Last summer, the team behind the open-source 3D creation software Blender made headlines by confirming that support for the iPad Pro was in the works. Seven months later, however, the project appears to have been put on hold as priority is being given to the Android tablet version
See also: Honor's new MagicPad 4 is the world's thinnest Android tablet
In July, the Blender team recognized the need to bring the app into the tablet era. Multi-touch interfaces like tablets have been common for years, but only recently, thanks to increased processing power, have they begun to function as primary computing devices. To support Blender's mission of making 3D technology accessible to everyone, it's important to fully embrace these platforms.
Some of these devices include the Apple iPad, Microsoft Surface, Huawei MatePad , and Wacom MovinkPad, among others.
The initial test started with the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil:
See also: What to expect from the new OLED iPad Mini?
“The idea is to bring the full power of Blender to these devices. This requires adapting to platform-specific paradigms, but also offering more task-oriented user interfaces with reduced information density. This will be achieved by extending existing input methods and improving workspaces and application templates, which will run on top of a regular version of Blender.“
The initial platform where this idea will be tested is the Apple iPad Pro with Apple Pencil, followed by Android and other graphics tablets in the future. But it seems that development has progressed further in the Android space.
The team behind the development of Blender for iPad confirms in a public comment that “this project is on hold until further notice,” adding that “the team will focus on Android tablets first.”
See also: iPad 12 and iPad Air 8 expected to be released soon
Fortunately, it doesn't look like Blender for iPad is being abandoned completely. There's certainly no hardware limitation on the iPad Pro these days, as performance is on par with Macs. It just might take more time to get the proper attention to the project. For now, we're stuck with this teaser video from last year.
