Blender 4.5 brings big changes
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Blender 4.5 LTS was released on July 15, 2025, and will be supported through 2027. This is the last feature release of the 3D graphics-creation suite's 4.x series; it includes quality-of-life improvements, including work to bring the Vulkan backend up to par with the default OpenGL backend. With 4.5 released, Blender developers are turning their attention toward Blender 5.0, planned for release later this year. It will introduce substantial changes, particularly in the Geometry Nodes system, a central feature of Blender's procedural workflows.
Brief introduction
Blender is an open-source creative application released under the GPLv3. The Blender Foundation stewards development, with significant funding from the Blender Development Fund as well as backing from individual contributors and industry sponsors. Its code is primarily written in C and C++, with Python used extensively for scripting and add-ons.
While Blender is often known as a 3D modeling and animation tool, it has grown into a comprehensive open-source suite for digital content creation. Alongside powerful 3D tools, it features compositing, nonlinear video editing, and 2D animation in 3D space. This integrated suite of tools enables designers, animators, and other creators to work with a single application across their digital pipeline. Blender also provides access to its core functions through Nodes, a visual programming system that enables procedural workflows for complex operations. The Grease Pencil tool, also accessible through the Geometry Nodes system, is used for 2D animation, cut-out animation, motion graphics, and more. Blender's procedural systems rely heavily on these node-based graphical interfaces, and the 4.5 LTS focuses on their continued evolution. These systems enable fully non-destructive workflows, preserving all original data at every stage of the editing process.
Blender strives to be compatible with visual-effects (VFX) industry standards through alignment with the VFX Reference Platform, which is updated annually. This allows Blender to be run on the same systems as other VFX software, as well as share files with them. 4.5 brings a slew of library updates to maintain alignment with the reference platform.
A solid foundation
Historically, Blender has relied on OpenGL for drawing its user interface and powering its 3D-display capabilities. However, efforts are underway to modernize this aspect of its core functionality by abstracting away the rendering backend, bringing support for running on additional graphics APIs, including Vulkan and Apple's Metal API. The Vulkan API is a low-overhead, cross-platform standard that allows applications like Blender to communicate more directly with GPU hardware than OpenGL. Being the final feature release of the 4.x series, this LTS brings a critical step in the maturity of the Vulkan backend. Though still not enabled by default due to multiple outstanding issues, it now rivals the OpenGL backend in both features and performance.
Vulkan is built on a parallel-execution model, allowing applications to send multiple commands to the GPU simultaneously, while OpenGL relies on a sequential model. Vulkan's execution model makes better use of the increased number of cores found in modern GPUs. This is a crucial step toward smoother viewport performance and more responsive interaction with complex scenes.
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