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This page is a work in progress ! |
Motivation
Blender is quite possibly the most popular 3D modelling appplication available, definitely the most popular free one. Enabling it would give considerably better performance on ARM64 platforms for Windows.
Status
WIP - “lite” working with some patches. “Release” needs dependencies enabling first.
Todo
Get “lite” building OOB, by making sure patches are pushed, and get “Release” version built.
Known Limitations
Currently building/launching is problematic, and requires manually copying DLLs at various points when the build process errors out. There are also many assumptions within blender’s codebase that “Windows == x64”, which needs to be worked out.
Compiling
NOTE:
To run it, you need latest version of Adreno GPU driver: https://www.qualcomm.com/products/mobile/snapdragon/pcs-and-tablets/snapdragon-8-series-mobile-compute-platforms/snapdragon-8cx-gen-3-compute-platform#Software
Status
Nightlies available from blender via https://builder.blender.org/download/daily/
Dependencies
All are enabled except OpenPGL, and DPCPP.
A full list can be seen here: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/src/branch/main/build_files/build_environment/cmake/versions.cmake
Todo
Enable OpenPGL and investigate clang-cl builds.
Known Limitations
Only 8cx Gen3 and above devices work.
Compiling notes
This must be done on a WoA machine - cross-compiling is not yet supported.
TBC
Running
Download ZIP file below, and run blender exe as normal. May require native python (tested with 3.11rc2) being installed and on the path.
...
Compiling blender
As blender now has pre-builts available for Windows ARM64, the standard blender build instructions can be followed for a normal build of blender (note, only VS2022 works for ARM64): https://developer.blender.org/docs/handbook/building_blender/windows/
Compiling via build script (outdated)
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You shouldn’t need these instructions unless you intend on building the deps yourself - it is likely they may not work. Please speak to Anthony Roberts if you have queries about this section. |
There is a build script written, which takes care of many of the interim steps required to build and run the semi-release version of Blender, available here: https://gitlab.com/Linaro/windowsonarm/packages/blender/-/tree/master/
It should work on the main fork of blender, but mileage may very, as main is a fast-moving target within blender.
To use:
Set up arm64 wenv: https://gitlab.com/Linaro/windowsonarm/wenv/
Clone repo
Execute
./recipe.sh origin/main out_dirfrom a wenv bash terminal - ie, not a vcvarsall/plain CMD instance!Wait for build to complete
Contributing changes
If you wish to contribute changes to Blender, you may do so by making a merge request for your changes to blender’s main repo here: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender
Any changes or issues relating to Windows ARM64 will be directed to Anthony Roberts by the blender triaging team - if you have bigger changes to discuss, please reach out to Anthony directly at anthony.roberts@linaro.org.
If you have any questions, queries, or concerns, contact Anthony Roberts
Running
Download a daily build from the blender build bots from here: https://builder.blender.org/download/daily/