Insydium NeXus 2026.1 beta unifies Cinema 4D and Blender

Insydium has released version 2026.1 of NeXus, its GPU-accelerated particle-based simulation plugin, as a beta. The plugin is developed for Cinema 4D and Blender, and with this new version the two applications become a unified system sharing the same underlying infrastructure. The beta is offered free of charge to users who hold any existing Insydium product license.

What is NeXus, and why it matters

NeXus was first introduced in 2022 as the GPU-accelerated counterpart to X-Particles, Insydium's well-known CPU-based particle plugin for Cinema 4D. Thanks to its Vulkan-based architecture, it works across AMD, Apple, Intel and NVIDIA GPUs. The Blender version, after several years of development, was released earlier this year. With the new 2026.1 release, both products now run on the same version of Theron, the platform-independent simulation engine. According to the company, this means a simulation setup behaves identically in Cinema 4D and Blender, sharing the same solvers, the same modifiers and the same results.

New tools and solvers

The most notable addition in this update is a unified multi-material solver called nxMPM. This solver allows liquid, elastic, snow, sand, brittle, metal and foam materials to be mixed within a single simulation; it also includes a material-blending feature that lets one material type transform into another based on properties such as particle age, velocity or material stress. To preserve performance, the solver now includes an automatic sleep system in which stationary particles aren't computed until 'woken' by a collision object or force.

The release also brings new tools for manipulating simulations:

• nxPin: Holds selected particles in place to anchor cloth, rope and soft bodies.

• nxDeformer: Lets a mesh deform to follow particles in the simulation while preserving its UVs.

• nxBind: Keeps particles in place within a deforming volume.

• nxBioLogic: A cellular growth system that mimics reaction-diffusion effects, differentiated growth, slime mold and coral forms.

Among existing features, the particle meshing system nxMesher has gained UV advection support, allowing textures to move along with the liquid surface. The collision object nxCollider has gained surface-sticking support, a wider range of feature variation, and more surface map input types including visual and noise maps. Nine new falloff shapes — including Torus, Capsule, Cone and Spline — and 11 new falloff layer types have also been added. A new viewport render engine, shared across both applications, improves voxel rendering in smoke, fire and FLIP liquid simulations.

Implications for architecture and archviz workflows

While NeXus isn't directly an architectural visualization tool, it could appeal to 3D artists at archviz studios using Cinema 4D and Blender who want to produce atmospheric and environmental effects such as rain, smoke, flooding, sand or demolition. The fact that both applications now share the same simulation engine could make scene files behave more consistently between Cinema 4D and Blender at studios with mixed teams. Its Vulkan-based GPU support, which allows it to run across different hardware, is also an advantage — though users should note the minimum version requirements: Blender 4.3 and above, Cinema 4D 19 and above.

Pricing and system requirements

NeXus 2026.1 is compatible with Blender 4.3 and above on Windows, Linux and macOS, and with Cinema 4D 19 and above on Windows and macOS. During the beta phase, it's offered free to any Insydium license holder. The new permanent license price has been announced as £140 (about $185). The plugin is also included in Fused, Insydium's bundle of Cinema 4D plugins.