Blender released version 4.4

The Blender Foundation and the online developer community proudly released Blender 4.4 on March 18, 2025. This update focuses on the stability and quality of the software. Besides significantly enhancing the reliability of the software, Blender 4.4 also introduces a series of remarkable new features and improvements, covering core modules such as animation, compositing, modeling, sculpting, and rendering. Additionally, the user interface and workflow have been optimized to enhance the overall user experience.

Animation: Action Data Block Reconstruction, More Flexible Animations

The Actions data block now introduces Slots (slots)

Now, an Action data block can store multiple types of data. For example, the animation of an object can simultaneously store its position changes and material changes, and manage them through different Slots.

More flexible merging/splitting of animations

Merge the animations of multiple objects into one Action, or split different slots of an Action to increase flexibility.

Changing the way animation data is stored is the first step of the Animation 2025 project, laying the foundation for future character rigging and animation tools.

New Python API introduced, not fully backward compatible

Although old files will be automatically updated upon import, some custom scripts and plugins may need adjustments.

Viewport Rendering: Vulkan Backend Significantly Enhances Performance

Vulkan Backend Performance Update

The Vulkan backend introduced in Blender 4.1 has seen substantial improvements in startup speed, stability, and compatibility.

Startup speed has increased by 5 times (cold start) and 2 times (hot start).

Better compatibility: Support for older graphics cards

The Vulkan backend now supports NVIDIA GeForce GTX 900 series from 10 years ago and AMD Radeon 400 series from 8 years ago (Windows and Linux).

Still an experimental feature

The Vulkan backend still lacks support for key features such as OpenXR and OpenSubdiv, and animation performance needs further optimization.

Compositing: CPU Compositor Rewrite, Enhanced Glare Node

The CPU Compositor in Blender 4.4 has been rewritten, with key nodes such as blur, filter, and mask seeing speed improvements of 2 to 10 times.

Enhanced Glare Node

More control is now available for lens flares and glow effects, making the post-production results more natural.

Pipeline Integration: Full Support for CY2025 Specification

Fully compliant with the VFX Reference Platform CY2025 specification, Blender 4.4 has updated key libraries, including OpenColorIO, OpenEXR, and OpenVDB, to align with industry standards in the VFX field.

This ensures smoother data exchange between Blender and other VFX tools such as Houdini, Maya, and Nuke.