Blender 2.78b (32-bit)

Blender is the latest release from the Blender Foundation. Blender is an open-source application that allows you to create a wide range of 2D and 3D models. It encloses professional modeling, texturing, lighting, animation and video post-processing tools.

Expert-oriented GUI, yet comprehensive documentation

Blender is more oriented towards advanced users, and the seemingly complex user interface is proof of that. Fortunately, this software comes with a well-structured user manual and tutorials.

Plus, because Blender is open-source, there is a vast online community that can help you get familiarized with it. If you are a curious amateur interested in 3D graphic editing, you can easily lose yourself in the documentation.

Tools to take advantage of at your fingertips

One of the most important aspects of Blender is the fact that it lets you view all the tools and features, without making you drag anything around. As a result, you can add modifiers (e.g. array, boolean, edge split, mask, mirror, multi-resolution, lattice, mesh deform, smooth, wave, collision, explode, smoke), render an image, undo and redo your actions, take a screenshot or screencast.

Additionally, you can customize themes in the settings menu or by modifying the script in Python, yet also use the grease pencil, UV unwrapping, texture painting, vertex paint, halos, shading, physics, a game logic editor, rigging (armatures, skinning, posing), world and ambient effects, and many more.

Performance and conclusion

We were not able to find any errors or bugs in this program; however, we were able to tell that it uses a high amount of CPU and system memory, which is normal when you consider its level of complexity.

To sum up, if you want to get a first-hand look at a professional 3D graphic editor, give Blender a shot. Power users, with vast knowledge of graphic editing, are certainly at an advantage. If you are interested in bypassing the installation process, you should know a portable edition is available, called Blender Portable.

Whats New
For 2.78a, 69 bugs were fixed, the two outstanding points being
Cycles is now using Cuda8 for all GPUs, performances issues with “old” ones have been fixed.
Several issues were fixed in new data-blocks management code, including some crashers, and bad “append” behaviors.
Here is a full list of fixes:
Fix T49629: Graph editor normalize function doesn't work on f-curves with a constant key value (rB8ebc7565e7).
Fix T49571: 2d stabilize keys not visible in the Graph Editor and Dope Sheet (rBd1f5c0fe48).
Fix T49622: Grease pencil not rendering out of VSE (rB9d4e3b0e63).
Fix unreported: Fix: Grease Pencil palettes were missing a RNA path callback (rB0b734f0b59).
Fix unreported: Fix export image generated by export UV layout (rB3bf9cbe7a2).
Fix T49471: Vertex Connect randomly broken (rB949b23d29b).
Fix T49478: triangulate of face hangs Blender (rB08e4846540).
Fix unreported: Fix assert in the wrong place, should be moved earlier to do anything (rB8030c4832a).
Fix T49464: Data Transfer modifier slows down redraw of window (rBff27b58b4c).
Fix T49595: bpy - negative skin_vertices radius crashes Blender (rB02eec191fb).
Fix unreported: Normal edit modifier: Fix relation builder for the new dependency graph (rB106ff0df99).
Fix T49548: Entering Cycles Rendered Viewport Unlinks Material from Objects (rB4640bf890e).
Fix T49827: L Crash linking material while in Material viewport shading mode (rB452d43b1c8).
Fix unreported: Fix mistake in BKE_mesh_new_from_object handling of materials in MetaBall case (rB602b2dbd8c).
Fix T49460: Particle group instance 'Use Count' value gets reset on file-load (rB8aa04160ba).
Fix T49608: runtime-only particle's boid->ground Object pointer was left dangling to invalid value in read code (rB29fdcbbf9f).
Fix T49738: Hair Add Brush doesn't work (rB50751d62e9).
Fix unreported: Ammend torB00dc0666b3fe: forgot to fix boid->ground of first particle (rB7ab972fd63).
Fix T49461: Dynamic paint wetmap flickers (rBa88af3e576).
Fix T49636: material draw mode crash with displacement and missing group input node (rBc9b5253cfc).
Fix T49789: Compositor mix node interpolation bug (rBe1cf002ee6).
Fix T49523: very slow normal map tangent computation for rendering in 2.78 (rB0d1bc587fa).
Fix T49609: Point density textures: vertex colors are not properly averaged in BI (rB880ebfff58).
Fix T49623: Immediately crash trying to render attached file in Cycles (rBbe254b52dc).
Fix T49640: Cycles constant folding incorrect for texture coordinates (rB10598c084e).
Fix T49750: Cycles wrong ray differentials for perspective and stereo cameras (rB4c94e327a2).
Fix T49818: Crash when rendering with motion blur (rB66ed7d7566).
Fix unreported: Cycles: Fix typo in shader cancel routines (rB08d21ff582).
Fix unreported: Fix wrong Cycles GLSL pointiness, still not supported but should be neutral 0.5 (rB4da266f48c).
Fix unreported: Fix Cycles CUDA performance on CUDA 8.0 (rBfd0dea585c).
Fix unreported: Cycles: Fix OpenCL split kernel compilation after recent CUDA 8 performance fix (rB117329ae6d).
Fix unreported: Cycles: Fix use of uninitialized variable in SSS (rBb42e4c3c40).
Fix unreported: Cycles: Fix uninitialized variable from the previous commit (rBf55221e0a1).
Fix unreported: Cycles: Fix static initialization order fiasco (rBf0adb875cf).
Fix unreported: Fix Cycles address space OpenCL error after recent fix (rB759b5fb2a6).
Fix unreported: Cycles: Fix shadowing variable which also causes use of uninitialized variable (rB21bf863934).
Fix unreported: Fix missing outliner redraw when adding VSE strip (rB00d08c909d).
Fix T49534: 2.78 Wrong texture scaling in material viewport (rB3fb0c1b8e7).
Fix unreported: Fix missing properties editor update when changing 3D View camera (rB483b4f0567).
Fix unreported: UPBGE: Fix crash when calling shade_light texture when mtex has no tex (rBf978deddf8).
Fix unreported: Fix viewport camera gets out of sync in certain cases (rBcdedd082f3).
Fix T49506: Remove unused File Browser theme settings (rB11120c2981).
Fix T49631: radial control operators not using DPI properly (rB97bba76e8c).
Fix T49635: column_flow Layout - last column is too small (rB03f935961a).
Fix T49646: Switching from large to small image can get stuck zoom at max zoom distance (rBe6d9b15ab3).
Fix T49601: Material menu length problem (rBdacb53ff71).
Fix T49746: crash loading user preferences with missing operators (rBa6220f459b).
Fix unreported: Fix missing new eyedropper keymap entry in keyconfig_utils.py (rB07508c8b93).
Fix unreported: Fix memory leak caused by unknown opeartor of keymap item (rB4d14bd10c0).
Fix unreported: Fix wrong separator line width after drawing vec icon (rB2525c4e129).
Fix T49520: broken vertex colors in the game engine (rBe96e66b05b).
Fix T49764: Audio strips crackle when animating the volume (rB1bcddea00e).
Fix T49656: Crash when starting playback while using JACK audio with A/V sync (rB7b311c07ee).
Fix T49423: Data Preview of group containing only group instances is empty (rBa05f9bef3f).
Fix T49502: file browser on OS X not highlighting system folders and bookmarks (rB9fea90ba36).
Fix T49501: Animations imported via alembic render with wrong or no motion blur (rBe65e5045de).
Fix T49502: file browser on OS X not highlighting external drives (rB4736664da6).
Fix unreported: Fix missing operator-type registration (rBe145990fdd).
Fix T49466: Stupid typo in logicbricks new copy code fromrB776a8548f03a (rBd78a4b0c62).
Fix T49489: Pose marker in camera action + marker bound to camera -> crash (rB7b43307508).
Fix T49553: Blender 2.78 crashes when File->Data Previews ->Refresh Datablock Previews (rBb8194a52a0).
Fix T49722: Appending Bug (Groups) (rB44372d6441).
Fix T49775: Appending data with internal dependency cycles prevents correct clearing of linked data-blocks (rB3da4560143).
Fix unreported: Fix Scene datablocks being created with a real user while never having any real datablock user (rBcb9d010421).
Fix unreported: Fix OLD pre-git links in the API, add missing factory-startup option to blender executions (rBfd9aa06440).
Fix T49797: Exception from scene update handler might leak external engine descriptors (rBdac53963a8).
[windows] Create A Blender Desktop Shortcut in Fix T49522: the msi installer , (rB4d043db0db).
Fix unreported: BLI_task: fix case were some pool could work in more threads than allowed (rB4dbcbf5ba9).
Fix unreported: Fix a few compile errors with C++11 on macOS (rBcb6c43b61c).

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