Development of Blender 4.3 has reached the Beta stage, meaning it is ready for public testing, and more importantly: it’s time to test and report!

What to Test

Blender 4.3 is packed with new features (and every feature needs thorough testing), but there are a few that require special attention.

Grease Pencil

The third generation of Grease Pencil is here, a complete rewrite that also brings new features such as Layer Groups and support for Geometry Nodes. Please test every tool, and setting.

Old files will be converted to the new system. They should look the same as in previous versions, with some exceptions, such as the noise modifier, which may produce slightly different results.

Note: Once you save old files with Blender 4.3, these files won’t work with older versions. So make sure to make backups or save files under a new name.

• Feedback thread on DevTalk
• Grease Pencil Release Notes

Brushes

Brushes are now assets, which means they can be reused and shared across projects, thanks to integration with the Asset Browser. Additionally, a new selection of brushes provided by the community have been added. Try them out for painting, sculpting, or even Grease Pencil-ing!

You may also find that everything feels snappier, that’s thanks to a massive rewrite of the brush evaluation system, viewport drawing, and more.

• Feedback thread on DevTalk
• Call for Content: Default Brushes
• Brush Assets Release Notes

EEVEE

Two major features take EEVEE to the next level:

• Light Linking
• Multi-pass Compositing

Try converting your current Light Linking scenes from Cycles to EEVEE, or compositing setups using the new passes in the 3D Viewport.

You can also help by testing the usual collection of demo files.

How to Test

Testing can be pretty straight forward:

1. Download the latest Blender 4.3 Beta
2. Open your old scenes (make sure to back them up first, just in case).
3. Check that everything looks and functions properly.
4. Found a bug? Report it! Within Blender, go to Help → Report a Bug.
   Learn more about writing effective bug reports.

For feedback on features and changes, check the individual threads under Feature & Design Feedback in the forums.

Thank you for helping make Blender rock solid!