The Godot team just keep on adding in big new features to make this one of the best free and open source game engines around and the next Beta update for Godot 3.2.4 is out now.
Here's the main list of what's new overall for Godot 3.2.4:
- Android App Bundle and subview embedding support.
- 2D batching for GLES3 (it was implemented for GLES2 in 3.2.2), and improvements to GLES2's batching.
- A new software skinning for MeshInstance to replace the slow GPU skinning on devices that don't support the fast GPU skinning (especially mobile).
- Rewritten and greatly improved FBX importer.
- Improved Web editor prototype and AudioWorklet support for multithreaded HTML5 builds.
- New option to snap 2D transforms to whole coordinates, helps prevent jitter on pixel art camera motions.
- Configurable amount of lights per object, now defaulting to 32 instead of 8.
- macOS ARM64 support in official binaries for Apple M1 chip (only classical build for now).
- Optional GDNative support for HTML5.
- MP3 loading and playback support.
- WebXR support for VR games.
- Minimap support in GraphEdit.
- Fixes to Mono on WebAssembly.
- New CPU lightmapper (new in beta 6).
- New dynamic BVH for rendering and the GodotPhysics backends (new in beta 6).
- Multiple fixes to one-way collisions (new in beta 6).
- New AspectRatioContainer Control node (new in beta 6).
While their main focus is on the much bigger upcoming Godot 4 which has a big rendering overhaul and Vulkan API support, they're clearly not done here. Project Manager Rémi Verschelde mentions how there's "even more in the works that will be included in future beta builds". Full info here.
In other somewhat recent Godot news, the team recently blogged about their work on a glTF 2.0 scene exporter. What is glTF? A royalty-free specification for the efficient transmission and loading of 3D scenes and models by engines and applications, overseen by The Khronos Group (the same behind OpenGL, Vulkan and so on). Godot has been able to import glTF for some time now but the option to export it from Godot enables developers to quickly put it back into something like Blender, to make any changes needed to then bring the updates back into Godot. All very useful sounding.
Also if you missed it, be sure to check out their 2020 overview video. The progress is outstanding:
Direct Link
somebody1121 Jan 18, 2021
Kimyrielle Jan 18, 2021
Maybe a little bit off topic but i find a little Easter egg on Cyberpunk. On the photo mode there is a pose call Waiting for Godot
Do you have a screenshot or video with that easter egg? :)
FINALLY they're going to add MP3 support. About time, really. MP3 has been a free format since about 2014 and like it or not, is still used about 99% of the time for compressing audio files. There was never really a point in NOT supporting it.
Actually, MP3 has only been fully patent-free since 2017-04-16. Also, to be fair, MP3 support in games isn't critical most of the time. There are a few use cases for it nowadays:
- Supporting user-supplied tracks (mainly for rythm games).
- Playing compressed audio with less CPU usage compared to Ogg Vorbis/Opus. This is mainly relevant on mobile, or when playing many compressed sounds at once on low-end desktop platforms.
Other than that, Ogg Vorbis or Opus is a better fit for games since they have better quality/file size ratios.
Last edited by Calinou on 19 January 2021 at 1:02 am UTC
somebody1121 Jan 19, 2021
Do you have a screenshot or video with that easter egg? :)Here :)
FINALLY they're going to add MP3 support. About time, really. MP3 has been a free format since about 2014 and like it or not, is still used about 99% of the time for compressing audio files. There was never really a point in NOT supporting it.I don't get it.
MP3 is dead! Or, I was told so. Do you imply I was lied to?
ssj17vegeta Jan 19, 2021
Last edited by ssj17vegeta on 19 January 2021 at 3:35 pm UTC
Kimyrielle Jan 19, 2021
FINALLY they're going to add MP3 support. About time, really. MP3 has been a free format since about 2014 and like it or not, is still used about 99% of the time for compressing audio files. There was never really a point in NOT supporting it.I don't get it.
MP3 is dead! Or, I was told so. Do you imply I was lied to?
There are far better codecs around than MP3, but MP3 remains the most widely used, by a ridiculous margin. And if your project is using free/licensed 3rd party music assets (like mine does), chances that these will be MP3s are very, very high. It doesn't help me that OGG is better, and more efficient, and perceived as "more free" by open source proponents, when not supporting MP3 will regularly force me to convert one lossy format (MP3) into another lossy format (OGG), which is what Godot was doing until now by not supporting MP3. When there was no sound (haha, pun!) reason to since at least 2017, and arguably longer.
Anyway, glad that it's a thing of the past now! :D
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