The Blender development team is considering the removal of OpenGL support starting with version 6.0. This proposal, discussed during an October 5 meeting, aims to transition the software fully to modern graphics APIs like Vulkan. The release of Blender 6.0 is currently scheduled for November 2027.
The transition to Vulkan has been ongoing for several years, with support maturing significantly by version 5.0. While the team views Vulkan as the future foundation for its graphics architecture, the removal of OpenGL is not yet finalized. A key technical hurdle remains the implementation of virtual texturing, which must be fully addressed before OpenGL can be retired.
If the proposal is approved, users on Windows and Linux will be primarily affected, as macOS already utilizes Metal. The change would require GPUs to support at least Vulkan 1.1. Users with older hardware lacking adequate Vulkan support would still be able to rely on the Blender 5.5 LTS version, which serves as a long-term support release.
Removing OpenGL would reduce the maintenance burden of supporting two separate graphics backends. Unlike the legacy OpenGL, Vulkan is designed for modern GPU architectures and multi-threaded workloads, offering better control over resources and synchronization. This shift is essential for the continued development of the EEVEE rendering engine and advanced viewport features.
