Blender 5.0 Alpha 🛠️, Maya Twosify 🎥, Unity SDF UI 🧩
DCC & Pipeline Updates 🚀
Twosify: Free Tool for Non-Destructive Stepped Animation
Senior Animator Ehsan Bayat released Twosify, a free tool that flips animation into stepped mode non-destructively—keeping your splines and clean keys intact. It also lets you attach animation to the camera and toggle that link without losing poses. Switching back to blocking during polish is simple, speeding iteration. A full video guide is coming soon; follow Ehsan on X/Twitter for updates.
Blender 5.0 Nears Release: Cycles Null Scattering, Compositor Overhaul
Blender 5.0 exits Alpha on October 1, 2025, with major upgrades across rendering and post. Cycles adds Null Scattering to remove blocky artifacts in overlapping volumes, and the Compositor gets an Asset Shelf, a Convolve node, and reusable node trees across files. With ACES 2.0, improved SSS, new Geometry Nodes sockets, and Grease Pencil motion blur, this release streamlines end-to-end workflows inside Blender.
Code & Rendering Deep Dives 🧠
Pro-Grade C++: Lessons from The Cherno’s Code Review
The Cherno dissects a highly professional C++ project, highlighting architecture, layering, and best practices that scale—perfect for engine and game developers. Expect actionable advice on readability, maintainability, and project structure you can adopt today. Extras include Hazel engine resources, a free Hazel-made game, and a flame shader reference.
Crisp, Scalable UI: Signed Distance Functions in Unity Explained
Sasquatch B Studios walks through using SDFs in Unity to build procedural, resolution-independent UI with Shader Graph and HLSL. You’ll create circles and rectangles, add outlines and inlines, round corners, and combine shapes using union, intersection, difference, and smoothing. It’s a practical, performance-friendly approach to clean UI without textures. Includes links to iquilezles.org and their robust SDF system on Patreon.
Industry Watch & Open Worlds 🌍
China Probes NVIDIA: Mellanox Pledge Clash Could Cost $1.7B
China’s regulator is investigating NVIDIA over alleged violations of commitments tied to its Mellanox acquisition, with fines potentially reaching $1.7B. Authorities are also examining security measures in NVIDIA’s AI chips. The probe aligns with Beijing’s push for domestic AI hardware, which could reshape GPU access in China. Game studios relying on NVIDIA accelerators should monitor potential availability and pricing shifts.
Taming World Partition: Data-Driven Saves for Open-World Crafting
Building a reliable save system in UE5 World Partition means going data-first. This talk shows how Cowboy Life Simulator keeps crafting, NPCs, and progression persistent by moving logic to backend managers in GameState, then reconnecting visuals via “middleman” components keyed by custom GUIDs. You’ll learn async spawning with Soft Class Paths, Farm Bounds as spatial probes, and fixes for pitfalls like foliage collisions, GC quirks, and engine GUIDs invalidating on cook—all in Blueprints.