Blender 3.1 Released

The Blender Foundation launched Blender 3.1, which is promised to be much faster and even more efficient.

The update introduces new Metal GPU backend for Cycles, which makes render time much shorter on Apple computers.

Blender now has a Point Cloud object that can be rendered with Cycles to create sand, water splashes, particles, or even motion graphics. It can be generated with Geometry Nodes or imported from other software.

Blender's procedural system also grew with 19 new nodes, including mesh modeling tools, access to time, advanced Fields control, and more.

Geometry Nodes, introduced in Blender 2.92, now have better performance as many nodes are now multi-threaded and use less memory. Blender added the Extrude node making it possible to use a different approach to procedural modeling.

The Subdivision modifier got GPU acceleration support making the playback in the 3D Viewport faster. 

Blender's 2D animation tool Grease Pencil also gets updated: the Line Art modifier gets some new options, and the Fill tool now allows negative values, creating a contract effect.

This is just a small part of all the changes made in Blender 3.1. To get the full picture, check out Blender's website and don't forget to join our new Reddit page, our new Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we are sharing breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.

Preview image by Lorenzo Aiello - orencloud