Apple Pledges Support for 3D Graphics Tool Blender

by

Blender today announced that Apple has joined the Blender Development Fund to support continued development of the free open source 3D graphics tool.

blender banner
Alongside a contribution to the Development Fund, Apple will provide engineering expertise and additional resources to Blender and its broader development community to help support Blender artists and developers, according to the announcement.

Blender CEO Ton Roosendaal said the announcement means that "macOS will be back as a complete supported Blender platform."

Blender said its Development Fund accepts donations "to support activities to provide free and open accessible services for all Blender contributors," including bug fixing, code reviews, technical documentation, and onboarding.

The fund will also provide grants and subsidies to developers on generic and widely agreed development projects, according to Blender.

Top Rated Comments

batmanofvietnam Avatar
batmanofvietnam
33 months ago
This is huge for Mac blender users. The lack of GPU rendering is an enormous problem!
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
terminator-jq Avatar
terminator-jq
33 months ago
This is pretty big news actually and could open even more doors for GPU rendering on Apple silicon allowing Apple computers to compete in a space normally ruled by Nvidia (with CUDA). The timing is very interesting too... announcing this just a few days before the big M1X event. I wonder if Blender will have an appearance during the show to help show off the GPU capabilities of the new chips. Also makes me wonder if we could see some raytracing abilities on the larger M1X (Jade C Die).
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chrono1081 Avatar
chrono1081
33 months ago

Apple didn’t want to lose their last 3D creation tool still used on their platform haha ? Seriously all the serious 3D tools aren’t used on Mac
Yes they are. Maya, Houdini, Zbrush, Mari, Substance, and more all have Mac versions.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kalafalas Avatar
kalafalas
33 months ago
Gotta get blender and cycles Metal and arm ready before the M1X benchmarks drop
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
_Spinn_ Avatar
_Spinn_
33 months ago
This is fantastic news. Blender is a great tool. I wonder if this has anything to do with Apple's AR ambitions?
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ryanmillercg Avatar
ryanmillercg
33 months ago

So apple plans to pivot MacBook as GPU rendering machine now? Not to say it’s a bad thing but I guess gaming on Mac will never catch up with Windows PC.

Wonder how much it would do in 3D modelling world and how it competes against windows and Linux.
Local GPU renders for development (yes, even with cycles) is part of an artist workflow that doesn't require extended rendering times. Even 3D Artists working on beefy RTX Windows machines will use cloud render farms for long batch renders. Mac is perfectly competitive in the 3D modelling space; Blender, Maya, Zbrush, etc all run great on Mac. I think it's unlikely that Mac will be looking to challenge high-end GeForce GPUs, but I'd love to be wrong about that.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments

Popular Stories

Provenance Emulator

PlayStation, GameCube, Wii, and SEGA Emulator for iPhone and Apple TV Coming to App Store

Friday April 19, 2024 8:29 am PDT by
The lead developer of the multi-emulator app Provenance has told iMore that his team is working towards releasing the app on the App Store, but he did not provide a timeframe. Provenance is a frontend for many existing emulators, and it would allow iPhone and Apple TV users to emulate games released for a wide variety of classic game consoles, including the original PlayStation, GameCube, Wii,...
Read Full Article • 171 comments
iPhone 15 Pro FineWoven

Apple Reportedly Stops Production of FineWoven Accessories

Sunday April 21, 2024 6:03 am PDT by
Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories, according to the Apple leaker and prototype collector known as "Kosutami." In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kosutami explained that Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories due to its poor durability. The company may move to another non-leather material for its premium accessories in the future. Kosutami has revealed...
Read Full Article • 410 comments
iOS 17 All New Features Thumb

iOS 17.5 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Sunday April 21, 2024 3:00 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 17.5 update for the iPhone includes only a few new user-facing features, but hidden code changes reveal some additional possibilities. Below, we have recapped everything new in the iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 beta so far. Web Distribution Starting with the second beta of iOS 17.5, eligible developers are able to distribute their iOS apps to iPhone users located in the EU...
Read Full Article
Delta Feature

Delta Game Emulator Now Available From App Store on iPhone

Wednesday April 17, 2024 9:58 am PDT by
Game emulator apps have come and gone since Apple announced App Store support for them on April 5, but now popular game emulator Delta from developer Riley Testut is available for download. Testut is known as the developer behind GBA4iOS, an open-source emulator that was available for a brief time more than a decade ago. GBA4iOS led to Delta, an emulator that has been available outside of...
Read Full Article • 223 comments