Normally when I open a project from a previous blender version, and render it, I get the same results in both versions.
Not the case with 5.2.0. I opened this project and rendered it on two workstations and both produced the same artifact. Cycles renders.
Here is Blender 5.1.1:
..and here is Blender 5.2.0:
Same file, same command (F12).
This is the first time I see a major artifact after upgrade. What is going on here?
I’m also seeing frequent crashing of 5.2.0 when I render anything in Cycles.
I tried rendering the above scene using CPU. 1 hour and 52 minutes render time. Same artifacts. GPU render: 9.2 seconds. Same image quality. I turned off texture caching, same result/artifacts. I’m out of ideas. I think I’ll wait till the bug fixes are released.
TYE Armillary Sphere.crash.txt (96.2 KB)
This doesn’t look like typical render artifacts, it looks more like the material got its color texture messed up. Does the rock material do anything fancy with the texture’s coordinates? It looks like the texture is distorted.
It’s really not a good idea to mix Blender versions in one project if you are not prepared to deal with problems like this. Just finish the project in the version you started. …or be prepared for some incompatibility and changes. You should expect problems like this. If you change version in the middle of a project, that will generally lead to trouble. It’s always a question if that trouble is worth it. It may be worth it.
That’s really not a rule. Breaking changes happen. Renders may look differently between versions. This is not rare at all.
I don’t know much about the texture, as I got it from Blenderkit.
The scene renders properly in 5.1.1 and earlier versions. This 5.2.0 is the first version that I’ve encountered this kind of problem with.
If you got it from somewhere, it’s not unlikely that some complicated stuff is happening in that material, stuff that might need a specific Blender version.
That’s a disadvantage of using materials you found without knowing how to make them yourself, you are stuck with what you get and can’t diagnose issues if they show up. In any case, if it’s just that one material, it’s not an render settings issue.
You should probably just finish the project in the Blender version where it works, or else you would need to find some other material that doesn’t break in 5.2.
It seems to me that incompatibility with existing projects and materials is a design shortcoming.
As artists, we should be able to focus on making art, not troubleshooting technical issues due to poor programming practices. Frankly this is the first time I’ve run into such an issue. I’ve worked this scene over many Blender versions (I started originally in 1983 with clay and wood models and then transitioned to 3D digital in 1995 and have been working on it since) and each version loaded the project scene file and rendered it no problem. Until this version.
This is needed to make software better. In order for it to get better it needs to be changed and when it’s changed, it works differently so while compatibility is always the goal, unfortunately it’s not always possible. 
It’s usually fine if you keep this in mind when working. If you need help with the material, could you share the original asset if its license permits re-sharing? Be sure it does though. If not, it would be best to ask for support from whoever is selling the assets. …or maybe you could share screenshots of the nodes in the problematic material. Be sure to show us what is inside any groups though…
Check yourself.
If you don’t even know how your shaders are setup, I don’t think that qualifies you to judge the programming practices of other people who are providing you state of the art software for free.
Things can break on version changes. if you just want to be an artist and not fiddle with troubleshooting technical issues, why are you changing your software version mid project? Just use what works, figure out how to diagnose and fix your shader, or don’t be surprised if there are changes that you don’t know how to fix.
Harsh but true.
That’s… at least quite a bit ignorant. It is widely accepted practice in any programming to try and improve software by making new versions of it. It could not be improved if it always remained the same so change is the only way and change sometimes means different results. This really cannot work any other way. Nothing to be shocked or dissatisfied about the way I see it. If you want compatibility all you have to do is absolutely nothing - simply don’t update to the new version for that project. Everything is pretty simple, obvious and usual. At least that’s what I think.
We can still see if we can help with whatever is not compatible or maybe offer some advice about how to deal with it… More info is needed for that though.
MartinZ, I downloaded the free texture/material from Blenderkit. Maybe I could copy/paste the material onto a simple object and save as a new project as the file size of this one is huge with all the geometry in it.
I can see things like geo nodes not working properly after a major update, but a material? Seems so basic it would be unaffected by which version.
I have been upgrading steadily throughout this project and up til now, each upgrade netted huge gains in render speeds and viewport responsiveness, enabling me to realize my vision with less struggle. It’s unfortunate that this last version broke some basic functionality. Textures should not go wonky just because you updated. Sorry, but I disagree on this.
Well, they have paid and free assets, so if it’s a free asset, maybe just provide its exact name so it’s possible to download.
Well, it’s not only this version. This happens often. Sometimes it’s in materials, sometimes it’s somewhere else. This happens with a lot of new versions. You can see release notes and compatibility issues are usually mentioned.
Socket identifiers for the Compare and Random Value node changed (3a5cd7862b).
That seems the most relevant bit. Maybe it’s something related to that. There aren’t many changes, it might still somehow be your mistake as well.
Creators on BlenderKit just love to make absolutely ridiculous nonsense materials. That’s what’s in the group:
Personally I would just recreate the material instead of trying to figure out what this is. It’s a rock… The material doesn’t even look that good. This is nonsense. …in my opinion. 
Oh my god! I had no idea it was hidden inside one of the nodes. When I look at stuff like that, my brain just goes limp. Blender is waaay too complicated for me. I just want to have a simple rock texture, but I guess that’s not possible. God only knows what’s going on in that mess of spaghetti.
It doesn’t have to be that complicated. For realistic rock, I would just get some free PBR rock textures from the Internet. There are some pretty big sites with completely free public domain textures (CC0 license). The only thing is that you need to know how to use each map that’s included, but it’s much simpler than this huge spaghetti and is guaranteed to work.
Here are some free rock textures.
Here is how to use texture sets like those, in case you haven’t.
Check polyhaven’s resources, they’re free and of pretty good quality. IMO Blenderkit is not very reliable when it comes to the free assets/textures. They leave the good quality stuff locked behind a subscription.
