Blender 2.58 (stable) Released!

Just a quick post that a new version of Blender v2.58 (stable) that just got released! As I love Blender, I just had to post about it. Check the impressive changelog here! Here is a copy of the first prominent info. Please check the link for details.

Blender 2.58 update log

The majority of work for 2.58 went into fixes with over 200 bugs fixed since last release but there are also quite a few useful additions worth checking out.

Prominent features (the cool stuff)

Warp Modifier:

This deformation modifier can be used to warp parts of a mesh to a new location in a very flexible way by using 2 objects to select the "from" and "to" regions with options for using a curve falloff, texture and vertex group.

Render Baking:

For high polygon models it is now possible to bake multi-resolution models using much less memory than before. There are also new bake modes: specular color, specular intensity, mirror color, mirror intensity, alpha (transparency), emission (glow)

Empty Images Display:

Instead of using background images or creating meshes with materials and image texture it's now possible to assign images directly to empty objects to use as reference images. They display in all draw modes and can use object draw options like XRay to draw over other objects.

Sculpting:

Constructive modifiers (like subdivision surface, mirror and other) were supported for sculpting mode. Sculpting could be not very accurate with such modifiers enabled, so there is a new option in the toolbar to disable applying constructive modifiers in the sculpting session.

Mesh Inset (Addon):

Mesh inset is a very useful tool with the ability to inset individual faces or a selected region.

Camera Locking:

It is now possible to move the camera using normal view port navigation by enabling "Lock Camera" in the "View" panel.

And much more! Please check the link.