Qt 6.1 Alpha Released

Just two months after the release of Qt 6.0, given the quicker release cycle this year, Qt 6.1 Alpha is already available that follows the feature freeze that began earlier this month.

The Qt 6.1 Alpha was published this morning and is now available via the source packages or when using The Qt Company's Qt Online Installer. The brief alpha announcement can be found on Qt.io.

Qt 6.1 is bringing overflow-safe arithmetic to QtCore with new functions, support for SSL plug-ins with QtNetwork, QNetworkInformation for exposing network information, and other core improvements. Qt Quick 3D with Qt 6.1 meanwhile has 3D particles and instanced rendering support, both as technical previews. Plus Qt Quick 3D also has support for morph animations.

Qt 6.1 modules via the package manager include the new Qt State Machines for functionality formerly in the SCXML and StateMachine modules, Qt Lottie has been ported to Qt 6 now, and the Qt Virtual Keyboard has also been ported to Qt 6 with this forthcoming release.

The Qt Company is looking to issue the first Qt 6.1 Beta before the end of February and then several more over the course of March and possibly into early April. The Qt 6.1 Release Candidate is anticipated for mid-April and to then have the official Qt 6.1.0 release out around 27 April.