Everything in Notch 2026.1

Updated: 3 Feb 2026

The complete guide to what’s been added since 0.9.23

On 3rd February 2026, Notch v1.0 becomes Notch 2026.1. This release represents the culmination of the new features introduced in pre-1.0, 1.0 alpha, private-beta and public beta.

In total, it is a ground-up transformation of Notch, with major new systems, hundreds of new nodes, and fundamental improvements to every workflow.

A lot of people have been using Notch 1.0 since either private or public beta. To help see what is most recent, we’ve created badges that reflect when the feature was added:

• β = during Public Beta
• β = during Private Beta

NURA: Unified Rendering Architecture #

The centrepiece of 2026.1 is NURA — the Notch Unified Rendering Architecture. NURA brings consistent results across four GPU renderers without changes to your materials, lighting, or render settings.

The key benefit is the ability to switch renderers at any time to suit your needs, whether that be real-time performance for live shows, high-quality path-traced renders for offline content creation, or a balance of both for interactive design workflows.

Four Renderers, One Material System #

Where different renderers in 0.9.23 had differing feature sets, all NURA renderers now support a common set of features, implemented in different ways depending on the renderer:

• Ambient occlusion
• Refractions
• Reflections
• Volumetric lighting
• Anti-aliasing
• Transparency sorting

The Path Tracer and Smart Tracer always use ray tracing for primary rays. The Hybrid and Standard Renderers can optionally use ray tracing for primary rays. This can give a significant performance improvement in very high polygon scenes. Triangle, point and line primitives are all supported directly by the renderer, as are fields, procedurals and particles - allowing rays to pass through them correctly in order and for all of them to shadow each other.

Explore how the new rendering features work across all four NURA renderers:

Cameras #

Non-linear cameras (such as Fish Eye, VR 180, VR 360) can use ray tracing to render the exact output pixels, without needing to go via a cube map - improving quality and performance and reducing VRAM usage. β

Cameras now include controls for depth of field and motion blur.

Shadow Catcher #

Enhanced Shadow Catcher Material support across all renderer nodes with a Blend Amount parameter for controlling blending.

Lighting #

The number and quality of lights has been increased across all renderers. Lights are generated and culled on the GPU, allowing them to be cloned.

Omni Light and Spot Light — Dedicated nodes extracted from generic Light node. Support for ray traced cone-based soft shadows on Hybrid Renderer. Screen-Space shadows improve quality at contact points. β

Area Light — Now has Beam angle parameters (Light Cone Angle, Light Inner Cone Angle). Works in all renderers. Support for ray traced cone-based soft shadows on the Hybrid Renderer.

Sky Light — Works in all renderers. Improved direct sun shadow term. Works with new “Daylight Environment” node to generate procedural, dynamic skys.

Emissive Objects - Emissive geometry can light the rest of the scene, with shadows, in Hybrid/Smart/Path Tracer.

Decal — Improved version with blend modes and falloff support. β

Redesigned User Interface #

The entire UI system has been rewritten. All panels can be moved and docked to create custom workspace layouts.

Nodegraph #

The nodegraph is your canvas, so we’ve spent a lot of time making it faster, more discoverable and enjoyable to use, with these new features:

• Floating Search Add nodes at cursor position - CTRL+Space or Dbl-Click Nodegraph Background to β
• Floating Find Navigate to any node in complex graphs - CTRL+F β
• Node Pinning — Pin a set of nodes to allow filtering across Nodegraph / Timeline / Curve views. (P to toggle, Shift+P to pin selected, Ctrl+Shift+P to unpin selected) β
• Node insertion — Drag a node onto a connection line (while holding CTRL) to insert it between two nodes β
• Node removal from chain — Ctrl+Shift+Click a node to remove it from its connection chain β
• Hints — Allow you to quickly build up a nodegraph by suggesting commonly connected nodes to be added right away. β
• Bridge nodes — Connect distant nodes without cluttered lines β
• Minimap — As the name suggest, a small map to navigate large nodegraphs β
• Auto-alignment with spacing controls. No more snapping to a grid.
• Arrange Nodes — Arrange, distribute, and space nodes evenly β
• Selection Sets — Have been overhauled with a new visual representation of the set. β
• Node list favourites — Bookmark frequently used nodes for quick access
• Active camera/preview node indicated with icon in nodegraph
• Comment nodes — Improved with custom background colours, multi-language unicode support, adjustable padding β
• “Layers” are now known as “Compositions”
• Custom resolutions per composition

Embedded Nodes and Assets #

The addition of Embedded Nodes and Assets are foundational improvements to the Notch workflow.

Embedded nodes allow you to collapse a group of connected nodes down into a single node with it’s own exposed parameter surface. Beyond just cleaner nodegraphs, embedded nodes allow for multiple-instancing and re-use.

Assets build on embedded nodes by allowing you to save and load embedded systems with custom parameters for reuse across projects and sharing with your wider team. We now also ship a comprehensive library of production-ready assets to get you started - in the asset browser.

Timeline #

• Timeline pinning — Show only selected or pinned nodes
• Mini curves — Edit keyframe curves without switching views
  • Ctrl+Alt+Mouse Wheel to adjust value scale when hovering over expanded mini curves β
  • “Fit Curve Values” button to bring curves back into view β
• Segments — Split and trim node visibility over time
• Transform tool — Select, copy, paste, and move multiple keyframes while maintaining timing
• Time markers — Double-click to add/delete, import/export as CSV files
• Video/image thumbnails on time bar start and end
• Time Segments now disabled by default to greatly simplify timeline view for new projects.
• Hatching indicates portions outside active range
• Time bar dropdown menu with Cap Keyframes, Break Segments To Nodes options

Read more about the Timeline

Curve Editor #

The Curve Editor is foundational to animation and has some significant upgrades:

• Overlaid view — See curves of different scales together
• Transform tool — Adjust timing and scale of grouped keyframes
• Improved Interpolation Modes — New Bezier and Easing mode with multiple options on each
  • Bezier: Auto Clamped, Auto, Mirror, Aligned and Broken
  • Easing: Ease, Bounce and Elastic modes - all with in-out options
• Curves keep the curve shape as much as possible when new keys are added
• Improved bezier handles — grab from either side
• Axis-coloured curves (X, Y, Z)
• Value ruler with panning and scaling
• Waveform view at bottom of editor
• Normalised curves view mode
• CTRL+A to select all visible keys
• Keyframe snapping: Snap To Bars, Keys, Grid, Markers [Hold SHIFT]

Property Editor #

A totally redesigned Property Editor that brings a host of usability improvements:

• Tooltips (on hover) — for every property, sourced directly from the manual
• Node Presets — Save and load property configurations per node type
• New Colour Picker — with:
  • Eye dropper tool for sampling colours from anywhere on screen
  • Hex input modes as well as the traditional RGB and HSV
  • Visual circular hue selector and a triangular saturation/value selector
  • Colour swatches for saving frequently used colours
• Math formula support in numeric edit fields
• Chevron dropdown menu on each property for Expose, Reset, and Rename actions
• Property accent colours when hovering Position, Rotation, or Scale β

Viewport #

The utility & usability of the Viewport has been vastly increased for both 3D and 2D workflows.

• Unified controls across all panels — Alt+LMB rotate, Alt+Shift+LMB pan, Alt+RMB zoom

• Viewport HUD — Provides performance metrics and scene stats

• Placement tool — Place objects directly onto surfaces

• Viewport picking — Now select Nulls, Cameras, Lights, Splines directly in viewport

• Snapping — Incremental, Viewspace, Worldspace, snap to grids or user defined snap lines (horizontal or vertical) created on the viewport ruler. [HOLD SHIFT while moving object]

• Rulers — for precise alignment

• Guides — Customise your own (DBL-CLICK on ruler), or use off the shelf: grid, center cross, thirds, quarters

• Pickable viewport objects — for Lights, Cameras, and Nulls, Splines, Falloffs

• Picture-in-Picture preview mode (Ctrl+F4)

• Freeze UI button for more accurate performance readings

• Material preview directly in viewport

• Node Falloff visualisation in viewport

• Viewport sidebar for Spline and Paint Clones interactions

• Viewport axis labels option

• Grid fades at distance

Resource Browser #

The Resource Browser has been entirely rewritten with:

• Folder favourites
• Thumbnail previews for 3D, images, and videos
• Drag and drop directory trees from Windows Explorer

Resource Inspector #

The Resource Inspector is a new panel that significantly improves the workflow and preparation of imported resources.

• Preview 3D files with polygon/triangle counts
• Prepare your 3D assets before import:
  • Adjust scale, orientation, pivot points before import
  • Flatten complex scenes, choose embed or external reference
  • Auto scale factor for 3D imports
  • Multiple animation set selection for FBX previewing
• Convert FBX and C4D materials to material nodes
• Preview, Trim, flip, rotate, scale video and images
• Layer list for scene outline and hide/unhide subnodes
• Waveform visualisation and metadata for sound resources

Remote Panel #

Working with exposed parameters gets a major boost with the new Remote Panel. You can now view and interact with all exposed parameters in one place, emulating the end-user experience of using the VFX/media server blocks.

This is perfect for testing and setting up your projects without needing to deploy to a block for persistent validation.

Launcher & Learning #

• On-demand downloads for Tours, Samples, Templates, and Tutorials
• User-created template projects folder (save to Documents/Notch/Templates)
• Direct access to Account, License, and Dongle information
• Up-to-date news and announcements
• New version notification when updates are available

Read more about the Launcher

Colour Scopes #

A new Scopes window (View->Scopes) provides real-time colour analysis of the viewport: β

• Luminance Histogram — Visualise brightness distribution
• RGB Histogram — Separate or overlaid colour channel histograms
• RGB Parade — Side-by-side channel analysis for colour balancing
• Toggle between separate and overlaid modes for RGB visualisations

Incremental Save #

Save versioned snapshots of your project with File->Save Version (Ctrl+Alt+S): β

• Customisable filename format via File->Preferences->Save Version Format
• Options for index increments and date-time inclusion

Read more about Preferences

Log Panel #

Brand new Log Panel, features error filtering, clearing of logs and quick file access for sending to support.

Material & Asset Library #

The new off the shelf materials & assets library can rapidly accelerate your creation process. 2026.1 includes a comprehensive library, but also the ability for your team to build and share your own custom assets.

• 120+ production-ready materials for immediate use or modification, across metals, plastics, concretes, woods, fabrics, and more
• 190+ assets:
  • Environment setups, lighting rigs, particle systems, deformers, and more
  • Fully customise with either exposed parameters or by embedding and modifying

Brand New 2D Workflow #

Long requested, the new 2D Root Node brings a dedicated 2D workspace with its own rendering pipeline:

• New Primitive 2D node
• Self-contained resolution, anti-aliasing, and blend modes
• Normalised or pixel coordinate spaces
• 3D content works within 2D Root
• Normalised Axis property (X, Y, or square)
• Perfect for motion graphics, HUDs, broadcast overlays

Cloning System Restructure #

Cloning has been reimagined with:

• Cloning of lights (long requested feature)
• Focus on purpose-built nodes for specific tasks, rather than one all-encompassing Cloner nodes.
• The Paint Clones node can be used to distribute clones on surfaces manually via painting in the viewport.

New Cloner nodes:

New effector:

Effector enhancements across the board: Effectors have received a variety of new features:

• Index-based weighting for targeted clone selection
• Position Apply Direction for radial movement away from effector
• Random Seed for object selection when Node Spawn Mode is Random
• Noise range limiting (min/max) on Randomise and Turbulence Effectors
• Object Index selection via effector nodes
• Blend modes (linear, multiply, add, subtract) on Image and Colour Ramp Effectors

3D / Geometry #

Points, lines and splines are now first-class geometry primitives, which can be rendered directly by all renderers. Deformers can be applied to them, and deformers exist to convert between types.

All geometry generation, including primitives, now runs on GPU - so properties can be animated efficiently. New primitive types have been added. Particles and clones can be converted to geometry.

All geometry generation is deterministic, and geometry is only regenerated on change - not per frame.

Combined with the new deformer system, complex geometry processing can now be performed directly in Notch.

Pivot System #

A brand new pivot system allows you to intelligently set custom pivots per node.

Set Custom pivots per Node, either by:

• Picking pivot points on the bounding box (Corners, edges or faces).
• Placing a pivot on the geometry
• Central based on geometry local extents
• Using the imported pivot

All can set by using CTRL + P or using the Pivot node group properties.

3D Scene Import / 3D Scene Node #

The 3D Scene node has been rewritten:

• The sub-nodes within the scene are now full nodes, allowing access to all their properties.
• A scene can be made editable, enabling its contents and transforms to be edited within Notch.
• The new Resource Inspector contains tools to flatten and optimise imported 3D scenes within Notch to improve their performance.

Text #

The Text node now includes:

• Inter font included automatically - for quick use without importing custom fonts
• Bevel support
• Lines geometry type
• Improved Unicode support for international character sets

Spline System Overhaul #

The spline system has been completely redesigned and expanded. No more chains of nulls!

The Spline node now features:

• Create & edit points and adjust tangents directly in viewport
• Per-point scaling & tangent handles β
• New point level tangent modes: Auto, Broken, Aligned, Mirrored
• Quick access menu on right of viewport for all options
• Multiple twist modes
• Works in both 3D and 2D (via 2D Root)

Two new nodes add powerful geometry generation capabilities:

Deformers #

The deformer system has been rewritten with support for complex, topology-changing deformers, and to allow complex deformer systems in processing chains to be built (like video nodes). Deformers are entirely deterministic, and only process when something in the deformer chain changes - making complex chains efficient. New weightmap nodes allow detailed control over deformers. Deformers can access and assign multiple materials on geometry. Cloth and rope physics now work as deformers.

There’s a large new set of deformers, including..

New Physics Deformers:

New Topology Deformers:

Weight Maps reimagined — Generate from nulls, attributes, noise, occlusion. Combine multiple maps. Control deformers, effectors, and shaders.

Particles #

Particles have wide ranging new features across Weight Nodes, Emitters, Affectors, and Renderers.

Determinism — Particle simulations are now fully deterministic for multi-machine consistency.

Fixed Update Substeps — Multiple simulation substeps per frame to maintain a fixed update rate.

Stochastic Emission — Emission Interval options for interpolated emission between frames, eliminating gaps in fast-moving emitters.

Mesh Emitter — Emit particles directly from cloned geometry without needing Combine Geometry first.

New Weight Nodes:

• Attribute Weight, Mesh Attribute Weight, Noise Weight, Primitive Weight - allow detailed control over particle simulations. β

New Affectors:

New Renderers:

Fields #

Sparse Grid Architecture — The field system now stores only active cells:

• Finer detail in smoke and fluid
• Larger simulation spaces without performance penalty
• Faster simulations than before
• Real-world units for bound size and voxel size
• Fully deterministic

OpenVDB Import and Export — Industry-standard volumetric data support. β

Cloning Fields - Fields can be cloned

Field Cache Renderer — Play back cached simulations with full material support, cloning, and transformation. β

Full NURA integration — Fields work across all four renderers.

Materials - Fields now support volumetric materials, and use of shading nodes - both for rendering and emitter/effector control.

Physics Overhaul #

The rigid body physics engine has been completely rewritten to provide a robust, stable, and high-performance simulation system:

• Cloners work directly under physics (no need to use the Rigid Body Effector any more) and can be both dynamic, kinematic or mixed. β
• Deterministic simulations for distributed rendering β
• Stability with 100,000+ rigid body clones β
• Proper friction and bounciness propagation β
• Improved idle state handling β
• Global Physics Scale property β
• Animation of physics collision shape is supported now β
• Kinematic colliders now propagate their velocity to the dynamic physics items correctly based on the set friction - improving interactivity. β
• Mass Center XYZ is adjustable β
• The radius and size of the cloned rigid bodies is automatically taken into account β
• Force Affector: Added Affected Nodes and Excluded Nodes input pins β
• Turbulence Affector: Applies turbulence forces to physics objects. β

Procedurals #

Procedural Raytracer — Massive-scale worlds without bounding box constraints. Integrated with all the renderers.

New CSG Modes: Chamfer, Round, Stairs.

Fractal Node — Generate Mandelbulb, Mandelbox, Quaternion Julia fractals. Colour by iteration with gradient support. β

Spline Generator — Generate shapes from splines in procedural systems. β

Shading #

Completely overhauled shading system:

• Build complex shading graphs
• No longer bound by resolution or preset limitations
• Fractal noise, gradients, and combinations
• Generate UVs, normals, and weight maps procedurally
• Use as inputs for field materials

New Nodes:

Generators #

• Swirl generator β
• Radial Vortex (configurable 2D radial vortex patterns) β
• Cells Generator (Voronoi F2-F1 distance, Linear, Manhattan, and Chebyshev distance modes) β

Post-FX #

No major Notch release would be complete without new Post-FX nodes:

Video #

Video Clips — Easy blending between multiple video clips with blend modes on the timeline. β

FFMPEG Support — Native playback without automatic transcoding. β

Video Loader — One Shot playback mode, Amount Played envelope for progress tracking, per-video Colour Space Conversion.

Materials #

Subsurface Scattering Material — Light penetration for plastic, skin, wax. β Blend Materials — Blend multiple materials using blend channels/textures. β

Modifiers #

Sound FFT Modifier — Visual interface to select frequency range and gain. β

Sound FFT Region Modifier — Add multiple detection regions to Sound FFT Modifier. β

Bake Modifier — Record input values as keyframes. β

Record Modifier — Record live input during playback. β

Compare Text String — String comparison including Levenshtein distance. β

Curve Remap — Remap modifier output values based on a customisable curve. β

Real-Time Performance Management #

Turbo Mode (RFX Only) #

Turbo mode stops the UI from updating during playback, boosting viewport playback performance. Useful for keeping smooth playback in the viewport while you’re reviewing a project.

Profiler #

The new Profiler takes a fresh approach to performance analysis, allowing different views to help identify bottlenecks in your project. β

Rendering and Export #

Colour Management #

• Project working colour space — Set per-project, with per-composition override
• Global output colour space — Automatic ODT applied at the viewport
• ACES CG support for offline content and Notch Blocks
• Import/export conversions for multiple colour spaces
• Output colour spaces on export: DCI-P3, P3-D65, Rec.2020, sRGB Linear, ACEScg, P3-Display, sRGB 2.2 β
• Images and videos automatically converted to working colour space on use
• Colour space selection per texture via Resource Inspector

Export Formats #

• Native H.265 video rendering
• TIFF 8-bit and 16-bit β
• EXR 32-bit β
• AOV outputs: normal, depth, object ID, cryptomatte, UV, ambient occlusion β

Tiled Rendering #

Reduces memory usage for large canvas sizes (8K, 16K).

Render Queue #

The Render Queue now takes automations and batch rendering to the next level with:

• Exposed parameters in render queue for batch variations
• Drag compositions directly into queue
• Preset support
• Preroll time option
• Multiple compositions at once

DLSS Support #

Available in blocks and standalone with multiple resolution scaling options (50%, 66%, 75%, 100%).

Notch Render Node #

Providing Render Nodes for rendering on spare workstations or render farms, has long been a requested feature. To enable this we have developed two new tools:

• Notch Render Node - a lightweight GUI driven render queue agent application β
• Notch Render Node CLI - a comprehensive command line render application for integration into existing render farm pipelines β

Both of these two tools use the same underlying rendering engine as Notch Builder and will be able to utilise a separate Notch Render Node license - so that your Builder licenses are not tied up.

Audio Improvements #

Sound FFT Modifier #

New features have been added to the Sound FFT Modifier to give greater control and visual feedback when working with audio reactive projects:

• Real-time FFT visualisation in property panel
• Draw custom frequency regions
• Mid-side processing (full stereo, mid-only, side-only)

General #

• Peaked normalisation of combined audio signals
• Waveform visualisation in resource browser
• Waveforms clipped to Sound Loader node time bars
• Mute button on timeline ruler

New File Formats & Improvements #

Native Video Playback Support Vastly Increased #

FFMPEG support was added for video playback within Builder, eliminating the need for automatic transcoding of formerly unsupported file formats. Previously, non-native formats required conversion to NotchLC before playback.

This update allows direct playback of a wider range of video formats, including:

• H.264, H.265, DXV and more

Enhanced Format Support #

These formats were already supported but received notable improvements:

Interactive and Integration #

Motion Capture #

MOVIN Mocap Skeleton — New support for MOVIN real-time motion capture. β

OptiTrack and XSens — Added recording and playback support via Devices menu. β

Network Editing #

• Improved UI for connection management
• Significantly improved connection stability and scalability (tested to 40x servers simultaneously) β
• Edit another Notch Builder instance over the network (Beta) β

Web GUI #

Completely rewritten:

• Arrange parameters in columns
• Handle wider range of parameter types

NDI #

• Source list in project settings
• Refresh button for sources

Spout #

• Spout support for VFX licenses β
• Spout receivers detect signals when opening projects with Spout enabled

VFX Blocks & Notch for After Effects #

VFX Blocks allow you to embed, manipulate and render Notch content directly in DCCs (Digital Content Creation tools) such as Adobe After Effects. VFX Blocks can also receive video and image inputs from the host application and use them within the Notch scene, enabling a huge range of effects and 3D workflows directly in After Effects. β

This allows teams of non-Notch users to utilise Notch content without needing to understand the underlying Notch system, and enables use of Notch content within pre-existing Adobe workflows.

• VFX Block export β
• Notch for Adobe After Effects plugin β
• Per-instance exposed property change tracking
• Composition selection support

JavaScript API #

New scripting functions for the JavaScript Node expand automation and dynamic scene control:

• GetCategory() and GetCategoryAndType() — Query a node’s category and fully qualified path β
• GetNotchVersion() — Returns the version number as an array
• SetName() on Layer objects — Rename compositions via script β
• GetNumEmbeds() and GetEmbed() — Access nodes within embedded systems β
• EmbedConnectedNodes() — Programmatically embed connected nodes β
• Full Unicode string support via SetString()

Shortcuts #