Sneak peek: NeXus for Blender
Insydium has begun posting previews of NeXus for Blender, the new edition of its previously Cinema 4D-only GPU-based particle simulation system for the open-source 3D software.
The new Blender edition – due for release “soon” – is actually faster than the Cinema 4D edition, has all of the same functionality, and will be available as a perpetual license.
Below, we’ve compiled our FAQs on what we know of the new edition. But first…
So what is NeXus anyway?
NeXus is a new-ish GPU-accelerated counterpart to X-Particles, Insydium’s popular CPU-based particle-based multiphysics plugin for Cinema 4D.
Both add-ons are staples of many Cinema 4D artists’ workflows, for VFX and motion graphics.
As well as particle effects, NeXus includes granular fluid, liquid and gaseous fluid simulation toolsets, and being Vulkan-based, is compatible with AMD, Apple, Intel and NVIDIA GPUs.
Why is Insydium releasing a Blender edition of NeXus?
Insydium has had a foot in both the Cinema 4D and Blender worlds for some time, having previously developed the now-defunct Cycles 4D, which enabled Cinema 4D artists to use Blender’s Cycles renderer inside the software.
A Blender edition of NeXus also fills an obvious gap in the market: over the past few years, a number of Cinema 4D users disenchanted with Maxon’s subscription-only licensing and the size of recent updates to the software have moved to Blender – or at least incorporated the software in their workflow – and they often cite X-Particles and NeXus as the tools they miss.
Wasn’t this supposed to be released years ago?
Insydium first announced a Blender edition of NeXus back in 2022, alongside 3ds Max and Maya editions of the add-on, all originally due for release in 2023.
2023 came and went, and it looked like the ports had been shelved – until last week, the firm began posting preview videos of the new Blender version on its YouTube channel.
No exact date has been announced for the stable release, but it looks to be imminent: Insydium says that it now plans to post new previews every week.
How does the feature set of NeXus for Blender compare to the Cinema 4D edition?
Insydium describes NeXus as having been “completely reimagined for Blender, bringing a powerful GPU-driven workflow with real-time performance and rapid iteration”.
So far, the firm has only previewed the core features: the nxEmitter particle emitter system and the modifiers.
However, according to its replies to YouTube comments, “all of the existing features of NeXus in C4D will be available” in the Blender edition.
Workflow will be “very similar” to the Cinema 4D edition, and it will be possible to export NeXus particles to the “native Blender particles and Geometry Nodes along with caching export”.
How does performance of the Blender edition of NeXus compare to the Cinema 4D edition?
If anything, it should be better: Insydium says that “the Blender add-on keeps more of the work on the GPU, reducing overhead and improving scaling”.
The Blender edition also uses 64-bit VRAM addressing, making it possible to run larger simulations on GPU.
The performance gain depends on your hardware, but Insydium says that its aim is “not just [to support] high-end cards”: the demo videos were recorded using a two-generations-old NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090.
How much will NeXus for Blender cost, and will it be subscription-only?
Anyone with a subscription to Fused, Insydium’s Cinema 4D product bundle, will get the Blender edition of NeXus for free when it is released.
However, it will also be available separately, and as a perpetual license: although Fused was initially a subscription-only project, it is now possible to buy individual perpetual licenses.
What happened to the 3ds Max and Maya editions of NeXus?
3ds Max and Maya editions of NeXus still seem possible, if not guaranteed.
Insydium says that the Blender edition is a “first step”, but that it has “already tested beyond Blender”, and is looking for user feedback on which other host applications to target next.
Price, system requirements and release date
NeXus for Blender is due for release “soon”. Insydium hasn’t announced an exact date.
The previews show Windows, Linux and macOS logos, so presumably the plugin will be available for all three operating systems. NeXus is GPU-accelerated on AMD, Apple Silicon, Intel and NVIDIA GPUs.
Insydium hasn’t announced the price of NeXus for Blender yet, but it will also be included as part of Fused subscriptions, which cost £590 (around $694).
See preview videos of NeXus for Blender on Insydium’s YouTube channel
Read more about NeXus on Insydium’s website
(No details of the Blender edition at the time of writing)
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