Godot 4.1 arrives with many new features
After four months of development the release of the new version was announced game engine Godot 4.1, in which it solves more than 900 problems since version 4.0 and in which stability, performance and workflows have been improved, among other things.
For those unfamiliar with Godot, know that this engine supports an easy-to-learn game logic framework, graphical game design environment, one-click game implementation system, rich physics simulation capabilities, and animation, an integrated debugger, and a performance bottleneck detection system.
Main new features of Godot 4.1
In this new version presented by Godot 4.1 stands out that GUI now has the ability to separate documentation and script editors, including the shader editor, in separate floating windows to move them to other screens. The interface window layout is remembered, allowing you to return to the same window layout after closing and reopening the editor.
Another of the changes that stands out is thatNew 3D textures with visual noise have been added (NoiseTexture3D) to control the density of the fog volumetric and make it less saturated in certain places, or simulate particles that affect the wind.
Completely redesigned collision avoidance algorithm when using AI navigation, which doesn't stick to a single surface and can now be applied in both 2D and 3D. The ability to prioritize and define layers that define who should avoid whom is provided.
An algorithm based on hashes was used quick to determine the elements of the node tree, which allowed to speed up the operations of adding and removing nodes several times, which are most important for ensuring high performance of complex games that actively manipulate nodes. The cost of this optimization was slightly slowing down infrequently used node operations and increasing the memory consumption of the Node base class by approximately 10%.
In addition to this, it is also highlighted that Vulkan graphics API based rendering backend now includes caching from the build output of graphics pipelines, which complements previously available shader caching.
We can also find in Godot 4.1 that Several solutions have been proposed to solve the problem of placing the model from back to front. after import: changing the directions of the front and rear cameras in the editor and adding a flag to the look_at() function to use model space as a guide for choosing a direction.
On the other hand, the scripting language GDScript implements the ability to create static variables to share common data from multiple instances of the same script, eliminating resource usage and autoloading. To define a static variable, use the static keyword before defining the variable at the beginning of the script.
Of the other changes that stand out:
- Redesigned support for automatic generation of documentation for named classes.
- Added the ability to specify documentation lines next to a variable or function definition, rather than on the line before it.
- Added support for creating shader nodes and editor plugins using GDExtension.
- Over 900 bug reports closed since Godot 4.0 release
- Added support for exporting typed arrays and associated node sets to the watch interface.
- Added experimental support for multi-threaded scene rendering.
- Work has been done to address the issues and limitations associated with multi-threaded downloads.
- Options have been added to the node configuration to select sequential or parallel processing mode.
- In the project manager, to simplify navigation through a large number of projects, added the ability to link tags to projects and filter projects by tags.
- The rendering system has reworked the implementation of particle swirl used in games to create sparse element effects.
Finally, if you want to know more about it, you can check the details In the following link.
Get Godot
Godot is available for download at this page for Windows, Mac OS and Linux. You can also find it at Steam y itch.io.
The game engine code, game development environment, and related development tools (physics engine, sound server, 2D/3D rendering backends, etc.) are distributed under the MIT license.