Blender 4.5 LTS brings bad news for Intel Mac users, improves Vulkan support

Blender, the open-source 3D software has gotten a big update. This Long-Term Support (LTS) release, version 4.5, will be officially maintained until July 2027.

The first thing you need to know about is the progress on the Vulkan backend. It is now considered production-ready and functionally on par with the old OpenGL renderer. This update integrates OpenXR, Subdivision surfaces, and USD/Hydra support directly into the Vulkan path, and it performs noticeably better than before.

OpenGL is still the default for now, but you can switch over in the preferences to see if it you like it. On a related performance note, the dependency graph builds up to 18% faster in complex projects.

If you're on Linux, you should notice some platform-specific improvements for both X11 and Wayland. These include larger mouse cursors for high-DPI displays and support for the "Hyper" modifier key.

Speaking of internal changes, the Compositor has received a complete overhaul to bring its node system in line with Geometry and Shader nodes. This introduces a slew of new, useful nodes like Vector Math, Float Curve, and Blackbody. Even the Denoise node now runs on the GPU.

Fluid artists will appreciate that liquid simulation is now between 1.25 and 1.5 times faster, meaning less time waiting for bakes to finish. For modelers, the "Snap to Cursor" operator now respects rotation, and the Boolean modifier has a new, more reliable solver. The sculptors were not forgotten either, with a new Mask by Color operator that allows you to generate masks from the model's vertex colors. The trim tools also get a new manifold boolean solver. That technical name means it is simply faster and less likely to fail on you.

Getting data in and out of Blender has also seen some major work. A brand new C++ based FBX importer has replaced the old Python one, and it is quite fast, clocking in at up to 15 times the speed. It also does a much better job at preserving shading and animation data, which has always been a headache with FBX. The application can also now write ProRes video files, and the USD importer has gotten better at handling animated camera properties and skeleton rest poses. You can even import multiple SVG files at once now.

With all the new additions, some older technology is being phased out. For one, there's bad news for macOS users on Intel hardware. Blender 4.5 is the final version that will officially support Intel Macs, with the Blender Foundation citing the high maintenance cost of dealing with graphics issues on those machines.

In a similar vein, support for big Endian platforms and files is now deprecated, with its complete removal scheduled for Blender 5.0. This also signals the end for the old Collada importer and exporter, which will be gone in the next major version.

You can check out the release notes as well as grab a download here.

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Posted Wednesday 16 July 2025 at 6:06 pm AEST (my time).

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