Blender 4.3 new and improved features

The real-time renderer EEVEE now supports Light Linking and Shadow Linking—features previously available only in Cycles.

With light linking, lights can be set to affect only specific objects in the scene.

Shadow linking additionally gives control over which objects acts as shadow blockers for a light. This is now feature parity with Cycles.

METAL TO THE PEDAL

A new Metallic BSDF node has been added to the shader editor.

Metallic BSDF

This new node exposes existing, but hard to access metallic material configurations in a small node.

F82 Tint

The F82 Tint approximation is artist friendly, taking colors as inputs. This is currently in use by the Principled BSDF.

Conductor Fresnel

This method is more complex to use, requiring IOR and Extinction coefficients per color channel as inputs. However, it can produce subtly more accurate results for real-world metals, previously achievable only through custom OSL scripts. EEVEE does not yet support the Conductor Fresnel type.

Gabor noise

A new texture node was added that can create procedural Gabor noise for random interleaved bands with controllable direction and width.

COMPOSITOR

Forget F12. EEVEE passes are now available for interactive compositing.

MORE COMPOSITOR

Color Balance: New White Point conversion mode
File Output: New global Save As Render option
GPU Compositor: Support for meta-data necessary for exchanging Cryptomatte through EXRs using the File Output node
Compositor Auto Render has been removed

The Blender Extensions platform continues to grow, offering hundreds of free add-ons and themes that enable endless customization of workflows.You can also share your own add-ons and themes!

SLIM UVs

A new method makes unwrapping organic shapes a breeze. A new iterative unwrapping method “Minimum Stretch” has been added which can deliver results with less distortion by iteratively refining the result.

Ideal for organic shapes. This uses the SLIM algorithm (Scalable Local Injective Mappings) internally, see the research publication. It can be used from the Unwrap menu as well as “Live Unwrap”.

Added support for manual seams in UV Sphere/Cylinder Projection
Two new Select Similar options: Winding, Object

Blender 4.3 is easier than ever to integrate in studio pipelines.

For Each Element Zone. Gizmos. Support for Grease Pencil. Packed Bakes. Custom Warnings. Geometry Names. New Nodes.

EFFORTLESS ITERATION WITH FOR EACH ELEMENT

A new type of loop zone is available now! The For Each Element zone will make it easy to iterate over elements of a geometry in parallel, making repetitive processes a breeze to handle.

You can now add gizmos to node groups! This means you can edit the inputs to a node tree right in the 3D viewport – no need to dive into the node editor or modifier stack. It’s a game-changer for a more intuitive and hands-on experience!

Introducing the Set Geometry Name node, a new node designed to enhance your workflow. This node allows for the easy assignment of names to geometries, with automatic initialization based on object and collection names.

Geometry Nodes now work smoothly with Grease Pencil data, breaking it down into layers with curves and custom attributes. Updated nodes can now handle Grease Pencil data seamlessly, processing each layer separately.

NEW UTILITY NODES

Hash Value: Hashes various types into an integer. Useful to generate stable randomness.

Integer Math: Provides building block support for integer operations.

MORE GEOMETRY NODES

Convert Grease Pencil to Curves
Convert Curves to Grease Pencil
Merge Layers node for Grease Pencil layers
Improved node timings for better accuracy
Skip checkbox is now hidden in Simulation Zone
Sculpt mask made accessible in node tools

GREASE PENCIL

The Grease Pencil engine was completely rewritten for better performance and to remove deeper limitations.

A new Fill Gradient tool is here!

Found in Edit Mode below the Interpolation tool, it lets users change the fill gradient (set in material settings) by selecting fill strokes and click-dragging with the Gradient tool.

The eraser has been rewritten to allow strokes to be “cut”.

Instead of just deleting points, it now correctly solves for the intersections of the eraser’s edge and creates new points on the stroke. The Soft eraser also does this but for multiple levels of transparency radiating outwards from the center of the eraser.

BRUSH

With over a hundred default brushes and an improved interface, Blender 4.3’s new brush workflow makes management, customization, and sharing across projects easier than ever.

Asset shelf in the 3D Viewport while in mesh Sculpt mode.

BRUSH = ASSET

Brushes are now assets, making them easy to save, share, and reuse through the Asset Browser. Organize custom libraries and access your favorite brushes across projects.

AND MORE

USER INTERFACE

Dock-on Dock-off

Tear an area into its own (now neatly named) window, or dock it back into another area.

Tooltips now provide much more information than before.

Images display their resolution and color space, movies show their duration, and fonts include previews.

To improve accessibility, tooltips now have dedicated style settings for font size, weight, and shadows.

Clarity

A new theme option allows for enhanced highlights around an area when the mouse is over it, for better accessibility. Non-active areas can also have a custom border color.

Blender 4.3 runs natively on Windows on Arm