Blender 2.44 was intended to be an upgrade release, mainly for plenty of bug fixes, but the developers took the effort adding at least a few interesting new features.
This version now is fully 64 bits compatible, new modifers were added, a couple of composite nodes were added, and a revamp of the old mesh primitives was done. But most relevant to mention is Blender 2.44's new long-awaited but unexpected feature: subsurface scattering (SSS) support!
May 12th, 2007
The previous release was the first Blender version to offer 3d sculpt and multi-res. Based on welcome feedback and reporting, a lot of bug fixes and improvements were added.
There have been a large number of script additions and script updates, as well as API improvements since the last release.
Two new modifiers are available now; "Smooth" and "Cast".
Blender had been ported to 64 bits Dec Alpha in 1998 already, but since 2002 its 64 bits compliancy has been gathering dust mostly. Time for a cleanup!
Plenty of smaller features made it into this release.
Subsurface scattering is a new material option to render materials like skin, marble or milk. For these materials light scatters under the surface and leaves at another position. This leads to a softer appearance, as light is blurred out over the surface.
Two new Composite nodes had been added, that can be accessed by the Add > Color menu, expanding further the possibilities of the Composite node editor.
The Action and NLA editors have now better control over visible channels. A new constraint was added, and a "preview range" option was added.
The Bullet physics engine has had some changes which should give better reproducibility and precision/quality for physics simulations.
The mesh primitives have been revisited, improving their usability and pushing them a little beyond their previous state.