Modeling

Modifiers

• The Subdivision Surface modifier and node's performance has been improved when many loose edges are subdivided. (12c235a1c5)

UV Editing

Sculpt Tools

Show Geometry driven relax option

The big new change in the UV editor for Blender 3.4 is the addition of a new geometry-based relax brush. This improves the quality of the UV mapping by making the UVs more closely follow the 3D geometry. As this is a brush, the user can drive the relaxation process. (74ea0bee9c)

To support the new relax brush mode, there has been additional UV Sculpt and UV Relax tool improvements:

• Fix boundary edges for UV Relax tool. (3c351da89f)
• UV Sculpt tools now respect pinned vertices. (3c351da89f)
• UV Sculpt tools now work with constrain to bounds. (66822319d3)
• UV Sculpt tools now ignore winding, preventing orphaned islands. (dcf50cf046)
• UV Grab tool now supports Live Unwrap. (836c07f29c)

UV Packing

• Specify exact margin when packing. (c2256bf7f7)
• Add option to use Blender 2.8 margin calculation. (c2256bf7f7)
• Many UV Packing operations now work with non-manifold geometry. (many commits)

UV Grid and Selection

• Allow non-uniform grids. (b7decab07e)
• Add option to use pixel spacing for UV Grid. (Also b7decab07e)
• Show UV grid over the top of the image. (c50335b359)
• Rename "UV Snap To Pixels" -> "UV Round To Pixels". (b5115ed80f)

New Operators

Additional new operators have been added affecting island rotation:

• Add new operator, Randomize Islands. (de570dc87e)
• Add new operator, UV Align Rotation. (20daaeffce)

Other Improvements and Fixes

• Rotation operator supports constrain to bounds. (d527aa4dd5)
• Respect UV Selection in Spherical Project, Cylindrical Project, Cube Project and Smart UV Project.(a5c696a0c2)
• Fix UV Island calculation with hidden faces. (8f543a73ab)
• Fix bugs in UV Island calculation when in edge selection mode. (178868cf42)
• More options for UV Select Similar operator, Face, Area and Area UV. (a581460728)
• Fix UV Unwrap with degenerate triangles. (94e211ced9)