3DCoat 2026 GPUPPP Development

[carrots]

We are pleased to present the Preview version of a major update to 3DCoat, which fundamentally changes the approach to creating materials and textures. The main novelty of this version is the powerful, fully procedural Node System, which opens up endless possibilities for non-destructive texturing on UV (Per-Pixel Painting).

Key innovations of the update: 

- Non-destructive texturing (Node-Based Workflow) No more limitations of classic pixel painting! Now you can create materials, masks, and effects using a visual editor (Node Editor). Any element — rust intensity, base color, glossiness, or scratches — remains editable at any stage of work. Change parameters and instantly observe the result on the 3D model in real time.

- High-performance GPU nodes (NGL) Under the hood of the new system, dynamic compilation of nodes into optimized shaders based on NodeGraph Language (NGL) is working. All procedural magic, mathematical operations, and noise generators are calculated directly on the graphics card (GPU).

- A new generation of smart materials, masks, and other presets:

• NGMaterials: Procedural smart materials that perfectly adapt to the curvature, shading (Ambient Occlusion), and other properties of your model.

• NGMasks: Procedural "smart" masks for generating realistic wear, dirt, scratches, etc.

• NGModifiers and NGFilters: Powerful tools for geometry deformation and procedural post-processing of current layers.

- These materials support approximately 30 channels; you can read more about them in the documentation, in the PBM Channels section.

- You can find more detailed documentation on these features in the Node System and GPU Texturing  sections; the documentation will be updated.

 

Updated User Interface New windows have been added for convenient work: Node Editor (the main space for building logic), Node Inspector, and Object Inspector. You can pin any node parameters (using the "eye" icon) in the general object or layer parameters and easily change them via the Object Inspector. This allows for configuring complex materials with convenient sliders without constantly diving into the node graph.

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A short video demonstrating the main functions:

The first video lesson on the basics of the new system:

 

Huge thanks to everyone for participation, patience and feedback!

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The links to download:

This is a beta version. Not recommended for use in production environments.

Windows, 2026-04 (Beta GPU Per-Pixel Painting)
3d-coat-2026.04.zip (Just unpack and run 3DCoatGL64.exe or 3DCoatGL64Legacy.exe)
3DCoat-2026-04.exe (Installer)


Windows, 2026-03 NS (Beta GPU Per-Pixel Painting)
3d-coat-5-27-2026NS.zip (Just unpack and run 3DCoatGL64.exe)

Windows, 2026-02 (Preview GPU Per-Pixel Painting)
3d-coat-5-16-2026.zip (Just unpack and run 3DCoatGL64.exe)

 

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Other changes (besides those announced above) made after 3DCoat-2026-01:

3DCoat-2026-04 Beta
Sat Jun 13 03:19:24 2026 -0700
- The executable file 3DCoatGL64Legacy.exe has been added; it retains the legacy texturing approach, without support for GPU layer blending or the node system for Per-Pixel Painting.
- A new, important tool called the "Splitter" is now available! Line cutter allows to split object into several parts using the lines lasso, freehand lasso (non-closed), curve or any other E-mode modifier. Preferable is lines lasso or freehand lasso.
- Fixed: An issue where an annoying "Several UV sets are sharing the same name" warning would mistakenly appear in scenes containing only voxel or surface objects.
- Added "Import Multiple UDIMs" tool. Import multiple UDIM tiles as textures. Select one or more files representing a UDIM tile (e.g. 1001), and the tool will automatically load all channels across all tiles.
- 3DCoat now automatically updates outdated room configurations in the background to ensure you always have the latest toolsets, while safely prompting you for permission before overwriting any manual customizations you have made.
- Introduced the new ProjectFolder feature—an isolated workspace directory that locally stores all your custom assets, materials, and textures—allowing you to easily archive and transfer entire projects across computers with all their dependencies intact, simply by selecting it as your active folder in 3DCoat.
- An InlineNode mode has been added. When this option is enabled and a node has only one output connection, its interface is displayed directly next to the input property to which it is connected. The node's properties and definitions will automatically synchronize with the target node.
- A separate folder named 3DCoat2026 is used in the Documents directory to avoid conflicts with data from previous versions.
- You can specify a separate directory in "Documents" for each build by listing it in the doc_folder.txt file.
- The ability to control an object's transparency using node-based materials—regardless of whether the layers beneath it are transparent—enables painting with transparency or creating transparent materials (such as in-game glass) that do not distort the background through refraction.
- Added support for Screen Space Reflection & Illumination when rendering polygonal objects in the render room.
- Expanded the coat.PaintRoom Python API with new methods (GetUVSetsCount, GetUVSetName, RenameUVSet, GetUVSetResolutionX/Y, ResizeUVSet) to allow scripts to directly query and modify names and texture resolutions for individual UV sets.
- Fabric materials scanned using Scanimat technology have been added.
- Added integration with Antigravity 2.0.

Other minor changes:
  - Render only a single preview when saving the node graph 
  - Fixed baking nodes to sculpt object vertices
  - Source selection in the Object Inspector (Layer or Object)
  - Fixed component reordering in the Object Inspector
  - Automatic conversion of Samplers to UVWTexture nodes in existing materials
  - Per-channel inversion in image loading settings
  - Automatic conversion of Samplers to InlineNodes
  - Modified SingleVertexSelection usage
  - Modified MultiObject::Tips()
  - Fixed color conversion from LAW formats
  - Updated Python API and API documentation
  - Fixed shaders
  - Added option to replace or add Displacement in the Mask node (Component type)
  - Added support for screen-space reflections and lighting when rendering polygonal objects in the Render Room
  - Added ability to create materials that control surface transparency (e.g., for game glass or low-poly model outline transparency)
  - Restored missing tools for multi-resolution and proxy modes
  - Added ability to invert individual channels in the Invert node
  - Added Saturation node
  - Removed Samplers from the SimpleMaterial node
  - Fixed PBRTiler extension

Windows, 2026-03 NS (Beta GPU Per-Pixel Painting)

- Retopo/Modeling Room: Added option "Switching Pen Mode to Rectangle After the Select Transform Activated"
- New nodes are now created at the location where the right mouse button was clicked to invoke the menu—rather than at the location where the mouse cursor happened to be at the moment the node was created.
- The "Soft Displacement" property has been added. This is a displacement effect designed to be used in conjunction with a normal map: Soft Displacement shifts vertices without affecting shading, and its impact on shadows is reduced by half; the normal map is then used to define the orientation of each pixel, ensuring correct shading. This feature is crucial for creating high-quality fabric materials.
- Retopo/Modeling Room: "Polygon Tree" has been improved. Speed up work for large files.
- Retopo/Modeling Room: tool Cap - bug fixed and improvements.
- Node header default colors are now category-based (each category has its own distinct color).
- Normal Map Support in Node-Based Materials
- Fixed a crash that occurred while clearing the Node Graph in the Node Editor.
- Fixed selection of multiple nodes using a rectangle or CTRL.
- Added the ability to select multiple painting layers, move selected layers within the painting layer tree, and group, hide, unhide, duplicate, or delete them.
- In GPUPPP mode, layer masks affect based on brightness, rather than exclusively based on transparency.
- SoftDisplacement, combined with Sheen, can simulate fur, while FWSNormal defines its direction. To enable support for PPP texturing, "Show Displacement Mesh" must be enabled, and tessellation must be configured.
- A tool for extracting MicroprotrusionsColor based on pixel brightness has been added to the PBRTiler extension.

3DCoat-2026-01 

Tue Feb 17 14:13:36 2026 +0200

- Better style of no-modal input, same color as UI in general, no windows-style OK button.

- Node source codes have been moved to the UserPrefs/Scripts/GPUNodes folder

- The node system has been updated to prevent links between incompatible properties. The material preview renderer has been updated. A button for inverting input channels has been added. Required maps, such as AmbientOcclusion and Curvature, are now automatically calculated. The ability to use input channel correction curves in the node source code has been added.

- Python on Windows has been moved to ProgramData, which avoids incorrect operation in some cases.

- Correct supports rendering

- New important UI feature! Press CTRL-F or use Popups->Search in UI to find and execute any accessible item in UI in the current room.

- In Curve subtool was Added Check "ShowPoints"

- Retopo/Modeling Room: Tool "Select Transform" has been modified

- Restored GROW tool depth on pressure dependency icon

- New SPACE menu approach (older may be got back from settings) - type to find tool quickly.

- Added a color selector extension based on QT.

- Fixed a crash when using cStr in Python, including in cIDE, the expression editor, and node source code.

- Retopo/Modeling Room: The tool "Delete Face/Edge" polished a lot. Pre-selected edges or faces are removed.

- Fixed crash in live booleans (when unghosting)

- Fixed too small-scaled STL-s import

- Eraser with CTRL works correctly on frozen area (ppp)

- Retopo/Modeling Room: The tool Welding has been improved.

- Sculpt Room: for tool "Blob" - "Do Filling" was sped up several times. For "Smart Hybrid".

- Sculpt Room: Tool "Blob". A new option for lasso placement has been added to the "Smart Hybrid".
 

 

[Mihu83]

Out of curiosity, will this new system work with existing smart materials, or it will be based on smart materials created from scratch with nodes? Also, all the editing possibilities will work with painting on high poly, without UV's?

[carrots]

54 minutes ago, Mihu83 said:

Out of curiosity, will this new system work with existing smart materials, or it will be based on smart materials created from scratch with nodes? Also, all the editing possibilities will work with painting on high poly, without UV's?

By right-clicking on a smart material, you will see a menu item that will convert it and apply it to the open year editor. Yes, these node materials can be used both for UV PPP drawing and for sculpting objects, they are universal.

[Mihu83]

43 minutes ago, carrots said:

By right-clicking on a smart material, you will see a menu item that will convert it and apply it to the open year editor. Yes, these node materials can be used both for UV PPP drawing and for sculpting objects, they are universal.

Sounds nice, thanks.

[Elemeno]

this looks fantastic!

[MJonathan]

Amazing update! Let me add some comments that could improve the user experience:

1. I wanted to select multiple nodes to move or delete them using the rectangle selection and it was not possible. That was a little frustrating.
2. I wanted to delete the selected nodes by pressing the Delete key, but instead the layer deleted all its content. That’s a bad user experience because in every node editor like Nuke, Mari, ComfyUI, etc., this shortcut should delete the selected nodes. It should act on the graph context, not the layer.
3. Ctrl+Z is not working properly. When I modify settings, curves, etc., 3DCoat is not registering those events correctly, so undo fails and a lot of progress can be lost because of this implementation.
4. Nodes are created at the position of the final click in the menu instead of the initial right-click position.

Please fix these issues! The node graph is looking awesome, and with these changes people will feel much more comfortable using it without frustration.

[Carlosan]

Some operations are recorded in
C:\Users\<username>\Documents\3DCoat\UserPrefs\TimeLapse

(are video files and image sequence)

and take up a lot of space

[Henry Townshend]

You guys actually did it... speechless. What a spectacular puzzle piece for 3D Coat to have fallen into place.

Thanks for all your hard work on this and carefully listening to user feedback. Seems you really thought about everything and more in regards to non destructive adjustments, masking, and their previews! Utterly impressive.

And offering a video walk through and docs from day one is very appreciated. Plus even having new common shading models now like SSS etc is an absolutely mind blowing bonus that will make texturing in 3D Coat so much more accurate for target, and enhances rendering possibilities inside 3D Coat immensely.

Absolutely insane update. Congratulations. I think it is early Christmas now for many users.

P.S.: Please add the still missing ability to select and move/drop into groups multiple layers at once. This is such a disconnect now with such a powerful system in place to still have to re-arrange your layers in the layer stack painfully one by one.

Edited May 17 by Henry Townshend
forgot feedback

[SreckoM]

Looks great, can not wait for Linux version to try this.

[gbball]

It seems I've lost a bunch of my brushes.  I'm missing Pinch and Inflate.  They're missing in surface mode and voxel mode.

I've only tested on one machine so far.  I first noticed after installing this new version - 2026.02.  I also have the same issue in 2026.01

Edit:  I think a bunch more are missing, but those are the two I use the most.  It looks like most of the clay brushes are gone too.

Edited May 18 by gbball

[yoohasz]

I DL-ed the preview build of this and got a licence related error. FYI: I only have one workstation, with one instance of 3DCoat installed, and this test build prompts me to exit immediately, since my serial number is used on another PC. No it is not. I don't even have another PC. :/ Can this be resolved somehow? 

[Elemeno]

8 hours ago, gbball said:

It seems I've lost a bunch of my brushes.  I'm missing Pinch and Inflate.  They're missing in surface mode and voxel mode.

I've only tested on one machine so far.  I first noticed after installing this new version - 2026.02.  I also have the same issue in 2026.01

Edit:  I think a bunch more are missing, but those are the two I use the most.  It looks like most of the clay brushes are gone too.

this isnt a main build , this is an early beta , thats why you unzip it ... use 2026.1 cause 2026.2 isnt release yet

[gbball]

50 minutes ago, Elemeno said:

this isnt a main build , this is an early beta , thats why you unzip it ... use 2026.1 cause 2026.2 isnt release yet

It looks like something happened with my 3DCoat folder settings in my windows documents folder.  I changed it's name and had 3DCoat generate a new folder which seems to have fixed the issue.

Edited May 18 by gbball

[stas3dc]

21 hours ago, yoohasz said:

I DL-ed the preview build of this and got a licence related error. FYI: I only have one workstation, with one instance of 3DCoat installed, and this test build prompts me to exit immediately, since my serial number is used on another PC. No it is not. I don't even have another PC. :/ Can this be resolved somehow? 

Please email to sales@pilgway.com and tell us the email address you used for the Pilgway account, and we will look into it.

[mxhunterx]

Will both 3DCoat and Textura have these features or is this only for 3D Coat? I Only have Textura, so just curious.