Compiling Custom Versions of Blender

In this video, we’ll cover the entire process of compiling custom versions of Blender from scratch. Why bother? Compiling custom builds can unlock special abilities and performance that’s just not possible with a standard installation of Blender.

To download pre-compiled bleeding-edge versions of Blender, check out builder.blender.org.

Blender also provides detailed documentation on how to compile Blender on all major operating systems. You can check out those instructions on the official Blender builder wiki.

To compile on Linux, you’ll first want to clone the repository in a directory of your choice. You can do this anywhere on your machine, but I’ve started compiling all my software in $ ~/Programs. This folder didn’t exist by default on my machine, so I created it just for compiling new software and packages. To clone the blender repository, you’ll need an application called git. On Ubuntu, you can install it by running:

$ sudo apt-get install git

Next, you’ll need a special collection of packages in order to build software from source code. To install these packages, just run:

sudo apt-get install build-essential subversion cmake libx11-dev libxxf86vm-dev libxcursor-dev libxi-dev libxrandr-dev libxinerama-dev

The computer will prompt you for your password. Just type in your password, hit enter, and your package manager will download and install all the required packages to be able to compile Blender.

If you have any questions, please drop a comment below! To be notified of new posts in the future, sign up for the email list at the top of the page. Keep creating!