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https://9to5linux.com/blender-5-0-open-source-3d-graphics-app-is-now-available-for-download [9to5linux.com]

This release introduces support for displaying HDR and wide gamut colors on Linux when using Wayland and the Vulkan backend.

Blender 5.0, a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software, is now available for download as a major update that introduces numerous new features and improvements.

Highlights of Blender 5.0 include support for displaying HDR and wide gamut colors, which requires a HDR or wide gamut capable monitor. On Linux systems, this works only when using Wayland and setting the Vulkan backend [9to5linux.com] in Blender’s system preferences.

Blender 5.0 also introduces a working color space for Blend files, a new AgX HDR view, a new Convert to Display compositor node, new Rec.2100-PQ and Rec.2100-HLG displays that can be used for color grading for HDR video export, and new ACES 1.3 and 2.0 views as an alternative to AgX and Filmic.

A new “Jump Time by Delta” operator for jumping forward/backward in time by a user-specified delta has been introduced as well, along with a revamped Curve drawing, which better supports the new Curves object type and all of their features, and a new Geometry Attribute constraint.

Also new is a “Cylinder” option for curve display type that allows rendering thicker curves without the flat ribbon appearance, support for the Zstd (Zstandard) fast lossless compression algorithm for point caches, as well as a new “Curve Data” panel in edit mode that allows tweaking built-in curve attribute values.

There are also many UI changes in Blender 5.0, including drag and drop support within the Shape Keys list, snapping support for sidebars, a new “Delete Other Workspaces” context menu entry for workspace tabs, the ability to collapse paint pressure curves, and per-camera composition guide overlay color.

Moreover, theme settings have changed significantly in Blender 5.0 to make creating custom themes easier, while numerous theme settings have been unified, and more than 300 settings have been removed. On top of that, Blender 5.0 introduces a new Storyboarding template and workspace.

Among other noteworthy changes, this release adds a human base mesh bundle for realistic skeleton assets, six new Geometry Nodes-based modifiers, a new volume rendering algorithm based on null scattering, and a new “Working Space” choice in the Convert Color Space compositor node to convert to and from the current working space that images are in by default.

Being a major update, Blender 5.0 removes support for LZMA or LZO compressed point caches, support for Intel Macs, support for pre-2.50 animation, big-endian support, as well as the unsupported access to runtime-defined properties storage data in the Python API.

Also, starting with this release, the maximum data-blocks name length has been increased to 255 bytes, the minimum supported NVIDIA compute capability is sm_50 now, the minimum GPU driver requirements for AMD HIP were increased on Windows systems, and Blendfile compression on saving is now enabled by default.

Blender 5.0 requires NVIDIA GeForce 900 and newer GPUs, as well as Quadro Tesla GPU architecture and newer, including RTX-based cards, with the official NVIDIA [9to5linux.com] drivers, AMD GCN 4th gen and newer GPUs, and Intel Kaby Lake architecture and newer GPUs.

Check out the release notes [blender.org] for more details about the changes included in Blender 5.0, which you can download right now from the official website [blender.org] as a universal binary that you can run on virtually any GNU/Linux distribution without installing anything on your personal computer.

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