Blender 2.60 adds 3D audio

The Blender development team has released its newest version, 2.60, of the open source 3D content creation suite. Blender 2.60 incorporates 3D audio support which adds audio and speaker objects to the objects that can be placed in a Blender scene.

Other new features include the restoration of sequence editor proxy support, vertex group modifiers, animation system improvements in the graph and dopesheet editor, improved Collada integration, added callbacks in the Python API, new add-ons, and better localisation and internationalisation support. The Blender Game Engine had navigation meshes added and its internals revised. There are also 165 bugs which have been fixed. More detailed information on these changes and other new features can be found in the Blender 2.60 change log.

2.60 marks the start of the 2.6 development series and the Blender developers have set out their initial release schedule for the next three versions: Blender 2.61 is expected to succeed this release in December 2011, 2.62 is due in February 2012, and Blender 2.63 in April 2012.

Blender 2.6.0 is available for download for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS X, and is licensed under the GPLv2.

Update 25-10-11: The developers have released an update, version 2.60a, to address a number of bugs found in the 2.60 release. A full list of fixes can be found in the 2.60a change log.

See also:

• Blender Conference 2011 registration opens, a report from The H.

(djwm)