--- title: "This Blender fork would rather ship 534 MB than need the internet" locale: "en" url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/bforartists-offline-assets-en" markdown_url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/bforartists-offline-assets-en.md" category: "tech" tags: ["open source", "Blender", "local-first", "distribution", "3D"] published_at: "2026-08-23T15:05:00.000Z" author: "Hugo Marchal" translation: "https://irz.fr/fr/articles/bforartists-offline-assets-fr.md" --- # This Blender fork would rather ship 534 MB than need the internet Blender 5.2 keeps a light installer by hosting its new assets online. Bforartists bundles everything into the binary. Two distribution philosophies, and what offline-first really changes for a workshop. Blender 5.2 LTS arrived on July 14 with a larger set of ready-made materials, compositing effects, HDR backgrounds and Geometry Nodes assets, but the installer itself stayed lean because those additions are fetched from the network. The official release notes are unusually explicit about the choice: “Blender isn't any larger”.[5](https://www.blender.org/download/releases/5-2/) Bforartists 5.2.0 followed on July 30 and kept the same Blender core while taking the opposite distribution route. Its package carries the useful material with it, so the application is heavier before first launch and less dependent on what happens afterwards.[2](https://www.bforartists.de/bforartists-5-version-5-2-0/)[3](https://github.com/Bforartists/Bforartists/releases) The difference sounds trivial until the archives are compared. ## The weight of the choice Bforartists 5.2.0 for Windows weighs 533.8 MB; Blender 5.2.0 x64 is 386.2 MB. Linux narrows the spread, with 423.5 MB for Bforartists and 366.6 MB for Blender in tar.xz form.[6](https://download.blender.org/release/Blender5.2/) The Windows package therefore spends about 148 MB on things Blender prefers to leave outside the base download. > **Two installers, two bets** > - Blender 5.2.0, official Windows archive: 386 MB > - Bforartists 5.2.0, official Windows archive: 534 MB > - bundled assets, icons, manual: +148 MB > Sources: download.blender.org and Bforartists GitHub release v5.2.0 Not all of that difference is the asset library. Bforartists also documents a much larger set of coloured icons and ships a searchable PDF manual, but neither changes an offline session as much as opening the program and already having material, brushes and node groups available.[1](https://www.bforartists.de/the-differences-to-blender/) ## A library in the installer The fork has been moving in this direction for several releases. Version 5.0.0 added 99 compositor assets in November 2025, covering shapes, patterns, optical effects, filters and colour work; 5.1.0 added procedural UV Nodes for Geometry Nodes, and the same bundled library also carries Bforartists tools, Blender-derived brushes, compositor node groups and Grease Pencil material.[3](https://github.com/Bforartists/Bforartists/releases) The practical result is less glamorous than the feature list and more useful. An offline workstation does not open onto a bare application waiting for its first downloads: a new user can drag in a material, inspect a documented node group or pick up a brush immediately. That fits the project's own explanation of its name, “Be For Artists”, which frames the fork around the person using the software rather than the programmer maintaining it.[1](https://www.bforartists.de/the-differences-to-blender/) This is not a rejection of online assets. Bforartists has also displayed Blender's online library since 5.1.2 when a connection exists.[3](https://github.com/Bforartists/Bforartists/releases) The fork keeps the network as an option while refusing to make it the only route to the basic library. ## Thirty machines, one network On a single workstation with fast broadband, the distinction is easy to ignore; across a classroom or a shared workshop it stops being theoretical. Thirty new installs behind a filtered school network, a fablab with weak service or a residency working from a rural connection all turn the same design decision into deployment work. Blender's model keeps the initial archive smaller and lets the essentials arrive afterwards. It also gives studios a useful capability: remote libraries can be hosted independently rather than being tied to one central catalogue.[5](https://www.blender.org/download/releases/5-2/) The price is operational, because somebody now depends on the network, the remote catalogue and whatever local caching is needed to make repeated use painless. Bforartists pays before launch. Download the larger archive once and the machine still has its default material after the connection is gone. > Two distribution models > **What each choice implies** > - One heavy download, autonomous machine after.: Bundle everything > - Light installer, network needed for material.: Host everything > - Workshops, classrooms, reproducible archives.: Bundled wins > - Catalog always current, light base to deploy.: Online wins There is an archival difference as well. A studio can preserve a specific application build and its bundled library together, while a workflow that fills itself from the web also inherits the history of that catalogue: assets can move, be replaced or disappear between releases. Neither outcome is automatically fatal, but the two packages place responsibility in different places. ## The maintenance bill Bundling is not free for the Bforartists team either. A recent repository change dealt with startup errors caused by divergence between Blender's “Online Essentials” catalogues and Bforartists' bundled copies; the fix reduced the logging noise, yet the underlying maintenance problem remains, because one small team has to keep a local library aligned with an upstream project that keeps changing.[4](https://github.com/Bforartists/Bforartists/commit/60d367af3c51c27b6097ed8c921744f5e15fe537) That work repeats every release: synchronise what comes from Blender, add material specific to the fork, regenerate what needs regeneration, then ship the whole set again. Bforartists has been following upstream development since 2015 with a comparatively small group around Draise and Reiner Prokein.[1](https://www.bforartists.de/the-differences-to-blender/)[2](https://www.bforartists.de/bforartists-5-version-5-2-0/) Ten years of releases do not guarantee another ten, although they do show that the model has survived longer than a one-off experiment. The user sees a simpler compromise. A workstation keeps roughly another 150 MB in the Windows archive and receives a library that changes at update time rather than every time the remote catalogue changes. Machines that stay installed for years make that overhead look small; fleets that are constantly rebuilt may prefer the lighter starting point. ## Two ideas of completeness The interesting split is not really Blender versus Bforartists. It is the definition of a complete creative application. Blender treats the executable as a platform whose useful material can continue arriving from network services, while still leaving room for third parties and studios to host remote libraries of their own.[5](https://www.blender.org/download/releases/5-2/) Bforartists packages more of that material locally, accepting a larger release in exchange for a workstation that remains useful when the connection is slow, filtered or simply absent. For most people on good broadband, both choices work. The distinction becomes visible in the places where software has to survive bad infrastructure, repeated classroom deployment or long periods between updates, which is exactly where an extra 148 MB stops looking like bloat and starts looking like inventory. ## References 1. [Bforartists — official site and « The Differences to Blender » page](https://www.bforartists.de/the-differences-to-blender/) 2. [Bforartists 5.2.0 – Official Release](https://www.bforartists.de/bforartists-5-version-5-2-0/) 3. [Bforartists — GitHub releases v4.2.0 to v5.2.0](https://github.com/Bforartists/Bforartists/releases) 4. [Bforartists — commit « Assets: better UX when catalogs in Online Essentials diverge from bundled »](https://github.com/Bforartists/Bforartists/commit/60d367af3c51c27b6097ed8c921744f5e15fe537) 5. [Blender 5.2 LTS — release notes (Assets ♥ Online)](https://www.blender.org/download/releases/5-2/) 6. [Official archive sizes — download.blender.org and Bforartists GitHub release v5.2.0](https://download.blender.org/release/Blender5.2/)