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Blender 2.79, released on 12 September 2017, brought several notable rendering features into Cycles: built-in denoising, the Principled BSDF shader, shadow catcher support and Filmic color management. It also improved AMD OpenCL rendering, Grease Pencil, Alembic workflows and interface scaling. These are features of a historical release, not guidance about current GPU performance or compatibility.
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What changed in Cycles?
Cycles received several additions aimed at making rendering and compositing more capable within Blender itself. The Blender Foundation’s Blender 2.79 release page highlights these as central features of the release.
Built-in denoising
Blender added denoising directly to Cycles. It gives artists an integrated option for reducing render noise while retaining image detail, rather than requiring denoising to be handled entirely outside the renderer.
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Principled BSDF
The new Principled BSDF node was designed to combine common material layers in one shader. Based on the Disney principled model, it offered a more unified way to create a range of materials than assembling every layer separately.
Shadow catcher
Shadow catcher support made it easier to composite computer-generated objects into live-action footage by capturing the shadows they cast without treating the receiving surface as an ordinary visible rendered object.
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Filmic color management
Filmic was added as a view transform for working with high dynamic range. It offered an additional way to map rendered brightness into a displayed image.
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What did Blender 2.79 change for AMD rendering?
The official Cycles release notes describe the release as having “much faster AMD OpenCL rendering and feature parity with NVIDIA CUDA.” That is Blender’s claim about the capabilities in the 2.79 release; it should not be read as a comparison of current graphics cards, drivers or renderer performance.
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The same notes warn that AMD GCN 1.0 graphics cards were no longer supported for Cycles rendering in 2.79. The speed and feature-parity statement therefore came with a hardware compatibility caveat, and does not establish modern GPU requirements.
What else was new for artists?
Grease Pencil
Grease Pencil gained frame interpolation tools and per-layer onion skinning. These additions supported drawing and animation workflows by making it possible to interpolate between frames and view onion-skin references for individual layers.
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Alembic
Alembic import and export received compatibility and stability improvements, helping workflows that exchange animated scene data through the format.
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The interface added initial support for reusable application templates and automatic DPI scaling. Blender 2.79 also included new and updated add-ons alongside broader reliability work.
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- Smooth & Precise Control: Enjoy effortless mouse movement with the ultra-smooth surface, perfect for both gaming and office work.
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- Durable & Stylish Design: Invisible stitching prevents edge wear while maintaining a sleek look, extending the pad’s lifespan.
- Waterproof & Easy to Clean: The water-resistant coating allows for quick cleaning—spills and stains wipe away easily.
How many bugs did Blender 2.79 fix?
The Blender 2.79 release page reports “Over 700 bugs fixed.” That is the figure stated by Blender for the release, not an independently measured benchmark.
The follow-up 2.79a was described in the developer documentation as a corrective release with over 200 fixes and no new features. That count applies to 2.79a; the documentation excerpt does not establish a corresponding exact figure for 2.79b.
Why does Blender 2.79 matter in context?
Blender 2.79 is best understood as a release that strengthened Cycles and several established workflows, rather than as a guide to using Blender today. The subsequent Blender 2.80 release brought a substantially revamped interface and Eevee, as described in the Blender 2.80 release notes. Anyone choosing a version for present-day work should consult documentation for the version and hardware they intend to use.
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