a major new version of Substance 3D Designer, with a new unified render engine, built-in post-processing effects, and scene-based context editing:

Houdini 21

The latest major release from SideFX brought numerous updates across its procedural 3D software, including KineFX enhancements with a motion mixer, animation catalog, Autorig Builder, and an upgraded muscle system. As always, there are numerous recorded sessions from artists and studios using Houdini in different projects, along with a look at the latest Houdini 21 features.

RenderMan 27

Pixar has finally shipped the long-awaited new version of its 3D rendering software for VFX and animation, described as the "most significant release in over a decade." RenderMan XPU, a hybrid CPU-GPU engine, is now ready for final frame rendering, and RenderMan 27 also brings interactive denoising, deep OpenEXR workflows, improved stylized rendering, expanded MaterialX Lama support, and more.

Marvelous Designer

Marvelous Designer in 2025 introduced features aimed at improving realism and streamlining workflows, including fur support, direct 3D drawing of lines and curves, softbody simulation, and enhanced control over fabric properties with keyframe animation, strengthening its use for digital fashion and game asset creation.

Cascadeur

While not a standard tool in the industry, Nekki's Cascadeur deserves attention for its new Inbetweening feature, which helps generate smooth, natural movements between poses. AI has been hotter than ever this year (spoiler alert for our next recap article), and we discussed ethical AI training and future trends with Cascadeur's founder Eugene Dyabin.

Unreal Engine 5.6 & Unreal Engine 5.7

In the realm of game engines, Unreal Engine saw two big releases this year, introducing advanced in-editor animation tools, full MetaHuman Creator integration, Nanite Foliage, production-ready PCG framework, and much, much more. MegaLights is no longer an experimental feature, and there's a new Procedural Vegetation Editor that lets you create and customize high-quality vegetation assets directly in the engine.

Also, in case you missed it, Epic Games has just released a huge update to Game Animation Sample Project for Unreal Engine 5.7

Unity

Unity 6.3 is a Long-Term Support release, which will receive two years of dedicated support, and it brought significant updates to Shader Graph and UI Toolkit, better 2D/3D rendering integration, XR tools, and more. Unity 6.2 introduced Unity AI, a suite of generative AI tools for creating both code and game assets.

The latter half of the year has been eventful for Unity. Alongside launching a cross-platform commerce platform for developers, the company announced a partnership with longtime rival Epic Games to bring Unity-made games into Fortnite, though we'll have to wait until next year to see what comes of it.

Godot Engine 4.4 & Godot Engine 4.5

2025 has certainly been a big year for open-source software, and Godot is no exception, receiving two major releases. The engine is becoming increasingly powerful, now featuring direct Jolt Physics integration, interactive in-game editing, stencil buffer support, and more, making it a solid choice for many developers.

godot 4.5 added stencil support

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— passivestar (@passivestar.bsky.social) 9 августа 2025 г. в 19:09

Lastly, our focus isn't limited to large, established studios. Independent developers also made an impact, so we've curated a list of the tools our readers found most valuable:

Tractive, AI-Powered Tool To Automate Retopology

Yes, this year, AI has been everywhere, and we're learning to draw clearer boundaries around its role in creative work. This one could be a good example of how it can be helpful, since retopology isn't a standalone task and is still performed manually by 3D modelers.

However, key details about the tool, how it works, and how it's trained remain unclear, so we'll have to wait and see.

KWS2 Dynamic Water System

This summer, kripto289, the developer behind KWS Water System, rolled out a new version, offering a solid solution for creating realistic, dynamic water environments in Unity. The tool is actively updated, and there's a free demo for users to test.

Paint System

Tawan Sunflower released a free add-on that almost turns Blender into Photoshop. It's a great alternative if Geometry Nodes feel overwhelming, making painting 3D objects easier and more intuitive. Watch the tutorial to learn how it works:

Pixel Art Rendering

There are many ways to create pixel art in Blender, and Lucas Roedel's free add-on is definitely worth checking out. It works with Eevee, supports Bayer dithering, and handles multiple light sources.

You can see more examples of Lucas' pixel art in this article.

normalMagic

Controlling normals is very important for creating high-quality 3D art. Whether you're working with hard-surface models or organic forms in either realistic or NPR styles, tweaking normals can significantly improve the final look of your work.

Featured in this impressive demo is SpaghetMeNot's normalMagic add-on for Blender, which comes with a bunch of tools to make modeling easier.

MatPlus

This new Blender add-on from B3FX Studios has caught a lot of attention because it brings a full layer-based painting tool right into Blender, inspired by industry-standard workflows like Substance 3D Painter.

It has a non-destructive paint layer system with masks, real-time effects like blur and levels, blending modes, 2D symmetry, and an advanced baking system with adaptive cages. You can paint directly on your 3D models, work across multiple UDIMs, and export game-ready textures for Unreal or Unity.

PoreFX

Unfortunately, not available to the public yet, Fareed Nagy's PoreFX offers a full suite of tools for creating hyperrealistic skin in Houdini. It can capture data, read, and reconstruct each pore, furrow line, and wrinkle. Everything runs fully GPU-accelerated, with a custom ray-tracer that makes 16K map bakes insanely fast.

Cloth Ripper

Masoud Rezaei's Cloth Ripper is a Blender tool for generating tears and frayed edges on any mesh with animation support. It's intuitive, easy to learn, and gives you complete control over intensity, direction, fraying, and randomness for realistic or stylized effects.

There's also a YouTube tutorial from the developer showing the core logic of the modifier, letting you recreate it yourself if you can't afford it.

Covering all the important 3D software releases this year is tough, but we hope we managed to showcase the highlights and maybe even introduced you to a few new ones. Do you have a personal favorite from 2025? Anything we overlooked?

Let's keep an eye on how things unfold and see what 2026 has in store for digital art and game development. In the meantime, subscribe to our Newsletter and join our 80 Level Talent platform, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, and Instagram, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.