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 3DCoat 2026.07 RC
portable zip
3DCoat-2026-07.exe
3DCoatTextura-2026-07.exe
3DCoatPrint-2026-07.exe

Windows 3DCoat 2026.06 (RC2)
3DCoat-2026-06.exe
3DCoatTextura-2026-06.exe
3DCoatPrint-2026-06.exe
Portable versions 
3DCoat, 3DCoat Print, 3D Coat Textura

3DCoat 2026.06 (RC)
3d-coat-7-11-2026RC.zip

Windows, 2026-05 (Beta)
3DCoat-2026-05.exe
3DCoatTextura-2026-05.exe
3DCoatPrint-2026-05.exe

Portable versions

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):

 

 

 

[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.