Since Barista 1.8.0 is still in active development, here is what you can expect from this release. The biggest addition is removing the last remaining restriction from rendering in Barista, custom scripting.
Custom Scripts
The biggest addition is the custom script support. I Barista 1.7.x, each instance uses a specific startup script when starting Blender. This script handles all of the physics baking, setting CPU/GPU options, setting up File Output node paths, and of course Optix rendering settings. The problem is that the only script access users have, is through a custom add-on.
The 1.8.0 custom script feature allows users to upload a script which is appended to the end of the startup script file. To also add the ability to debug your scripts using Python print functions to your script. Anytime the printed string is prefixed with "Agent: ", it will be outputted to the Barista logs in the client. This is a great way to verify that your script is working correctly.
Apple Silicon Support
It has been too long, but Barista 1.8.0 will finally have a Silicon build available. To keep the size of the binary small, the Intel and Silicon build will be offered separately.
Update to Blender 3.3
To make sure Barista is updated to the latest LTS release, 1.8.0 will update the built-in binary to the latest LTS release. Eventually, I would like to integrate automatic build downloads (at least for the latest release), so we can avoid the instance images from having stale versions too often, but for now we'll continue to update images.
Automatic Update Checking
Automatic updates is something Barista has needed for a long time, but several issues kept it from happening. Instead of offering full automatic updates, 1.8.0 will at least notify users when a new version is available, so you aren't surprised by the "AMI Image not Found" message when attempting to render.
Dark Mode Support
Now that OS'es have automatic dark/light mode switching, Barista is finally jumping on the bandwagon. Since Dark/Light theming already exists, this just consists of watching the system's settings to decide which theme to use. Of course, with this, another button will be added to disable this feature if someone wants to use a specific theme.