Our first development snapshot for 4.5 has arrived! As is often the case following a feature-freeze, several quality PRs were finally released from the collective backlog, as merging them at the time would’ve been too much of a risk. In truth, the quantity has been so great that we could’ve gotten away with releasing a snapshot a week ago! However, we found it worth our time to hold out and get as many contributions integrated as possible, as a way of thanking those who’ve been so patient in waiting for their contributions to see the light of day. so A significant chunk of the changes in this release are bugfixes, the majority of which you will be see backported to 4.4 in a 4.4.1-stable release next week! As such, we encourage testing this build in order to ensure a smooth release for both versions. Granted, as this is a pre-release, the bugfixes aren’t the only additions; the usual safety precautions that come with such an environment should be taken. Even though we prepare these snapshots such that they’re suitable for general testing, backups and/or version control are recommended to prevent the loss of data. is Jump to the Downloads section, and give it a spin right now, or continue reading to learn more about improvements in this release. You can also try the Web editor or the Android editor for this release. If you are interested in the latter, please request to join our testing group to get access to pre-release builds. Jump to the Downloads Downloads section try the Web editor Web editor Android editor our testing group The original cover illustration is from That’s not my Neighbor, where you take the role of a doorman ensuring the safety of your apartment complex from a mysterious surge of doppelgangers. Developed by Nachosama Games, the game was recently released on Steam. The original cover illustration is from That’s not my Neighbor That’s not my Neighbor where you take the role of a doorman ensuring the safety of your apartment complex from a mysterious surge of doppelgangers. Developed by Nachosama Games, the game was recently released on Steam. Nachosama Games on Steam Highlights “Mute Game” toggle Previously, if a developer wished to mute the audio while testing in the editor, they had to either use the operating system’s builtin tools for sound or outright pause/close their work. Malcolm Anderson sought a more streamlined solution, and integrated a new toggle on the Game view (GH-99555). Now if developers wish to halt/restore audio output entirely, it’s just one click away! Malcolm Anderson GH-99555 Drop preload Resources as UID UID With UID support being a part of the engine as of 4.4—read more about them here—we’ve enabled further optimizations via their integration with core components. However, as this is a new change, there’s still a few areas that have been lagging behind on support. In particular: preloaded resources lacked the ability to be loaded as UID if dragged. Tomasz Chabora has rectified this limitation in GH-99094, and you’ll find plenty more like this in our curated selection below. UID here UID Tomasz Chabora GH-99094 Allow selecting multiple remote nodes at runtime A long-awaited QOL addition to the editor experience has finally arrived! Thanks to Michael Alexsander, developers now have the ability to select multiple nodes in a runtime context! Check out their pull request GH-99680 for more information on how this was integrated. Michael Alexsander GH-99680 Chunk tilemap physics The current implementation of TileMapLayer uses individual collision bodies for every single cell, which is extremely wasteful and a likely cause of runtime performance issues for 2D scenes relying on physics. Gilles Roudière took to entirely reworking this system in GH-102662, ensuring that cells take every possible opportunity. TileMapLayer Gilles Roudière GH-102662 And more! There are too many exciting changes to list them all here, but here’s a curated selection: 2D: Improve usability of Camera2D (GH-101427).
3D: Fix Camera3D gizmo representation to accurately reflect FOV (GH-101884).
3D: Use physical keys for the Q/W/E/R editor shortcuts (GH-103533).
Animation: Support hiding functions calls in Method Tracks (GH-96421).
Core: Add scene_changed signal to SceneTree (GH-102986).
Core: Add DDS image load and save functionality (GH-101994).
Core: Don’t duplicate internal nodes (GH-89442).
Core: Implement get_size and get_access_time methods to FileAccess (GH-83538).
Debugger: Allow locating VRAM resource by double-clicking (GH-103949).
Documentation: Overhaul Node3D documentation (GH-87440).
Editor: Add option to copy a file’s name in the FileSystem dock (GH-96536).
Editor: Allow ignoring debugger error breaks (GH-77015).
Editor: Don’t save unnecessarily with save_before_running (GH-90034).
Editor: Improve drag and drop into array property editors (GH-102534).
Editor: Replace UID and Surface upgrade tools with universal one (GH-103044).
Export: Android: Convert compress_native_libraries to a basic export option (GH-104301).
GDExtension: Include precision in extension_api.json (GH-103137).
GDScript: Highlight warning lines in Script editor (GH-102469).
GUI: Implement properties that can recursively disable child controls’ FocusMode and MouseFilter (GH-97495).
GUI: Improve ColorPicker picker shape keyboard and joypad accessibility (GH-99374).
Import: Use UID in addition to path for extracted meshes, materials and animations (GH-100786).
Particles: Add emission shape gizmos to Particles2D (GH-102249).
Particles: Fix particle jitter when scene tree is paused (GH-95912).
Porting: Android: Add linux-bionic RID export option (GH-97908).
Porting: Android: Add a TouchActionsPanel to editor (GH-100339).
Porting: Android: Enable support for volume button events (GH-102984).
Porting: Linux: Implement native color picker (GH-101546).
Porting: macOS/iOS: Ensure only one axis change event is produced during single process_joypads() call (GH-104314).
Porting: Windows: Remove visible WINDOW_MODE_FULLSCREEN border by setting window region (GH-88852).
Rendering: Clean up more dynamic allocations in the RD renderers with a focus on 2D (GH-103889).
Rendering: Optimize _fill_instance_data function in Forward+ renderer (GH-103547).
Rendering: Significantly reduce per-frame memory allocations from the heap in the Mobile renderer (GH-103794).
Rendering: Update ViewportTexture path relative to its local scene instead of the Viewport owner (GH-97861).
Rendering: Use lower shadow normal bias for distant directional shadow splits (GH-60178).
Rendering: Use separate WorkThreadPool for shader compiler (GH-103506).
Scripting: Fix script docs not being searchable without manually recompiling scripts (GH-95821). 2D: Improve usability of Camera2D (GH-101427). Camera2D GH-101427 3D: Fix Camera3D gizmo representation to accurately reflect FOV (GH-101884). Camera3D GH-101884 3D: Use physical keys for the Q/W/E/R editor shortcuts (GH-103533). GH-103533 Animation: Support hiding functions calls in Method Tracks (GH-96421). GH-96421 Core: Add scene_changed signal to SceneTree (GH-102986). scene_changed SceneTree GH-102986 Core: Add DDS image load and save functionality (GH-101994). GH-101994 Core: Don’t duplicate internal nodes (GH-89442). GH-89442 Core: Implement get_size and get_access_time methods to FileAccess (GH-83538). get_size get_access_time FileAccess GH-83538 Debugger: Allow locating VRAM resource by double-clicking (GH-103949). GH-103949 Documentation: Overhaul Node3D documentation (GH-87440). Node3D GH-87440 Editor: Add option to copy a file’s name in the FileSystem dock (GH-96536). GH-96536 Editor: Allow ignoring debugger error breaks (GH-77015). GH-77015 Editor: Don’t save unnecessarily with save_before_running (GH-90034). save_before_running GH-90034 Editor: Improve drag and drop into array property editors (GH-102534). GH-102534 Editor: Replace UID and Surface upgrade tools with universal one (GH-103044). UID GH-103044 Export: Android: Convert compress_native_libraries to a basic export option (GH-104301). compress_native_libraries GH-104301 GDExtension: Include precision in extension_api.json (GH-103137). GH-103137 GDScript: Highlight warning lines in Script editor (GH-102469). GH-102469 GUI: Implement properties that can recursively disable child controls’ FocusMode and MouseFilter (GH-97495). FocusMode MouseFilter GH-97495 GUI: Improve ColorPicker picker shape keyboard and joypad accessibility (GH-99374). GH-99374 Import: Use UID in addition to path for extracted meshes, materials and animations (GH-100786). UID GH-100786 Particles: Add emission shape gizmos to Particles2D (GH-102249). Particles2D GH-102249 Particles: Fix particle jitter when scene tree is paused (GH-95912). GH-95912 Porting: Android: Add linux-bionic RID export option (GH-97908). linux-bionic GH-97908 Porting: Android: Add a TouchActionsPanel to editor (GH-100339). TouchActionsPanel GH-100339 Porting: Android: Enable support for volume button events (GH-102984). GH-102984 Porting: Linux: Implement native color picker (GH-101546). GH-101546 Porting: macOS/iOS: Ensure only one axis change event is produced during single process_joypads() call (GH-104314). process_joypads() GH-104314 Porting: Windows: Remove visible WINDOW_MODE_FULLSCREEN border by setting window region (GH-88852). WINDOW_MODE_FULLSCREEN GH-88852 Rendering: Clean up more dynamic allocations in the RD renderers with a focus on 2D (GH-103889). GH-103889 Rendering: Optimize _fill_instance_data function in Forward+ renderer (GH-103547). _fill_instance_data function GH-103547 Rendering: Significantly reduce per-frame memory allocations from the heap in the Mobile renderer (GH-103794). GH-103794 Rendering: Update ViewportTexture path relative to its local scene instead of the Viewport owner (GH-97861). ViewportTexture Viewport GH-97861 Rendering: Use lower shadow normal bias for distant directional shadow splits (GH-60178). GH-60178 Rendering: Use separate WorkThreadPool for shader compiler (GH-103506). GH-103506 Scripting: Fix script docs not being searchable without manually recompiling scripts (GH-95821). GH-95821 Changelog 121 contributors submitted 403 fixes for this release. See our interactive changelog for the complete list of changes since the 4.4-stable. 121 contributors 403 fixes interactive changelog interactive changelog This release is built from commit 97241ffea. 97241ffea Downloads Download Godot 4.5 dev1 Download Godot 4.5 dev1 Standard build includes support for GDScript and GDExtension. Standard build .NET build (marked as mono) includes support for C#, as well as GDScript and GDExtension. .NET build mono While engine maintainers try their best to ensure that each preview snapshot and release candidate is stable, this is by definition a pre-release piece of software. Be sure to make frequent backups, or use a version control system such as Git, to preserve your projects in case of corruption or data loss. a pre-release piece of software Known issues There are currently no known issues introduced by this release. With every release we accept that there are going to be various issues, which have already been reported but haven’t been fixed yet. See the GitHub issue tracker for a complete list of known bugs. known bugs Bug reports As a tester, we encourage you to open bug reports if you experience issues with this release. Please check the existing issues on GitHub first, using the search function with relevant keywords, to ensure that the bug you experience is not already known. open bug reports existing issues on GitHub In particular, any change that would cause a regression in your projects is very important to report (e.g. if something that worked fine in previous 4.x releases, but no longer works in this snapshot). Support Godot is a non-profit, open source game engine developed by hundreds of contributors on their free time, as well as a handful of part and full-time developers hired thanks to generous donations from the Godot community. A big thank you to everyone who has contributed their time or their financial support to the project! generous donations from the Godot community their time their financial support If you’d like to support the project financially and help us secure our future hires, you can do so using the Godot Development Fund. Godot Development Fund Donate now Donate now By Thaddeus Crews First published here here Photo by FlyD on Unsplash FlyD Unsplash

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Highlights of Godot 4.5: Chunk Tilemap Physics, "Mute Game" Toggle, and More

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