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I remember reading (I can't remember where though), that the Blender Internal render engine had become difficult to maintain and is not based on a modern architecture (hence - Cycles was created).

My question then is this:

Will Cycles ultimately replace the internal renderer?

I have grown somewhat fond of the internal renderer (because I'm accustomed to it and setting up scenes for it), and wish it could be more modern, but I know things might have to change.

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    $\begingroup$ Personally, I don't think so. Blender has it's on specialties (tile based, faster on CPU plus freestyle doesn't work with cycles). It's always a good thing to have options. :D $\endgroup$
    – CharlesL
    May 24, 2013 at 17:49
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    $\begingroup$ Personally I don't think that this is a good blender SE question. Rather something for the forums. $\endgroup$
    – miceterminator
    May 30, 2013 at 21:20
  • $\begingroup$ @miceterminator 19 voters think otherwise. $\endgroup$
    – A Wild RolandiXor Has Appeared
    May 31, 2013 at 3:23
  • $\begingroup$ If so, I hope that the "feature complete" requirement is truly complete. I like Cycles more than BI, but I need to export .OBJ (wavefront) models, and than means using BI textures. $\endgroup$
    – Javier
    May 31, 2013 at 17:45
  • $\begingroup$ Oooh, I sure hope not. BI has its uses, moreover, in some rare cases it is even better than Cycles. blender.stackexchange.com/questions/31088/… In this example of mine it produces a more acceptable result for me. $\endgroup$
    – Highstaker
    May 19, 2015 at 10:00

3 Answers 3

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Update (5 years later)

Yes, for the upcoming Blender 2.8 release, Blender Internal has finally been superseded by Cycles.

enter image description here

As far as I know, It is not yet officially confirmed. I asked a developer on IRC and he said No. However, one of the other developers has this on his blog.

The goal of Cycles is to probably replace the Internal Render Engine in 1-2 years and have a fast and modern Render/Shading system which can be used for production rendering and for animation as well.

from code.blender.. the main developer also hints with..

There may of course be developers that want to continue developing Blender Internal, and the intention is not to drop it immediately.

From BlenderGuru

Cycles will eventually replace the internal rendering engine, becoming the standard that every Blender user will soon use. The sooner you can jump aboard, the better.

It seems such a decision was made a long time ago too.

@andrewpprice There has been no further development for the BI (for about 2 years now) apart from critical crash fixes. That won't change.

It also seems that there is an ongoing project that is extending the Internal Renderer

It is all inconsistent information here and there but all very credible sources, so a definitive answer for this would be, It has not yet been confirmed.

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  • $\begingroup$ Maybe Cycles will replace BI as the default engine, but BI will still be an option? $\endgroup$
    – Gwen
    May 24, 2013 at 18:07
  • $\begingroup$ @Gwenn Cycles is resource hungry, if nothing were to really replace anything, I think the current setup will remain the same. $\endgroup$
    – iKlsR
    May 24, 2013 at 18:28
  • $\begingroup$ There is a slight miscommunication with the answer as it stands currently. As Ton goes on to discuss following the screenshotted tweet, it is technically not Cycles that is superseding the BI engine, but EEVEE: twitter.com/tonroosendaal/status/986999798598438912. This is mainly due to the main benefits of using the BI engine (particularly in animation) stemming from its speed when compared with Cycles, at the cost of accuracy. These are benefits that EEVEE has over Cycles as well, whilst having the additional positives of being physically-based (more accurate) too! $\endgroup$
    – Hexbob6
    Aug 16, 2018 at 21:45
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Blender is really made by and for users. Removing any feature from the program won't be done without a good long public debate (and good reasons).

Our blender.org project works with the "Module Owner" principle, developers who are responsible for maintaining and work on areas in Blender.

If you want to know who can give a reliable answer for the future or plans on specific development topics, check on the Module Owner list here: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Template:ModulesOwners

Or check with one of the Blender project admins, such as Campbell Barton, Brecht van Lommel or me :)

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    $\begingroup$ Hi Ton, honoured to see you here and have you answer directly :) $\endgroup$
    – A Wild RolandiXor Has Appeared
    Jun 10, 2013 at 17:25
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There is no plan to drop Blender Internal at the moment.

It got some new development recently with Freestyle support and 3D viewport rendering so that definitely would not be thrown away soon. How much further development it will receive is unclear, but as long as there are enough users it is unlikely to be removed.

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  • $\begingroup$ How does one activate 3D viewport rendering in Blender Internal? I don't see it under SpaceView3D.viewport_shade in r56533; am I missing something? $\endgroup$
    – wchargin
    Jun 9, 2013 at 23:20
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    $\begingroup$ It's not in the 2.67b release, going to be 2.68 (or get test build from builder.blender.org) $\endgroup$
    – Ton Roosendaal
    Jun 10, 2013 at 14:34

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