New features debuting in Blender 4.1

The Blender Foundation has released Blender 4.1, the latest version of the open-source 3D software for artists working in VFX, animation, game development and visualization.

First off, it’s worth pointing out that Blender 4.1 is a smaller update than originally expected. Eevee Next, the upcoming overhaul of Blender’s real-time render engine, has been pushed back to Blender 4.2.

However, even a smaller Blender update means plenty for users to get their head around. 

There's a new features overview at the video at the bottom put together by Jonathan Lampel from CGCookie, and you can have a read of the full release notes here. If you're just after a quick highlights though before you download though...

• OpenImageDenoise now runs on GPU on supported hardware
• Cycles rendering on Linux is 5% faster
• All nodes in the Compositor now work in the Viewport (except Render Layer passes)
• Compositor precision and improvements to Kuwahara and Pixelate nodes
• Bone Collections are now hierarchical
• New animation keying workflow
• Several improvements to Graph Editor and NLA including baking channels
• Video Sequencer drawing, rendering, effects, and scopes are much faster
• USD export of armatures and shape keys as USD skeletons and blend shapes
• Several user interface improvements
• Python upgraded to version 3.1
• Blender 4.1 is aligned with the VFX Reference Platform 2024
• A new Bake node in Geometry Nodes