Godot 4.5 makes waves with significant advancements, enhancing accessibility, debugging, and editor functionality. This update introduces a shader baker, improved 2D/3D systems, and crucial Android platform support, refining the game development experience for all.
The highly anticipated Godot 4.5 update has officially landed, marking another significant milestone in the rapid evolution of this popular open-source game engine. The Godot Engine team, a collective of dedicated developers and community contributors, recently celebrated this update, highlighting its ongoing commitment to innovation and accessibility. This update, detailed in their latest Godot Tomorrow stream, brings a wealth of improvements that promise to streamline workflows and unlock new creative possibilities for developers worldwide.
Godot Engine stands out in the game development landscape for its commitment to being truly open source, allowing unparalleled freedom and transparency for creators. This community-driven approach fosters a vibrant ecosystem where improvements and new functionalities are often inspired by, and directly contributed by, its users. The 4.5 update exemplifies this spirit, integrating numerous enhancements that directly address community feedback and push the boundaries of what an open-source engine can achieve.
Developers can find comprehensive details about this version on the official Godot Engine 4.5 release page. Let’s delve into some of the most exciting additions and improvements.
Performance and Core Enhancements
One of the standout additions in Godot 4.5 is the new Shader Baker. This innovative feature addresses the common frustration of shader compilation wait times in modern games. By pre-compiling shaders in the editor, the shader baker significantly reduces load times, especially for Apple and Windows devices using Metal and D3D12, where the team observed a remarkable 20x decrease in load times for their TPS demo. This builds on previous optimizations like ubershaders, focusing on accelerating game startup.
Core engine improvements also include enhanced duplication logic. The new duplicate_deep() methods for Resource, Array, and Dictionary classes now provide full, predictable control over what gets duplicated, even for subresources within complex data structures. Additionally, 4.5 expands on build profile improvements, allowing users to tailor the engine for their projects by detecting and including only necessary classes and GDExtensions, leading to more optimized custom Godot templates.
Editor and Workflow Enhancements
The Godot editor itself receives several quality-of-life updates. The editor language can now switch on-demand without requiring a restart, a handy feature for plugin developers and multilingual users. Named EditorScripts can now be executed directly from the command palette, simplifying project-specific command execution. For organizing complex interfaces, the new FoldableContainer node offers an “accordion” view, allowing users to display extensive details efficiently. Furthermore, managing complex GUIs is easier with recursive overrides for Control.focus_behavior_recursive and Control.mouse_behavior_recursive, streamlining interaction management for nested UI elements.
Platform-Specific Improvements
Godot 4.5 brings significant attention to platform-specific needs, particularly for Android. The editor UI has been adapted for non-desktop users with a new TouchActionsPanel, providing direct access to common actions for tablet and phone users. Crucially, the engine now supports devices with 16KB pages (essential for Android 15 onwards) and offers edge-to-edge support for a more modern, immersive display on Android devices. Developers can also now access the device’s raw camera feed on Android, opening up possibilities for AR and other camera-driven applications. For web games, WebAssembly SIMD support has been integrated, providing a free performance boost for CPU-intensive tasks.
Scripting and Systems Updates
Scripting sees enhancements with variadic arguments in GDScript, allowing functions to accept an arbitrary number of parameters. For GDExtension, developers can now register main loop callbacks, providing better control over engine startup and shutdown events, a direct result of efforts to bring C#/.NET to GDExtension. C#/.NET users will also benefit from assemblies now loading directly from Android APKs, resolving previous issues with outdated assemblies and permission errors.
In 3D, BoneConstraint3D and new modifiers like AimModifier3D and CopyTransformModifier3D allow binding bones to other bones, enabling more natural movement for VR and metaverse avatars. The engine reintroduces batch editing of assets in the Import dock, allowing quick changes to import settings for multiple resource files simultaneously. Input handling improves with the integration of the SDL project for gamepad input, promising faster bug fixes and new features for gamepads. A dedicated 2D navigation server has been implemented, removing the reliance on 3D navigation logic for pure 2D games and reducing export sizes. Furthermore, navigation regions can now be processed asynchronously, improving overall navigation performance by delegating tasks to a background thread.
Rendering and XR also receive significant upgrades. SceneTree 3D physics interpolation, introduced in Godot 4.4, has been moved to SceneTree, fixing issues and simplifying implementation while maintaining the existing user API. SMAA 1x support, a modern post-processing anti-aliasing solution, is now built directly into the engine. The mobile renderer explicitly uses half-precision floating-point (F16) format for improved rendering performance and reduced power usage on supported hardware. For XR, there’s new D3D12 OpenXR backend support, and foveated rendering is now enabled on Vulkan Mobile. Meta’s Application SpaceWarp is also supported through the OpenXR vendors plugin, leveraging frame synthesis for smoother VR experiences on Meta and Pico headsets.
Looking Ahead: Godot Foundation and Future Plans
The Godot Foundation continues to grow, expanding its team with new hires for rendering and a dedicated Android developer. This expansion, detailed on the Godot Foundation team page, signals a strong commitment to addressing community demands, particularly for the Android platform, which will see significant improvements in Godot 4.6. Other priorities for 4.6 include C# web export, major 3D rendering enhancements, and editor improvements under the guidance of new editor maintainer Michael Alexander, who will update the theme and general UI/UX. The Godot website itself will also be updated to feature the editor more prominently.
The asset store is under active development by Andre Inigo and GP Garcia, with big updates planned to replace the deprecated asset library. Community questions addressed during the stream clarified that while the foundation doesn’t currently have the budget for an open game project, collaboration with external studios is a possibility. Plans are also underway for 4.6 to split export templates, allowing users to download only necessary components, thereby reducing file sizes and improving download speeds. The successful implementation of the Portuguese translation on the website, available at godotengine.org/pt-br/, showcases the power of community contributions.
As Thaddeus Crews, Release Manager, notes, this update represents nearly 2,500 commits, with a strong focus on integrating accessibility options like screen reader support, thanks to collaborations with projects like AccessKit. With over 400 contributors involved, the Godot Engine project thrives on its passionate community. Users are encouraged to try Godot 4.5, explore its new capabilities, and report any issues on GitHub. For ongoing discussions and updates, visit the Godot Engine forum.
Godot 4.5 is not just an incremental update; it’s a robust leap forward, solidifying the engine’s position as a powerful, accessible, and community-driven choice for game developers. The continuous evolution, driven by a dedicated team and vibrant community, ensures that Godot remains at the forefront of innovation in the open-source game development space. So, download the latest version, experiment with its exciting new offerings, and help shape the future of this incredible engine!
Sources:
4.5 released!!! – Godot Tomorrow #4
Godot 4.5, making dreams accessible – Godot Engine
