14 DAY TRIAL // The Blender Foundation has informed users today, May 27, about the immediate availability for download and testing of the first Beta test build of the forthcoming Blender 2.75 open-source and cross-platform 3D modelling software.
Used by many professional designers to create stunning 3D models and graphics for Hollywood movies and other similar projects, Blender made a name for itself as one of the best free 3D graphics and animation software solutions on the market, designed to work on all major platforms, including GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows.
According to the release notes, Blender 2.75 will be a massive release that will introduce a wide variety of new features, such as stereo and multiview support, as well as AMD OpenCL rendering. The first Beta brings several improvements and under-the-hood changes that give you a preview of what's coming in the final release.
"We are finishing work on a massive 2.75 release. A first testbuild is available now! Please help testing it and report issues to the bug tracker," says the Blender Foundation. "Among new features are AMD OpenCL rendering and stereo/multiview support!"
Here's what's new in Blender 2.75 Beta
Blender 2.75 Beta brings real-time visualization of the stereoscopic effect, support for cycles, sequencer and compositor components in the Multi-View and Stereo 3D support, rendering of multiple views, camera stereo settings, such as convergence and pivot, as well as viewport feedback of stereoscopy cameras, volumes, and convergence.
The Cycles Rendering feature has received initial support for AMD graphics cards, support for Light Portals, as well as various under-the-hood memory and performance optimizations. The Baking API (Application Programming Interface) has been revamped to use an object_id in both the pixel_array table and the bake() function.
Symmetry painting support has been introduced in the Sculpting/Painting area of the Blender application, allowing for texture painting in the 3D viewport. Among other new features, we can mention support for reading and displaying image metadata, and splitting of the "Simplify" functionality for scenes into render and viewport.
Download Blender 2.75 Beta for Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows right now from Softpedia. Please note that this is a pre-release version that contains unresolved issues and unfinished features. Thus, it is not recommended for deployment on production environments.