If reading "Blender 3.0" also made you spit your green smoothie at your screen, you're not the only one.
To those of us who started with 2.49, Blender 3.0 seems like a fairy-tale.
So here are the three questions on everybody's mind:
- How big of a deal is Blender 3.0?
- When is Blender 3.0 coming?
- Should I really switch from coffee to green smoothies?
(That's a big NO to question #3.)
Blender is moving to Semantic Versioning
It looks like the biggest change is moving to Semantic Versioning and this makes a lot of sense.
Blender 3.0 does not mean this will be a "major" release - instead, it signifies the start of new, "more conventional" release numbering.
The following releases (3.1, 3.2, etc.) will also be "minor". The next "major" release is going to be 4.0. (Note: Thanks to TedJNielsen for helping to make this information more accurate!)
Here is what Ton Roosendaal said about the new numbering:
(...) in summer 2021 the Blender 3.0 series begins! By then we will implement a more conventional release numbering. I suggest to do minor releases (3.0, 3.1, 3.2, … 3.7) for two-year periods, and then move to a new major release. Blender 4.0 could be there in 2023 already! (source: code.blender.org)
Why the naming change?
Simple: industry standard.
The simplified versioning is more in line with the naming convention of commercial software packages.
It should also be clearer for users to follow.
What will Blender 3.0 bring?
Keep in mind, this is still early days (though 3.0 is coming sooner than you may think).
So far, there are only a few updates in the public release notes meaning that the developers are not actively working on a big number of new tasks at the moment.
It looks like there are plans for a few feature additions, including performance addition to the VSA and the addition of Virtual Arrays.
(Updated on April 23rd) Cycles X is announced!
The new, better, more powerful Cycles X is definitely something to get hyped about.
Mind, we're not certain that this will come in Blender 3.0 already - it might be in a later version.
However, this is what we can look forward to:
Besides that, we are not seeing too many active feature branches...at least not yet.
We can be certain about two things::
- there is something else in the works we're not hearing about yet
- we'll prepare a full update once we know what 3.0 is all about
When is Blender 3.0 coming?
The release planning is active and you can follow the updates on the Blender blog.
Blender 3.0 is currently expected to arrive in August 2021 - so that's not too far off!
Can you believe that Blender 4.0 is also on the (distant) horizon already?
According to Ton's post (above) this should be the next major release - it's not known yet what this will include.
You can start using Blender 3.0 today
The truth is, you can be using Blender 3.0 already.
If you're one of the cool kids, you've probably already downloaded it from the experimental builds.
While it's exciting to follow these builds, there is rarely anything wild or dangerous.
For the most part, you will get the same Blender as you had yesterday.
Though, of course, you should use it at your own risk as these builds are not totally bug-proof.
What do you wish for in Blender 3.0?
Discuss: what do you think is coming? Will it rock Blender to the core? And what do you most wish to see?
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