Blender Foundation released Blender 4.1 with new features like bake on geometry nodes, user interface improvements, mesh attributes, a better compositor for editing shader nodes and faster user experience.
The mesh “Auto Smooth” option has been replaced by a modifier node group asset, so now geometry nodes has the ability to set edge sharpness and create split normals without the need for an “original” mesh with the auto smooth option.
You can test new features of Blender 4.1 by downloading from official Blender Foundation website:
The viewport compositor now supports Cryptomatte, Defocus, Vector Blur and Keying Screen, completing support for all nodes with the exception of Render Layers passes (other than Image, Alpha, Depth).
Motion Paths can now be generated in screen space from the camera view. Making it much easier for animators to see how arcs will look in the final piece.
I’m always amazed at how much is accomplished each release lately. I really wish my engineering software was anything close to this.
The list of updates always seems so much more impressive than what is listed here, maybe it’s just the awesome way it’s presented, it’s a pleasant surprise every time. Huge thanks to all involved! Great work!
Refreshing that they chose a realistic arch-vis to be the image announcing the release. All too often it is either one of their Open Movie toons or some 2D in 3D with the Grease Pencil.
Like usual though, this has become just numbers for me, I tend to stay closer to the leading edge with the buildbot now.
Blende 4.1 is way better than 4.0. When I downloaded 4.0 last january, If I open blender 4.0 it loads to slow but now in 4.1 it’s way better. Thanks to Blender developers for optimizing Blender. Best feature for me is OpenImageDenoise now GPU accelerated.
Agreed. It’s sort of a small thing in theory, but it’s going to make a big difference and save people a lot of time in not having to clean up an unintentional mess in the dopesheet.
One feature can have several access or several repercussions on workflow.
So, a demo of it can be more impressive than just a laconic explanation of few lines.
But QoL and performance improvements for animation, compositing, sequencer, geometry nodes are really implying a speed-up, an easing in workflow.
There are months of work of dozens of people between each release.
What ended up in Blender 4.1 is only a part of what have been worked on.
There was no feature added to EEVEE, because EEVEE Next is in development.
There was no Grease Pencil section in 4.1 release notes, because Grease Pencil 3 is in development.
The Brush Assets Prototype received a lot of feedback.
So, there are still major changes to happen in future releases.
And they have a long list of possible QoL, on RightClickSselect, alimented by users, for a century of development. There is no risk to see them, lacking of inspiration.
I just got 4.0 finished with updating all the add-ons. UG! Now I get to start all over again. HAHAHAHA
I have just gotten 4.1 loaded a day or two ago… I was waiting for autorig to do their thing before I changed over. On fresh files, loving it. On older files, or at least the project I am working on atm, it loads SOOOOOOO SLOW! This one file literally takes 12 min to load. There has to be an addon that needs updating. I do know that I have not done many updates for 4.1 yet.
I think once I get all the addons worked out I will be more excited about the new release. Or once I get a fresh project started
