Foundry shipped Nuke 17.1 on August 20, 2026. It is a point release, not a rewrite, but there is more here than the version number suggests. The headline is Gaussian splats that finally move, plus a 3D viewer that can now hand your scene to RenderMan or MoonRay.
Foundry also published a ten minute rundown of the whole release. If you only have time for one thing today, watch that and skim the sections below.
Animated Gaussian splats are the big one
Nuke 17.0 introduced Gaussian splatting back in February. It worked, but it was static. One splat, one frame, no motion.
Nuke 17.1 adds a new node called GeoSequencer. It reads a folder of splat files as a time sampled sequence, so a 4D capture behaves like any other animated element in your script. Supported inputs are USD, USDC, PLY and SPLAT.
That turns splats from a neat set survey trick into something you can actually cut into a shot. Think volumetric capture of an actor, a moving crowd plate, or a location scan where the trees are blowing around.
You can light splats now
SplatRender gained relighting. You get direct, point and spot lights from Nuke’s own 3D system acting on the splat.
This is the difference between a splat you have to accept as shot and a splat you can integrate. Baked lighting is the usual reason capture data looks pasted on. Being able to push a key light around inside the comp closes a lot of that gap.
Export got wider too. GeoExport now writes SPLAT alongside SPZ, PLY and USD, so splats can leave Nuke and land somewhere else in the pipeline.
Hydra 2.0 and render delegates in the viewer
The 3D viewer moves up to Hydra 2.0, the current version of the USD rendering framework. The practical result is delegate choice. RenderMan and MoonRay can now drive what you see in the 3D viewer.
There is also a new GeoRender node, backed by GeoRenderSettings, GeoRenderProducts and GeoRenderVariable. That gives you render settings as nodes in the graph instead of buried in a properties panel, and it outputs delegate passes directly.
Display AOV improved as well, so you can preview individual channels like depth and position without building a side chain to look at them. ScanlineRender2 picked up cutout controls on surface shaders, and a new GeoBreakLayer node handles layer separation.
USD round tripping without breaking the upstream file
This one is aimed squarely at pipeline people. Nuke 17.1 can export USD non-destructively. You define a sublayer and write sparse overrides, or “overs,” rather than flattening and republishing the whole stage.
If comp is the last department touching a USD scene, that matters. Your changes sit on top as a thin layer. Lighting or layout can keep working in their own file and your notes do not get stomped on the next publish.
GeoExport also changed how it writes. It exports frames individually and stitches them afterward, which cuts peak memory use on heavy sequences.
Channels, cameras and codecs
EXR channel filtering is the quiet fix a lot of comp artists will appreciate. You can now filter channels using expression based controls. Anyone who has hit Nuke’s channel ceiling on a CG render with forty AOVs knows exactly why this is on the list.
Footage support moved forward too:
- Apple ProRes RAW is supported
- ARRI Image SDK 9.0.1, with a new Decode Quality knob on the ARRICORE codec
- Blackmagic Raw 5.1
- Improved scaling fidelity
Graph Scope Variables got a smaller but welcome change. You can reorder them by dragging, with proper undo and redo.
Nuke Studio and the timeline
Nuke Studio users get the most immediately usable additions in this release.
- Version Compare. A and B comparison of versions from inside the timeline, instead of building a compare setup by hand.
- Annotation shapes. Rectangles and arrows, with transforms, on top of the existing annotation tools.
- Contact Sheet upgrades. Per sequence storage, a Tracks mode and a Stack View, which cuts out a lot of manual setup.
- Burn-in improvements. Custom metadata keys and TCL expressions as soft effects.
- Monitor Out interactive mode. For anyone reviewing on a calibrated display.
If your day involves client review sessions, that list is worth more than the splat work.
Performance
Foundry optimized Python node creation and script loading, which helps most on very large graphs. Profiling overhead is down by somewhere between 2x and 15x compared to Nuke 16.1, according to the release notes.
That second number only matters if you actually profile your scripts. Worth knowing that the tool is now cheap enough to leave on while you hunt down a slow node.
What this actually means for compositors
Sort the release into three buckets and it gets clearer.
If you are a 2D comp artist on standard shots, the wins here are EXR channel filtering, scaling fidelity, and the new camera format support. Useful, not dramatic. The splat and Hydra work will not touch your day.
If you work in 3D inside Nuke, this is a real upgrade. Animated splats plus relighting plus delegate rendering in the viewer means the 3D system is no longer just a projection and card tool. Foundry is clearly pushing Nuke toward being a place where you finish 3D work, not just receive it.
If you own the pipeline, the non-destructive USD export is the headline and everything else is secondary. It changes where comp can sit in a USD based workflow.
There is a bigger pattern worth naming. Gaussian splatting was a research curiosity two years ago. It is now a shipping feature in the industry standard compositor, with animation and lighting support. Capture based workflows are arriving in comp faster than most artists expected, which is the same story we have been tracking with how AI and new tooling are reshaping VFX work in 2026.
Before you upgrade: check your machine
This is the part to read twice. Nuke 17.1 is the final release that supports Intel Macs. If you are on an Intel Mac Pro or an older iMac Pro, this is the end of the line and your next upgrade is hardware, not software.
Supported platforms:
- macOS Sequoia 15.x or Tahoe 26.x
- Windows 11, 64 bit
- Rocky Linux 9.0, 64 bit
GPU support covers NVIDIA cards on CUDA 12.8 or later, AMD Radeon PRO, and Apple silicon.
Pricing
Annual subscription pricing is unchanged from 17.0, per The Foundry’s website: Nuke at $3,839, NukeX at $5,219 and Nuke Studio at $6,379. Nuke Indie is $499 a year and render licenses are $462.
If the price tag is what is stopping you, our roundup of free node based compositing tools covers the alternatives worth learning on.
Bottom line
Nuke 17.1 is a targeted release. It finishes work that 17.0 started rather than opening a new front.
Whether it is worth the download depends entirely on what you do. 3D and pipeline artists should grab it. Nuke Studio users reviewing with clients will feel the timeline changes on day one. Straight 2D comp artists can take their time.
Anyone still on an Intel Mac should at least install it, because there will not be another one.
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