--- title: Principled BSDF In Blender's Cycles Now Supports Dispersion description: Blender's Cycles renderer has merged native dispersion support into the Principled BSDF shader, letting artists create realistic rainbow-colored refraction for... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/principled-bsdf-in-blender-s-cycles-now-supports-dispersion-ilpdnu2jl twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Principled BSDF In Blender's Cycles Now Supports Dispersion | daily.dev og:description: Blender's Cycles renderer has merged native dispersion support into the Principled BSDF shader, letting artists create realistic rainbow-colored refraction for... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/principled-bsdf-in-blender-s-cycles-now-supports-dispersion-ilpdnu2jl og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ilPDnU2jL.png og:image:alt: Principled BSDF In Blender's Cycles Now Supports Dispersion og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Principled BSDF In Blender's Cycles Now Supports Dispersion **[80 LEVEL](https://daily.dev/sources/80lv)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Blender's Cycles renderer has merged native dispersion support into the Principled BSDF shader, letting artists create realistic rainbow-colored refraction for diamonds, gemstones, and prisms without building complex custom glass shaders. The implementation is RGB-based rather than true spectral, but is now available in Blender 5.3 alpha builds. The 5.3 alpha continues until September 30 and is also expected to bring new lighting nodes for NPR (non-photorealistic) artists, including a Light Accumulation node for stylized lighting effects. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Does Blender's Principled BSDF support dispersion for glass and gemstone materials? Yes, as of Blender 5.3 alpha builds, the Principled BSDF in Cycles natively supports dispersion, producing realistic rainbow-colored refraction for diamonds, gemstones, and prisms without needing a custom glass shader setup. The implementation is RGB-based rather than a true spectral rendering approach, but still produces convincing results. _Artists tracking Blender's shading updates can follow rendering feature changes like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Understanding Native Dispersion In Blender 5.3](https://daily.dev/posts/understanding-native-dispersion-in-blender-5-3-goa5veabs) · 80 LEVEL · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [This Compact Disc Shader Made in Blender Looks Very Impressive](https://daily.dev/posts/this-compact-disc-shader-made-in-blender-looks-very-impressive-xzc1fhv97) · 80 LEVEL · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [This Blender Shader Lets You Switch Between Dozens Of Realistic Metals](https://daily.dev/posts/this-blender-shader-lets-you-switch-between-dozens-of-realistic-metals-avv8hcr4a) · 80 LEVEL · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#3d](https://daily.dev/tags/3d), [#blender](https://daily.dev/tags/blender) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/principled-bsdf-in-blender-s-cycles-now-supports-dispersion-ilpdnu2jl) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Principled BSDF In Blender's Cycles Now Supports Dispersion","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/principled-bsdf-in-blender-s-cycles-now-supports-dispersion-ilpdnu2jl","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/principled-bsdf-in-blender-s-cycles-now-supports-dispersion-ilpdnu2jl"},"datePublished":"2026-08-24T12:49:00.285Z","dateModified":"2026-08-24T12:49:39.591Z","description":"Blender's Cycles renderer has merged native dispersion support into the Principled BSDF shader, letting artists create realistic rainbow-colored refraction for...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/c35b4ce72e5d7fab2e312e2385300ce0?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/c35b4ce72e5d7fab2e312e2385300ce0?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"80 LEVEL","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"80 LEVEL","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/78eebcd76c154e6bbfd565fed7dc4093","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/80lv"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/principled-bsdf-in-blender-s-cycles-now-supports-dispersion-ilpdnu2jl","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"3d,blender","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"80 LEVEL","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/80lv"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Principled BSDF In Blender's Cycles Now Supports Dispersion"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/principled-bsdf-in-blender-s-cycles-now-supports-dispersion-ilpdnu2jl#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Does Blender's Principled BSDF support dispersion for glass and gemstone materials?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes, as of Blender 5.3 alpha builds, the Principled BSDF in Cycles natively supports dispersion, producing realistic rainbow-colored refraction for diamonds, gemstones, and prisms without needing a custom glass shader setup. 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