Blender 5.2 LTS

Showcase Reel
Blender 5.2 LTS showcase reel featuring work by the Blender community.
Watch the
Recap
Video
New features overview by Jonathan Lampel and Wayne Dixon from
CGCookie
,
Cartesian Caramel
,
Paul Caggegi
Blender 5.2 LTS splash artwork by Joanna Kobierska, featuring the now-extinct
Panthera spelaea
Released July 14th, 2026
GEOMETRY NODES
Music to your
Nodes
Imagine driving your nodes with imported audio files, how does that sound?
The
Sample Sound Frequencies
node, coupled with the new Sound socket, brings audio-reactive animations and simulations to Geometry Nodes.
Sound files can be loaded directly into the node tree. To hear them during playback, add them to the Video Sequencer as well, and set Playback Sync to
“Sync to Audio”
.
Read Manual
Sample Sound Frequencies node.
Warning: contains sound. Audio-reactive animation by
Cartesian Caramel
.
Download Demo File
GEOMETRY NODES
Bevel
and be well
A new node enters the chat:
Mesh Bevel
.
The long awaited power of detailed procedural control over the edges or vertices.
Read Manual
Cloth Dynamics
Quickly add a cloth-like behaviour to any mesh with a new node-based modifier (and a node group as well). Comes with a list of built-in controls for pinning, tearing, controlling stretch and bendiness.
Hair Dynamics
Hair physics work similarly to cloth: the only extra requirement is having a surface object to attach hair to. The set up itself can be automated with the updated Empty hair operator.
Effectors
New node-based dynamics come with a bunch of built-in effectors for effortless gravity and/or surface collision application. In 5.2. LTS, three types of customisable effectors are available:
Colliders
Apply a Collider modifier to transform any closed mesh into a collision object. Or go further in a fully procedural set up and use the collider effector bundle and pass into the dynamics node.
Forces
Built-in gravity setup is available, as well as endless possibilities to build your own custom forces.
Custom effectors
Inject fully custom behaviour into simulations using Closure and Custom Effector nodes.
Tag&Filter
Tag-based filtering system for effectors is also here to easily determine which geometries they affect. Each simulated geometry can have multiple tags for the effector to specify which tags it should affect.
Physics:
Solved
Reimagined, node based: Blender 5.2. LTS introduces a brand new procedural approach to physics for hair and cloth simulations.
The power behind experimental node-based physics lies within the new built-in XPBD Solver node.
While built-in assets contain use-case specific declarative systems around it, advanced users can customize the simulations further. Adapt existing node groups by editing constraints as needed or create a new simulation system from scratch.
Read Manual
What the community is creating with node-based physics
Vegetation interaction test render with the new
#blender
5.2 Alpha Cloth Dynamics node in
#geometrynodes
and rendered with
#b3d
Cycles
Animated hippo 3D model from Sketchfab
pic.twitter.com/bBAeHrSO63
— Kevin Lim Wanasili (@_cgman_)
May 20, 2026
Testing a bit more of the new cloth simulation in
#geometrynodes
on Blender 5.2, really cool, optimized, and above all very customizable!
#b3d
#clothsim
pic.twitter.com/lDMtM09m4d
— Wender Silva (@wendervfx)
June 29, 2026
Cloth sim experiment
#b3d
#geometrynodes
pic.twitter.com/p8B6fM90x9
— Cartesian Caramel (@Cartesian_C)
June 17, 2026
all done 🙂 i learned a lot about the new cloth solver nodes. these are exciting times!
pic.twitter.com/WKuqbgl1IH
— ashlee! COMMS OPEN (@ashlee3dee)
May 18, 2026
#GeometryNodes on Bluesky
on mstdn.social
on X
Bundle Up
Blender 5.0 introduced the concept of
bundles
, which can now be attached to geometry to carry arbitrary data across modifier and object boundaries.
Use new
Get Geometry Bundle
and
Set Geometry bundle
nodes to unlock new workflows and possibilities.
Set and Get Geometry Bundle nodes.
More Geometry Nodes
Lists
New core data type that allows storing a sequence of arbitrary length (e.g. numbers or strings). Lots of new nodes were added to provide control.
Create lists through
Field to List
and
Closure to List
nodes.
Access lists with
List Length
and
Get List Item
nodes.
Modify lists with classic Math nodes as well as new
Filter List
and
Sort List
nodes.
Attributes
The Capture Attribute node now supports selection.
The new
Rename Attribute
node renames attributes with a specific prefix.
The
Get Attribute Names
node outputs a list of the names of attributes in a geometry, optionally filtered by domain and data type.
The new
Transfer Attributes
node can transfer an arbitrary number of attributes from one geometry to another.
Attributes can now be stored as 4D float vectors (note that Geometry Nodes currently only operate on 3D vectors).
Strings
Geometry Nodes now support String fields.
The Find in String node can now find the first occurrence from the end.
Remove specific characters at the start or end of a string with the new
Trim String
node.
Reverse the character order in a string with the new
Reverse String
.
Switch between upper and lower case through the new
Set String Case
.
String
and
String to Value
Base
input.
Split text into a list based on a delimiter with new
Split String
node.
Empty Objects
Geometry nodes modifiers can be now applied to empties. Recommended use: custom effectors for simulations, procedural effects that don’t require original geometry.
Curves
You can now access built-in attributes to control the computation of the final curve with the new
Set NURBS Order
and
Set NURBS Weight
nodes.
Node Tools
Node tools inputs are remembered between operator invocations.
Node tool inputs can now be assigned in Python.
Performance
Internal fields pre-evaluation deduplication.
Face corner evaluation is now avoided in some sampling nodes.
Preferences: configure a new call stack depth limit for Geometry Nodes.
Other
New in:
Collection Children
node for accessing all the Child Objects and Collections of a Collection as a list.
New in:
Principal Component Analysis
nodes.
3 new building block nodes associated with Merge by Distance for expanded control over merging.
Node group inputs: new Scene Frame default input type.
Object sockets can now have Self Object as a default input mode.
Access the internal attribute which tells instances what geometry to instance with the new
Instance Reference
node.
Extract a single component of a geometry or edit it in a new simpler way with the
Get Geometry Component
node.
Closures can now be called recursively.
Display data-block name in Viewer Node.
Data-blocks sockets can now be compared to each other and to
None
.
Bone Info: New “Exists” output.
CYCLES
Cached
In
On scenes with many image textures, the new
Texture Cache
significantly reduces memory usage and startup time by automatically generating smaller, optimized texture files that load only the tiles and resolutions needed for rendering.
Texture Cache Off
Texture Cache On
Attic
Bistro
Junkshop
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
Memory usage
Unit: MB
CYCLES
Easy
Savings
One toggle, loads of memory savings.
Under
Performance → Texture Cache
, enable
Auto Generate
or click
Generate
. A corresponding
.tx
file will be generated for each image and automatically updated whenever the image file is modified.
Memory savings and performance improvements are highly scene-dependent. Using Texture Cache comes at the cost of a small rendering performance impact and increased disk space usage.
Read Blog Post
CYCLES & EEVEE
Paper-
thin wall
Render physically accurate thin materials such as paper, leaves, and window sheets with the new
Thin Wall
mode in the
Principled BSDF
node.
When Thin Wall is enabled, the surface is treated as a slab with its layers mirrored around the base, and the thickness is assumed to be zero.
Thin Wall OFF
Thin Wall ON
Render by
Christopher 3D
.
This new mode provides a more accurate approximation of thin transparent and translucent materials, combining reflection and transmission for thin glass surfaces, and diffuse and translucent scattering for thin subsurface materials.
Read Manual
Thin Wall OFF
Thin Wall ON
Render by
Christopher 3D
.
COLOR MANAGEMENT
Awesome in
Space
Organized color spaces into
menus
, adding new input color spaces for
Apple, ARRI, Blackmagic Design, Canon, and Sony
cameras, as well as support for
Adobe RGB, common gamma values, and wide gamut textures
.
More Cycles & Rendering
Cycles
Added: negative anisotropy support for Subsurface BSDF and Principled BSDF’s Subsurface component.
The Random Walk radius scaling and anisotropy to albedo mapping adjustments for matching other renderers better.
Added: Cast Shadows options for World.
Geometry memory usage optimization and improved sync performance.
Raycast Node: Access to custom attributes at intersection point.
Rendering
New: disable option for render output saving.
New: easy copy to selection for light/shadow linking.
Shader nodes: new
Time Node
, behaves similar to its Geometry Nodes version.
EEVEE
Eevolved
Blender 5.2 LTS is a major release for EEVEE, addressing long-standing usability issues from the transition to the EEVEE Next project architecture.
What’s
New
2x speed-up
in instance-heavy scenes
Reduced banding
using dithering
Removed limit of 8 attributes
per material
Support for
Normal Map Base
Added
Raycast visibility
toggle
Added 1.5GB and 2GB
Shadow Pool
sizes
Added
Camera visibility for lights
Plane Light Probes now support Blended materials and Shader to RGB
Improved consistency
rendering across platforms
Added
Anisotropic Filtering
Behind the
Screen
The new
Backface
option under
Screen Tracing
controls how rays that intersect the back faces of visible geometry are handled.
When enabled, intersections with back faces are treated as valid hits instead of misses.
This can reduce light leaking when using screen-space global illumination, and lets you fine-tune the appearance of global illumination. It affects both
Screen Space GI
and
Fast GI Approximation
.
Read Manual
Double Sided
Single Sided
Disabled (Compatibility Mode)
Both front and back faces contribute to global illumination (slider at 1.0)
Only front faces affect global illumination (slider at 0.0)
Use it for compatibility with old renders.
What
Got Better
Screen Space Raytracing overhaul
Principled BSDF sheen accounts for Coat normal
Critical Fast GI issues fixed
Shadow visibility fixes
Depth of Field bokeh fixes
Shadow artifacts fixes
Faster and less noisy Fast GI
Fixdd light culling at shallow FoV angles
Light render passes consistency with Cycles
Motion blur fixes
Volume shader compilation fixes
Improved Refraction BSDF light evaluation
Improved Vector Transform normals on non-uniform scale objects
Mix node consistency with Cycles
Subsurface Scattering indirect lighting fixes
See all changes in EEVEE & Viewport
Give back to Blender.
Releases are possible thanks to donations by the community.
ASSETS ♥ ONLINE
Essentials
On Demand
Dozens of new parametric materials, compositing effects, HDR world backgrounds, Geometry Nodes setups, and many more assets have been added to the Essentials library.
The best part? Blender isn’t any larger. These new assets are hosted online, ready for download whenever you need them.
Make Them
Yours
Watch this demo on customizing online assets by Simon from
Blender Studio
Host
Your Own
Need more? Host your own or add your favorite creator’s online asset libraries.
Smart indexing makes browsing thousands of assets a breeze.
Keep your assets up to date with a single click.
Read Manual
Add your own online repository in the new
Asset Libraries
preferences section.
More in
Assets
New Asset Libraries tab in Preferences
Per-asset Import Method
Added “All Libraries” and “Essentials” to the Asset Libraries list in Preferences
Organized built-in catalogs
Better handle deleted libraries in asset shelves
COMPOSITOR
New nodes,
unlimited
possibilities.
Do more in the Compositor with six new socket types supported:
Matrix
,
Rotation
,
String
,
Object
,
Font
, and
Integer Vector
.
Plus
35 new nodes
all-around, from string manipulation to , many of which will already be familiar to Geometry Nodes users.
See All Compositing Nodes
Instant Looks
Whether you’re after a realistic
filmic
finish or a hand-painted
watercolor
or
oil painting
style, the new compositing assets provide a quick starting point for a wide range of looks.
Additionally, you’ll find new utility node groups that can be used as building blocks or incorporated into your own setups.
3D to Screen Space:
transform 3D coordinates from world to normalized camera space. The inverse is available as
Screen to 3D Space
. Use it, for example, to drive the Sun Beams position with a 3D object.
Transform and Project:
lower level generalised variation of 3D to Screen Space that inputs from Transform and Projection to compute coordinates.
Project with Depth:
transforms 2D coordinates with their corresponding depth into a 3D vector.
Gizmos
Go Further
Compositor gizmos now support
auto keying
.
Transforming a gizmo will automatically insert keyframes, providing a direct way to animate compositing setups from the backdrop or the
Image Editor
, which now
supports gizmos
too!
As for the
viewer gizmo
, it now follows the image display offset, so handles stay aligned with the backdrop as you pan and zoom.
MORE IN COMPOSITOR
Performance & Quality
Much
more responsive
interactive compositor.
Switch nodes with a fixed condition (unconnected or directly connected to Group Input) now use
lazy evaluation
, saving execution time.
The
Distance Threshold
mode of the
Dilate/Erode
node is now faster for relatively large sizes, with execution time independent of the size or inset inputs.
The
Group Output
node now displays the total execution time of the node tree.
Anisotropic
sampling now works with
Transform
nodes and can be used for higher quality scaling down. Previously, it silently used Bi-Cubic sampling.
Changes
The mask rasterizer now uses “Delaunay” tessellator by default providing robust support for overlapping regions.
The interactive compositor now supports animation playback.
The interactive compositor runs only when needed: fewer redundant executions, correct updates for referenced scene data, and no blocking from unrelated undo.
Additions
File Extension
checkbox in File Output node independent of scene render settings ‘File Extension’ checkbox.
EEVEE only: the depth of Grease Pencil objects reflection in the viewport compositor depth pass.
Blank Image
node that returns a new image of a given size and constant color.
Integer Vector
sockets are now supported and used by default where possible.
New
Frame
input in the
Stabilize 2D
node.
Levels node got
Minimum
and
Maximum
outputs.
Support for
Object
sockets and
Active Camera
,
Camera Info
,
Input Object
,
Object Info
nodes from Geometry nodes.
Objects can be now dragged and dropped from the outliner to the node editor.
The Node Editor now displays a render region when the backdrop is enabled.
Socket value inspection support.
Sockets representing pixel values now show pixel units.
New masks can now be directly created from the Mask node.
Support for
Default Input Types
.
It’s a keeper.
The
LTS
in Blender 5.2 LTS stands for “long-term support”, meaning it will get fixes for up to two years, until July 2028.
Learn More
GREASE PENCIL
Fill
Good Ink.
Welcome the new Grease Pencil
Delaunay fill
algorithm. It creates exact geometry from boundary strokes, with automatic gap detection, inverse filling, zoom-independent results, and much faster performance.
Read Manual
Ready. Set.
Go Random
.
Dots and Squares line materials now feature Placement settings to control the distribution of shapes along a stroke.
Strokes are now generated at render time instead of as extra geometry, significantly improving performance compared to subdividing strokes with the modifier.
More
Online
Don’t forget to enable the Online Essentials Asset library: which includes 19 new Grease Pencil brushes by Blender Studio artists and Daniel Martínez Lara.
Bundled brush assets got refreshed thumbnails as well as new material controls for
Dots
, plus settings updates for
Airbrush
,
Ink Pen Rough
and
Pencil soft brushes
.
Even more
Grease Pencil
Move to Layer
operator now shows layers groups matching the layer tree structure
Vertex Brush
got blend modes support
UI updates (icons) for Vertex Paint mode’s toolbar
Shift + L
now deselects strokes that are completely selected
New
Draw Tool
settings for picking a curve type
Eraser
now uses the last activated eraser brush
New
Fill Strokes
option lets generated strokes to carry fill material
New
Scene Units
toggle in the
SVG importer
for scale the import in the scene units
PDF and SVG exporters now support corner types export
ANIMATION
Loop
Mood
Introducing Playback Loop modes!
Infinite
Stop at End Frame
Stop at Start Frame
Restore Frame
Bounce
Read Manual
MORE
ANIMATION & RIGGING
Graph Editor
Improved UI feedback when using Smooth and Cycles F-Curves modifiers
Batch delete F-Curve modifiers (All, First, by Type)
Ctrl+Click
on the channel visibility setting in Graph Editor now isolates that channel
Local View to isolate selected F-Curves.
Normalize button click in the Graph Editor now performs a normalization even if Auto Normalization is disabled
Playback
New:
Allow Preroll
option in the Playback popover for playing back frames that are before the defined playback start frame.
New:
screen.animation_pause
operator that always pauses playback.
Pose Library
Blender auto corrects rotation mode mismatches when a pose is applied. Closest Euler for quaternion poses, XYZ assumed for Euler-to-quaternion, unchanged when modes already match.
Workflow & Rigging
In-Between tools now available in Object mode.
Copy Constraints
added to Link/Transfer Data menu (
Ctrl+L
).
Auto IK reverse behaviour now works with non-connected parent bones.
New in Dope Sheet: an operator to select keys by type (
Select
→
Select by Type
)
New operator in Armature Edit mode: use
Duplicate and Rename
to duplicate selected bones and perform a search/replace on the name.
Only Insert Available
user preference is on by default.
Motion paths no longer update on the current frame during auto-keyed transforms.
New
Head/Tail
slider for adjusting position along a bone when using Bone parenting.
Additional
Space
,
Align
,
Length
, and
Deform
options in the redo panel for adding bones.
New operator for selecting markers left or right of the playhead with
[
and
]
hotkeys.
Fixes
In Pose Mode, parent/child bone selection with hotkeys now works on all selected bones instead of just the active.
Mirror bones no longer ignore transform lock settings.
The In-Between tools now work with X-mirror in Pose Mode.
Correct motion paths display when “Bake to Active Camera” is used with animated camera properties like Focal Length.
EXPAND
YOUR BLENDER
The
Blender Extensions platform
keeps growing, with over 1100 free add-ons and themes to customize your workflows.
You can also share your own add-ons and themes!
Browse Extensions
Share Your Extensions
Three operators from the LoopTools add-on now built-in Blender 5.2 LTS.
MODELING
Stay In The
Loop
To Circle
,
Space Edge Loops Evenly
and
Flatten
operators from the popular
Loop Tools
add-on are now available as native operators.
Rewritten from scratch in C++ for improved performance, while also fixing several corner-case issues.
MORE IN
MODELING
Support for
snapping to Lattice
object
Interpolate custom vertex data
when merging
Select through back-face
culled faces
Improved
rotation
alignment option in
Array
modifier
3D Text:
Fixed placement
on marks (e.g. accents) over their base characters
MORE IN
UV
EDITING
Added
Base Snap
support
Delimit
seam, sharp in material in
Select Linked
Axis options in
Copy Mirrored UV coordinates
New
Select by Winding
operator
Island
support for select
overlap
New
Original bounding box unwrapping option
Get the
artwork
Blender splash artwork source files are available for you to play with!
Download Blend File (141 MB)
See All Demo Files
Splash artwork by
Joanna Kobierska
, based on a model by
Ken Barthelmey.
SCULPT
Not So
Primitive
Sculpt mode expands its toolkit: drop primitives straight into sculpts with the
Add Primitive
tool.
Insert Cubes, Cones, Cylinders, UV and Icon Spheres while in Sculpt mode.
Read Manual
SCULPT
Scene!
Project!
Wrap surfaces onto nearby geometry with the new
Scene Project brush
, and keep painted color intact through repeated voxel remeshing with a smoother color workflow along the way.
Read Manual
See the new
Scene Project brush
in action in this live demo by Daniel Bystedt.
Remesh
, don’t wreck.
The voxel remesher now interpolates vertex and corner attributes, instead of taking the value of the nearest point in the original mesh.
This update provides better preservation of vertex painted meshes after repeated remeshing.
5.1
5.2 LTS
Vertex Colors preservation comparison between 5.1 and 5.2 LTS
EVEN MORE
SCULPT & PAINT
Sculpt
The Color Filter tool in Fill Mode now uses the scene “unified” colors for its operations.
Extra user confirmation for entering Dyntopo is now removed.
Paint
Vertex and Weight Paint received 3D brush cursor support.
Autosave is now extended to Texture Paint.
VIDEO SEQUENCER
STACK, STYLE, SCOPE
The Video Sequencer mastering kit gets real in 5.2 LTS: share compositor effects as modifier
assets
, style titles and toggle modifiers per preview or render. All of that and more plus grading with
HDR
scopes.
COMPOSITOR
+ VSE
A new Compositor effect strip runs compositor node trees
directly on the timeline
with zero, one, or two inputs, plus an effect fader on the input group.
Strip modifiers now expose inputs in the panel, driven by the node group interface like Geometry Nodes. Save compositor node trees as Strip Modifier assets to add them from the Add Modifier menu later. In the modifier extras menu, you can hide the node group selector so shared assets feel like built-in modifiers.
Last but not least: modifiers and effects can now run on the GPU, a real solution needed for heavier graphs and large blurs.
Write in
Style
Text strips now support style presets.
Font, outline, shadows, layout, all settings in the Style panel are stored.
Three presets come built-in:
Subtitle
: classic movie subtitles.
Main Title
: big, centered text.
Corner Title
: smaller titles in the bottom-left corner.
Make
Space
Line Spacing
can now be adjusted in text strips relative to the font height, or in
absolute pixels
.
Subtitle
Main Title
Corner Title
Now you see me, now you don’t.
Strip modifiers now have a preview visibility toggle just like object modifiers, so you can cut heavy processing from playback without touching the final export.
This also means that cached frames are kept in memory after rendering, making the next preview faster with the same result.
PERFORMANCE
BOOSTS
Footage and compositor results now convert to sequencer color space
on demand
.
Compositor modifiers
detect fully opaque
results and use a faster render path instead of always assuming transparency.
Mask
inputs render faster, especially in compositor strip modifiers.
THERE’S EVEN MORE
SEQUENCER
Timeline & Scene
Stepping back a few frames while editing now feels much faster as Prefetch now loads five frames before the playhead.
Timeline Strip thumbnails at start/end of strip are visible by default and also can be shown across the whole strip.
Scene strips have a view layer selector, initially set to the scene’s default view layer.
New override workbench world settings for tweaking background color for all scene strips at once.
The Add menu shows “No other scenes” under Scene Strip when only the Edit scene exists in the file.
Strip Modifiers
Extras menu on strip modifiers similar to object modifiers: duplicate, copy to selected strips, move to first/last in the stack.
Linear Modifiers strip option was removed.
Python API
New collection strip property
.connections
returns all strips connected to a given strip.
strips.new_movie
and
strips.new_sound
accept an optional
stream
parameter to pick the video/audio stream index.
Removed strip property
.use_linear_modifiers
.
PLUS THESE
Scopes now support HDR and wide gamut colour spaces.
Optional scrubbing region on playback footer.
Import adds all audio and video streams from video files.
Render Audio operator now shows a real-time progress bar that can be cancelled.
New: composition guides in VSE preview.
Color strip size can now be set in raw pixels from the Strip Properties > Transform menu.
More snap options for strip image origins (e.g. preview center).
Unused mask inputs in compositor strip modifiers are now black and opaque instead of transparent.
Sequencer colorspace transforms with semitransparent images now match the compositor Convert Colorspace node behavior.
Proxy builds no longer create
*.blen_tc
, as timecode files functionality was removed.
USER INTERFACE
DETAILS
MATTER
Long-term support comes with a long list of small UI improvements that make a huge difference for those who blend on daily basis.
Do a
Quick Flip
!
Need portrait instead of landscape? Right-click Resolution X or Resolution Y and use new
Swap Dimensions
operator to quickly flip render dimensions.
OUTLINER
Active
Focus
Turn on
Scroll to Active
in the Outliner to keep focus on the active object.
Elements inside collapsed Collections, and children of collapsed parents, are ignored in order to keep your Outliner tidy.
Cozy
Sidebar
Fit more on your sidebar!
Compact
mode turns the sidebar tabs into squares fitting the first two letters of the name, first two letters of each word, or even an icon.
Similar to
bl_category
for the panel name, define
bl_icon
and the ID of your icon.
Additionally, you can now click-drag to switch the active tab, and the sidebar is always visible even with a single tab.
PLUS ALL THESE
USER INTERFACE
IMPROVEMENTS
General
New Preference:
Save Modified Images
prompt
With right-click selection, File and Asset Browsers still open a context menu when right-clicking files/assets.
When resizing areas, aligned edges no longer move together by default: hold
Shift
to move them as a group.
When Developer Extras is enabled, the property’s icon ID is shown in the tooltip.
Circle/Lasso Select order is consistent across editors.
Frame the active element with Mouse Button 4 by default (alongside Numpad dot/comma).
Tree View
Auto-scroll the list when the mouse is near the edges during drag-and-drop.
Invert sorting for root and nested list items.
Invert the search filter to show items that don’t match.
Navigate Tree View and Asset Shelf grid view with arrow keys.
Numpad period
brings the active item into view (tree and grid).
Widgets and Icons
New text-box widget for multi-line text input.
New “link” widget type allows to style buttons as links (blue, underline, or custom via theme)
Pan menus and popovers with the middle mouse button, just like in other Blender areas.
Color widgets now allow direct paste of hex values.
Sub-panels inside popovers can be collapsed.
Number widgets: the unit is no longer part of the selected text, a unit hint appears after the value instead.
New icons: FILTER_FILLED, DOWNLOAD, DOWNLOAD_DONE, PACKAGE_INDIRECT.
Set Parent To
menu shows icons for data/object type
Node Editor
Make Group operator avoids type conversion on multi-connected inputs and duplicate output sockets.
Ungroup operator adds proxy input and converter nodes so behavior stays the same after ungrouping.
New
Implicit Conversion
nodes for fixed data-type conversion.
New constant input nodes for Menu sockets and Font data-blocks in all node editors.
Shader Editor welcomed Boolean, Integer, and Vector input nodes.
Vector input nodes support 2D and 4D vectors.
Hold
Alt
to affect all selected tree interface items.
Multiple nodes can be now resized at once.
More renaming directly inside nodes.
Add dynamic sockets directly on nodes.
String input nodes update evaluation on text edit.
Float, Integer, Vector, and Integer Vector sockets now support Pixel subtype.
Node Wrangler merge supports Integer Math nodes.
Linked node groups moved to a submenu in the Add menu; indirectly linked groups hidden.
Image drop into the World shading editor now creates an Environment Texture node instead of a regular Texture node.
Searchable AOVs in the AOV Output node.
Other Editors
3D Viewport: cameras now have gizmo for orthographic scale adjustment.
3D Viewport: Brush popover Advanced section is transformed into collapsible sub-panel.
Image Editor: UV Grid overlay options are now visible in all modes.
Outliner: individual shape keys display.
Outliner: filter panel is reorganized with sub-panels (the icon is removed).
Animation: improved readability of
Mirror
menu for keys.
Preferences and Platforms
Theme Editor: color, text style, and UI panels reorganization.
After disabling
Allow Online Access
, choose to continue offline or allow internet access again.
Linux (Wayland): key shortcuts work with non-Latin layouts when a Latin fallback layout (A–Z) is available.
macOS 26+: new Liquid Glass application icon.
VIRTUAL REALITY
Great
Scout
Jump straight into your 3D scene with
Location Scouting
!
Block camera vantage points and assess camera properties in VR with full 3D environment immersion.
Full
Control
The VR Controller default bindings deadzone threshold was adjusted to provide a smoother user experience.
Read Manual
I
/
O
Alembic
Import support for object visibility from Alembic archives, including animated visibility as F-Curves.
Animated camera data now imports as F-Curves.
Subdivision meshes keep their original coordinates on import.
Subdivision meshes rebuild correctly when Alembic changes their structure between frames.
OpenUSD
Color space support: import converts colors to the .blend working space; export tags prims and image textures with their color space.
New export option to control how often USD data is flushed to disk and
reduce peak memory usage on large exports
.
Images
OpenEXR: Faster writing of half-precision (FP16) EXRs.
Video & Audio Output
Stereoscopic metadata is written to exported video for correct playback in video players.
Panoramic camera metadata export support for full equirectangular cameras.
STL
New option to decide which evaluation (Viewport/Render) will be used in export.
glTF: New in Import/Export
Point Cloud support.
Meshopt compression via
EXT_meshopt_compression
and
KHR_meshopt_compression
.
Iridescence and dispersion materials via
KHR_materials_iridescence
and
KHR_materials_dispersion
.
KHR primitive attributes for the official glTF primitive attribute set.
Errors raised by glTF Hooks now stop the export.
Performance: inline material is used when possible.
Performance: animation export enhancement by viewport disabling.
Nodes are now sorted by name.
Fixed: retrieve sockets by index instead of names when they are named the same.
Fixed: scripts reloading crash.
Fixed: Vertex Color export for a subset of materials only use case.
UI filter for glTF Collections.
Fixed: crash on import multiple custom attributes.
Animation Pointer fixes.
BUT WAIT,
THERE’S
MORE
Theme
Viewport: Added axis brightness setting.
Core
Autosave: Programmatic triggering via new operator.
Autosave & recovery: Unsaved image edits are now kept in backup files.
Outliner: Remove override rules directly from the Library Overrides menu.
Library Overrides: Geometry Nodes packed bakes are now supported on modifier stacks.
Motion Tracking
New:
“Move to Layer”
operator for masks in the Movie Clip Editor (
M
).
Mute footage shortcut moved to
Ctrl+H
.
Faster high-resolution footage playback in the Movie Clip Editor on OpenGL.
Proxy building no longer creates *.blen_tc timecode index files.
Python API
Geometry Nodes: modifier inputs and outputs are now
RNA properties
instead of custom
modifier[“…”]
keys. Scripts that set Geometry Nodes values the old way
require updates
.
Expanded image-buffer API: conversion between file formats, direct pixel access, and grey-scale/RGB/RGBA support.
New
bpy.data.all_ids
iterator to loop over all data-blocks at once.
New options for
bpy.data.file_path_foreach
to expand UDIM tiles, image/volume sequences, and cache files (including Cycles texture cache).
New:
gpu.init()
to use the GPU in background mode (
–background
).
Sculpt Mode automasking settings moved to
MeshAutomaskingSettings
on
Paint
and
Brush
.
mathutils
types (Vector, Matrix, Color, Euler) now support slice step (e.g.
vector[begin:end:step]
).
New functions to add, edit, and remove annotation strokes and points.
bpy.data.libraries.load()
now exposes linked library blend-file paths.
New:
Window.screenshot
method to access screenshot pixel data without saving to disk.
New:
UILayout.link
and
UILayout.textbox
for styled link buttons and multi-line text in panels.
Blender reports are now exposed as a read-only list on
WindowManager
, with session-wide unique IDs.
Grease Pencil: new functions
layer.layer_masks.add
and
layer.layer_masks.remove
to add/remove layer masks.
Grease Pencil: new
fill_id
and
hide_stroke
properties to strokes in the high-level python API.
See all API changes.
Plus hundreds of bug fixes, code cleanups and refactors.
See the
full list of changes
.
CREDITS
Blender is a community project.
Learn more on how you can
contribute to Blender
.
List of developers
who contributed to Blender 5.2 LTS and all-time contributors.
Splash artwork:
Joanna Kobierska
,
based on a model by
Ken Barthelmey
.
Thin Wall renders by
Christopher 3D
. VR Location Scouting image by
Daniel Bystedt
.
Huge thanks to everyone involved! 🧡
The Blender team. July 14th, 2026