Download Blender 2.57

The Blender Foundation has released a new stable version of the open source and cross platform 3D program Blender. The application is intended for 3d modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. More information about the extensive possibilities of Blender can be found on this page are being found. This program includes the open source animation movies Elephant’s Dream, Big Buck Bunny and the recently published cinder created. A large number of changes have been made in this first stable version of the 2.5 series. The most important are listed below.

User Interface

• Updated GU
• Add-ons
• Custom keyboard shortcuts

Internal Architecture

• data access
• 64 bits for Windows, Linux & OS X
• tool system
• Python Scripting

Modeling

• Sculpt and Multi-resolution
• Paint Brushes
• Sculpt Brush and Stroke Upgrade
• Solidify Modifier

Animation System

• F-Curves, Actions, NLA
• Spline I
• Animation Editors

Physics

• Smoke Simulation
• particles

rendering

• Volume Rendering
• Ray tracing optimization
• color management
• Other rendering features

more

More new features, that still needs to be documented on this page:

• Installation paths and OS conventions
• Windows version: Blender now starts with Command Prompt hidden
• Experimental declarative UI: bpyml, bpyml_ui
• External Render Engine API
• Console and Reports Editor
• Scopes Display in the Image Editor
• Non-blocking Reports in top header
• Screw Modifier
• Fluid Particles
• Network Render
• Game Engine Mode in UI
• Approximate Indirect Light
• Improved sequencer core: it’s faster and needs less memory
• GameLogic/Audaspace GSoC project merged
• load binary data as .blend from memory
• Installer for Windows installs since 2.56 in %USERPROFILE% by default
• COLLADA support has been stabilized considerably, with improvements to mesh, material, light and node structures

Fixed Issues

Since Blender 2.56 Beta a lot of bugs have been fixed. This includes fixes to particles, sequencer, the scripting API, 3D view, Outliner, hotkeys, keyboard, GUI issues and many more.

• Since 2.56a Beta
• Since 2.56 Beta
• Since 2.55 Beta
• Since 2.54 Beta
• Since 2.53 Beta

Known Issues

Although we work hard on fixing all issues, there are still some things we know already are not fixed. A full overview we maintain on Blender wiki.

• Intel on-board graphics cards: Potential crashes when opening new window (user preferences, rendering)
• Add-ons: Keymap changes get lost on loading .blend files.

Blender 2.57 screenshot, click on the image for a larger version.