Verge3D Life Cycle

Soft8Soft offers a quite regular life cycle for Verge3D releases. The feature set can quickly adapt to the needs of our users, who can still enjoy a reliable production pipeline.

Introduction

Verge3D development consists of 4 major stages:

In-House R&D
On this stage Verge3D team works on implementing new features. Since the code base is very unstable and subject to constant changes, there is no Verge3D releases available to the public.
Preview Release
On this stage Verge3D is stable enough to issue several Preview versions to the public. Preview builds have a special naming convention, e.g. verge3d-blender-4.3.0-pre2.exe means this is a second preview build of upcoming Verge3D for Blender, version 4.3. The naming implies the possibility of a third preview build, however we may decide to proceed directly to the stable release.
Stable Release
This is when the official stable version becomes available. For example, verge3d-max-4.3.0.exe means this is the stable 4.3 release of Verge3D for 3ds Max.
Maintenance Update
In case of serious bugs found in stable Verge3D, we can address them in a bugfix updates. Bugfix releases obtain a minor increment to the version, e.g.: verge3d-maya-4.3.1.zip means this is the first bugfix release of Verge3D for Maya issued after the stable Verge3D 4.3 release became available.
Verge3D release life cycle

Stable and Maintenance Releases

The current stable version of Verge3D is recommended for use in production. We publish these releases on regular basis approximately each 3-4 months. In case of issues that affect lots of users, or specifically our Enterprise customers, we make additional bugfix releases to address them.

When a new stable version becomes available, we no longer will patch the previous stable version. Instead, any new bugfixes will land in the next maintenance update or go straight to the preview build of the next version. Therefore it makes sense to timely migrate to the highest available version of Verge3D.

Preview Releases

You can download the rolling preview builds to test out upcoming Verge3D features before they land in the stable release. Here is why you might consider doing it:

Keep in mind that Verge3D Previews can work unpredictably! Always backup your project before migrating to a preview.

Setting Up

First, check out the downloads page on the Soft8Soft website to see if any Verge3D Preview is available:

Verge3D Preview available
Look, ma! There are links to download Verge3D 4.3 preview 2.

If you don't see the "Looking for the latest experimental build?" line below blue buttons, you just need to wait. It basically means that a Verge3D stable release just got published and the team is now working towards the next version.

Installing Verge3D Preview is no different to a stable version. We strongly recommend to read press-releases for Verge3D Previews to find out about any important changes. You should also backup all your applications. For that you can simply copy the entire applications folder to some safe place.

Another thing to consider is switching the User Manual URL in App Manager's settings to:

This way can use the most recent documentation which comes with corresponding Verge3D distribution instead of the outdated docs from the official website.

Changing User Manual URL in the App Manager settings

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting for Verge3D Preview upgrades is similar thing to regular Verge3D upgrades. Check out here for more info.

If you need to return back to the stable release, download and install the stable version to replace the preview installation.

Outdated Versions

There is a chance you might be forced to use an older version of Verge3D. Possible reasons for that are:

Although we won't make any further updates to the outdated versions of Verge3D, you can always download them on the dedicated page called download archive.

Developer Kits

These extra packages are available to Verge3D Enterprise and Ultimate users. Therefore, the release schedule for them is identical to the main Verge3D life cycle. Please note that we never release developer kits for Verge3D Previews nor we make them available for the outdated versions of Verge3D.

Material Libraries

Material libraries have their own (quite irregular) update cycle. We strive to keep them updated by issuing new versions from time to time. In these updates we fix bugs, make the materials compatible with the recent versions of Verge3D and modelling suites, and sometimes even add new materials! So, we recommend checking for library updates in your dashboard on Soft8Soft website.

Supported 3D Modeling Suites

You can quickly check the version numbers of the modeling suites which Verge3D supports on the download page. Below are some further considerations you might need to be aware of.

Blender

Each stable Verge3D version supports at least two most recent Blender LTS versions released prior the date of Verge3D release. In addition, we support all non-LTS Blender versions issued after the oldest of these two supported LTS versions.

For example, Verge3D 4.2 for Blender released on November 29, 2022 supports at least Blender 2.93 LTS and Blender 3.3 LTS, as well as all versions issued after 2.93, namely 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2.

It should be noted, that we generally support more versions than promised. For example, Verge3D 4.2 supports 10 versions of Blender starting from 2.83 LTS up to 3.4.

Autodesk 3ds Max

In Verge3D we try to support at least four recent versions of 3ds Max issued prior the latest Verge3D release.

Autodesk Maya

In Verge3D we try to support at least four recent versions of Autodesk Maya issued prior the latest Verge3D release.