As an end of Blender 2.x series that has now run for 20 years, the release of Blender 3.0, originally scheduled to be updated in August 2021, is being postponed by two months to “late October” 2021.

As “the beginning of something huge”, Blender 3.0 has scheduled bigger structural changes including a new asset manager, revamped animation toolset and a USD importer. In addition, Blender 3.0 will also move the software to a more conventional two-year release cycle with long-term support versions, reflecting its increasing use in major commercial productions.

Another feature is said to be released in the version 3.0 is the new Cycles X, a major upcoming rewrite of the software's production renderer that designed to "future proof it for the next 10 years", which was originally scheduled for Blender 3.1.

As the Blender Foundation chairman Ton Roosendaal proposed in the announcement, the release schedule, originally proposed last month and now listed in the online documentation, is being brought in to enable in-person workshops with core contributors when coronavirus travel restrictions ease.

Blender 3.0 is due to ship in late October 2021 online to replace this year's Blender Conference, which has just been moved to 2022 in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The exact date hasn't been confirmed yet.

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