When using multiple lamps, it is often evident that the light boundaries give a banding effect. This is common when there's only a linear or quadratic relation involved (x^2), whilst a cubic formula (x^3) would provide more pleasant results.
In the Shaders panel, you now can enforce Cubic correction of diffuse values. This button ("Cubic") just applies an extra (x = 3*x^2 - 2*x^3) "Ease" blending after the diffuse component has been calculated.
See striking results below!
Images now have a "Premul" option to convert images from Key to Premul alpha, as expected by Blender's renderer. Most image file formats work with Key alpha, so when using textures with alpha it is recommed to enable this option.
Lamp shadow buffers now have an option to generate multiple shadow buffers (1, 4 or 9) for one lamp, for better quality shadows with less flickering.
There is now also a per-material lamp shadow buffer bias option LBias. This factor is multiplied with the existing the Bias value for each shadow buffer.
Additionally, generating shadow buffers is now multithreaded, with one thread per shadow buffer.
Halo materials now have a Soft option, to make them appear more volumetric when intersecting other geometry. Below is a comparison before and after. Example .blend file.
UV and Orco mapping now have a "From Dupli" option. If the object is duplicated by a particle system, dupliverts or duplifaces, this will then use the coordinates from it's parent. The image shows how it can be used to texture feathers generated with a particle system.
Object mapping has a new "From Original" option, which gives a duplicated object coordinates as if it was in it's original position.
