The Blender Foundation has officially launched Blender Extensions, the new official platform for acquiring free and open-source add-ons and themes, in anticipation of the upcoming release of Blender 4.1.
Blender Extensions is currently available for testing in preparation for the release of Blender 4.1. The platform offers a wide range of add-ons and themes compatible with Blender 4.2, which is currently in the Alpha phase.
Try out the Extensions Platform, now ready for initial public testing and compatible with Blender 4.2 Alpha at https://t.co/wSnLzEfduW#b3d #extensionsplatform #blenderextensions pic.twitter.com/umf6vNcPZc
— Blender 🔶 (@Blender) March 20, 2024
According to the official announcement, the platform itself is also in its Alpha phase, and the Blender Foundation has emphasized that it has been launched for initial public testing to gather feedback and address any bugs before the official release of Blender Extensions. Users are encouraged to interact with the site, upload themes and add-ons, leave reviews, report issues, and thoroughly test it to ensure minimal issues in the final version.
The Blender Extensions Platform serves as an online catalog of free and open-source extensions for Blender, with the goal of making it easy for Blender users to find and share their add-ons and themes, in the spirit of free and open-source software. The platform only offers software compliant with the GNU GPL.
To learn more and try Blender Extensions, you can follow this link.
How to use Blender Extensions:
1. Download a recent daily build of Blender 4.2 Alpha.
2. Enable the experimental feature: Prototypes → Extensions.
3. Now you should be able to browse and install extensions in Blender: User Preferences → Extensions.
You can also explore the extensions on this website and install them via drag & drop into Blender.
How to install an Add-on extension:
1. Find an extension that you like and click the Get button.
2. Drag the button from the website into Blender.
3. You will be prompted to install and enable the extension. Confirm to download it.
4. Enjoy your newly installed extension!
Note: Extensions do not update automatically. You need to manually check for updates from the dropdown menu in the top-right corner, then select “Check for Updates”.
Furthermore, the Blender Foundation plans to release Blender 4.1 by the end of this week, which will include updates to the software’s animation pipeline, new nodes for the Compositor, enhancements to the Cycles rendering engine and the Geometry Nodes toolset, upgrades to modeling, sculpting, and lighting workflows, UI improvements, and more.